One rough SC/Rambler

[LetsFNgo]

So I won’t go through the whole 25 page thread over on the AMC forum, but since this forum seems to like American Motors products I’ll show a little of the history of my SC/Rambler here.

I’ll start back in 2022. My 1970 Challenger is running and driving. It’s a great car. I love driving it, but I want a new project. Always being a fan of AMC, I decide that I was a RWB car, leaving me with either a Machine, TA Javelin, or a SC/Rambler. I had heard of a gentleman named Ralph who lived about 30 minutes away and had a “collection” of rough AMC cars. Getting his number I gave him a call. Sure enough he tells me he has about 40 different cars including several SC’s. My dad and I take a ride over to his place and he has 3 SC Ramblers. 1 very very rough parts car, 1 decent body but missing most of the SC specific parts, and 1 rough but mostly complete looking car with an incorrect 1968 343 4 barrel installed.

Looking over the last car I realize there are N50’s out back and that this car lived a rough life. Hindsight being 20/20 I should’ve walked away. But that’s not what I wanted. I now had my heart set on this car. What I ended up purchasing from Ralph was that SC, another 68 290 auto Rogue for parts, a 1969 complete 390, and a newer Patriot Performance STR-11 crossram because I knew it was going on that car.

Getting everything home that day I began to survey what I purchased. And what I purchased wasn’t great. On the way home the right side shock tower separated from the frame rail due to the amount of rot, nothing on the car was straight or pretty, and it was very clear that the mini-tub job done for the N50’s was done in a backyard and of questionable quality 50 years ago. And now was downright scary. But I still fell in love with the car, though I’d call it more of a love to hate it type or relationship.

The original plan was to do some type of Nostalgia SS style race car. However the amount of rot meant that I’d basically have to build another car to do that.

Then it got accepted into the Barn Find area at MCACN 2023, so a new plan was hatched. The block was as the machine shop and I was already building a 13:1 390 using BBC rods, Pontiac 455 pistons, the largest Mechanical flat tappet cam that Lunati makes, and ported 291C heads. Why not have this thing running and driving like a vintage pro-stocker while it looks like it currently does?

Unfortunately I had started stripping the interior of the car to start the bodywork. So over the course of months I reassembled most of what matters, and tackled the largest metal job that needed to be done… that right frame rail.

It was junk. So my dad and I, without fear or any idea of how to do it, chopped the right front frame rail out of the perfectly good 290 parts car and began mocking it up in the SC. There were some changes from 1968-1969, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome. Soon enough there’s a complete frame in the front.

Now back to the engine. Assembled in my garage and after all clearances are checked, it was installed not painted and ugly, along with the original T10, though there’s no vin on it the dates line up perfectly to the build date of the car.

Story will continue in next post…

[LetsFNgo]

So at this point I’ve condensed about a year’s worth of work into the last post. The engine is back in the car with the trans, the frame seems like it will support it without falling apart, and I’ve put the interior back together enough that I can mount 1 seat bolt into each seat since there isn’t enough floor left to install any other hardware.

Looking at the rear one day I realize that not only is it crooked, but both spring perches look like they were eaten by a T. rex. I had purchased a NOS set of 4.44 gears for an AMC 20 months earlier. Figuring now was as good a time as any, I pulled the rear out of the car and replaced the spring perches and rebuilt the rear with new bearings and the deeper gears.

While installing the perches I found that part of my issue with the rear being crooked was that 1 perch was welded onto the rear backwards. But even after fixing that the rear is still slightly off in the back of the car. Measuring underneath shows that the mini tub job is about half an inch off. Pushing the right side tire closer to the front of the wheel opening. The next post will talk about the cars history and how I found it going back to about 1973. I’d love to trace it back further but hit a dead end. Enjoy the photos.

[LetsFNgo]

So the history of this car and what happened to it…

When I bought the car it came with a NY transferable registration from the 90’s. Giving me the owner before Ralph. I was able to find the guy on FB even though I don’t have it. My wife messaged him and he gave me a call weeks later. He didn’t seem too pleased to hear the car still existed, and gave me almost no info other than he bought it out of Queens NYC in the late 80’s and never drove the car. He sold it in 2008ish and it sat outside in his yard until he sold it. When he bought it the car barely ran and didn’t run soon after.

My trail went cold there, then, months later I decided to take the rear window regulators out to free them up. Inside the drivers side quarter window slot I found a For Sale sign with a phone number. Googling the number I eventually tracked down a disconnected phone number to Astoria Queens. Bingo.


Further digging revealed 2 boys who grew up with that phone number. So I start calling numbers for the people listed. Eventually getting a woman whose husband was the guy I was looking for, named Brian.


