(Originally published 1/14/2014)This is it. The pinnacle of American Motors Corporation. Between 1958 and 1963, the Rambler automobile, in its frugal American, mid-price Classic and deluxe Ambassador lineup, hit a sweet spot in the domestic market that it really never recaptured. When the all-new 1963 Classic and Ambassador debuted, AMC was at the top of its game, with appealing, well-built, sensible cars. After that, save the brief spark of the Javelin, Hornet and Eagle, it was all downhill.
The entry-level Rambler–and also the least-changed from 1962–was the American. Sure, it was suitably creased and de-finned to look like a Sixties U.S. car, but it also was pretty obvious it was a new suit on the old ’58 American–which itself was a rehash of the 1953 Nash Rambler. Hash, indeed. When my mom was in high school, a friend had a convertible of this generation, named Fred. Fred the Rambler was very reliable, and hey, the top went down! That is the extent of my experience with these, but a full CC on the “bread van” American can be found here.
Debuting on October 5, 1962, the new 1963 Ramblers appeared. Other than the American, the lineup was very fresh-looking. Classics were six-cylinder vehicles, with only the fancier Ambassador getting a V8–at least until the V8 Classic appeared in February of ’63.
One big new selling point was the one-piece outer “uniside” construction. As you can see in the brochure picture, a significant portion of the body side was a single stamped piece. Not only did this make the 1963 Ramblers easier (and no doubt, less expensive) to sell, the fewer assemblies and nuts and bolts contributed to fewer rattles as the car aged.
The Classic was initially available in 550, 660 and top-trim 770 models, all with six-cylinder power. A two-door sedan, four-door sedan and four-door station wagon were available in all trim levels. Sadly, the attractive styling was not offered as a convertible, but that was right in step with AMC’s target–sensible, middle-class families. Recall that at this time, American Motors was not really into racing, speed or anything of the sort. As period advertising put it, “the only race we care about is the human race.”
In addition, an eight-passenger station wagon was offered in the mid-range 660 trim. As previously mentioned, a V8 Classic appeared a few months after the 1963 introduction. All six-cylinder models and body styles were available with the V8, and ran about $100 higher than comparable sixes.
Prior to the V8 Classic appearing, the only Rambler you could get with a V8 was the top-of-the-line Ambassador. As in 1962, the Ambassador shared the very same body (1961 and earlier models had a stretched wheelbase completely ahead of the windshield–a treatment going back to the Nash days), but had more exterior chrome, plusher interiors, unique wheel covers and the aforementioned V8. An Ambassador 990 four-door ran about $300 above an I6 Classic 770 sedan, or $150 above a V8 Classic 770.
Of course, it being the early Sixties, the station wagon and suburbia were king. Rambler was right there in the thick of things, as all three of their car lines offered station wagons. The American even offered them in two- and four-door versions, albeit for the last time.
The Classic 770 was an excellent suburban kid-hauler and grocery getter. It was practical, affordable, looked modern, and I imagine they were just part of the scenery in their day. Like today’s CR-Vs, Highlanders and Explorers, these Cross Countrys were once a common sight, and quite unlikely to make enthusiasts stand up and take notice. Ah, those ’60s people, they didn’t know what they had, or what was to come in the next ten years.
Today, these wagons look excellent! But that’s just because styling has taken a back seat to comfort, regulations, fuel efficiency, coefficient of drag, regulations, focus groups (ugh!), and rules, rules, rules! In their day, they were about as exciting as a Camry XLE or Fusion SE. And sure, these cars don’t have half the safety and comfort items 2014 models have. But they were so much more compelling!
An example: I dare you to go to your local Ford, Toyota or Chevy dealer and attempt to order a new Fusion, Camry or Impala in metallic mauve with a maroon and mauve interior! Ah, so sorry Charlie, you can’t! No colors in new cars! Colors are forbidden! Tan or beige are good enough; our focus groups say so!
Well, at least dark brown and red upholstery choices are starting to make inroads again. A friend just recently replaced his mid-’90s Sierra on a new one in maroon with dark brown leather. Very nice! But I digress…
Like the Saab 95 I wrote about last year, I can thank my Dad for this one. I had gone for a long drive last spring, and upon arriving at my folks’ house, Dad said he saw a cool old Rambler on the way back from Jewel. Of course I had to investigate!
There were folks at the house the Rambler was at when I pulled up, but they were just friends of the homeowner. They had no problem with my taking some pictures, fortunately. I would have liked any ’63 Rambler, but the maroon-over-mauve paint and trim were really cool. I could picture Laura Petrie driving this through New Rochelle, though Rob probably would have had a little Triumph Spitfire or MG-B.
Or maybe Jerry and Millie Helper would have had the Rambler, while Laura would drive a Buick Estate Wagon? After all, Rob was a big-shot writer for Alan Brady. Yes, I am a big fan of the Dick Van Dyke show!
