Classic car savvy members, please help!

[jbett98]

Here's some pics of my 1965 Rambler American hardtop. I got it from the original owner and restored it better then new.
The paint is original. The motor was balanced and it ran like a top. I installed front disc brakes and power steering.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Here's some pics of my 1965 Rambler American hardtop. I got it from the original owner and restored it better then new.
The paint is original. The motor was balanced and it ran like a top. I installed front disc brakes and power steering.


View attachment 473967


View attachment 473968


View attachment 473970 View attachment 473969

Man, that's sexy! See, Rambler was cool! Looks a lot like a 65 Chevy II, and A Plymouth Valiant, very competitive and relevant!

 

[Mikej]

AMC Matadore,

Oh good lord! I'd take a Vega or Pinto before THAT. Pinto made some that had an all steel English Ford motor in them. They were runners. Well, if you didn't get rear-ended and burned up.

Here's some pics of my 1965 Rambler American hardtop. I got it from the original owner and restored it better then new.
The paint is original. The motor was balanced and it ran like a top. I installed front disc brakes and power steering.


View attachment 473967


View attachment 473968


View attachment 473970 View attachment 473969

That ^^^ is a thing of beauty! The "Blurrs" weren't any uglier than anything else in the '60s though? Heck, back then at least all car makers tried to make cars that looked different from each other. Now days, phhtt!

 

[jbett98]

Rambler had some good ideas. One of them was a lever on the upper part of the dash that was called a "Weather Eye."
If you moved it to the left you would have heat blowing into the cabin.
If you moved it to the right, it would shuttle the heater cores hot air outside.
The idea was that if you were pulling a steep hill and started to over heat the engine on a hot day, you could turn up the air fan to full blast, select the hottest cabin temperature and then by shuttling the hot air from the heater outside you would have some extra cooling to the motor.
The Borg Warner automatic transmission had two fluid pumps so you could tow the car without worrying about lubricating the bearings and you could also start the car by rolling it downhill until you got ove 25 mph and then drop it into gear.
Plus, you could select the transmission to start in 1st or 2nd gear, depending on road conditions at the time.

I read a guys funny story about inheriting his Grandmothers Rambler American and no matter what he did, he just couldn't get the heat to blow into the cabin and he was using the car for collage in Wisconsin. The winters were brutal and he resorted to wearing insulated snowmobile coveralls to stay warm. He could feel the heat up under the dash, but nothing was coming into the cabin.
A year later some old timer helped him figure out that the cable wire had broken off the Weather Eye selector lever and it was stuck in the outside position.

 

[Jamie6.5]

And for all you youngsters out there that radio is only AM, long before FM was invented.

It had already been invented, it just wasn't used for entertainment radio for a few years.
It actually started being broadcast probably about the time that faceplate came on Ramblers.
But in those days FM wasn't available yet in cars.
I think that came along about 68 in high-end models.

But television was/is broadcast in FM and always was.

 

[Mikej]

Rambler had some good ideas. One of them was a lever on the upper part of the dash that was called a "Weather Eye."
If you moved it to the left you would have heat blowing into the cabin.
If you moved it to the right, it would shuttle the heater cores hot air outside.
The idea was that if you were pulling a steep hill and started to over heat the engine on a hot day, you could turn up the air fan to full blast, select the hottest cabin temperature and then by shuttling the hot air from the heater outside you would have some extra cooling to the motor.
The Borg Warner automatic transmission had two fluid pumps so you could tow the car without worrying about lubricating the bearings and you could also start the car by rolling it downhill until you got over25 mph and then drop it into gear.
Plus, you could select the transmission to start in 1st or 2nd gear, depending on road conditions at the time. The summit was 7100+ feet.

I read a guys funny story about inheriting his Grandmothers Rambler American and no matter what he did, he just couldn't get the heat to blow into the cabin and he was using the car for collage in Wisconsin. The winters were brutal and he resorted to wearing insulated snowmobile coveralls to stay warm. He could feel the heat up under the dash, but nothing was coming into the cabin.
A year later some old timer helped him figure out that the cable wire had broken off the Weather Eye selector lever and it was stuck in the outside position.

There was one, at least, BAD idea.....VACUUM WIPERS! Going up hill to Parleys summit on I 80 out of the Salt Lake Valley. A heavy wet snow storm with snow sticking pretty good. It was real hard to see through the windshield with the wipers barely wiping due to very little vacuum in the manifold.

 

[jbett98]

You could also buy a replacement uni-body in case you rolled your car. Most fasteners on these cars were a bolt, washer and nut.
And generally just three different sizes.
It made it a pleasure to work on them, unlike the hidden recessed welded in nuts that once they're stripped, your
out of luck.

 

[EPS]

View attachment 473774 What is this?

Well I knew it was from a RAMBLER .LOL it says so

 

[41mag]

Studebaker is another innovative car company of that era, and failed for the same reasons as AMC Rambler. They were too innovative.

amen! One of the best cars I ever owned was a 64 Study Lark...and Study pickups merit high praise IMHO....but then again I considered my 68 Citroen ID19 4 passenger sedan a great passenger car as well, for totally different reasons.

 

[Ura-Ki]

I used to have a 50 bullet nose Studebaker commander 2 door sedan hotrod. Man, they built a tough car, that sucker was built to last, talk about over built!

 

[Ura-Ki]

Oh good lord! I'd take a Vega or Pinto before THAT. Pinto made some that had an all steel English Ford motor in them. They were runners. Well, if you didn't get rear-ended and burned up.


Ford Pinto cost me 4 Cousins!
They were coming home from a high school football game and got rear ended! 4 of the five ( sisters) georgous young ladies in that Pinto burned to death, and the surviving sister needs 2 hours per day to put on her make up that dosnt hide the horrific 3rd deg. burns to her face and neck! Ford continues to pay all her medical expenses and sends a YUGE batch of flowers to the graves every year!





That ^^^ is a thing of beauty! The "Blurrs" weren't any uglier than anything else in the '60s though? Heck, back then at least all car makers tried to make cars that looked different from each other. Now days, phhtt!

 

[41mag]

"BAD idea.....VACUUM WIPERS!" yes it was a bad idea....and every auto I can recall prior to the mid-50s had some variation of vacuum. "Poor" is not good enough a word...perhaps "legal liability" would better hint at how poor they were.

My first Jeep (45 military model) actually had a little knob inside the windshield you had to move by hand to get any wiper action.

 

[jbett98]

The electric wipers from an MG Midget fit perfectly in a Willys Jeep.
You have to turn each one by itself unless you jerry rig a switch, but it's a great improvement then the old vacuum system that was run on cables and pulleys.

 

[WAYNO]

I remember well, Studebaker was a prime sponsor for the TV show, Mr. Ed...

 

[brokenarrow]

There was one, at least, BAD idea.....VACUUM WIPERS! Going up hill to Parleys summit on I 80 out of the Salt Lake Valley. A heavy wet snow storm with snow sticking pretty good. It was real hard to see through the windshield with the wipers barely wiping due to very little vacuum in the manifold.

But they made up for it going down hill when you took your foot off the gas!