Cool factor of 1000 plus. Man I love it , Dare to be different ain't got crap on you fellows, I'm excited to see the end result MAYBE more then you are ! Damn , now I have another thread to try ta keep up with, work harder and faster so I won't have to wait so long.... I'm Just kidding with ya about the harder and faster. You do nice and clean work and its fun ta watch ....
I have been thinking of running a 4 banger in a 60's compact for some time now. You have given me inspiration. These newer bangers have great horsepower for the cubes and I can see a falcon or american or comet running one as a daily driver getting great mpg and great curb appeal. Most of these bangers in stock form put out near 150 horsepower which is darn near what most small block v-8 early 70's cars put out so performance should be decent for a daily driver. Just a thought for now. Your rambler looks so kool and I can't wait to see it finished. Hopefully you will be able to post a video so we can all hear that unique sound that only a banger can produce.
You have to think about the torque curve of those high HP bangers vs. the old small sixes too though. Something like that little Rambler probably wouldn't get better mileage with a new model banger than the old L-head six, but it WOULD be a lot peppier -- provided the rear end is geared right. The rear axle ratio will probably need to be a good bit lower for the banger, but if you get an OD rear axle you should be fine with a stock axle.
Seats are done...SMS Fabrics had the original fabric but wanted like 89.00 a yard for it + they take forever and screwed up my last order at least twice ( a year and a half for door panels!) so didnt want to go with them..I was able to find alot of NOS 1961 Impala fabric in green for 100 bucks! Heres how the seats turned out........
The ultimate "sleeper" "Q" car to sneak up on unsuspecting rice burners and scare the rice out of them.
If the guy wasn't drunk when doing those seats he probably was after staring at that pattern real close for a while! It looks good, and the pattern is "period correct". I'm a Rambler guy but who cares if it's not original? Neither is the car! Besides, when people got seats covered due to wear 5-10 years down the road they most often used whatever the shop had that looked good and/or was close.
Yeah I couldnt see spending 89 bucks a yard for the stuff to be original...Its not that important..I just wanted stuff that was period so to find green nos fabric was pretty cool..Everyone knows there was no way I'd ever put tweed or straight vinyl in any of my cars!
Very damn cool! My dads working on a 55 station wagon. He flipped when I showed him this. What are you guys planning on doing with the stock driveline?
HOT DAMN!!! If that isn't the perfect way to do a Rambler I don't know what is. I would love to see the look on the face of the first guy to get the hurt put on him with that little jem. I love sleepers and you've created one that will possibly do it's thing and return a very decent gas milage number. Frank
Thats a cool car I sold mine to my brother he kept on whining till I gave in my rambler was a 59 wagon with no body damage but the floors were gone I have a sheet metal shop but it was bad so after some head scratching I wanted some horsepower so my buddie was working on a chevy luv v8 .What happened next out came the tape measure the wheel base was the same .He had put toyota truck spindels on the luv chsssis and early bronco rear end 4.5 lug patern on both ends I cut out the old floor welded some 2x2 tube locators to the frame channled it 2 man its low disc brakes ,lt1 power, track width is right full frame on the cheap its really a neat car and quick .luv that luv frame !!any questions ask me it was easy no problems a good sawzall cant handle.
nailhead, how about some pics? Especially if you could get it on a rack and take some underneath pics...
love the pix and some new ideas, im gonna go out this week and look at my free rambler and see if theres anything left of it. keep the cool ideas comin, love the pix. goatboy
Things have been moving forward but slowly....We painted under the hood and set the motor back in..Lots of little stuff done..continued on the wiring Friday and we are 80% done with that..We did fire the car and it sounds really good..I am happy with the way its turned out so far..The Quad 4 has caused delays when we need a stock part..Dealers usually dont have it so you are junk yarding or hitting the internet..I think some time is going to free up at out shop so we can concentrate on the Rambler...I work full time doing something else so I can only get a couple hours in here and there..At this point its just a matter of getting something accomplished and then move on to the next..and there is always a "next" thing to do
I wrote an article for my little AMC magazine on this car, and will do a follow-up when completed. I offered to send anyone here a copy of the article, and got a couple requests. If you like one (sent as a PDF file) drop me an e-mail -- farna@att.net. This is one of the more interesting Rambler swaps to me because no cutting was required and the stock front suspension was retained. Most people see those trunnions and just decide they need to go because they've never seen anything but a ball joint or king pin, and don't realize just how heavy that old flat-head six is!
Great build thanks a bunch for the updates. We just brought home a 59 2 door American wagon yesterday. I look forward to seeing more on this one. Farna- email sent! Nate
The Jalopy Journal
