[Amc-list] Rambler stuff at Toluca Lake Bob's Big Boy

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

There's a local meet of sorts every Friday at the Bob's Big Boy in 
Burbank/Toluca Lake. It's usually the same people over and over and I have 
pretty much zero interest in 70's street machines with 350s, and 
cookie-cutter hot rods. There's often occasional cars of interest, today a 
'42 restored military jeep (the two owners in full Army drag for the fun of 
it), a cherry 55? Steadybreaker Commander 4-door, a Ford 4 cyl hot rod... 
and one 63 Rambler American.

For once, I had a mildly popular car, oddly, a lot more than the 70 Hornet 
which at least looks nice, or the Classic wagon, which at least looks 
really strange.

This guy Jose comes up, he's got a 63 green American wagon, very clean, had 
a bad motor, gave to a local rebuilder who ruined it. Said he was later 
talking to some Texan engine builder... I mentioned the names I know (why 
the hell are all you guys in TX?) it was Bruce Hevner!

I told him hell yes, get your motor done by him! It'll be done right!

Jose didn't know about this list etc, so I gave him the info.

He mentioned this old Mexican guy friend of his (on the subject of 
interesting Ramblers). He drives a Model A with hydraulic brakes, power 
steering that bolted on, and a T5 transmission that he rigged the shifter 
to come out of the FRONT top of the box ... and worked with Barney Navarro!

This guy Marino (Morino? ...) showed up. He's 80. We've all heard tall 
tales at car meets... but when I mentioned I have these Navarro Rambler 
motor parts, he described the mods before I even mentioned them; O-ringed 
block and head, the oiling mods (block oil passageways drilled from 1/8" to 
1/4", even told me where the plugs were!). He was Barney's pattern maker 
amongst other things. He's the real thing.

Says Barney and he did all sorts of crazy engineering. AMC was very helpful 
and sent them pretty much any parts they wanted. He said when he did the 
head work, they took a new head out of the box and band-sawed it into a 
dozen slices so that they could see what they were working on. Same with a 
block; he asked me if my block had stock bearing caps or a big aluminum 
plate (mine is stock). The twin turbo has a huge plate on the bottom for 
stiffness, he says 600 ft lb torque.

So hopefully Jose will connect me with this Morino guy, and i can get him 
to come look at the parts and ID the stuff and what mods were done. It'll 
be a real goldmine of information for super-hot AMC sixes! 500hp from a 
motor that cheap and plentiful shouldn't be overlooked...

He says he'll be there next week, I told him I'd bring some parts for him 
to look at.

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