While the 1964 model was essentially the same, I’ve always liked the ’63s better, with that oh-so-Jet Age concave grille. This was really the last Rambler designed when AMC could actually afford it. The 1967 models, heavily pushed by Roy Abernethy, were also a redesign, but AMC couldn’t really afford the re-do, especially when the ’67s completely tanked in the market. But the ’63s did okay, and received Motor Trend’s Golden Calipers to boot.
As Ramblers typically appealed to more frugal types, the Classic 550 and 660 sold better than the flossy 770. Still, they didn’t do too bad with 35,281 four-doors, 5,496 two-doors and 19,319 six-cylinder 770s being built. V8-equipped 770s saw sales of 7,869 four-doors, 1,341 two-doors and 4,399 wagons, but our feature CC is a six, judging from the lack of front-fender V8 badging.
This car was just a beauty, and for sale, too. As the sign said, it is an unrestored original with just 54,000 miles–wow! I have a soft spot for all the independents, but the Sixties Ramblers are a close second after Studebakers, and they are so seldom seen! I was not around in 1963, but from Paul’s writeup on the 1961 Cross Country (would that be the CC CC?), it appears that these were just all over the place when new.
Kind of like how Town & Countrys, Siennas, Sedonas and Escapes are today. Think of it: the boring, dull-as-dishwater Mommy-mobiles (or living-in-denial Mommy-mobiles in the case of Escalades, Yukons and Navigators) of 2014 may well be intriguing, interesting collectibles in forty years’ time. If cars like that will be collectible then, I don’t even want to know what a 2044 automobile will look like.
Did AMC still offer the aluminum block six in 1963? I know it was available in 1961 and 1962, but I don’t know beyond that. I also have no idea how much AMC was charging for it, although I assume the number of people willing to pay extra for it was low.
The other point worth mentioning about the 1963 is that I think it was the first year for the Twin-Stick overdrive. An entertaining bit of business and kind of an English touch, although it would have been nicer if low were synchronized, and by that point even most AMC buyers would probably rather have automatic.
According to Wiki, the aluminum version was offered through 1964.
I had not realized until checking that the 196 cid six in this car was still the old Nash six that went back to the early 40s. AMC did a conversion to overhead valves in 1956, and the OHV conversion seems to have been more successful than Studebaker’s attempt to do the same thing with the old Champion six in 1961. Of course, Nash had years of OHV experience with the larger Ambassador six.
The 232 six was a new design starting in 1964, and that engine (along with the larger 258) would be a staple for AMC for the rest of its days.
…and way beyond.
With the addition of fuel injection and better breathing heads the AMC I6 kept going into the Cherokees (XJ, ZJ, WJ ) and the Wrangler until 2006.
We need an automotive histories piece on the AMC I6
My first car was a 1963 Rambler 770 sedan handed down to me from my sister, who got married in ’68. It had the aluminum 6 with cast iron liners, and a 3-speed Borg-Warner Automatic with overdrive, and got about 22 mpg overall. I saw the coupon in the back of the owners manual for a shop manual for $5 and sent away for it – in 1968. AMC sent me the manual, and I’ve still got it.
Unfortunately, the car didn’t last long. My sister drove cross country, putting about 8,000 miles on it, and avoided things like oil changes. Once, she told my father the oil light was on, and he had to put 3-1/2 quarts in it. She’d gone shopping with the oil light on and had put 50 miles on it! When I got it and took it to her old mechanic, my new mechanic, he noted the oil hadn’t been changed in 17,000 miles. I didn’t have the heart to tell him about the oil light.
3 months after I got it, a main bearing wiped out at 60 mph, and I traded it to my mechanic for a ’62 Buick. He swapped in an iron block six from a junk yard, and it threw a rod a week later. He sold it to another mechanic who put an AMC 327 in it, and I don’t know what happened to it after that.
The aluminum 196 was available through the ’64 model year.
That’s a beauty, Tom! Man, if I’d had the disposable cash and run across that car, I’d have brought it home for sure. Extremely well preserved!
I have always loved wagons and even though I had basically no exposure to Ramblers as a kid (I’m 41 and from deepest Appalachia), I absolutely love these cars.
Nice find!
I love it!! Excellent overall visibility as compared to today’s “cockroach” styled cars PLUS “Shift Command”, “Weather Eye”, and “Sound Command,” and that “0-12” speedometer.
All of these Rambler wagons this week are kind of making me jealous. I bought my ’65 Dart wagon in November, but I would have taken a Rambler, Comet, Falcon, Nova, or Corvair wagon if I would have found it first. I just think these are so cool.
My father, upon retiring from the Army, went to work at AMC. One day he came home with a 1963 Ambassador 2-door sedan. Maroon, white top, 327 Twin-Stick. The interior was basically in the colors of this CC. For the next 4 years it was our family car. When it was replaced with a ’67 Ambassador, my brother got it, and was not very kind to it. He sold it to one of his friends who, over his many years of his ownership, completely restored it. It now resides in the Chicago area, and I have seen it at a couple shows.
I would LOVE to have this wagon.
