Here's a handful of pics from when the Rambler was brand new and a couple of happy snaps of the family. The '66 American in front belonged to my uncle, who was just starting out as a doctor. In Australia, Ramblers were marketed and regarded as a luxury car. The middle-of-the-road 440 was a pretty high spec compared to most of the Aussie offerings at the time - 232ci six two-barrel, wall-to-wall carpeting and a heater and radio were pretty flash. My uncle liked his '66 so much he bought my grandfather a matching '67. My grandfather had emigrated from Yugoslavia in the 1920s and worked his fingers to the bone doing all sorts of things until he settled in Osborne Park where he was one of the first people to successfully establish a market garden in the area. I guess my uncle was thankful for all of his hard work and the education that all that hard work enabled him to have. That's my car at the end of the driveway and my cousin strolling by. I was only a few months old at this time. That's my uncle's wife, another uncle, my grandmother and my cousin, the eldest of the grandchildren. I'm the second oldest. Things that stand out to me in this pic are the number plates, they're white on black and a different set to what is still on the car and that I assumed had always been on it. The hubcaps are also slightly different to the ones that were on the car when I got it. They're very similar but have those radial black rectangles. The ones I still have are the same as on my uncle's '66. My uncle's first job as a GP was in a small country town in Western Australia called Three Springs. I'm pretty sure they are on their way to visit him. No, I don't have any plans to put the sunvisor back on. Here's my uncle's place in Three Springs, with his '66, a '66 Holden (HR) and my '67. A few years later my uncle upgraded to a 1970 Rebel. That's my cousin John, now old enough to reach the pedals (just) and his mother (who still doesn't drive) walking behind and sort of looking like she's yelling at him to SLOW DOWN! *;D That's most of the grandchildren on the front porch of our grandparents' place. That's me fourth from the left. My grandfather some time in the late-60s. This is pretty much as I remember him and he didn't change much right through to his 80s when he passed away. And here is as a younger man, probably in his mid-30s. I do know that he married my grandmother (pretty much sight unseen) when he was 33 years old.
I love looking at old family pictures like yours. It was such a nicer time for the world, wasn't it? Great pictures. Don
Rambler looks really good , so why did you go ahead and stuff it up ?? sorry mate I just couldn,t resist ..LOL .. PS I met you at Busselton a couple of years ago .
Don't worry, I remember you... been trying to forget, but can't! For those not familiar with what my car looks like now...
Ahh such a nice wog family Boris.... Black cars, heaps of kids and mums with beehive hairdos. Killer !! Rat
Well, I thought this thread was pretty cool until that last picture. Why people think it is cool to take a picture of themselves giving the finger is something I will never understand. All the people in the previous pictures looked happy, then that one pops up. Don
Guys... that's not me, it's my passenger. I'm in Australia, so my steering wheel is on the other side. It was meant as a bit of a laugh... PC HAMB... funny. Yes, it really is Grandad's old Rambler. Sent from my iPhone using TJJ
Words and actions vary greatly from one country to another ,in Australia the finger can mean what you are thinking or just a fun thing ...
Oh... you're awake now? What's it been, 12 years? LOL Your turn to visit us, mate. We're a bit busy at the moment and won't be heading on a big holiday for a while.
In this case, the guy 'flipping the bird' is a photographer colleague of mine and the photographer taking the photo is also a friend and colleague. So, considering we're all friends and no-one was actually offended by the actions, I don't think there's any harm in it. Here's a more PC photo for those that I unintentionally offended.
I learned to drive on a '64 Rambler 220. Fire engine red, bulletproof 6, and scary brakes. The car was incredibly reliable, and back when I was younger, wanted no part of it. I wanted a Nova, Chevelle, or Camaro. I would love to have that car today. Your pictures are great. I like old family pictures, and having the cars in them makes them even more special.
Yep, but you weren't subjected to what the local Ford and GM manufacturers produced. The Ramblers were better appointed and had much bigger engines. It's a relative thing.
We had them all and it was the opposite up here as the Ford GM and Chrysler products had the bigger motors and more options then the Ramblers did,now AMC did have some better potions too but most I seen were what we called basic transportation.
In many overseas markets the Ramblers cost more due to shipping cost and taxes, so mostly top of the line models were produced. There were no stripped down flat-head six Ramblers sent to Australia, not 64+ models anyway -- may have been some 58-63 flat-head Americans sent over, I'd have to look that info up. In the earlier years mostly the bigger Ramblers (Rambler Six or Classic) were sent over, not the smaller more basic models. They cost more than in-country products, so they tried to make them look like they should. Those sun visors were obviously a local thing -- first time I ever saw one! They went out of vogue in the US in the mid 50s. It looks really... different... on the 70 Rebel!
We get a LOT of sun here and those visors were pretty common fitment right up to the 80s, especially in country towns. I can't remember now, whether I removed the visor or whether it was gone before I started driving the car. I do remember noticing the marks on the drip rail trim and figuring it had a visor at some point.
Nice pic,s, I remember The Aussie Ford Compact Fairlane was pretty snazzy as well in the early 1960s. Could you still get a new Chrysler Royal in the 60s ? GM had the Belair fourdoors. Jaguar & Mercedes were probably way to expensive for most then.
Yep, we hung on to things for quite a while here in Oz. This was our '59 Ford Customline. This is a '61 'Tank Fairlane'. Check the visor. And here's a '63 Chrysler Royal. The Chrysler is especially interesting as it has an early-50s turret and doors, they couldn't even swing it to get the much funkier late-50s bodies to work off. Tight arses! LOL
When the cars were actually produced (body stamped, at least) in a "foreign" country the bodies tended to be used a lot longer than in the states. It costs a LOT to set up stamping operations, that's why even in the states bodies are used a lot longer than the typical 3-4 years of the 50s-70s. Just facelift changes like AMC did -- and AMC used basically the same body for the 8-10 years that is normal starting in the 90s. The 56-62 big car body (7 years -- stripped of outside sheet metal) is basically the same with some minor revisions, as is the 63-78 body (16 years -- though it was lengthened and widened for 67-78, and most consider 63-66 then 67-78 as the break points). Hornet/Concord/Eagle -- 70-88. At 18 years it takes the prize! Cost of the equipment is amortized over the life of the body. After the equipment is paid for the manufacturers generally like a year or two of "cake and eat" for profits and to start gearing up for the next change. With lower volume it takes more years to spread the cost over, so only facelift changes -- if that. Argentina built the 1966 Classic (with Ambassador trim to doll it up since it was expensive down there, as in Australia) through 1973, IIRC. GM Brazil built the 57 Chevy from 58 through the late 60s/early 70s. There are several other examples. That didn't happen much in Australia after the 60s because the market got big enough to support a shorter run on bodies by the late 60s/early 70s. I don't know enough about Aussie automotive history to say exactly when, but from the models I know about that's about the time. The market got big enough that it became less cost effective to import kits from the US by the early 70s as well, but AMC didn't have enough market share to open a stamping plant.
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