Thanks for the kudos on the car! Yeah, it's a 63, which is HAMB friendly, and most even like the Jag rear axle (yes, in a RAMBLER WAGON!!) and rack-n-pinion steering. The EFI many here shun, but I like it much better than the freakin carb on my J-10 (also and AMC six -- 258 w/4.0L head, Clifford intake, Holley 390 4V). EFI spoils you, especially on cold mornings. No five minute warm-up before it's really ready to go, and no stumbling until it's good and warm either!
Frankinbler lives!!! Greg my bruthah, you're kickin ass an takin names. the work looks awesome dude, an im glad to hear you say ya aint skeered of the carnage! keep goin bro!
The inner fender is a wrap i want to get the one support rebuilt before i go to much farther i may start on the inner rocker yet but i would like to finish up one part before moving onto the next. I am taking big bites but i want to finish one at a time. The inner fender, inner rocker, and the floorboards which i will tackle last. just waiting on the big guy from the above post love ya bro
You definitely have the right idea about making a list and sticking to it one item at a time! Otherwise you get caught up in a little of everything and it turns into looking like a never ending project. One thing at a time gives you a little victory to celebrate over as soon as it's ticked off, giving a sense of accomplishment and a feeling that htere will indeed be an end to the project. Well, mostly an end, we all know a real hot-rod (or even a hot-rodder's beater/driver!) is NEVER really "done", just done "enough" to drive/show/press into service/whatever!!
I was informed of your project by Farna. He has a lot of great info. I'm currently doing a 1962 Classic Wagon. FYI your car is a 1961. My car doesn't have near the rust yours has. Thanks for the inspiration and motivation to keep my project going forward. If you want to see my project it is listed in : theamcforum.com web site. My car is listed as '62 Rambler Classic Deluxe S.W. Pics . There are reproduction rear floor pans being produced in a couple of weeks by c2cfabrication for your car if you need them. Keep up the good work!!!
yup i know it's a 61 i just had a brain fart but thanks for catching that. I will go back through and edit it later no work on the car for two weeks but hopefully thursday i can get out there and start working on the floor boards gotta keep going it's getting warm out already!
Greg, your doin' great on that beast! I have a gasser style built from the JoHan rereleased model a couple years back. I think the finned Ramblers are good looking little cars, keep it up dude. only pic I could find.
Keep it up I loved those foldin seats one of my hs cars and my girl just loved it also same color and all it,s cool I got a soft spot for rumblers
George, hit that thing with some of that "natural enhancement" stuff they sell and greg kin use that body instead
Almost all of the AMC cars rusted out in the inner fenders. A friend bought one that looked really clean and the rust only showed up after the fenders came off. It took some work but it turned out pretty good. He used a turbo SVO Pinto motor and five speed, it ran good.
hell yeah! i even like the white! but hope gregs gotta sharpass knife or hes gonna have to duke boys his way inside!!!
All 58-66 models can rust under the wheel wells like that. On many there is a "trough" at the top under the fender running from front to back. This is a reinforcement for the inner wheel panel, and bent that way for added strength. There are small drain slots for what moisture gets in there and a rubber gasket to keep it out. The gasket eventually rots (we're talking over 40 years old now!) and the small holes clog from rust and/or debris. I never replace the gasket, just drill 3/8" drain holes after rust repair and paint. Some use undercoating or bed liner on them, but if you fix the drain problem and stop the rust you've licked the main problem -- and then wash under the fenders once or twice a year to prevent build-up. The firewall to sidewall and toeboard (angled part of floor) seam rusts for two reasons. Main one is the way the seam is put together. There's a bend on the outside of the pinch weld seam and it can hold mud and dirt thrown against it. That holds in moisture along the seam and it will eventually rust. Bad design? Well, unless you're in salt country it takes 20+ years for it to start rusting through. If in salt and you don't wash out under the fender wells a couple times during/right after winter EVERYTHING rusts through on the old cars in 10 years or less. So it's not a bad design -- just wasn't expected to last more than around 10 years. The other problem is rust in the cowl floor, mainly on the passenger side. The heater gets air from a hole in the floor. Debris will collect around the edge and hold in moisture, rusting through the flange around the hole. Then water comes in through the heater. This is only a problem for 63-66 big cars and 54-69 Americans, not sure about later models. Earlier models have the heater mounted differently and don't usually rust there.
It's about damn time for some updates! Here we go got the fender on today along with the door and guess what ! it fit on the first try since this is my first major fab i am pretty happy about it. so here we are onto the pics~ fender on and fitting what you can see inside the fender couple of glory shots or gory shots depending on how you look at it yes i know it needs some finishing but the basics are most definitly there This one is from the inside i have noticed that there is a hole in the floor yet no worries thats next to tackle
Rear floor pans are now being reproduced for your car. C2C Fabrications is making them. Great to see it coming together.
my floors are actually in pretty good shape a patch here and a patch there they will be good to go but thanks for the heads up!
You've done some great work! A little paint then some undercoating in the fender well and no one will ever know it was rusted out bad! You're an inspiration even to use dyed-in-the-wool Rambler guys -- who'd have said "parts car" and walked away!!
Pretty sure there is one of these at Tisler Salvage but it's a 4 door sedan. I know you were wanting to cut a big chunk of a front fender off of one. Pretty sure I walked right past it while I was there today but I can go back and check again if you still want to do that. I think a NorthEastern Wisconsin junkyard crawl is in order, maybe for next week. They just got a whole shitpile of old cars in over there.
I like it, years ago my Dad had one. I remember when I lived in colorado there was a guy that had one with a sbc that had a mini-blower on it that ran 12's in street trim at Bandimere. (over 5000ft alt).
The Jalopy Journal