One good look at this car shows a major reason that the new 63 Stude Wagonaire fared so poorly. Despite the cool (but underbaked) roof idea, the Stude just looked ancient next to this thoroughly modern new Rambler. Of course, under the skin, this Rambler was really as old as the Stude with its torque tube drive, trunion front suspension and engine pretty much right out of the 52 Nash.
I prefer the Stude’s interior, which was very nicely done and gave you full instrumentation. However, this Rambler’s dash was more in the GM style of that time – less instrumentation, more chrome.
I had never noticed before now, but that trademark AMC station wagon roof dip is still there on this car, although only slightly. I also agree that this may have been the last really great all-new AMC product. A very nice addition to the CC collection.
I like this a lot.There were quite a few RHD examples around when I was a kid in the 60s,they sold quite well for an American car in the UK.I’m sorry to say I virtually ignored them as a kid,my interest in American cars in the mid 60s was Mustangs,Barracudas and the GTO and it’s relatives.My Dad dismissed Ramblers as a car for spinster librarians,I’m not a librarian but I’d have a Rambler wagon right now.Was there ever a woody?
Everybody knows Rob Petrie drove a Tarantula
My father owned one of these, a green ’63 Cross Country Rambler station wagon, though he only had it a couple of years before it was totaled in an accident (would have been in June 1965) in Catonsville Md…we were in process of moving to Vermont and my Grandmother was watching us at a local motel (we had moved out of the house) and had to pick shards of glass out of my father’s skin (not sure why..thought it would have had safety glass even by then).
Prior to that, he had a ’61 Rambler classic Wagon, which he bought new in Compton Ca….it replaced his ’56 Plymouth, was the first car with automatic he owned (my mother learned to drive on a semi-automatic Chrysler Windsor, but to this day though she has driven several of my father’s (and my own) manual cars, she’s never been comfortable with a standard to this day). We drove from California to Pennsylvania, probably a bit of an expedition with 2 young kids, no air conditioning, driving through the desert in the summer.
My father rented a car to replace the Rambler (I vaguely recall riding in the car) but shortly afterwards bought a ’65 Oldsmobile F85 Wagon from Val Preda in South Burlington, Vt. (for another 15 years we were always to have a wagon of some type)
I like how these cars look and their “right” size…though I’ve thought about getting one, I’m not versed on their front trunion setup, I’ve heard its pretty primative and a bear to work on….not to mention few people still around who probably know how to work on them. Never got to drive a Rambler, but I spent lots of time riding in one of the two he owned.
Having been cut myself by such things, I would guess that the shards of glass may have come from the interior or exterior mirror, or something else in the car. Laminated glass has been standard in windshields since what, the late 30s?
Toughened or tempered glass, not laminated which came in gradually during the 1960s/70s?
No, laminated safety glass came first and is still used in windshields. Tempered glass disintegrates into squarish bits when cracked and would be unsuitable for windshields where rock impacts happen frequently, often causing those small “bulls-eye” cracks which need to be repaired but usually don’t require a whole new windshield. If a windshield made of tempered glass were to get chipped by a flying rock, it would probably instantly disintegrate and fall into tiny bits inside the car.
Tempered glass has taken over in side and rear windows, whereas even those were laminated safety glass until the 1960s.
I think that was an area where Australia lagged behind America. I remember laminated screens being listed as an option in the seventies, and have first-hand experience of the result of a non-laminated ’70s screen. It did exactly what G. Poon said…
Ramblers had another “feature”: vacuum wipers. I remember Mom’s 64 Classic, how the wipers would do their thing as we cruised down the road, then speed up when we sat at a light.
Then there was the ceramic coated exhaust system. Lasted years longer that anyone else’s
That Classic was the last car I remember that had fresh air vents in the front footwell kickpanels.
A lot of room inside too. Mom, my grandparents and I took a road trip from Michigan to Florida and back in 65.
Built tight and solid too. I remember how the salesman at the dealership showed Mom how cracking the window made it easier to close the door. No squeaks or rattles.
Good thing that car is there, wherever that is, and I’m here. So few models from before 67 make it to the AMC meet. Usually only one other 63-64 Classic.
My parents’ ’72 Vega had the kick-panel vents. Sometimes I wish cars still had them – with climate control it’s not always straightforward to get it just letting in fresh air w/o heating or cooling it
The photo of this Rambler wagon recalls the Sunday evening trepidation I would feel because my unwritten book report was due tomorrow!
Even as a kid, I couldn’t get past the single digit speed-o on these. And Laura Petrie was far too stylish for a Rambler.
Such an attractive car! The seat design and upholstery also looks a lot higher quality and comfortable than the usual vinyl seats seen in most ’60s wagons. Great find!
These were quite popular here in that era they were an affordable American car here the price was kept down with local assembly, and they didnt rattle and squeak like other US cars as they aged, These things were more expensive than cars like Holdens and Zephyrs and actually lasted as well as those two.