Brian was very helpful. He bought the car in 1985 when he turned 16 and learned how to drive stick in the car on the way home from picking it up. He sold it in 87-88 getting ready to head for college. He also gave me the name of the guy he bought it from, who mini tubbed it in a backyard on Long Island. Brian also confirmed my suspicions that even though the car currently has a quasi A scheme paint job, this was built new as the rarer, though less outrageous, B scheme paint job. One of only 297 built.

Eventually I was able to get a hold of Bob Gianelli, the gentleman who had done all of the bodywork to the car back in the 1970’s. He started a business called “Narrow It” and mini tubbed cars. This was one of his first ones and his wife liked the car so he owned it for quite awhile. He told me about 1973 he bought it. But having owned close to 400 cars in his life he had no other info about where he bought it from. But according to him he bought mostly local cars. So I believe this car spent most of its life in NYC/Long Island.

Brian was kind enough to send me photos of when he owned the car. The photos are from him getting ready to go to a car show at the now torn down NYC coliseum.

[Too Many Projects]

You've been very diligent in your digging for history. Congrats on all that you have found.
Nice work on the shock tower. Good that you had a donor to remove intact. I've rebuilt/replaced a number of those on Mustangs, which are very similar.
Is this going to be in the MCACN Barn Finds this year ?

[LetsFNgo]

Now time to get the engine running and spend time getting everything else together. As I said, I’m condensing a years work into a couple posts. If people want to see the whole progression of this car I implore you to go to the amc forum and read the 25 page thread I’ve written there.

I ended up going to MCACN 2023 with this car. I will include some photos from the show probably in the next post.

[LetsFNgo]

Photos from MCACN 2023 and a preview of a Hemmings photoshoot that was done a month or so later. The photographer is still working on the article. Very nice gentleman named John.

[Pro Stock John]

I saw it at MCACN, car is a lot of work but they are rare and cool. Enjoying your updates!!

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Yup saw this beauty at MCACN!!! I help with move in so I might have waved you in to barn finds?

I’m a big fan of 4 Speed, small/mid sized muscle, and non normal cars, and patina :-) so this one speaks to me!!

And I have a bit of a shifter addiction (had three RamRods for a while)

Ryan W

[LetsFNgo]

Beauty is a stretch lol.

[Too Many Projects]

I did see it briefly, but was drawn to the piled up Buick in front of you. I didn't have much time to look thru there, as I was working with the Vintage Certification crew.

[Igosplut]

In the town I live in, there is an air force base( 762 Radar squadron) now closed. As a kid I live just down the street from the access road. Just like every military base in the world in the late sixty's, early seventy's, most of the base guys had fast cars. There was this guy (last name of "Strange") who had a Rambler SC. He hated the color scheme (A) and painted it a cranberry red color without the SC trim. He also put a flat hood on it, that further disguised the car. The typical time span for guys stationed there was two and one half years, and he got shipped out. He sold the car to a guy one town over, and the guy who bought it, used it more as transportation than what it was born as. Never knew what happened to it, but If I had to guess (a few people knew what is was, but never gave it more of a thought) I bet it went to one of the local junkyards as it was driven year round for most of it's life.

[Pro Stock John]

While I'm a Chevy guy, these cars are very cool looking. I know if I was at the track with my car I'd be checking out your car ASAP.

[mssl72]

Love it, very cool car! It's great that you were able to find the history and contact previous owners. Getting that information is so nice.

[LetsFNgo]

Got my new (old) N50’s mounted. Since I didn’t like the new M&H N50’s and I have another car going together to use them on I figured these were perfect for this car

[LetsFNgo]

Couple of pictures from the American Motors Owners National Meet this year in Virginia. Car had a crowd around it for pretty much the entirety of the show. Though I heard there were some complaints about the car being allowed to be parked with the SS AMX and other nicely restored SC’s. My dad and I had a blast though and look forward to Carlisle with it next week.

[BillyHawk]

Must applaud your diligence

[BillyHawk]

Must applaud your diligence

[LetsFNgo]

Update after Carlisle:
I couldn’t be happier with the car after Carlisle. It’s rough. It’s loud. It’s crude. And people loved it.

I actually spoke to two guys who remember this car street racing around NYC in the 1970’s and 80’s. The one owner Brian mainly hung out at Spiro’s House of Speed in Queens. I talked to two gentlemen from Brooklyn that remember this car hanging around the Connecting Highway and other street racing spots around NYC back then. They actually think they might have photos of the car hanging around Astoria park and the street races back then so they’re going to reach out when they find any photos.

One actually still talks to Spiro and might have info on the car from back then as well. Seeing those guys relive their youth looking at this car makes dragging it around worth it. Cars(especially stuff like this) should elicit an emotion and bring back memories. And these guys thinking about being 20 hanging out in Astoria Park and cruising for chicks, and this car surviving all of that, makes it worth it. I can’t describe how happy I was seeing these two random gentleman so happy to look at this poor old SC Rambler.

