This 1959 Rambler American wagon brings back lots of great memories. There was nothing exciting about these cars – they were more like a well made appliance. They were very dependable and seemed to run forever. This example appears to be a true barn find, having spent 27 years in a barn. It’s a camper model with fold flat seats and is said to have only 72k miles, which seems possible. It is completely original and rust free. The owner has already done some of the work to revive it including a new battery, new starter, new fuel pump, and new master cylinder. It sounds like it just needs brakes and a new gas tank to make it drivable and an interior to make it comfortable. I hope the new owner keeps this old Rambler as it is, perhaps not even doing any body work, and enjoys having a fun old car that’s reliable and easy to work on. Find it here on craigslist for $4,500 in Oroville, Washington.
May 17, 2015 • For Sale • 5 Comments
Camper Model: 1959 Rambler American
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sweet car – wrong coast
Well worth the effort to sort it mechanically, do the interior and spruce up the exterior and have a great round town errand driver!
Notice the only difference between this and the 1955 model is they inverted the tail lights and changed the grill.
These cars had the column shifter sticking out of a dash panel. That always seemed curious to me.
Camper model? All Rambler seats folded flat. I don’t ever remember hearing of a Camper Model. Our 54 Nash Ambassador seats folded flat, Our 64 4 dr Classic seats folded flat, I had two 65 American wagons, and those seats folded flat.. The Nash had factory magnetic screens that went up with the windows down so you could truly camp in it, but again it wasn’t labeled a Camper Model.
Regardless, nice looking car, finding one as solid as it says it is, is miraculous, as they were prone to rust quickly
In the 60’s our neighbors had a Rambler wagon that they camped in. We had a tent. They would tow their boat to the lake/campground, launch the boat, and set up the wagon as their camper. It had the window screens also. Those were some incredibly practical little cars.