Oh yeah! My wife and I had one of these when we were just married. Ours was a Tan 2-door sedan with a matching Tan interior. I traded a gas guzzling '73 Ford LTD for it in '81. My wife may not have been that impressed by that car, but I sure was! We had simplicity, durability, and 33+ MPG. to boot! You could fix just about anything on this car with what you had available to you. The only beef I had with the car was the vaccuum wipers--which really sucked--especially in Winter. We drove the car over 2 years before sell- ing it after I went into the hospital after suffering a heart attack. After that, none of the cars I bought never quite measured up to that wonderful old Rambler. And I doubt it never will.
i was just thinking about ramblers on the blog the other day. it seems like in the first year or so of the blog (according to my memory), early finned ramblers were a relatively common find, but then they kind of petered out, and everything has been the boxier shapes from middling '60s or later.
i'm hungry to find another finned rambler, and so when this post notifcation came across my inbox, i was excited and hopeful.
and then i was really surprised in a way i wasn't expecting -- a generation of rambler that i didn't know existed! look at the lines on that trunk and those little round blinkers and that bubble-curved rear window.
divine.
i know this is an almost sacrilegious comparison, but the slightly angry front hood over the quad rounds reminds me of a lancia fulvia.
Tony, Rambler had that so-called "angry" look in '61 too. They looked even more so with their canted shark fins and that snarling grille. The only car to escape this treatment was the V-8 powered Ambassador which had a shovel nosed appearance to it. The car seemed to be smiling and sneering at you at the same time. The mechanics of these cars were pretty much the same as the '57 model that started this styling cycle. I know this because I had to use parts from many different-year Ramblers just to keep mine on the road. The hardest item to find was a gas tank. Mine sprung a leak right along the seam that held the tank together. Our local welding shop owner tried to fix it but with no success. While I looked for a tank, I tried just about everything to repair the existing one. My Dad finally came up with a quick fix using a bar of soap! After you cleaned the seam area of all the dirt and grime, you simply rubbed the soap along the leaking area as needed. For some reason, gasoline would not eat through soap as it does with other substances. He also told me not to fill the tank completely so that the gas inside the tank wouldn't put undue pressure on the seam. My FIL and I finally replaced the leaking tank with a '61 unit. Since the filler neck was shorter on my car, we fabricated an extension piece using a water inlet hose from a washing machine. The hose is pressure treated rubber and therefore worked quite well. We mounted it on the car using heavy gauge steel strapping. As for the tail of this car, it was an afterthought. Like Chrysler, AMC was caught flat-footed when fins went out of fashion so they concocted the setup that you see here. Thanks for those great memories Tony, hope that helped!
Oh no, these cars came in a host of different colors. The color on this car was the most popular of the lot. My all time favorite color for these cars was Bronze metallic with a Cream top and insert stripe. The father of a longtime friend of mine owned such a car, and man was it beautiful! His was an Ambassador 4-door HT that was nicely optioned with a 327 V-8, power steering and brakes, and factory A/C. I believe that it may have had a padded dash and a twin speaker radio too. As for mine, it was a low level custom model with a 195 CID 6-cylinder and a pushbutton automatic tranny. As I said before, it was in fair condition when I got it. I serviced it regularly, and kept it as stock as possible. I sold it to a friend of mine to help pay my medical bills. And there isn't a day that goes by that I wish I had it back.
Yes, my good friend had a bronze '61. We were driving toward this creaky, narrow bridge with two-way traffic and he pulled over and declared that he had a phobia about driving over and asked if I would take over. I was only 15 and had never driven! Still, I white-knuckled it over the expanse--luckily, its compact size made the oncoming traffic less intimidating. So I'll always remember that Rambler.
My love for these cars goes back to the days when I was about 7 years old or so. My Mom bought a '52 or '53 Nash Statesman 4-door sedan in 1961 for $50.00. That was a small fortune for a single mom with 2 small kids. And that old Nash certainly did not disappoint! It ran very well while getting 35 MPG. To a small boy, that meant a lot of trips to Grandma's house or Uncle Claude's farm. After a fun-filled day, my Sister and I took full advantage of the Nash's sleeping accomodations--by curling up on the reclining passenger's seat and the car's comfy rear seat too. Over the years, my Mom and Stepdad would buy several more AMC's before choosing to buy only GM products. Even today, when I see one, I close my eyes and picture that old Blue Nash.
Best of OPC. 