Years ago, when I was a kid, (47 now) I saw one of these very wagons in a four wheel drive magazine that had been converted to four wheel drive, using IH Scout running gear, IIRC. It was love at first sight….
Growing up near Kenosha, Wi. a real AMC company town, it was always a treat to see the streets lined with AMC/Ramblers. You would be hard pressed to find anything but a Rambler, it almost seemed as though owning one was the law. The Classic was the dominate model
Andy’s Drive In. About six blocks from my house.
The next Kenosha Homecoming (HUGE AMC meet) will be this summer. It is really a full week of AMC overload.
That’s a pretty ritzy Rambler. I love it.
A 5th grade teacher at my school had one of these wagons in 1975. Can’t be sure of the year or trim, but very likely a ’63. A medium blue color in very nice shape except for a piece of sheet metal riveted high on the passenger fender to fix a rust hole and painted over. She was the science club sponsor and a small group of us did a few after school field trips in it. I remember it being a rather sharp car that stood out a bit by that year.
My guess is kids don’t ride in teacher’s personal cars anymore, especially a car like this!
Did Rambler build the first wagons to use the swing away rear door?
That was the 1966 Ford Country Squire.
Not according to the photo in the brochure posted above.
Missed that. It appears that Rambler made you choose between a conventional gate and a side-hinged doorgate. Wiki indicates that Rambler was indeed the first (at least among modern wagons). The 66 Ford was the first that incorporated both actions in the same tailgate. Thanks for challenging me on this, I learned something new.
It surprised me too!
The conventional tailgate came with the 2 seaters, the 3 seat version had the side hinged door style. I believe it was introduced in 1960, and was carried through until ’68 or ’69 when they offered the dual action gate.
I find it interesting that all the non-FoMoCo wagons got the dual action tailgate in 1969, exactly 3 years after Ford pioneered it.
It makes me wonder if there was some kind of patent that expired, or
did it take GM, Chrysler and AMC engineers all the same amount of time to reverse-engineer it?
My dad’s ’63 660 Cross Country was his only AMC purchase, trading in the batwing ’59 Chevy that went out of style quickly. As an engineer father of three, safety sold, but he waited for V-8 power in the Classic to pull the trigger. Alas, it was a bit too small to double as a truck for home improvement runs and camping trips, so it was replaced with another Chevy, an Impala wagon in ’65.
His favorite color was blue and the Rambler was light blue with a blue interior. Mom loved the separate reclining seats and headrests for napping on trips. This was also the first car we had with seat belts.
That car is nice example. it is equipped with backup lights which were an option on the AMC Rambler in those days.
You jogged my memory on these cars and I remembered that years ago I had gone to a junk yard where a white 1964 Rambler Classic 660 sedan was and i brought the owners manuals home.(I used to collect car owners manuals years ago) I found the Rambler’s ones and I noticed that a accessories book came with it with things like optional rubber floor mats, Inflated air mattress, seat headrests, spot light etc.
It says backup lights were an option(at least in 1964)
Here is the section with the optional backup lights
Automatically illuminates the area behind your Rambler when you shift into reverse
Yup, an option, and Mom’s 64 Classic had them.
Some years later, the government required backup lights to warn others.
In the Classic, the backup lights were there to illuminate where you were backing up. We lived out in the sticks, where it was really dark, and those lights, mounted low in the bumper, did an excellent job.
And why did Mom think of buying that option? She had backed the 56 Studebaker into a frozen pile of snow, breaking a taillight and the chrome trim below it. a wound that car carried the rest of it’s life.
Pic: the wounded Studie that sold a set of Rambler backup lights
My piano teacher bought a new 1969 Valiant 100. She reported that it came with three options: the 225 /6 (over the base 198), an AM radio, and backup lights. Otherwise, it was rubber mats, three on the tree and manual everything. A heater was standard.
And I am in love with your old Stude. The body looks excellent for its age, you must have lived in a dry climate. That car must have been quite out of style by 1968 when that picture was taken. Even the 60s models looked very old-fashioned by then. Being from northern Indiana, I know something about that. 🙂
And I am in love with your old Stude.
We lived, and I still do, in Michigan. Road salt central. There was a *lot* of bondo under that Earl Scheib paint job. The car was originally white over light blue. The only thing that kept my feet from falling to the pavement in the front seat was the floormat. The steel was completely gone. The horn and speedo didn’t work. One of the trunk lid hinges was broken. The hood latch was so worn that it would take several slams of the hood for it to catch. The headlight mounts were rusted away, so there was nothing to hold the lights in alignment. Even one of the tubes in the rarely used radio had given up, the only sound the radio made anymore was the buzz of the vibrator. The 259 V8 still pulled strongly though.
That car made more intersting sounds than most. When it started, the bendix would disengage with a distictive RRRrrrrr, and crusing in 3rd gear, which must have been tall, the engine would loaf with a “chug-a-chug-a-chug” sound.
Here’s another one of the pix my Dad took, before we drove the old dear to a used car lot in a sketchy neighborhood and sold it for $25
Backup lights became required equipment in the US for 1967.
