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.

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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!

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

-mike