So for those interested in a little background on myself and as H. Ross Perot's running mate once said in an ill-fated debate of VP candidates, "who am I and why am I here?" Well for starters, over the past 35 years, I have owned for personal use or to fix up and resell no less than 6 two seater AMXs, 4 or 5 Javelin and Javelin AMXs, 3 Machines, 2 SC/Ramblers and a myriad of other pieces and parts of AMC cars and parts. I once gave away a massive truck load of parts when I was moving out west and thought that I was out of the AMC hobby after 30 years. That lasted less than a year and I am now back in it again with a fairly substantial supply of mechanical and some body parts packed in my garage storage room

As for location, I currently hail from a nice smallish town outside of Phoenix surrounded primarily on two sides each by Phoenix and Scottsdale called Paradise Valley. I was transferred to the area 4 1/2 years ago from the Northeast by my former employer to run their Western US business but due to an unexpected restructuring and reorganization, my area of business was absorbed into another area and I was offered the opportunity to return to the Northeast or take a golden handshake. I opted for #2. By then I had met the wonderful (and adorable) person who is now my wife and after a couple of snow free winters and the opportunity to drive both my newer convertible and the older AMC cars there was no way I was heading back to the snow and rainy weather I had come from. In addition, the supply of rust free vintage cars out here is nearly unlimited so this is definitely my kind of place. I have worked for a couple of other companies in similar roles over the last couple 3 or 4 years and find that I am now in a position to be semi-retired resulting in having the time available to help Joie by moderating the forum.

My AMC experience? Well it started when I graduated high school back in 1971 while I was looking for a muscle car like a Chevelle SS 396, 389 tri-power GTO or even a big block 390 Mustang. I had driven them all and they felt like lumbering hulks to me but one day I stopped by a boat dealership that my father was visiting to tell him about the latest Chevelle SS 396 that I had found when he turned and pointed to this funny little green car (a 68 390 4 speed AMX) with a dented front fender and said why don't you buy that car. Truth be told, I actually chuckled and said why would I want to buy a Rambler, of all things, and he and the boat dealership owner simply smiled and replied that I should drive it first and then we'd talk. Well anyone who does or has owned and AMX knows that to drive one is to immediately fall in love with it. Although it was pure stock, it was far and away the best performing car I had taken out for a ride. 30 minutes later we agreed upon $1100 sale price, dented fender and all, and the car became mine two days later.

I owned that car for nearly 30 years including selling it twice and buying it back twice. Along the way, I first added headers, a Holley 750, Mallory dual point and a Hurst competition plus shifter along with spoked aluminum wheels and bigger tires and terrorized the locals with that car for a couple of years. After using the car as my daily driver for 3 years it was approaching 80,000 miles and the engine was showing signs of age so I bought another car and pulled my AMX off the road for its first major performance engine rebuild.

For performance parts, I picked the Torker intake, a hefty Crane Cam, lifters and valve springs kit with something like 302 duration and 510 lift, new Janz forged 10.2 compression pistons. At the machine shop I had the heads cc'd with a new multiangle competition valve job, the assembly fully balanced, the 4 speed tranny rebuilt with new bearings and seals (it needed it from all of those foot to the floor speed shifts), all new bearings, freeze plugs and gaskets, new oil pump with 8 quart pan and pickup, shot peaned the rods with new rod bolts, polished the crank and used a Zoom roller timing chain. I also had the rocker studs replaced with bigger ½ inch studs with 1.7 ratio rockers and it was all professionally assembled and ready to drop in the car. I also added new Zoom universal joints and heavy duty clutch, upgraded the carb to a Holley 850 double pumper. Amazingly, the engine work cost well over twice what I had paid for the car 3 years earlier.

The one thing I did not do was replace the 3:15 rear end gears which resulted in a lot of clutch wear but allowed the car to still be a decent freeway cruiser. After breaking in the engine for the requisite 200 miles, I decided to see how it would go and ran it up to about 4800 RMP in first and hammered second gear without pulling my foot off the accelerator. When it grabbed 25-30 feet of second gear rubber with both wheels at 45+ miles an hour, I knew right then and there that this motor was done right. For the next ten years, I terrorized any and all who were fool hardy enough to challenge my little "Nash" as my friends and I called it. Even with the 3:15 gears, the car would still hook up well and just take off while others were spinning their tires and making a lot of noise but not going anywhere. I regularly shifted at 6500 RPM and the "Nash" embarrassed the likes of W-30 Olds 442s, 440 six pack Super Bees, 428 Cobra Jets, 455 TA's and anyone else who was not aware of what a 420 HP motor will do in a 3100 lb car, (lower weight due to getting rid of a lot of cast iron parts and replacing them with aluminum or just removing things like the smog system). The other amazing thing about that car is that it would easily hit 140+ MPH although it would pop the side window seals and push the electric wipers straight up.