Hmmm – maybe my piano teacher’s car was not as well equipped as she thought. 🙂
I thought they were required for ’66 models.
Backup lights became standard in ’66, one of the GSA required items
Nice write-up Tom, as usual. These were everywhere back in the day, especially the wagon version. What a great re-design for 1963. Curved side glass, crisp styling and an intermediate size that just looked right. Motor Trend’s COTY to boot. IMHO the best ever from AMC.
A thrifty (ok, cheap) uncle bought a ’63 Classic 550 wagon to replace his ’47 Studebaker. Must have been the worst looking ’63 Classic made. Base model in this sickly looking mint green. 6 cyl., 3 speed. No options at all except a radio and oddly, tinted glass and power tailgate window.
Recall the tinted windshield was green, not the usual blue. The speedometer also read “0, 1, 2, 3, … 12”, leaving off the zero. Little quirks that let you know you were driving a car built in Kenosha, not Detroit.
Regarding tinted windshields, it seems that most manufacturers today have eliminated the shade band that went across the top, a feature I liked. Anyone out there know why?
“Regarding tinted windshields, it seems that most manufacturers today have eliminated the shade band that went across the top, a feature I liked. Anyone out there know why?”
I suspect that it is the result of most newer car windshields having considerable UV tinting built in, as it were. The glass doesn’t look as dark as old style tinted windows, with the dark band at the top, but they do a much better job of blocking UV radiation. I finally had to give up on wearing glasses with photochromic lenses because they would not darken in late model cars. The good side of this is that often I don’t need to put on my prescription sunglasses while driving, the windshield tinting provides enough glare relief and makes switching unnecessary.
I didn’t realise that had become general. I thought Mitsubishi had just cheaped out on our ASX when we found it didn’t have one, but then it was 17 years since we’d had a new car. The rising or setting sun is still a problem, no matter what they’ve done to the glass. Fortunately you can buy aftermarket stick-on tint strips to compensate for the extra glass reaching higher into the roof.
A friend bought a 64 wagon. Solid, attractive car, and I was quite impressed by the porcelain exhaust system.
My aunt had the 1964 version of this car, but without side trim (I was very young and the memories are fuzzy at best, but it may have been the lower trim level). I think it was either gold or brown, with a white painted roof.
No question, these are amongst AMCs best cars ever. Super clean styling inside and out.
A wagon, one could be proud to own.
But to give my answer to the rhetorical question in the title, “The Last Great AMC Car?”. I’d personally vote for the Hornet/Concord. They were seen as mundane perhaps, but gave AMC good bread and butter sales, for a number of years. Plus they remained competitive in the compact market, longer than anyone could have expected.
Posted before about my parents’ 1964 550 Classic wagon. The six had good pull with the 3 on the tree. And the front looked like they filled in the 63’s jaws. More conventional like a Chevelle.
But then the all new Chevelle ran away with the mid size market in 64, until Olds Cutlass took it further in the 70’s.
By 1969, my folks were ‘sick of Ramblers’, after owning 2 since 1960, and got a Plymouth Fury wagon.
From what I could read from the window ad he wants $6200. Good price, would still try to get him knock a few bucks off it. I have never seen one that was not beat to hell.
Hopefully there is someone who will snap that up, what a time capsule.
If this was the only year with the concave grille, it must have been the model I saw locally as a factory-looking ute last year. I don’t suppose they did a ute version in the USA?
It is also interesting to learn of the one-piece side pressing, a good idea that has returned more recently.
A 660 wagon with a 6 cyl. and 3 on the tree for sale in Dayton Nevada right now at $2800. Blue in color and looks all stock and original.
My aunt had a 63 4 door sedan which was gold in color, it had the dog-dish wheel covers.
She also had aftermarket clear plastic seat covers put in. It was a scorching pleasure to ride after being parked in the hot Hawaiian sun. Ahh! what memories!
Yes, a great write-up, Tom. This one brings back memories. My parents got one that was probably two or three years old and still like new. Actually it was mom’s car. It was a gold, Classic 770 wagon. I do recall the reclining front seats, and the seat belts. One or two vacation trips to Virginia Beach (from Ohio) were made in the Rambler. And, I think, one trip to relatives in Florida. Anyway, I recall it as a comfortable, nice riding car. Think it held up well. Considering it was a Rambler, it always appeared rather sharp and kinda classy. Definitely like the looks of the one you found, Tom. Especially like the interior colors. Until the Javelin and AMX came out, I don’t think Ramblers were very often a young person’s car. So it’s safe to say that this fine example with low miles was probably owned by a mature person.
Does anyone know if this wagon is still for sale, I can’t make out the phone number on the sign in the drivers window.
Thanks
John
John, no idea if the car is still for sale or not, but the number was (309) 738-3645.
