Like Scotty G., I’m another lover of the oddball vehicles we see — and this clean 1967 Rambler American station wagon has to be one of the cleanest oddball survivors I’ve ever seen! It’s listed for sale here on eBay and is located in my birthplace of Rochester, New York. There is a buy it now of $7,000, but bidding is going on as well and is up to $5,700.
There is something beautifully simple about the clean styling of this generation of Rambler. We’re told that this is the original paint, and a little research led me to believe this is Sun Gold (I’ll bet some of our vocal AMC commenters can check me on that!). I also went to the terrific PlanetHoustonAMX site and looked up the VIN; the seller tells us correctly that the car has a three-speed transmission.
The interior looks completely original to me (again, feel free to correct, but I wasn’t able to find an original 1967 brochure showing this interior to prove the point) and regardless of anything is clean and at least original appearing! The car is listed as having only 12,000 miles, so I suppose the interior does look this good!
Not only does all this documentation come with the car, but you even get the original bill of sale! And in case you are wondering, this Kenosha cutie cost just under $2,400 out the door with taxes in April of 1967. The heavy-duty springs and shocks it was fitted with were an option costing $6.50, and the seat belts cost $9.45!
This is the original 199 cubic-inch, single barrel carburetor equipped inline six-cylinder engine, known for it’s reliability. Seriously, folks, imagine if this were a Ford or Chevy — we’d be well into five figure prices and no one would question it. Someone buy this beautiful car and let us know you did!
I was a service manager at a AMC dealer when this came out and this thing is for real. They were great cars for the money. Very good find.
Wow, have not seen one of these in ages! Plainer looking than the Hornet Sportabout that later replaced it, but much more practical with square-rigged styling and a real tailgate. Looks like this is pretty basic, manual everything, no reclining seats, even no armrests on the back doors! Good power and gas mileage though from the pre-emissions 199 six, and has the good ol’ vent windows and real underdash vents.
Aside from rust underneath, check the upper trunnions in the front suspension. From the factory “lifetime” rubber bushings were employed on the small ’64 through ’69 Ramblers, but I don’t think they considered the car’s lifetime to be over 50 years! (The larger models used greasable trunnions which last near forever if they’re kept lubed.) A quick visual indicator is if the front springs are bowed the trunnions are badly worn. They can be dealt with but are more work than changing ball joints and few mechanics know how at this late date. Strut rod bushings are another common trouble spot in the front suspension.
I traded my ’64 Rambler American rather than learn to replace the trunnions. I am sorry that I did that. I was young, strong, had a few tools… How hard could it have been?
Trunnions – I’ve seen them referred to as “Satan’s idea of ball joints.” I can understand not wanting to work on them. In an automotive world that had long since moved on to ball joints even back in the day, trunnions look intimidating as all h-e-double-hockey-sticks.
They are trickier and more complicated to deal with than ball joints for sure, but doable. Parts are available albeit expensive. Here’s a video on rebuilding the trunnion suspension on a Javelin, which I believe used the same “small car” setup as the Rambler American:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55Exi8v0LzQ
MG Midgets and Austin Sprites used trunnions from 1958 all the way to the end of production in 1979. One of the biggest PITA jobs to do on our cars, and necessary if you expect precise steering and road manners. Funny you mention the “small 64 to 69 Ramblers.” I owned a 70 Rebel station wagon which I presume was considered a large Rambler, and sold it after getting a huge estimate to rebuild the front end from Sears after only ten years on the road. They didn’t mention trunnions but acted like some of the parts were unobtainable.
Wow and I thought AMC was backwards keeping upper trunnions through 1969!
A 1970 Rebel would have had full ball-joint suspension and should not have been any more expensive than most other domestic US products to repair. You didn’t say when that was, but most parts are still available for them today.
Well, Sears must have wanted to put me on the path to something else and padded the estimate to scare me?. I was in college at the time, 1981. So broke unless my parents wanted to fork out the funds. Estimate was more than the car cost me. So I sold the Rebel for what I had in it and got the 73 Gremlin which I’ve written stories about in other threads.
Well, Well more scare tactic replies, I have the tools, know how and experiance.
paitence is all that is need, a willingness to use hand tools, aka ratchet wrench or plain open end wrench on the sprng compressors, the rest was very easy, until the complete units went out of manufacture.
I am 71 and have my fathers 67 American wagon and will soon be tackling the right trunion (again)
Les
Dad bought a new wagon in 1964 and we took camping trips in it. Mom got a 1966 little red wagon she drove for years. Good little cars !
I’m having trouble with the mileage claim. The paint is quite dull, the engine has been re-sprayed, no fuel or vacuum lines were ever painted from the factory.
The dash looks quite used and then look at the emergency brake handle and front seat wear/tears. The brake and clutch pedal pads look too new.
Still, the car is straight and clean and at $7k, still a relatively good buy. Hopefully there is more supporting documentation. The lines are clean on this car and still sharp looking so many years later.
