Re: [AMC-list] American wagons...

[tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 7:08 AM, Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> You know, you could rebuild the wagon again and finally do the paint and
> body justice. but that will take a lot of time...


Well anything's possible... but you haven't seen this wagon up close.
Recall, when I bought it, it was stacked on top of a pile on a large flatbed
going to the scrapper -- in 1987. It was ROUGH then. It was all I could
afford at the time. Unibody is bent -- driver rear has a crease, vertically,
from the roof (tiny kink) to a 1/2" "Z" in the wheel arch frame. I realigned
the drivetrain with a string from harmonic balancer to rear axle, re-drilled
the rear trans mount and got it perfectly straight -- measured perfect on a
4-wheel machine.

Every single body panel has a warp or dent bonked out. The roof is warped
from all the holes and junk it's had on it. Wiring is messy. Every
hare-brained car idea I've ever had was tried out on this thing. There's
holes drilled everywhere. The windshield I bought brand new in the late 90's
is now itself sandblasted. I've fractured strut mounts, rear shock mounts,
TT braces. Broke a spring. Wore out three sets of tires (good ones). Who
knows how many brakes. Suspension complete teardown three times on my watch.
Trans on it's 3rd rebuild. (Engine on same shortblock I built in 87 though.
2nd head.) Second torque tube setup. Second U-joint (only about 200K on
that, good for another 100K :-). Tailgate looks like an exploded diagram,
plain old wear (bought a spare from Joe never installed). Removed the trunk
floor for the propane tank, welded another one back in when I switched to
gasoline.

I've long ago lost track of the miles on it, gotta be well over 350K, most
of that highway, but from 1993 - 2000 much of it was semi-off-road Mojave
Desert jeep trail stuff. Weird things are starting to fail, and impossible
noises are appearing. I drive the snot out of it and have maintained it like
aircraft, and I know this car better than my own body, and I no longer have
the confidence in it I once had.  Failures are becoming less predictable or
anticipatable. That's not acceptable on a car this bizarro -- the wrong
breakdown far from home would be unthinkable. (The American oil pump
business is a good example.)

Plus it's simply been 23 years this October I've had it. Nothing lasts for
ever. That engine might though. '70 232, and the crank still has it's
factory journals -- 0 under! A good "Monday morning" crank I guess.

I doubt I'll do with the next wagon what I did with this one. I don't seem
to be doing that sort of insane, grueling driving any more. Still need a car
to do LA to Santa Fe and such; the 195.6 OHV I don't trust for that, to be
honest, at least not now. A 232 (258, 4.0 etc) no hesitation. Even the BW
autos don't scare me, I've never heard of one drop dead without years of
notice though I never stress them with horsepower (I know they get weak
then). Hell I drove to Burning Man and back three years ago with a worn-out
(didn't want to upshift) Model 35, towing a trailer, two people, 8000 ft
altitude no less. (Rebuilt that fall.)


Oddly enough, the plastic in the rear of this wagon is... tolerable. No one
would want it, it's cracked from luggage sliding (before my watch) and
they're badly scratched over the humps (again not mine). I have all sorts of
sheet metal and screw patches supporting the cracks.

Black interior plastic lasts, other colors don't. I guess the carbon black
in the old plastic stops UV penetration or something. When I was scrounging
Hornet interiors I found the same thing.
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