I was given a ’63 660 wagon by a friend of my mother in ’72 because it was in such bad shape the dealer wouldn’t take it as a trade in. I thought the car was brown until I cleaned it up and under all the grime I found it was the same color as this feature car except the top and bottom colors were switched. Maroon on the bottom, salmon on top. I spent the whole summer before my senior year of high school fixing it up. I remember the tops of both fenders were completely rusted away because there were no inner fender wells! I learned a lot about body work that summer. The car ran well, had a two speed auto if I remember right. The horn ring would catch in long sleeves if you weren’t careful and it loved to eat starters. I put in three of them in the year that I owned it. Evidently my bodywork skills were better than my mechanical. I don’t recall the single digit speedo, but I was only 17 and who cares about speed limits at that age? It was fun to drive and handled well for an old wagon. Lots of fond memories of this car. I was one of the few high schoolers that had his own car back then, when most families still only had one car.
I was just hoping to find out what the Trim(?) Numbers mean.
The trim numbers on ’63-66 Ramblers are 220,330,440(American) 550,660,770(Classic) 880,990(Ambassador). The higher the number, the higher the trim level. I have owned 3 ’63 Rambler Classics over the years, one was my first car. The car written about I would love to own.
Imagine if they wanted to take the Ambassador further upmarket!
Hello, how wonderful to find that car on the internet.
In 1969 I travelled from Denmark, to be a student at the Redsone Arsenal Al. school for HAWK radar engineers in Huntsville Al.
Already at home, I planned for a long road trip in the upcoming Christmas holidays, so when I arrived in Alabama, I bought a newer and more expensive car, than my colleagues, a 1963 rambler V8 550 Cross Country Station Wagon in exact the colour of this car here.
You didn’t mention, that they were popular with farmers with a lot of kids. When I asked the dealer about it, he burst out: ” You can’t have that many kids!” being only 22 at the time. I bought it for 400$ where most of my colleagues spent less, as we only needed the cars for a year in the US. Mine came with a lot of hay and a straw hat!
They had one weakness, the timing wheel for the valves had a coating of plastic to make it less noisy, unfortunately the plastic was destroyed by oil. I found all this out, when that wheel collapsed, when we were 4 people, 300 miles away in Smoky Mountains Ge., when the timing went wrong, so it spat gasolin out of the carburetors and started a small fire in the insulation under the hood.
My friend made the round trip of 600 miles, to tow us back to Huntsville, in his ’60 Oldsmobile Super88, with the battery running flat in the Rambler, so the last 3-4 hours the car had no lights in the middle of the night, being towed.
I repaired it and then we went 4 people on a trip of a lifetime.
I told people, we were going to California and they asked:
“Who are you flying with?”
” We are going by car”
“What have you rented?”
“We are going in the Rambler”
“WHAAT!!???”
But we did. 6.000miles in 16 days in the Christmas holidays in 1969.
We went to Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona: Grand Canyon, Meteor crater, Petrified Forest, California: Twenty Nine Palms, Palm Springs, Disneyland on Christmas Eve, then south and east to, Tombstone Az. , El Paso, Ciudad Juarez, crossed Pecos River, Eagle Pass, Tx. Piedras Negras Mex. down to Corpus Christi, where the temperature went from 25 degrees C to 10 in one day, the summer of December 1969 was over.
We went along the coast and celebrated New Year in New Orleans and continued to Panama City Fl. before we turned the Rambler northwards to Huntsville Al.
Here we had the first and only problem, as the gasolin pump stopped working. Fortunately I could take it apart, on the road, and get it working again, so we drove all the way back home again.
The vacuum operated wipers was quite a challenge, when over taking a lorry, in the Alabama rainy season: When you stepped on the accelerator all the vacuum disappeared and the wipers stopped. You had to build up speed from behind and race past and lift the foot from the pedal when passing the front of the lorry. When decelerating, they were the fastest wipers I’ve ever seen.
Thanks to the old Rambler.
I even made a 50$ profit on it!
Twice people ran into it and I got 250$ damages and sold it for 200$, before I went back to Denmark.
I have a lot of fond memories of my old Rambler V8 550 Cross Country.
Thanks for showing us this.
I enjoyed reading your post. And I had the same timing gear problem as you. The fuel pump was a double diaphragm pump in which one part was fuel, the other part was dedicated to running the vacuum windshield wipers. It eliminated the vacuum wiper problems when it was working properly but one pinhole in the diaphragm and the wipers worked like you described. When they worked right they were infinitely adjustable, I would still prefer them over electric wipers today. The intermittent wiper feature is a poor second to infinitely adjustable vacuum wipers especially if you added a vacuum reservoir like I did on mine.
A college student rented a bungalow down the road from us in the early 1980’s.
He bought a black 1963 Rambler Classic 4 door sedan that had seen better days…..
He had an unorthodox method of fixing that car.
When the ignition points and condenser went bad on that car, instead of going to an autoparts store to buy the correct replacement parts, he somehow had saved a stash of random used points and condensers from other cars he had owned previously.
He would get rides back and forth to work with coworkers and then in the evenings, would lift the hood of the Rambler and fiddle around with the points and condenser, trying various ones out to see if they would work.
