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Salmon Sedan: 1959 Rambler Custom

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Charles H sent in a find that led me to this one; they are being offered by the same seller in Redmond, Oregon. Apparently a 75-year-old hobbyist has decided that some of his collection must go. The other cars are customized, but this one for some reason he decided to leave stock, which is ironic considering it’s the Custom model. While the car has been off the road since 1975, it runs and “everything works.” The car is being sold here on eBay with bidding just over $500 but reserve not met yet. There’s relatively minor rust in the passenger side rocker panel and the seller recommends replacing the old tires and going through the car before putting it back on the road, but I’m thinking a weekend’s work would do it considering the condition and what’s been done already. It’s showing 74,663 miles, and while that certainly could be 174k, it might not be considering the car’s condition.

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I like the push-button shifter for the automatic and have a lot of faith in the OHV 6-cylinder engine to be reliable, if not extremely powerful, although I’ve heard something about cylinder heads being an issue–any experts out there that can chime in? Overall, I think this would be a nice classic to put back on the road quickly and enjoy some leisurely drives.

Comments

  1. Avatar That Rambler Guy

    More than you ever wanted to know about the old-series Rambler inline six can be found here:

    http://worldpowersystems.com/AMC/195.6OHV/

    Specifics on the head issue and mods to prevent problems:

    http://worldpowersystems.com/AMC/195.6OHV/Head-cooling/

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  2. Avatar Wayne

    You are correct re the cylinder head. When I was an apprentice in 1958, my boss bought a new 1958 6 cyl Rambler and the head cracked in the first 6 months, ( no new car 12 month warranty then). I new head was too expensive, so a tin of “Chem I weld” was poured into the radiator, and it was still going strong when sold 30 years later.

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  3. Avatar Fred

    Never understood how a car could run cool with stop leak in the cooling system, trying to plug up any and every orifice. Guess it does work in some cases!

    Check out the seller’s dad’s other ride for sale- a nice looking ’59 Rambler street rod. Already at $7500.

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  4. Avatar Ed P

    The rockers are rusted and the drivers floor is questionable, but still a nice restorable car.

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  5. HoA Howard A Member

    There’s no way this is 174,000 miles. These cars weren’t driven that far, and if they did, it wouldn’t look like this. Buyer should make sure to check the front suspension. It had a habit of rusting free from the rest of the body, and hard to fix. My grandfather had a ’61 like this, and it only had like 40,000 miles, perfect body but he had to junk it, because the trunnions rusted out, and nobody would fix it.
    A friends mom had one like this, only a V-8, 4 barrel, and that car was the car of choice for the “stop light drags”. We rarely got beat. Neat car, don’t see too many now.

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  6. Avatar Rick

    Back in the early 70s there was a wrecking yard in Woodinville, WA (about 20 mi NW of Seattle) called A-1. This place was really cheap and closed Saturdays but open on Sundays (something to do w/ the religious beliefs of the owners). Doors and fenders were $2, I once bought a Corvette hubcap for 50 cents. I remember seeing a 54 Buick Skylark and a 58-60 Corvette go through A-!, but not much was left of either way before A-1 had them, But I digress. Anyhow, these were the days when a decent driveable Rambler went for $35-50. So A-1 had a whole row of mint late 50s Ramblers w/ broken front suspension. Nobody even wanted parts off these. Neat thing about A-1 is that the office was right in the middle of the yard, so you if you were sneaky you could get out the gate w/o paying. The gal in the office didn’t care, she thought that if you couldnt afford to pay you were poor and deserved pity. That was back in the days when all I could afford to install on my cars were used parts. But I got lots of free generators and brake drums that way.

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    • Avatar Cassidy

      How sad that you think its ok to brag about being a thief. I sincerely hope you’ve changed your ways.

      Like 0

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