Launched in 1958, the Rambler American was a reworked version of the Nash Rambler, which had been developed by one of American Motors’ predecessors. The market was ripe for smaller cars in the late 1950s, and AMC and Studebaker (Lark) beat the “Big 3” to the punch by 1-2 years. The seller has a 1960 American 4-door sedan, which doesn’t look like a $500 parts car. But that’s how the seller has positioned it here on Facebook Marketplace, as it does not run. And it has a Continental kit on the back, kind of rare for a car this size back in the day. The little Rambler can be found in a garage in Le Mars, Iowa. Thanks for the tip, “NW Iowa Kevin”!
The debut of the American gave AMC a nice shot in the arm, and it would help the company move into third place in sales among U.S. makes. But that changed as the 1960s developed because of competition from the Ford Falcon, Chevy Corvair, Plymouth Valiant, and eventually more. The American was in production for 12 years (through 1969) and was the last of the company’s cars to include “Rambler” in the name of one of their vehicles.
These cars were quite thrifty on gas (even though it was only about 25 cents per gallon back in those days). A 195 cubic inch inline-6 took care of the arduous work, though the one in the seller’s car looks to have had quite a few of its parts diverted elsewhere. We assume a “3-on-the-tree” manual transmission is in place, though an optional automatic was offered. The seller rates the quality of this car as “fair,” though the body seems okay.
There are no photos of the interior, so we don’t know if it’s good, bad, or otherwise. This is a 4-door sedan, a body style not added until 1960 when this vehicle was assembled. The two major downsides of this American are that it does not run, and there is no title. But for $500, you can’t expect much more. If you’ve got another 1st generation American you’re working on, maybe this sedan could help.
“Goober takes a car apart” ( a 2 door) aired 1/11/65 on the Andy Griffith Show. It was one of the 1st times we actually saw Andy pixxed off. It was rumored, that was right when Barney left the show, and he was upset.
“Thrifty” is an understatement, as the American was the mileage champ in the Mobil Economy Runs of the early 60s. This car averaged 28.5 mpg, and while that doesn’t sound like much, remember, many cars were getting single digits, and gas economy was on the front burner. I think the only other car to achieve that was the Valiant. I seem to remember quite a few with these Continental kits, I read heavily promoted by Rambler. I can’t find the cost, but it did give more trunk space, and really doesn’t look that bad, a pre-5 mph bumper if you will. These cars are appealing for their retro styling, but I think they have to be more user friendly for the future. Great find.
Now this is worth recommissioning.
Let’s not forget the Scotsmans by Studebakers for fuel economy records
First car I ever owned was a ’59 Rambler American wagon. My summer job that year was delivering phone books..big phone books..HEAVY phone books..and I filled the whole back area with them. Needless to say, I burned the clutch up. “No problem, I’ll fix it myself” I said to myself. Borrowing my neighbor’s garage and a Motor manual (my neighbor had a whole library of them) I found out soon enough the car has an enclosed drive line. No u-joints to undo (why be easy?), I had to loosen the rear end and back the whole thing up to get the drive shaft out of the transmission. Still not a big deal I thought, except the u-bolts were fastened with constant torque nuts. It took me about three hours of constant pulling and sweating on a hot summer afternoon to remove those things. Fortunately, once I got the rear end loose and back, the rest of the job wasn’t bad. This was my intro to fixing cars. That car was also the first car I had a fender bender in..it bent the fender, the hood, the other fender, bumper..oh hell the whole front end. Anyway I donated the car to the local wrecking yard. A few years later I bought another American, a ’58 2-door, and it ran great except it always tended to stall in the morning if the temp was below 50f until the engine warmed up. Its carburetor would ice up and I could never find the problem. It was the only issue I ever had with that car.
If you had an enclosed driveline (torque tube) it wasn’t a Rambler American, most likely it was a “Rambler Six”, a larger model that became the Rambler Classic in 1961.
However these old Americans did have the “big nut” rear axle and driveshaft inherited from the original Nash Rambler, and those can be a pain to work on.
I was home doing an emergency plumbing repair and happened to look out the garage window to see a pickup truck sliding across my yard and my next door neighbor chasing the truck with a shotgun. I ran outside and she yelled stop that guy! I ran across my back yard and caught the truck on the street behind me and pulled the coil wire. I ran back to talk to my neighbor to see what was going on. Meanwhile the two kids were yelling and swearing at me. It seems they had a job delivering PHONE BOOKS and decided to see how fast they could deliver them. One would drive and the other toss the phone books out of the truck. We’ll, they tossed one through my neighbors plate glass picture window while she was vacuuming right there in the living room! Needless to say she was a little hostile. And I had lots of tire/slid marks across my yard. The police came and the kids ended up in court. And I later ended up with a police officer and the two very apologetic kids (dressed in suits) at my door. Asking what job they could do on my property. I put them to work washing and waxing all (3) of my vehicles. My neighbor was reimbursed for her window and installation of a new fence that took the kids 2 months to install.
I miss AMC.
When I was growing up, my parents had all manner of thrifty, economical cars, including a ’60 American wagon. I always lusted after the big american cars driven by my grandfather, and uncle. One year my grandfather upgraded, and passed his mid 50’s Holliday (black with red interior)down to my uncle, who passed his mid 50’s Pontiac (turquoise and white with the big waterfalls) down to us. I was ecstatic- Finally a cool car!! But I think we had it about a month before it got sold and replaced with the ’60 Rambler, gray with maybe a red interior. Definitely not cool!!!
I’m not a fan of these cars. My sister bought one and I worked several days to get it running. I took it for a test drive and there was a pretty good hump to drive over on the highway and when the car “landed” it felt all wrong. So I carefully drove home and found that the whole front end of the car (inner fenders and reinforcements were rusted through) and the car was not safe. I carefully drove it to the junk yard. I generally have a distaste for continental kits. But it seems ok on this car. The original spare tire cover system is a huge plus.
Hi Wayne, sounds like my grandfathers ’61 Classic he had. It had about 40K miles, body was in perfect shape, but the trunnions( bushings that connected the front suspension to the inner fenders) had rusted through and nobody would fix it, and he junked it. A fate of many Ramblers then.
Wayne I only like the continental kits that look like a toilet seat on top of the trunk.
I do like those better.
61 Rambler American was my go to car after wrecking my 65 Mustang, but that’s another story. My 61 was a used Telephone company car ( phone book delivery???) Great little car. Dropped a drive shaft once. Dad taught me the marvel of U joint replacement. Then on route 1 the clutch pedal isolation strap tore. Pedal went to the floor. How to get home? Got out a center point punch and a coat hangar and “threaded” the rubber impregnated canvas strap back together.Weird setup for sure.
Drove that little brick even after some one T-boned boned my passenger door, running a stop sign. Hard car to put down. Still have the dashboard tube radio somewhere if someone needs it!