Re: [Amc-list] Charity Projects In General

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

I've been involved with charity projects for years with the USAF, and have run a few. Nothing quite like the Charity AMX has been done -- passing a car around the COUNTRY to restore it. I knew there would be hurdles and it would take a long time, just no quite this long! There are some valid reasons for the length of time -- the main one is the car was in a little rougher shape than it appeared body wise. No one knew it had been side-swiped at some point over the last 40 years and repaired... or rather patched. The driver's side door hinge post was off by 1/8", the latch side of the frame off about 1/4". Didn't know until the shop went to hang the quarter panel. Good cover-up on the patch job! 

But that really wasn't too big a deal, it's just that hobbyist in general don't do a lot of body work. I think most are like me -- they'd do their own, but wouldn't do it for someone else, especially for something that may get a lot of scrutiny like this car has (which was also expected)! It needed some work over the entire body. We had to seek professional shops willing to do the work for free, and that took a year just to find one! They took a long time, but did a lot of work at no cost -- I can't see a reason to complain when no one else wanted to tackle the project. It was offered a couple times while it was in the body shop. 

That's one reason Tom Benvie donated the car -- it needed more work than most individuals would want to do even though it was pretty much solid and intact. Most people would have parted it out, but with the effort spread out it could be saved -- no one group would get tired of continually working on it only to make minor progress. In the end it's taken as long to do as if an individual did have it in their shop working on it in their spare time. The sum of a lot of people's (rare!) "spare time" just doesn't speed the process up much! An individual would probably have given up on it long ago. When I committed to getting it done it was (is!) for the long haul. If it takes another 2-3 years to finish I'll see it through. Now don't get excited -- it shouldn't take much longer -- a year at the most!! We're on the final stretch after it gets painted, just the interior and trim needs to go on, and a few extras like the Trendsetter exhausts. 

---------------
Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:34:13 GMT
From: "Mr. AMC" <amc74hornet@xxxxxxxxx>

A lot of people open their mouth for a some sort of charity project and when it comes time to deliver they some excuse. Granted their are real legitimate excuses but some offers are just to get the peoples name/shops name in the lime light. Such as in my wife's church's, and my former car club. Sorry for the downer but I have been there more times than I care to remember. I have watched this project for years due to one thing or another I was unable to help and did not offer any kind of assistance I could not back up. My hat is off to you who has seen this project so far. 

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
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http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
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