By Mike Bumbeck

Clunkbucket

There are those who restore a car exactly as it came off the assembly line. Strategically placed paint inspection daubs and chalk marks are meticulously applied. The original-style hose clamps, painted only with the correct value and hue of semi-gloss or flat black paint, are located precisely on correctly date-coded radiator and heater hoses. The body-color paint under the hood has drip runs and sags that directly correspond to the degree of hangover the original painter had that Monday in 1971 when he was spraying the lacquer into the engine bay. On the other side of this equation are the people who simply don’t care. More of the Dodge Dart Charger Sport Swinger over at mighty Clunkbucket.

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Of course I’m going to highlight any 1979 AMC Spirit that comes through the Hemmings.com classifieds, especially a 1979 Spirit sedan such as this one. The sedan was by far less popular than the hatchback, which makes it more unusual today, but it does serve as a very visual link between the Gremlin and the Spirit hatchback, which are almost exactly the same under the skin. This one in particular looks like the one that sold out of the Steve Green collection last year for $9,000. From the seller’s description:

1979 AMC Spirit two door sedan – Only 10,556 miles on most probably the nicest ‘79 Spirit in existence today!! Equipped with the Inline 6 cylinder motor – RARE 4 Speed Manual Transmission – AM/FM Radio – Rear Air Deflector – Luggage Rack – Styled Steel Wheels – Light Khaki in color with matching cloth interior.

See more pics at Hemmings

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

It’s become standard practice to pick up holiday gifties for the pets, but has automotive gift-giving caught on yet? My Eagle pretty much broke the bank this year: it got a full front and rear differential rebuild at Randy’s Ring and Pinion, with both pumpkins re-geared to 3.08 for a slightly better launch than its stock 2.73′s. Not exactly a planned purchase–but when I found that the front diff was ready to come apart after 175,000 hard miles, I decided I might as well go the whole hog and do the gear swap front and rear. I was lucky enough to have boyfriend, mom, and sister pitch in to help defray the colossal expense, though still, I kinda feel the Eagle is set for about the next ten Christmases or so.

How about you? Did your ride get any presents this year?

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

No one ever brings AMC’s to SEMA–even the guy who runs Kennedy American AMC parts says he’s only ever seen one in his 14 consecutive SEMAs, and it was an AMX. So I just about lost it when I saw this ’73 Gremlin X sitting in the PRAUTOGY booth. The humble Grem is serving as a demo vehicle for PRAUTOGY’s new Halo application, a curious piece of gizmology that allows you to operate your vehicle’s electronics–including, in this case, power hood, rear hatch, and doors–from your iPhone. (Because, you know, somehow popping a hatch or pulling a hood release just isn’t cool anymore unless you can do it using a Mac product–kids these days!) In any case, apart from the electronics, air-bagged suspension, and suicide doors, the Gremlin was basically stock-looking, nice and refined. It was running a freshly-rebuilt 258 straight six and had even been repainted the same Golem-clay color it came with from the factory, along with the correct hockey stripes. Love it! See pics and video below the jump.

Continue reading "Oh My God, A Gremlin! At SEMA!" »

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

So we know the Hungerford Rocket Car still exists, and just this week, we got a call alerting us to the fact that the AMC AMVan (a concept vehicle highlighted in Pat Foster’s article in the September 2009 issue of Hemmings Classic Car on AMC’s Concept 80 cars) still exists. Joe Bortz, he of concept car collecting fame, said he got the AM Van from Chrysler when the company was going through AMC’s inventory shortly after the buyout in 1987. He notes that it’s just a fiberglass styling buck, not a functioning vehicle – so the wheels don’t turn, nor do the doors open. And, as you can see, AMC decided not to go with the bubble window for the cargo hatch, opting instead for full glass.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Oh my god: I need a woodgrain Concord wagon with a built 5.0. I’ve been cruising around thinking my 75-dollar sedan is pretty sweet, but I’ll be the first to admit that it doesn’t hold a candle to this monster. Bravo to Frank on an ultra-clean build–the attention to detail is amazing. See more at his ride page!

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

With all the photo shoots, shows and general running about this summer, I’ve hardly made any progress on Project HMX. In fact, looking back over my blog posts on the project, I see now that I’ve spent all summer trying to get the AMX rear suspension and rear axle ready to swap in place of the Spirit GT suspension and axle under there now. One last thing I wanted to do before that swap, though, was rebuild the AMX rear brakes. Continue reading at Hemmings

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

I spent my weekend covering several venues all over Southern California, putting at least 300 miles on my Corvair for Saturday, and at least a couple of hundred miles in a Pontiac Solstice on Sunday.

The alarm rang at 5:15 AM Saturday morning, and I wanted to be out the door by 6 AM so that I could grab a parking spot at Cars and Coffee just about an hour away. I decided to take the Corvair simply because I love driving it so much and after spending time the previous week in a half dozen rental cars, including a six-cylinder Camaro, and on too many airplanes, I thought rolling down the windows for the early morning drive would be invigorating and clear the cob webs out of my brain.

Continue reading "What Did You Do This Weekend?" »

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Welcome to another installment of the CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot, a regular feature which aims to expand the definition of what a muscle car is, and to get readers to exclaim “WTF” in the process. American Motors was once again in the middle of a financial meltdown, desperately trying to find the right product, while at the same time cutting development costs to stay afloat. One way of bringing in the showroom traffic the dealers so desperately needed was to offer a performance model built from an existing model. However, by the late 70′s, most of these performance models were merely tape stripe and wheel additions, and without any real enhancements to the engine, or the handling. AMC did manage to offer a pretty good V8 option for the Hornet, and the hatchback two-door Hornet body style was only three years old, and still looked sharp. But because of AMC’s financial situation, there were actually based on three different models. Let’s take a look at the 1977 through 1979 AMC AMX.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot – The 1977 – 79 AMX by American Motors" »

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

It’s a little-known fact that George Barris tried to capitalize on the two-seater AMX’s like-no-other-car look by offering mildly customized versions of the AMC sports car. That effort apparently went nowhere, but Barris did enjoy quite a bit more publicity with another AMX customization, what AMCers now refer to as the Banacek AMX or the AMX-400.

Built for one episode of the early 1970s TV detective show Banacek, in which the title character investigates the disappearance of Project Phoenix, a prototype automobile, Barris not only chopped the roof of the 390-powered 1969 AMX by four and a half inches, but also lengthened the schnoz 15 inches and added a louvered grille and matching rear strakes.

We mention all this because the Banacek AMX will head to Mecum’s St. Charles, Illinois, auction early next month, crossing the block on October 3. No pre-auction estimate is listed. See more pics at Hemmings