11,545 customers brought home a Hornet Hatchback in 1977, and we’ve seen 94 AMC Hornets here on Barn Finds, going back to August 21, 2012. Not many of them have had a V8 engine and looked this nice at the same time. This is a 1977 AMC Hornet Hatchback, and the seller has it posted here on eBay in Wooster, Ohio. They’re asking $13,500, so they must also know how nice it looks.
Unfortunately, “nice” isn’t a word that applies to the photos after the first one. These are some of the worst photos in eBay history, sadly. For maybe the nicest AMC Hornet to be saddled with these horrible, dark, cutoff, glaring photos is a crying shame. I almost didn’t do this one just for that reason, but the car looks so nice despite the horrible photos that I thought it was worth it.
There is no photo showing the back of the car. This is as close as it gets, and the seller didn’t bother to move it around so THE WHOLE CAR could be shown in the sun. Nope, that’s too much to ask. I don’t mean to be so hard on them, but man, this isn’t a $2,500 rusty Hornet; it’s an absolute jewel, and it deserves better than this presentation. Who’s with me?! (crickets) Enough of that, back to this Mocha Brown Metallic Hornet hatchback. I’m not sure what the wheels are from; they don’t show up in any AMC brochures that I saw for this era, but they’re very familiar.
This car has been customized a bit here and there. You can see the replacement steering wheel, and there’s no word on whether the original wheel comes with the sale or not. I don’t see this seat pattern in AMC brochures for 1977, but there’s no word on them having been reupholstered, and they do look perfect. Or what we can see of them. Here’s the back seat photo, or what there is for a back seat photo. This is the only photo showing the rear cargo area. Seriously, open the hatch and take a photo from outside! Who’s with me?! (crickets, again)
On a good note, there is an engine photo. On a bad note, this is it. It looks so incredibly nice, how can there not be a better photo of this beautiful, rebuilt 304-cu.in. OHV V8?! Who’s with me?! (enough of that) This one should have 121 horsepower and 219 lb-ft of torque, or it would have had that from the factory. The seller says the “Engine was all rebuilt 4 years ago and painted up real nice. Mild cam headers dual exhaust intake carb distributor ignition set up etc.” It’s backed by a TorqueFlite three-speed automatic sending power to the rear wheels, and they say it runs, drives, and stops as it should, and it has 39,000 miles listed on the title and shows that on the odometer. Any thoughts on this brown Hornet?
The photos look like they were framed to obscure that it has an aftermarket floor shifter. Is there a radio? I’d want to see it in person before making an offer, rust prone cars without good pictures is a bad combination to buy sight unseen.
Steve R
I think a lot of folks are with you Scotty. I’m thinking there a thumb smudge on the camera lens and we just didn’t give a hoot. As for the car. This is one of the nicest ones. I’m thinking the seats may have been redone. The dark brown is not matching any of the browns on the door cards etc. But I’m not an expert and could be wrong. I agree with Steve R about that shifter, it looks aftermarket. This looks like a nice one for sure.