9 comments:
Oh yeah! My wife and I had one of
these when we were just married. Ours
was a Tan 2-door sedan with a matching Tan interior. I traded a gas
guzzling '73 Ford LTD for it in '81. My
wife may not have been that impressed
by that car, but I sure was! We had
simplicity, durability, and 33+ MPG. to
boot! You could fix just about anything
on this car with what you had available
to you. The only beef I had with the
car was the vaccuum wipers--which really sucked--especially in Winter. We
drove the car over 2 years before sell-
ing it after I went into the hospital after
suffering a heart attack. After that, none
of the cars I bought never quite measured up to that wonderful old
Rambler. And I doubt it never will.
i was just thinking about ramblers on the blog the other day. it seems like in the first year or so of the blog (according to my memory), early finned ramblers were a relatively common find, but then they kind of petered out, and everything has been the boxier shapes from middling '60s or later.
i'm hungry to find another finned rambler, and so when this post notifcation came across my inbox, i was excited and hopeful.
and then i was really surprised in a way i wasn't expecting -- a generation of rambler that i didn't know existed! look at the lines on that trunk and those little round blinkers and that bubble-curved rear window.
divine.
i know this is an almost sacrilegious comparison, but the slightly angry front hood over the quad rounds reminds me of a lancia fulvia.
Tony, Rambler had that so-called "angry" look in '61 too. They looked even more so with
their canted shark fins and that snarling grille. The only car to escape this treatment was the
V-8 powered Ambassador which had a shovel nosed appearance to it. The car seemed to be
smiling and sneering at you at the same time. The mechanics of these cars were pretty much
the same as the '57 model that started this styling cycle. I know this because I had to use
parts from many different-year Ramblers just to keep mine on the road. The hardest item to
find was a gas tank. Mine sprung a leak right along the seam that held the tank together. Our
local welding shop owner tried to fix it but with no success. While I looked for a tank, I tried
just about everything to repair the existing one. My Dad finally came up with a quick fix using
a bar of soap! After you cleaned the seam area of all the dirt and grime, you simply rubbed
the soap along the leaking area as needed. For some reason, gasoline would not eat through
soap as it does with other substances. He also told me not to fill the tank completely so that
the gas inside the tank wouldn't put undue pressure on the seam. My FIL and I finally replaced
the leaking tank with a '61 unit. Since the filler neck was shorter on my car, we fabricated an
extension piece using a water inlet hose from a washing machine. The hose is pressure treated
rubber and therefore worked quite well. We mounted it on the car using heavy gauge steel
strapping. As for the tail of this car, it was an afterthought. Like Chrysler, AMC was caught
flat-footed when fins went out of fashion so they concocted the setup that you see here.
Thanks for those great memories Tony, hope that helped!
Was this the only color these Ramblers came in? Evreryone I've ever seen (going back to the 60's and 70's) was always this color!
I really enjoy your stories/memories, Cap'n! And thanks for the heads-up on this 'un!
Oh no, these cars came in a host of different colors. The color on this car was the
most popular of the lot. My all time favorite color for these cars was Bronze metallic
with a Cream top and insert stripe. The father of a longtime friend of mine owned such
a car, and man was it beautiful! His was an Ambassador 4-door HT that was nicely
optioned with a 327 V-8, power steering and brakes, and factory A/C. I believe that it
may have had a padded dash and a twin speaker radio too. As for mine, it was a low
level custom model with a 195 CID 6-cylinder and a pushbutton automatic tranny. As
I said before, it was in fair condition when I got it. I serviced it regularly, and kept it
as stock as possible. I sold it to a friend of mine to help pay my medical bills. And
there isn't a day that goes by that I wish I had it back.
Yes, my good friend had a bronze '61. We were driving toward this creaky, narrow bridge with two-way traffic and he pulled over and declared that he had a phobia about driving over and asked if I would take over. I was only 15 and had never driven! Still, I white-knuckled it over the expanse--luckily, its compact size made the oncoming traffic less intimidating. So I'll always remember that Rambler.
My love for these cars goes back to the days when I was about 7 years old or so. My Mom
bought a '52 or '53 Nash Statesman 4-door sedan in 1961 for $50.00. That was a small fortune
for a single mom with 2 small kids. And that old Nash certainly did not disappoint! It ran very
well while getting 35 MPG. To a small boy, that meant a lot of trips to Grandma's house or
Uncle Claude's farm. After a fun-filled day, my Sister and I took full advantage of the Nash's
sleeping accomodations--by curling up on the reclining passenger's seat and the car's comfy
rear seat too. Over the years, my Mom and Stepdad would buy several more AMC's before
choosing to buy only GM products. Even today, when I see one, I close my eyes and picture
that old Blue Nash.
Hey that's my dad's car
Hey that's my dad's car
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