I don’t remember if he got it running that way, or if he finally had to go to an autoparts store to buy the right parts.
His Landlord tried to convince him to just go out and buy the parts to begin with, but the fellow was stubborn and insisted he could fix it with his parts stash……Points and condensers are made to fit certain model cars and sometimes the same model car might require a varying selection of points…depending on which engine was in the car.
He seemed to spend more time working under the hood of that car than actually driving it….
I can recall on more than one occasion where I would see that car pulled off to the side of the road a short distance from the fellow’s home…..It had broken down again for whatever reason.
He lived there for about a year before moving elsewhere, taking the Rambler with him so I don’t know whatever became of that car afterwards.
In 75, my GF was given a 67 Classic 770 wagon by her ex-husband, of all people. It was a V8, quite quick, and handled well. The 2 tone light green over dark green paint job was kind of gaudy, and at 8 years of age, was already tired looking, the seats saggy, with that weird “fabric” of the time that could cut you when it shredded. But it was a pleasant car to drive, and gave us a couple years of reliable service. It still ran fine when we sold it.
We had the 63 crosscountry 770 classic wagon and it said 327 on the airfilter could that have been a mistake I have read that engine was only in the Ambassador,I did get some attention in High Shool in 70 or so,when I raised the hood,After Earl Sheib painted it ,it morphed into a 707 we all got a kick outa that even Gramps ,and we left it that way.Wish I had it or one like it.We pulled a trailer with it maybe somehow the engine was a special order.I had it up to 11 once if you know the speedo you will know what I mean !
I know what you mean but when I hear “up to 11” I think of Spinaltap.
Quite a few years ago I had a ’64 Classic 770 wagon. Cast-iron 196 OHV six with tiny 1-barrel carb, 3-speed automatic trans, manual steering and brakes, vacuum wipers, reclining seats, Weather-Eye, and AM radio.
The car was comfortable and roomy but slooooooow!! Flooring the accelerator would drop the Slush-O-Matic into passing gear but aside from the racket under the hood it didn’t seem to make much difference. Manual steering was truck-slow at six turns lock-to-lock. The less said about the brakes the better though it was probably no worse than most cars in those days. Handling, in the sense we usually mean it today, didn’t really enter into the picture. Back then “handling ease” (easy to park, easy to maneuver due to smallish size and good visibility.) was the feature advertised. Good times!
Mine was the 2-row model with conventional tailgate. The 3-row wagons with rear-facing seat had no spare tire since there was no room for one. Instead they were factory-equipped with “Captive Air” run-flat tires.
Would love to have another but with some upgrades. The hot setup would be Jeep 4.0 six with AW4 trans, quick-ratio Trans-Am power steering (AMC used Saginaw power steering boxes), heavy-duty springs and shocks, and power front disc brakes.
I always thought of Rob and Laura Petrie with their good income, trendy styles and one kid, as being right in the target market for the early GM premium compacts from Buick, Olds and Pontiac. Unless the Alan Brady Show had a car-company sponsor in which case they’d drive one of those.
The Tarantula was a great bit of writing since Rob referred to it repeatedly as a “T-bug” at a time when both the Thunderbird and the VW Beetle were popular with young suburban sophisticates, although they were different cars.
Changing the channel, does it bother anyone else that nobody in That ’70s Show has an AMC given that the show takes place just outside Kenosha?
CC effect: just saw an episode where a two-tone 1957 Dodge Coronet Lancer hardtop was shown moving down a highway at night, presumably with Rob and Laura inside. I’m sure it was stock footage from some other show.
A more likely car for the Petries, though, was seen in another episode which showed Rob and Ritchie in his garage with a rather mundane ’65 Mustang coupe, maybe even a six-cylinder version.
Dick Van Dyke, himself, did like sports cars, apparently owning a 1961 Corvette and a Jaguar XKE. Most recently, in 2010, he survived, unscathed, when he was pulled from his newer, burning Jaguar sedan.
There was another episode with them driving a be-finned Dodge or Plymouth convertible.
Seemed an odd choice being the show was early ’60’s.
For reference, it was the episode when they were arguing about Rob always picking up the check.
Here is the episode with them in a Dodge Convertible.
https://youtu.be/z5OxRyCHiUA
The Dick Van Dyke Show – Season 2, Episode 21 – My Husband Is a Check-Grabber
I think we stumbled on a blooper. The car was, as you mentioned, a hardtop. But the interior shot was of a convertible. You can see the struts for the top and you can see the cloth top just above the windshield, not the white hardtop in the exterior shot.
Wow. I want that car in the most irrational way. It is perfection to me.
Quite a nice looking car. I knew two people who had these, in the mid ’70s and they were both still going strong. Interestingly, both were in the aqua blue like the one shown in the first print ad above.
This was the first car I had that I chose – the first 2 were hand-me-downs (that I was happy to have).