If you happened to hang out around there back them and possibly remember this car, or even if you don’t remember this car, but hung out on the Connecting Highway, or out near JFK airport, or any of the other NYC street racing spots, I’d love to hear your stories.

Also if anyone has a House of Speed decal, I’d love to buy one or more. Because history with this stuff is important. And I’d love to have actual stickers from that time frame that were removed from the car later.


Now that the car is home it needs a little love. I’m finally removing the disconnected power brake booster and converting it to simple manual brakes. And though I had put a much newer set of traction bars on it, I know it had original Lakewood Traction Action Bars on it, so the Carlisle find bars are being swapped into place of the ones I made work for now.

Thank you for reading this. Hope it brings back memories.

[Too Many Projects]

It's amazing to see old cars like this find old owners or people who knew of it in it's glory days. Nice of you to care and let them reminisce too.

Now put a cotter pin in that axle nut before it works itself loose...:laugh:

[LetsFNgo]

It was a lot of fun to listen to these 2 old Italian guys from Brooklyn talk about Spiro’s House of Speed, Spiro’s 65 Chevelle named Barbra Ann, and hanging out in Astoria Park cruising for chicks before the “yuppies” closed it to cars. I can only hope there’s pictures of this car hanging out there or at any of the NYC street racing haunts because that would really help its history.

[LetsFNgo]

Picture shows what’s coming soon. Possible plans in the future include a new back half kit and a cage. And I’d like to do drag and drive events with it. But that’s a long ways away.

[big gear head]

Bring it to the Super Car Reunion!

[Mr70]

https://www.facebook.com/supercarreunion/

[LetsFNgo]

I thought that was a GM only show? Is there more information available? I’m not against bringing it but I’d only be showing it on Saturday if that’s possible.

[Too Many Projects]

I thought that was a GM only show? Is there more information available? I’m not against bringing it but I’d only be showing it on Saturday if that’s possible.
Go to the link above the registration form for more info.There is a race only price, but I don't see a show and banquet only cost.
You could call the number in the bottom right corner too and either Doug or Amy can help you with that.

[Copo_Cartel]

You’re welcome to call me and I will explain all the festivities and answer all questions. Thank you, Doug Perry. 614-203-1272

[LetsFNgo]

You’re welcome to call me and I will explain all the festivities and answer all questions. Thank you, Doug Perry. 614-203-1272

Thanks. I’ll call this afternoon around 2:30 est. from a 732 area code.

[LetsFNgo]

Small update.
I’m still trying to figure out if im going to the Supercar reunion. It’s awesome that you guys thought to reach out and offer. Just trying to put the trip together now, as well as get the car back together.

It’s a little over 800 miles to get to Bowling Green for me. Id be leaving early Friday morning(like 1am) to get to Beech Bend in the afternoon. Spend Friday and Saturday at the show. And then drive home Sunday.

But onto the car. I spent some time yesterday installing a new master cylinder on it, and by new I mean a 56 year old Wagner Lockheed that I bought a NOS rebuild kit for on eBay. The easier thing to do would’ve been to go to the local auto parts store and buy a Chinese or Mexican rebuild. But I hate doing that, and would rather spend money on 50+ year old Made in USA parts. I just need to finish a line or 2 and then I can bleed that and hopefully the brakes will be much better.

2nd thing was getting the rear back together with the J bolt bars. Unfortunately after installing everything I found that the way the car is tubbed the J bolt brackets rub the inside of the tire. So no J bolts on this car right now. Otherwise the car is mostly back together. I’ll spend some time this afternoon buttoning things up.

[big gear head]

I hope you make it to SCR. We need more variety and more people. Your AMC would be very welcome. Some more Ford and Chrysler products would be nice too.

[LetsFNgo]

Mostly done with the brakes and the traction bars.

I’m having a really hard time not trying to install the UR18 and Dominators even though the crossram and 660 Holleys works perfectly fine and looks proper. It’s also much closer to what the car had on it in the 70’s.

The car looks terrible, and barely stays together. But man does it look cool.

I’m also trying to plan out my trip to SCR. It’s a haul, and I’ll be going alone. But I’d hate to miss the opportunity presented.

[markinnaples]

Love all of this AMC stuff you've got going. I can't remember the last time I've seen any AMC product, let alone any of the cool ones you have. Please continue to share your efforts on all of your cars.

[LetsFNgo]

Here’s a feature Hemmings just posted on my SC. If anyone is interested. John did an awesome job taking the photos. As well as doing the write up.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/this-barn-find-1969-sc-rambler-has-a-story-to-tell/

[dykstra]

Very cool! Congrats!