11,545 customers brought home a Hornet Hatchback in 1977, and we’ve seen 94 AMC Hornets here on Barn Finds, going back to 2012. Not many of them have had a V8 engine and looked this nice. This is listed as a 1977 AMC Hornet Hatchback (with a 1974 grille?), 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.
In the early 70s a hot Hornet model w 4bbl 360, Hurst shift 4sp and lots of the goodies from the AMC factory parts bin were available to buyers. Always liked the lines on these cars.
You’re thinking of the ’71 Hornet SC/360. It was only made for the one model year and just 784 of them were produced.
That was the one Rick. Yessir 👍 🏁
This one has a LOT of aftermarket parts on it, like one of the owners had a Pep Boys employee discount or something. I’m not necessarily against modifications, especially cars from this era which were slow from the factory but had a lot of power to unleash. But so many people make bad modification choices that you have to be leery when you see this.
I would want to see this and drive to be sure they didn’t put the wrong cam in it or a torque converter with an inappropriate stall speed or something like that. You can actually make a car slower and much more miserable to drive with bad modifications.
Looks a little like a JC Whitney Special, too bad because these didn’t need all the doodads. They’re nice-looking rigs. I’m also thinking this is a ’74 not a ’77. And those wheels? Looks Mopar to me.
Growing up with Amc’s, I can tell you those are factory amc rims, and look great. Btw, I’m contemplating an offer…..
Thanks for the info, Jim! I hope you can get it; it really does look like a nice example, and that engine looks beautiful. I just wish we could see more of it.
You are correct Jim about the rims. I know those rims were available on the 71 thru 74 Javelin and Javelin AMX. I had them on my 72 Javelin AMX that I had from 72 thru 1979. Sure wish we had better pictures to view.
Something’s off with the grille, you’re right about that. The wheels kinda/sorta look Mopar, yet they also seem like factory AMC.
Bottom line is the car needs close inspection before making any decision.
When I looked at 1st photo I thought the car was Wild Plum,the color of my 72′ Gremlin X.
cool looking amc. not a fan of the mods done to it, but they can be reversed. those tires are at least 45yrs old but the give it a good stance. little too price for me.
I don’t know about that price, but I had one (6 cyl) and it was a great little car. Working back east at the time (circa mid 90’s), it was a freezing cold icy day and I went out to get something out of the hatchback. Of course the gas pistons were inop. in the cold so when I closed the hatch, it came down too hard and that big back window exploded into the car. :-) Terry J
One of my favorite 70s cars. Is this better modified? Maybe. The proof is in the pudding so they say.
I’m always amazed at how bad we are as photographers. How simple is it to take some 3/4 views of the car, a shot of both sides of the motor, one from the open drivers door and the instruments with the car running? That’s it. Provide some details if it affects the value. Of course the underside if it’s old. Not much more to it. But, you know, people still chop off the heads of their subjects, too.
Enough not quite right about the car to result in a buying price that should be not even close to the asking price. Brown color is horrid. When I went AMC car shopping in Norfolk, VA in 1978 I wanted a new AMX, only to be told that they had stopped making them. So they showed me the AMC Concord hatchback which resembles this Hornet, but it was sort a butterscotch yellow. I thought the car looked too sporty back then, so I stupidly ordered their 2dr Concord sedan instead. Engine went out after 14 yrs and 135,000 miles. Not much rust on the car at all.
Only 39,000 miles and the engine had to be rebuilt?
Seats have been reupholstered and they don’t match the color of the rest of the interior.
I’m guessing there should be a 1 in front of that 39.
I use to own this car original 6 cyl.. over hundred thousand miles. A friend recovered the seats
I paid $250 for one of these when it was fairly new, from a family member. Mine was blue with a 6cyl. engine. It served its purpose, was dependable, but it had no personality. I owned it for a short time.
Them spark plug wires would have to go . They look like some poor animal got hit out on the highway ……
Well 1977 was almost 50 years ago. Cars will deteriorate whether they are driven or not, in fact sometimes faster if not driven. Cylinder walls and valves can rust, seals and gaskets harden, interior goes to heck. I once bought a super nice 60’s Willys pickup 4×4 from a grandpa that had driven it very little. It ran nice but that truck leaked oil from every gasket and seal. Engine, tranny,transfer case,front and rear ends.I got tired of working on it. :-) Terry J
If this were a no reserve auction, I would be very surprised if it made it much over 5K.
$5,000 is the price I had in mind when I posted my comment earlier.
Hornets were always plain Jane looking cars. But the hatchbacks were sportier. AMC would design some really nice-looking cars and then come out with some strange looking ones. I thought the company lacked consistency when it came to good design.