550 Cross Country with the six and column-shifted 3-speed with overdrive. And I drove it cross-country twice, summer of ‘89 and ‘90. The marine-style cleats for the factory roof rack were utilized regularly.
Here is a photo, from Motor Trend’s 1964 Car of the Year article, of an AMC car body in the lakefront plant at Kenosha, WI; note the one-piece sideframe. It was sent to me by a friend who worked at Kenosha from 1959 to 1969…ten years, which got him vested in AMC’s pension plan. He got pension checks from Chrysler Corporation.
His description of the photo: “Here’s a photo from the mag of me at work in the lakefront plant. That’s me on the right; two of the other boys were high-school classmates and the kid on the left was from Green Bay. I don’t even remember their names now.”
He tells me the lakefront plant was formerly Simmons Mattress. When they vacated it, AMC was badly in need of more plant capacity so they took it over. Bodies, build and painted there, had to be trucked across town to the main assembly plant. Bodies were also trucked in from Milwaukee.
He has rememberances about the Ramblers/AMCs of that era and later. “I bought a second-hand 1963 Rambler Ambassador 990, with a big V-8, two-barrel carburetor… My favorite of all the cars I’ve ever had. None of that turbo nonsense; when you stepped on it it responded immediately, almost leaped off the road. For many years you could ask any mechanic in Kenosha about the 1962-3-4 Ramblers and they’d tell you how good they were — had all the bugs ironed out. It looked like a car. When Romney left the company to become governor of Michigan they completely redesigned it so that it looked like a sawed-off cigar box and the company started going slowly downhill. By then I was working in the toolroom and the overtime started to disappear. There were people who liked the Gremlin but I think more people thought it was an ugly joke. I rented a Pacer once, an early hatchback I guess you’d call it, and the hatch didn’t fit right and the squeaking was relentless.”
After Chrysler shut down Kenosha for car assembly…the transporting of bodies was inefficient…the engine plant remained, long after the assembly plants were torn down. It was newer, from the late 1960s and was updated with computer-controlled machinery. Chrysler built engines there, the 2.7L and 3.5L V6s, until 2010. The property is now city-owned, the buildings demolished in 2013-2014.
I inherited my dads 1963 Classic 4 door sedan when he passed away. I remember it as a well built, pretty solid riding car. The only problem was if it even thought about raining, or even a heavy dew, it wouldn’t start in the morning. If I jumped it, it would start right up and be fine all day. I did all the usual tune up items, points, condenser, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, battery etc. All to no avail. I wound up selling it to a co-worker who thought he had the answer….a coil. I found out later that didn’t do it either. Don’t remember what ever became of it.
I love classics and do have my collection. I was Never an AMC fan but recently I purchased 81 AMC Concord coupe DL blue exterior with blue cloth interior got 49K original miles has 2.5 Iron Duke auto Factory AC , Factory Am/Fm , Rear defrost , crank windows just beautiful AMC from past I paid $6,500 for it Not for sale just sharing passion for classics !
Reply
yes thanks for all those stories My favorite Affordable used car was a 1964 rambler ambassador 990 wagon I had 5 of them !!that right FIVE!! I started to collect them from 1982 to 1990 (as they were cheap and i had a 8 car garage space for them) WOW ( some of fully loaded like am/fm radio and Tilt-wheel (first year those two options were factory offered) as well electric windows (side and rear),twin-stick, ps,pb a/c, compass, and etc I even quit my teaching job and took my parents family 1964 rambler wagon classic V8 770 (slept in it) 1978-1980 on a 49 state trip!! YES even drove on Alaska Highway !!! what great memories I even hosted a amrc( Rambler Club) national meet in alexandria bay ny in 1988 with 6 of my 1964 wagon on displayed.. I moved and got divorced (you know how those things go as i had to sell them) I wish i could post some of those cars and the newspaper article about my 2 year 50 state trip.. If you give me your email I will be happy to post them for you. god bless the ramblers and you all also.. fritz larson
For me it was the 1971-74 AMC Ambassador that I consider it being the last great AMC vehicle.
Gorgeous wagon, would love to own it…!!!
Great looking car, love the color combo. Curious about the bumpers, are they the same front and rear?
My first car was a ’63 Ambassador 990 wagon, generously given to me by my brother in law back in 1972. By then it had been overhauled at about 80,000 miles.
White body with red cloth interior, I took it to 144,000 miles when an upper ball joint gave way and the right front wheel folded up into the wheel well. By then it needed a park pawl, full front end replacement because it was eating tires way too fast. So off to the wrecking yard…
But I have to say it was a really well built car. Seats had full coils under the upholstery, the most comfortable seats I ever had until the Lexus LS 430 came along.. it endured two years of hard teenage use, and in retrospect was ahead of its time stylistically. ten years later Mercedes-Benz was building cars with similar proportions in the W108 and W112 bodies.
One feature that is of note is, on the right side behind the right rear wheel well is a latched steel lid that when opened reveals a plastic tub with a drain hole in the bottom..perfect fit for a six pack and some ice