As for the vehicle, I too wonder about the paint, however a survivor under a lean-to or carport would look that way also, as for milage, these things rust beyond a nightare, so it was stored more than run 4 sure, 112,000 miles possible, my fathers just turned 204,000, so there you are. Storage, engines and rodents are not good friends, repainting the engine is no sin, however I winder about the quality of that part of the paint, also that engine is notorious for rocker arm lube failure. My father found a solution and that is why we had 3 go over 200,000 and the one I have now is the last in the family
I had 2 1965 American wagons, one a “220” and one a “330” the only difference was the 330 had a chrome strip down the side. Both had the ohv 196 cu in, 3 on the tree, and overdrive.
This 67 is a nicer looking front end, with the headlight surrounds squared off. They are great cars, I think I had one of my 65’s doing 90mph once. With the overdrive it was possible, but it would easily run 70-75 comfortably, all day long. And get 25 mpg. Thanks for the memory
I had a ’64 American 330 flathead an 3 on the tree. I was on the highway and had a little race with a corvette on the highway. he sped up , I sped up. This went on for a while. We reached 95 mph, he gave a thumbs up waved and sped off.
Engine paint on the battery cable, fuel lines and overspray on bits around the manifold, and the scratches/wear on the tailgate tell me some mileage sorcery is going on here. Clean straight car, sure. But I’m thinking that odometer probably rolled once.
Put me down on the “oddball ” list too. I doubt the mileage claim as well, but it shouldn’t matter. Just to see this here is pretty rare. If it was retouched, it was clean to begin with. As many may know, I grew up in Milwaukee, and we had many Ramblers, a car like this was one of them.
In the early 70’s, my old man decided he wanted a toilet ( bomb shelter?) in the basement, so he knocked out the blocks in one area, and dug a 4×8 room in the dirt. The dirt was put in bushel baskets, and me and my brother dragged them upstairs, and loaded them in the American wagon. 6-7 bushel baskets had the rear end on the rubber blocks, we’d go about 2 miles, and dump the dirt in an empty lot. It turned out to be a bigger project than the old man realized, and I lost count of how many trips we made with that car, or up the stairs. Tough little car. Once they rusted, it was all over. Nobody saved them. Super find here.
This is one nice “oddball survivor”, hope it finds a good home. My grandfather had a 68 2 door sedan that my mother borrowed a lot when I was a kid. It was the exact same color with the same hubcaps.
@Jamie Palmer Born in Rochester huh? Sounds like you eventually escaped. I’m still wasting away in Buffalo and you and I both know that if anyone’s interested in this, they should be requesting undercarriage pics o’ plenty. Of what’s shown, it appears to be legit and probably IS clean like they say, but why not show it? Must not be an original NY car, or it was kept in a bubble.
I still can’t comprehend why guys posting cars on the internet don’t understand that you should show everything possible and more. Would THEY buy their car based on the lack of info and photos provided?
Yup! Parents chose NC to move to and I’ve never moved away. Still have relatives in Buffalo that I got to see last year and love very much! BTW, the bill of sale shows NY, so if it’s real it must have been a summer only car!
My wife lived in Africa growing up, and they had the same ’67, mechanically speaking, except in blue paint. When I asked her dad why they purchased a Rambler to drive overseas, he said “because I could parts for it easier than some of the others”.
They took it back to the states when their stint ended there and she drove it all through high school. What fun.
If a car can be said to be a metaphor for the state of technology as it applies to the Average Joe, things have gotten wayyyy too complicated.
Just compare this to a stripper Kia of 2019.
I may be alone in this but simpler is always better if not as comfortable. :)
This Rambler is both simple and comfortable enough. Just clean off the battery cables from the rattle can engine painting :)
Cute car. Love it.
Great price
Had a ’69 American wagon as a family car. Standard 9″ brakes very inadequate, and 199 engine is low on torque. Otherwise worked well until the front end went.
Hard to find any thing in the north east that looks this good!!
My parents bought a year old matador red 67 American 2 door post for my mother ( her only other car was a 58 American) She drove it for years until the early 2000s when she could no longer drive. The only thing I did to change the car was to add power steering to it as it was a bear to turn with the manual . It only had 78,000 miles when my dad sold it ; the guy that bought it told him he wanted to bring it to cruise nights, but he lied , he took the fenders , door panels and headliner out of the car for a SC Rambler he was restoring and junked it. My mother was heartbroken when she saw what happened to her car .
My parents bought a year old matador red 67 American 2 door post for my mother ( her only other car was a 58 American). The only options were an auto trans, AM radio and mag style hubcaps. She drove it for years until the early 2000s when she could no longer drive. The only thing I did to change the car was to add power steering to it as it was a bear to turn with the manual . It only had 78,000 miles when my dad sold it ; the guy that bought it told him he wanted to bring it to cruise nights, but he lied , he took the fenders , door panels and headliner out of the car for a SC Rambler he was restoring and junked it. My mother was heartbroken when she saw what happened to her car .