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You never know what the day is going to bring. Yesterday I drove down to Springdale , AR for my job. Well this morning around 10:00 I needed a part for the equipment I was working on, and without it I could go no farther, so I was done for day with nothing to do. This happens to me occasionally, and with it does, I look in the phonebook for any junk yards or classis car dears.
Well I stopped at a dealer that happened to have a sharp 77 Hornet with the AMX package on it. Well we got to talking about his cars and things, when a friend of his stopped in. Well to make a long story short, he told me about a old guy about 60 miles south of were I was that has about 20 AMC in the weeds. I drove to the place, a little off of the beaten path, and sure another there it was. The old guy who owned them was a nice real guy; he had 2 – 74 Gremlin X’s both 6 cyl / one auto and one stick. 6 – Javelins per 71 body style, 2 – 68 AMX one complete with a 343 – 4 speed. 11 - 68 thru 71 Ambassador 2 door Hardtops. 2 – 4 door / 2 station wagon. Most were complete and rust free. Then I spotted the car of my desire, a 70 Rebel
Machine, it is missing the motor and transmission, but the body is solid and complete. Most of these cars have been sitting for at lest 15 to 20 years (the Machine hasn’t moved since 1983). The good news is he isn’t planning on crushing any of them, he told me that he crushed 30 AMC about 10 years back. The bad news is that he doesn’t want to sell anything, because his 37 year old son wants to restore them. I asked him how many of them has he done so far, and was told that he hasn’t touched any of them and doesn’t even have a place to work on them. I told him that if he sold me the Machine, I would have it in a garage within a week and tried to have it on the road again within a few years, but he said it was up to his son.
It makes me sick, knowing that these cars are sitting out there rotting away, to me, this is just as bad as crushing them. I just don’t understand why people can let this happen, when they know that they either don’t have the time, money or talent restore these cars.
I did take pics of these cars and will post them when I get home on Friday. He also has 2 sheds full of AMC parts, - engines (401 thru the old 327), and transmissions including 4-speeds, body parts and trim pieces. I did talk him out of a roof wind deflector of my Gremlin for $10.00, he had a complete roof rack for a Gremlin but wouldn’t sell it. I did leave him my contact info, and asked him to have a sincere tall with his son about the cars, and to please consider seller me the Machine. I bet I never hear from them again, and in 10 years if I stop back, everything is in the exact same place as it was today.
Ed
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