My current collection of American Motors cars began on May 5 2005, or as we say here in the United States of America, Cinco de Mayo. 

At the time I had realized that my children were now grown, and that I could turn my attention now to something I had always loved, the AMC cars I remembered from my childhood.  My wife remembered the69 Javelin SST I had owned when we were young, and she had loved that car as much as I did.  

It had been sold at the birth of my first daughter.   So she agreed to let me pursue this folly, for unknown reasons of her own. A friend and I started looking into the state of the American Motors hobby, and quickly became alarmed when we realized that the vehicles were being crushed for salvage at an alarming rate, and that furthermore, even many “car people” had never heard of AMC,   or its products.  Occasionally someone would mention the Pacer or the Gremlin (odd-looking cars from the gas-crunch 1970’s),  or a lot of the time the AMX sports car popped out of somebody’s mouth, but most of the others made by AMC seemed to be totally forgotten.

My favorites have always been the Rambler Americans of the 1960’s(similar to a Chevrolet Chevy II Nova, Dodge Dart, or Ford Falcon), 

and the Javelin, which was AMC’s answer to the Ford Mustang.

   

We decided first to try and find a 1969 Javelin SST.  The reasoning was that they were a fairly low-production model, and at the rates these cars were disappearing, we might not have a chance to find one before long. 

A nationwide search commenced, and it soon became obvious that it was going to be a difficult find.  My buddy Dan found the first one, on the internet.  There was a 1969 Javelin SST in Big Bad Orange, with a 390 and 4-speed for sale in Arkansas for about 8000 bucks, barely restorable. OK, there’s one. But that price was too steep for me to begin project on my funding. Soon I found another one in a junkyard, only this one was a 1971, which was a completely different body style, almost identical to this 73 here.     This one was 2200 bucks, and good only for parts, due to collision damage.  And so it went.  The only cars we found which were affordable were either bottom-line models, or were in no condition to begin a restoration with.

Then, after six months, we finally had a break.  I live near Phoenix International Raceway, and the Scottsdale Auto Auction was on out there.  My pal Kevin lived a few houses up the road from the farm I was living on at the time, and he had a bunch of cars out on the road for sale.  All the buyers cruising into and out of the auction could see them there, and every farm on the road had muscle cars and antiques galore out on the road.  The guy on the farm across the street from mine came over to look at Kevin’s stuff, one of which was a 1976 AMC Matador Wagon.    This guy casually mentioned the fact that he had an AMC behind the barn over on his place.  Kevin knew that I was on the lookout for American Motors cars.  What kind, he asked the guy. 

When he mentioned that it was a 1969 Javelin SST,    Kevin just about swallowed his beer can, then got on the phone to me.  Long story short, a little horse trading(which involved a piece of crap TPI 86 Trans Am)  put the car in my pocket.  Of course, as you can see from the picture, it was far from ideal.    The car had been sitting in that field for 25 years.  On the positive side, the rust is all on the surface with no body rot, all the small parts are complete, the body is straight,  there are only 32,550 miles on the car,   and much of the dealer and factory documentation is still intact.  These documents, known in the hobby as build sheets, contain all of the original order information for the car, what is called “provenance” in the antiques or historical collections trades.  In addition, the original retail window sticker and the owner’s kit was included in the deal.  These documents are an absolute must for top-dollar value on any vehicle restoration.  Without them, the value can drop more than 50%.  The pictures here show the condition of the car as I found it.  We like to call it “buried treasure”.  It was sunburned horrifically.  It was buried in over a foot of sand.  It is beautiful.

mike

Wednesday August 9, 2006 - 02:37pm (MST)

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