With the exception of selling the car twice for a total period of less than two years, I kept that car from 1971 through 2001 when I had to sell it due to a divorce and impending move out West. Steve Borah in Williston Vermont owns it now and loves the car. Prior to selling it I had disassembled it for another rebuild and had thousands of dollars in NOS parts but the divorce and a heavy work travel schedule prevented my from getting it back together. Steve bought it, loaded it on a flat bed with all the parts and within a year had it all back together as a gorgeous near stock car with the exception of the hypo motor.

Along the way in December of 1998, I also picked up my first SC/Rambler which was a very very clean and mostly original 43000 mile car. It has obviously been someone’s long term toy and had seen very little rain or snow but had been run hard over its life. Due to it being the Holiday time of the year and the fact that SC/Ramblers had not yet caught on, I was able to pick that car up for $5300 and drive it home from Fitchburg MA to my house in Hingham, MA. I distinctly remember how blazingly fast the car was with even a very modestly modified motor with just an R4B, holley 650 double pumper and headers. After rebuilding the engine with NOS pistons, the same head and valve treatment as my former AMX, balancing the motor and having all new bearings, rings, seals, etc installed as well as having the engine bay and trunk cleaned up and repainted, new stripe kit, new basket weave seat inserts and installing an original carb and pollution control setup with stock exhaust including the original Thrush mufflers, I sold it to a fellow in Florida in 2002. Since then he had the car stripped and repainted as well as continued to add odds and ends of authentic original parts.

As for my latest SC, I just picked that one up two weeks ago today outside of Kansas City. It is in great shape with a partial restoration and partial repaint done in 1991 just before it was put away in storage. Judging from the way the engine sounds, it was rebuilt at the same time with a fairly big cam and runs just OK. I believe the car was started on a regular schedule and currently has a lot of carbon on the pistons from being run but not drive for the past 15 years. It needs a new oil pan (it is badly dented in on the bottom), needs some minor interior work with the front door panel backings being warped. The one thing I haven’t yet figured out is why the timing is all over the place at idle but I am going to downgrade the cam anyway so I will figure it out when I make that change. My guess is that it is either a worn timing chain or the cam does not have a retainer on it and is walking more than it should, causing the timing gear on the end of the cam and the distributor gear to mesh inconsistently. It has a competition plus shifter currently in it but has the wrong arm on it for the SC so the shifter handle is too far forward. I have the original shifter for the car, the original carb (which I have already installed) and a full smog system setup with the exception of having a power steering pump bracket rather than the standard, non power bracket. I also had a NOS set of trim rings that I have already installed and the car looks great. Other than that, the car is pure stock although I may drop in a very recently rebuilt 390 that I currently have in my AMX. It dyno’d out at 460 HP and 453 lbft of torque and would be a hoot in a 3000 lb car like the SC. I will be taking pictures of the car later this week and will send them to Joie to post on my web page.

Well that’s about it for who I am. You can probably guess that my areas of expertise in AMC's are mostly mechanical, leaning more so on the high performance modification side. As moderator of the forum I will be fair to a fault but will not put up with any bashing, cheating, misrepresentations, or untruths. This is forum is a great way to build the AMC and SC/Rambler following and anyone or anything that reflects negatively on our small niche in the collector car enthusiast world will be stopped as soon as it occurs. We are finally getting some good and some positive recognition in the collector car world. Let’s all do our part to build upon that momentum rather than slow it down as has often been the case in the AMC world. These are unusual cars often owned by some, shall we say, somewhat unusual people. Now that the cars are becoming noteworthy and of high interest, we all need to do our part to build on that interest. I look forward to everyone’s help in making these cars as high a level of interest as some of the other less unique cars already out there from the Big 3.
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Regards,
Dan Curtis
d.curtis@cox.net
602 317 2018