One rough SC/Rambler

[LetsFNgo]

So I won’t go through the whole 25 page thread over on the AMC forum, but since this forum seems to like American Motors products I’ll show a little of the history of my SC/Rambler here.

I’ll start back in 2022. My 1970 Challenger is running and driving. It’s a great car. I love driving it, but I want a new project. Always being a fan of AMC, I decide that I was a RWB car, leaving me with either a Machine, TA Javelin, or a SC/Rambler. I had heard of a gentleman named Ralph who lived about 30 minutes away and had a “collection” of rough AMC cars. Getting his number I gave him a call. Sure enough he tells me he has about 40 different cars including several SC’s. My dad and I take a ride over to his place and he has 3 SC Ramblers. 1 very very rough parts car, 1 decent body but missing most of the SC specific parts, and 1 rough but mostly complete looking car with an incorrect 1968 343 4 barrel installed.

Looking over the last car I realize there are N50’s out back and that this car lived a rough life. Hindsight being 20/20 I should’ve walked away. But that’s not what I wanted. I now had my heart set on this car. What I ended up purchasing from Ralph was that SC, another 68 290 auto Rogue for parts, a 1969 complete 390, and a newer Patriot Performance STR-11 crossram because I knew it was going on that car.

Getting everything home that day I began to survey what I purchased. And what I purchased wasn’t great. On the way home the right side shock tower separated from the frame rail due to the amount of rot, nothing on the car was straight or pretty, and it was very clear that the mini-tub job done for the N50’s was done in a backyard and of questionable quality 50 years ago. And now was downright scary. But I still fell in love with the car, though I’d call it more of a love to hate it type or relationship.

The original plan was to do some type of Nostalgia SS style race car. However the amount of rot meant that I’d basically have to build another car to do that.

Then it got accepted into the Barn Find area at MCACN 2023, so a new plan was hatched. The block was as the machine shop and I was already building a 13:1 390 using BBC rods, Pontiac 455 pistons, the largest Mechanical flat tappet cam that Lunati makes, and ported 291C heads. Why not have this thing running and driving like a vintage pro-stocker while it looks like it currently does?

Unfortunately I had started stripping the interior of the car to start the bodywork. So over the course of months I reassembled most of what matters, and tackled the largest metal job that needed to be done… that right frame rail.

It was junk. So my dad and I, without fear or any idea of how to do it, chopped the right front frame rail out of the perfectly good 290 parts car and began mocking it up in the SC. There were some changes from 1968-1969, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome. Soon enough there’s a complete frame in the front.

Now back to the engine. Assembled in my garage and after all clearances are checked, it was installed not painted and ugly, along with the original T10, though there’s no vin on it the dates line up perfectly to the build date of the car.

Story will continue in next post…