I am starting to fix up the wife's 1960 Rambler Classic. It's a L6 pushbutton auto trans with low miles at 74,000. First old car I have bought were everything works on it, even the allstate air conditioning unit. It was originally owned by an old lady since 1962, who used it just to go to church on sundays. We picked it up for $600 bucks. Runs great and drives great, but needs some basic engine gaskets, gas tank filler hose and full exhaust system. Interior is super nice, but the body needs some work though. Drivers side fender has a good size dent and the passenger fender has the typical rust these models get. I plan to repaint the whole thing, silver flake the roof, paint the steelies and stripe it. But I've had a bit of a hard time finding a good parts supplier for it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the crap quality pix. Cheers, Ears
Galvin AMC/Rambler parts in Lodi, CA. Also Kennedy Rambler parts. You can find every thing you need for it. I have a '65 American and have had 14 + Ramblers in my life. Guy on here goes by Farna, is a wealth of Rambler info. And it is not a Rebel, they all came with a 250 v8 after 1957. You should have a 195.6.
Bought stuff from these guys a few times and they are very good at what they do, very knowledgable and very helpful! http://kennedyamerican.com/ Also check on www.rockauto.com you would be surprised at the old stuff they still have for some cars.
Like some previous people said, Galvins and Kennedy are good spots. There is also http://amcrambler.com/ which has a select few items. Car looks great, interior is classic glad the seats are still in decent condition. Thats the one thing I wish were still in tact on my 63' Rambler.
I've always been a Rambler fan. Not sure why. My last one was a 64 classic 770 V8. I was the second owner.
Yeah, I eventually check for Rambler posts and find them! There are a couple other parts places, but the one's you've been given (especially Galvin's) are a great start. You can check out Peter Stathes for a few things (www.amcrambler.com). The VERY FIRST THING you need to do before driving that thing is RETORQUE THE HEAD BOLTS!!! The old Rambler 195.6 OHV engine will loosen the bolts just enough to blow the head gasket over time. The bolts need to be torqued to 60-65 ft/lbs. Just loosen and fully torque back down one at a time and there is no need to worry about what order they are tightened in. This needs to be done every three years or every 12,000 miles, whichever comes first (factory manual says to check torque every 8K, but from experience just retorque at 12K or less). If not the bolts will loosen just enough to blow the head gasket due to normal expansion and contraction of the head. The first sign of a blown head gasket is usually running hot. Run it very hot and the old head is likely to crack, as it may have been run hot a few times already. Good heads are very hard to find! You can swap in a 1964-71 AMC 199 or 232, but those are pretty tough to find now too. Parts for those are easy to get though, and interchange to a degree up to the 2006 4.0L. AMC changed the trans bolt pattern for 1972 and later sixes, so those don't bolt to your trans. The "big" Ramblers (all but American) prior to 1967 have torque-tube drives (driveshaft is inside a tube that's rigidly bolted to the axle, flex joint at the trans with one u-joint inside). It takes a bit of fab work to put an open drive in them, which has to be done to change to a different engine and trans. Not real hard -- not if you can weld and have a little fabricating experience or a buddy who does. I'm available to advise, have done a few and helped with many. Send me a PM if you need to talk...
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