Just got this e-mail in, from Eddie Stakes, of Planet Houston AMX, concerning his recent trip to Dallas, and a little meandering in the foggy remnants of the Rambler past.

I’ve mentioned before, that Eddie is one of the guys who really got the ball going on this whole Lost Dealership thing, quite a while ago.  Along the way, I came into a little web real estate called The AMC Heritage Forum, and Eddie sent me a whole bunch of postcards and stuff to begin classifying onto the Forum, and preserving The Heritage of these dealerships.

After that, things just built up a little at a time, as people began to congregate around The Dealerships, as the project was known at the time.

After a while, AMC Heritage Forum Member AMX confessed that he has a secret hobby running around photographing old dealerships so we can see how they look today.

We recognized at once the potential for locating “Lost Dealerships”, for which there was no known picture.  We had a number of such places, from brochure stamps, people’s tips, etc. that could benefit from a good old fashioned drive-by.  I said OLD-FASHIONED drive-by, where you shoot things with a CAMERA.  (Just have to yell over the gunfire in my neighborhood).

From there, we expanded into the idea of using technology like GPS or Google Maps to get us even closer to these old places.  Bit by bit, we are prying them out.

From Eddie, then.

———————————–
Scenes of AMC Past:

A road trip recently found me in Dallas area when my wife Paige had to go up
there for her job with the oil field company she works for. What to do in
the Metroplex and surrounding counties? Check out old AMC Dealerships. Duh.

Since we were staying on Mockingbird Lane near the airport, figured would
look up Mockingbird American. It was only 2 miles east of the Raddison at
Stemmons Freeway. Still looks like the old Mockingbird Rambler of AMC’s
glory days of old, but is now a technical training center. So STILL
automotive related! Mockingbird American was located at 2449 West
Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, Texas, 75235. It was built in the 1960s and in the
photo below, was in business 10 years when that photo was taken in I believe
1972.

Unfortunately, a sign on property says that the building is scheduled to be
torn down in 2008-2009.

I waited patiently on the median in my Green Bay Packers jersey in hardcore
Cowboys country for the ‘perfect shot’. Not from Cowboys fan throwing bottle
or can, but for a jet to take off from Love Field like in the original photo
of Mockingbird:

Note “Air Conditioned Gremlin $2199.99″ in the large glass window.

Note the jet taking off from Love Field in upper right. So hoping my
batteries in camera would not die, nor would I standing on median in enemy
territory wearing Packers jersey I took my shot. (see jpeg #3405)

The plane was Southwest Airlines, and unfortunately, no AMCs in the former
Mockingbird AMC dealership lot in 2008. And sadly……this building is
scheduled to be torn down in 2008/2009 for new development.

Strangely, Paige’s business is located off Ambassador Row a few blocks from
the hotel. Many of you old timers will remember this address: 7900
Ambassador Row, Dallas, Texas, 75247, Phone 214-631-5110.

This was American Motors Dallas Zone office, which was ZONE #22, and covered a wide swath
including the southern 1/2 of New Mexico, southern 2/3rd of Oklahoma and
also Texas.

There is a full list of AMC Zones on my site:

http://www.planethoustonamx.com/amcdealerships/amc_zones.jpg

The Dallas Zone office still is alive and well, not AMC related, but
building looks great for age and shows some of it’s art deco roots. (jpeg
photo #3410). The building is occupied and a Rodeway 18 wheeler was backed
up to the side.

What never ceases to amaze me is old AMC dealership signs that still exist,
much less in the brutal Texas heat. It was 99 degrees on this particular day
when this photo of this long since forgotten “SELECT USED CARS” with AMC
logo sign was taken. It still stands proudly about a major throughfare in
north Texas. The west side of the sign is faded, (jpeg photo #3400) simply
because that is the heat of day side where like on this day, actual sign
temp would have been about 120 degrees or more. And of course the sign is
almost 40 years old.

The oppossite side shows a nice sign with bright logo
(jpg photo #3402) facing east.

If moved however, there is a 99% chance the sign would crumble to dust being
brittle. Still worth that chance as I collect dealer memorbilia and have
been known to scale 20 feet up in middle of night with torch to retrieve
stuff like this. I’ll know shortly if this one ends up in my collection.

All in all, it was neat to see some of American Motors past….with old
dealerships, of which I have always thought have for the most part, been
forgotten by time. Each one had a story to tell, some more than others,
whether large or small, or whether they sold a few dozen cars per calender
year or high volume. I have a large AMC DEALERSHIPS file on my site at
www.planethoustonamx.com dedicated to nothing but AMC Dealerships (you can
google amc dealerships also) so they will never be forgotten. If you have
any old photos of AMC dealerships from 50s thru 80s you wish to share, email
them to me.

