Re: New AMC book.... what would you like to see??

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

I'd like to see (you DID ask!) is, technical rundown of the  
developmental history of the car lines. We do this sort of thing for  
motors all the time: Speaking of the 8's, the gen1 cam from nash,  
begat N subspecies; gen2, inherited bellhousing flange, lifters,  
improved on X Y and Z, gen 3 built on that, parts interchange, etc

The motor lines are viewable as a "linear" history; or what parts  
interchange; or car/trans compatibility; or which designers worked on  
them; cars they were in, what the fit, who raced them, ...

I build my cars out of parts assortments, I think of AMC's rubble as  
a fun stockroom of largely interchangeable parts. You can see  
progressions in say front suspension designs; 63-64 almost-but-not- 
quite is the same as the 1989 stuff (67-up is 1" narrower between the  
frame rails; small vs. large taper seems to be the only difference  
between 63 and 89 tie rod ends!).

There's a little bit of this sort of view in transmission  
interchange. Italian car nuts do this with body design. I want it for  
all the other mundane stuff! Electrical; seats; brake systems; bumper  
systems; chassis stampings...

Pick a 'front clip' (sic) from the 10/80 chassis; it evolved in a  
particular way to meet design fixes (weak or expensive spots), cost,  
styling of fenders, product line consolidations. History of trunnions  
vs. ball joints.

A giant taxonomic branching tree of parts groups. Say, a factory  
parts catalog breakout, with dimensions. Make me a Flash animation of  
the front suspension upper assembly stamped sheet metal insert (that  
goes into the inner fender, and holds the upper arm), with  
dimensions, so that I can see how the 62 differs from 63-64 differs  
65-66, 67-69, 70-up...

The only thing this doesn't work well on are purely stylign items;  
eg. windshield trim, escutcheons, that sort of thing, since they're  
easily identified (usually) and peculiar to a model/style, and are  
design-wise incidental.

I'll gladly pay any price under $10 for this.


(OK I'm kidding about that last, I'd probably pay $250 for such a  
thing, or maybe more.)