So…….. My current focus will be on my 1969 AMC Rambler 4-door. It is the base model with dog-dish hub-caps, and not so much as a cigarette lighter. I bought it back in September of 2007 from an 18 year old kid for $900. It had current tags(with original black plates), and in fair mechanical condition. It was covered in heavy metal stickers, and had an 8 ball on the cloumn shifter. But the car was pretty straight, and original. It still had it’s original AM radio(working), and hadn’t been altered or cut up. The funny part was when I saw the pics on the internet it looked like a shiny red paint job. But when I showed up it was a dull red primer. He just wet it down with garden hose to make it shine in the pictures. So I drove it, crawled around, under, and over it. I got him down from his original asking price of $1,400, and drove off into the sunset. I had always been a MOPAR guy, and had just started reading old articles and became interested in all the 60’s American compacts….. besides the Valiants and Darts, I started looking at Nova II’s, Corvairs, Falcons, Comets, Larks, and Ramblers. Upon further investigation, i decided to go with one of the independents. I found a 1961 Studebaker Lark for $600 and went to check it out. It was worn and faded, but equally so all the way through. It was complete and had been sitting, but the owners son had freshened it up and it started with one twist of the key and purred like a kitten. It was the flat-head six, and flat heads just have such a cool sound. It had a ton of records, some spares, and original owner documentation. I was really excited as I checked around the car. But sadly, upon inspecting the under-carriage, it was riddled with rust. And it was pretty severe, so I passed on that one. Maybe a week later I stumbled on to the Rambler that is now parked in the drive-way. I was happy with the purchase and went immediately to my favorite garage in the whole world…… JT Automotive in Azusa, CA. I had them give it a once over and make a list of to do’s, had the oil changed, radiator flushed, and the driver door(which I had to hold closed while driving) fixed. I got it home and started doing furhter checks of the mechanicals, and found it to be in really good shape. One highly annoying factor was that the kid had put one of those noise maker mufflers like you see on the little tuner cars. But it was a drivable car for sure. The kid had done a fair amount of body prep to the car and had it in the, previously mentioned, red primer. Although he had failed to fix a lot of the little door dings, etc. I had decided I was going to paint the car white. So I set out sanding, filling, sanding, filling,sanding, and more sanding. Then I primed it white and sanded, then I sanded agian, followed by more sanding. Around this time I got my hands on the now famed Hot Rod magazine Body And Paint special winter 2007 editon. And read the article about painting your car with a roller, using Rustoleum acryllic enamel paint. I became fascinated and read all the related forums on the net, and was really pleased with the results people were getting. So I’ve decided thats the road I’m taking. Now I still have some more sanding, and priming touch ups to do, but I hope to start that process soon. Well, this is a good place to conclude my first entry. Next time I will be addressing the saga of the exhaust manifold. The bane of my existence. I will give a detailed how to regarding the issues I faced with that. And hopefully have an update on the paint and body progress. Thanks!
