Man,

That’s not a tribute, that’s an old pile. Find another one and do it right! Use George Poteet’s ‘68 Charger as inspiration.

Maybe by the time you get your Matador done, I’ll have my stock car vibe ‘73 Roadrunner done.

Jen,

I’ll keep an eye open for you. Actually I’ve seen quite a few clean Matador coupes show up on eBay over the years so there’s no reason to settle for a rust bucket. I have a friend in Arizona, a real AMC guy (I’ll see him this weekend at the big AMC show here in SoCal) and make sure he knows to keep an eye open for you. He owns the bad ass SC/Rambler that was featured three months ago in Musclecar Enthusiast; if anyone can find you a clean Matador coupe, Mark’s the guy.

You’ll be hard pressed to find one with a 401…much more likely to find one with a 304 or a 360, which is no big deal as the blocks are almost all the same except for bore and stroke and since you’ll have to build it anyway, don’t get hung up on a 401. Many AMC purists believe that the early 390 blocks are the best.

Rich Truesdell
Contributing Editor, CarDomain.com
Editorial Director, Automotive Traveler and Musclecar Enthusiast

You had better be IN LOVE with this car Jen…
.
That is a lot of rust to fix.
.
It is pretty cool.
.
The sad part is that there is so much rust, you’d
be repainting all the custom paint anyways…
.
So, you might as well start with a cleaner car, and
do it right, from scratch…
.
Just my .02
.
Stewart