Enjoy the ride!
Eddie Stakes
713.464.8825
eddiestakes@planethoustonamx.com
www.planethoustonamx.com
email volume HEAVY reply
currently 8-19 days, just call!

——————————————-

Read more on the Lost Dealership Project @ The AMC Heritage Forum:

-mike

Just recently, I changed the original home page of Route 66 Rambler back to its original format. In that form, it is straight, normal HTML code, and runs fast, it’s predictable, etc. But it no longer updates automatically with the other web sites which it has spawned, including this one.

There are various reasons for the change, but the main one is that users and visitors have requested this change in a significant number, ever since the first change was made.

For one thing, I was caught up in an emergency with my poor smashed Gremlin, and trying to replace it.

So updates were slow in coming to that page, and I never did get the layout under control, or find a pleasant theme. So, essentially the home page pretty well sucked mud.

Another reason for the change is that the role of the home page has been as sort of a news and promotional page, and a menu to the contents of the other web sites that make up Route 66 Rambler. It seems to work best when laid out as a combination billboard, traffic signal, and newsletter. So just like always, Route66Rambler.com is where you would go to find out what’s going on around the entire Route 66 Rambler installation. From there you can follow links to reach the other areas of the installation here, including this Report.

This makes it somewhat less interconnected to the other areas of the site than it was, but also easier to understand and to navigate. The remaining components of the site will all continue to be linked to each other, with automatic updates from RSS feeds reporting on each component, so you don’t have to miss Forum messages to go look at articles in the Open Library Project, for example.

On The AMC Heritage Forum, some Members requested that the RustBucket Image Host be disconnected from the main Forum there, for speed and reliability reasons, and after some consideration, that change has been made.

With the DotCom reverting back to HTML, and this severing of the connection between the RustBucket Image Host and The AMC Heritage Forum, the only page still connected directly with the RustBucket Gallery is this page you are reading, Route 66 Rambler Report.

The RustBucket may also be viewed as a stand alone installation, with just the Gallery and its pictures, and nothing in the way, click HERE for RustBucket stand alone version. The RustBucket may also be reached from the margin at left, under “Report66 Pages“, choose RustBucket66.

The stand alone version of the RustBucket also provides an RSS news feed in the lower left margin of this and every page, (except the home page, route66rambler.com), where it says, Recent RustBucket. Choose that header to go to the RustBucket home page, or any RSS-updated entries below it to be taken straight to that particular photo. If you click on the orange square itself, you will be shown the actual contents of the RSS updates in the feed. RSS means Really Simple Syndication, a way of organized free form publishing in a broadcast manner.

On the Rambler TimeLine, I have begun installing the TimeLine into the new blog format over there, but with the accident and other things taking my time, I am only just now molding everything to fit. So there will be some broken links, dead ends, and wild rides with those TimeLine menu choices around the site for another week or two. Also the Rambler Monthly Milestones updates, that have been on the Home page, will now be seen and categorized on the Rambler TimeLine, under the Category “Rambler by the Month“.

Both TimeLine and Open Library Project now have their own galleries to service their needs. Both also contain archive pages and search engines, in blog AND gallery, to aid in navigation and sorting of information. The compilation of Make, Model, Year information on the TimeLine is now a gradual thing, which will happen automatically, as posts there are categorized and published.

The Open Library Project has settled into the blog format well, and is updated regularly.

There will be some dramatic changes soon with the Kenosha West Parts and Ads page. It will likely be converted at least partially to the blog format to make searching easier, and I should be able to begin my own listings of parts and literature in the near future.

The WebCat Project, or Whole AMC Web Catalog, has long been on the back burner. This project has now been given its own sub-domain, with a blog installation being designed for that project right now. It would work like the Library or the Parts page, with categories of web sites available for searching, with RSS updates to the other pages, and the ability to subscribe to the site, and contribute by posting your favorite AMC web sites’ locations.

Once I get the rear axle into my 1981 Eagle Kammback, hopefully in the next couple of days, I will have replaced its entire drivetrain, and I expect to drive the doggone thing.

The Lost Dealership Project of AMC Heritage Forum Member AMX, at The AMC Heritage Forum,

is continuing to gain momentum, with more than one mention on the Hemmings Auto Blogs, other car forums and websites, and a recent increase in the number of web sites that are beginning to carry the 1983 dealer list from Eddie Stakes’ Planet Houston AMX.

Eddie Stakes is a great guy, and has always been nothing but helpful to me any time I have had a question or an AMC need. Visit Planet Houston and broaden your AMC horizons.

Eddie is one of the driving forces behind the idea of remembering the old dealerships in The AMC Heritage, and giving them their just due, recording their memory.

I’m busy right now getting the carburetor back into the Eagle, and the little Kammster has a new radiator due in from Checker at any minute. Gotta go wrench that little go-kart into submission.

-mike