now that i have some perspective on this car (63 American) i'm looking at it a bit more ruthlessly re: mods. i've been commuting in my "new" 2004 scion xB (great car) and man, the seats in the Rambler SUCK. an hour's drive is exhausting. so i'm gonna ditch them eventually. late-model seats will go in. would like to find some low profile seats but that seems unlikely. the vinyl (very heavy metalflake) i chose for the seats has not held up; it wasn't automotive material, so the UV has blackened it badly. good upholstery work so i'll go back to the same guy. i've never been big on religiously maintaining originality, but if i stick with messing with cars i'm likely to head more in a weirdo-hot-rod direction. the bottom line for me is reliability. if i'm not comfortable taking a car on a long reasonably comfortable drive (and my standards are low; i dislike power brakes, power steering, etc) i don't use it. still not sure how much i trust this engine for the long haul. it's been perfect, but all the castings are ANCIENT, and damn, if something fails far from home.... which happened to me, was hugely expensive and traumatic, and i'm unlikely to repeat. aesthetically i'm fine with shotgunning the driveline for an appropriately scaled modern one. 150hp inline engine, 4- or 5-speed manual trans. no plan for that though, and i still have that 61 hulk sitting here... -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.amc-list.com/pipermail/amc-list-amc-list.com/attachments/20110809/7659344c/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ AMC-list mailing list AMC-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://list.amc-list.com/listinfo.cgi/amc-list-amc-list.com