[AMC-List] Dem old bonz

["Mahoney, John" <JMahoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Since "Sleepless in Portland" porously typed, "some have been typing their poor fingers to the bone for the list" and then typed on the return of old times,
a pointed point should be taken: how easily we can forget.  (Not to point any fingers, of course...)      

>>
Flashers were not a 1966 requirement. My former 66 Rebel was made in March of 1966 and did not have them.
<<

"Requirement" depended on where registered and, as might have been [still is] expected, the high-tax states led. 

>>
The law for hazard lights came into effect 01 January 1966 -- the Motor Vehicle Safety Act. 1966 models produced before January did not have to have flashers. AMC had an under dash switch that was factory instaled on late 66 models, and could be dealer (or owner) installed on all prior AMC built cars.
<<

"On September 9, 1966, Johnson signed into law the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act, placing the Federal Government in the leadership role of a comprehensive national program to reduce the number of injuries and deaths on America's highways. The Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act required the establishment of federal safety standards for motor vehicles after the 1968 model year, as well as for tires."

(So typed the Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of Transportation...)

What was officially the "Hazard Warning Signal" (and officially Section 108 of Title 49, Part 571 --- if you want to see where some of your tax money goes, see some of the growth in said law some 35 years later: you keep your government payrolls plump and your so-called civil servants keep themselves employed...)

http://tinyurl.com/4v68k

became effective on 1/31/67, but that action of the newly-created DOT was, in fact, reaction to earlier SAE suggestions, and 4-way flashers had been optional, state-required,

http://tinyurl.com/sxns3

or standard on some cars before then.

http://automotivemileposts.com/tbird1966standardequipment.html

Also, in the first years after flashers were required, locations varied.

While some Chrysler products even had switches in the -glove- boxes, my first -drivable- Mopar (which I first drove in 1969) had NYS-legal four-way flashers mounted on --- and fully-integrated into --- the dashboard.

http://mclellansautomotive.com/photos/B15262.jpg

http://www.russoandsteele.com/vehicle_photos/6136_int.jpg

http://tinyurl.com/q342f

(my car's paint looked like AMC 9A Alpaca Brown and dash looked like

http://www.mecumauction.com/auctions/lot_images/CH1005-30423b.jpg

even if it did not have a Hemi...)  

http://tinyurl.com/lnjqp

but only had 318 CI.  Yet it had one of those distinctive "start-up" songs once sung by all automobiles.  Does anyone miss the "good old days" when engines could be identified by starting and running voices and when kids could guess make and model just by listening carefully?  Maybe kids were better off by being challenged back then (not that they cannot identify several engines by sound today: if they're almost silent, they may be by Lexus...) and doing so kept their head bones strong and fingers in flight.        

Point pointedly made.  (Not to point any fingers, of course...)

>>
I've got one other comment to make on the last couple days comments re:
Chrysler . A number of people seem to blame  Chrysler for AMC  demise . I
contend that AMC was long dead before 1987. The last cars per say where
built in Canada in 1983. After 1983 all you had left was the Eagle Station
wagon primarily and there was a Corporate edit to market the Eagles as
Jeeps !!!!! In fact I have factory literature that has the Eagle in with
the Pickups and Cherokees and rest of the Jeeps . The Eagle was an MPV or
multi propose vehicle and not per say a car. I've always looked on the
Chrysler take over as more of a mercy killing of what Ray-not screwed up.
With Ray not  we got another 7 to 10 years of parts on the shelves. At
least what ray not did not throw out everything. Chrysler just throw away
what was not moving, unfortunately most of the old AMC parts where not
moving. And Yes it was probably a mistake to close down Kenosha car
production, especially with 7 months of backorders on the books for Police
cars , primarily. Chrysler was going broke again and even though the
workers had a pretty standard Chrysler type contract by 1987 the oldest
plant went first. thanks , Larry R. Daum
<<

AMC (as an American "car" company) died in 1981, when it became clear that no design money would be spent on anything but Jeep vehicles and "Americanized" Renault derivatives and that 1982 and 1983 were mainly "build-out" model years.  Eagle was to be a "Jeep-Eagle" product (Lee didn't originate the idea) and Renault was to be the -car- marque at existing AMC-Jeep dealerships.

Without Renault and without Chrysler (who kept Kenosha up and running even before they bought the works), AMC would have gone away earlier;
not what today's AMC fans wish would've happen.  And, for the record, Lee did not want to bury American Motors, he planned to integrate it. Into a new Chrysler Corporation, like Chrysler was into Daimler-Benz.

If you saw the proposed "penta-bloc" logo, you'd get the point.

"My poor fingers!"

Point made.   


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