A trip thru east Texas backwoods today to go look at a little 81 Eagle wagon a fellow who is going thru a divorce called me about turned out to be a major score. Actually a double score. After mailing out a few packages and going by the bank and running some errands, I was off to drive the 60 miles to meet this fellow off Hiway 59. Little did I know how the day would turn out however, been on road trips hundreds of times thru the years, some dry runs where you come home empty handed, other times, you find a nice car and nice folks.

 

I met with the fellow who has the Eagle for sale, and followed him to his car down twisting turning back Texas roads I would have never, ever went down, nor seem, nor even heard about. We pulled up to a small modest house and I saw the Eagle sitting there, looks like it had not run for a year. He said about a year due to a waterpump. Overall, clean, it was nicely optioned, showing 97K, has the 151 four banger, and get this, factory FOUR SPEED, also no AC, but does have power steering, brakes, AM, tilt, tint, and dual remote mirrors to name a few. So I bought it, and while it is not running, the fellow said it will with new battery, but would also probably need some brakes also. Interesting car, never knew AMC put four cylinder engines in the Eagles, although knew you could get them in Spirit and Concord.

 

On the way over to the Eagle, I have this bad habit of looking in yards. Some of you have probably perfected this thru the years, where you can go down dirt roads and look hundreds of yards on either side, down alleys, side of trailers, thru woods, you name it. I even have perfected looking thru rows of cars at dealerships, as used car lots here in Houston have always shoved the AMC products on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th row. I don't like it, but ain't my dealership so I just scan deeper in the rows looking for a occasional AMC.

 

On this dirt road, there was some wild dogs, and a big yellow school bus however, not a big deal, but looking behind and thru some big rigs as I drove past, I saw a butt end of  what looked like a aMC, about 200 yards down. The guy is a trucker so there was about 6 big rigs in his yard. As I slightly slowed down, I got a better view, it looked like a two door 70 Rebel, or 71-73 Matador or 70-73 Ambassador. I didn't think too much about it either, but was happy to see a AMC anything, as that was not what I had went to see, and was still following the Eagle seller. I just figured I would stop back by on my way out, after I had done with the 81 Eagle, which I bought anyhows.

 

Stopping in there were 4-5 big old boys, big husky fellas, bigger than me. I was in my usual t- shirt with Texans NFL on the front, shorts and slaps. I asked 'who owns the old Rambler in the swamp there' and another fellow came walking up behind me. I told him I had just bought a Eagle round the corner from him, and I had saw his Matador from the street. (It was only when I got within a few yard that I realized it was a Matador, just like the 14,000 two door I have here at the house the fellow is still paying me off on). He said not too many people interested in them, I told him I specialize in them. Well, not Matadors, but AMC cars, and particular AMX and Javelin. One fellow who probably had lost all his teeth being born said 'huh! yuh got any them thar pacer cars?' of which I said, 'no, but have owned about a dozen of them, and ended up customizing about ever one!'.  Another fellow loading up a big ass chaw of Skoal said 'we had a Rambler in the early 1960s had push button on the dash' and I said 'it was probably a 1960-64, as I believe they, and several other automakers had push button dash, the Edsel had push button in the middle of the steering wheel too'. A little silence then the tall thin fellow who had walked up behind me asked 'you gonna buy that from me today?' I told him that I wanted to wade over and look at his AMC boat first.

 

It's times like this that at least to me, are really special. Not only do you get to educate some folks, but you also learn from them too. I believe they all learned that AMC is not a Ford engine today. I also learned why I never wanted to be a trucker, and got out of construction type work in the late 1970s. In this case I learned this car was one of the fastest two in the whole county. The other was a LTD. Well, they had to go over and try to get a big dump truck, probably several tons, unstuck from the mud. It has been raining here for weeks, and well, rain in forecast again tonight and tomorrow, so he said every day his truck is stuck on his property there he loses money. Me, I took off my sandals and waded with digital camera over to the Matador. To me nothing special, as I had this 14,000 mile 1971 here at my house for 6 years trying to sell, nice car, solid, ran and drove great, just not a popular model with AMCers then, or the buying public, even though a great looking body style with bumpers incorporated into the body unlike the Rebel or Ambassador before it. I peeked into the car, wow, factory bucket seats. On the fender there was a 401 emblem. Hmmm....so I looked at the VIN and well, it is a factory 401 car, ok, but is there a 401 under the hood? I tried unsuccessfully to open the hood, which the little latch was stuck, and a few Texas 3 inch red wasps flew past me. I cut up my hand sticking it between the grill and hood but hand too big. So walked, or surfed back to my 88 Eagle, and came back with a big 2 foot screwdriver. On of the guys said 'damn, you mean business!' I said 'yes, already cut my hand trying to open the damned hood, but this is only for the big bees!'. I easily got the latch open and well, guess what.

 

This is a factory 1972 Matador Z code 401 four barrel car. Complete. So I asked the fellow, who was standing on a log near me what he plans to do with it. He said anything on my property is for sale. Hmmmm....The biggest fellow walked over and said 'why you takin pictures of the car' and I told him ' I have documented over 3000 AMC vehicles and owned about 300 of them so far, I have been taking pictures since the 1970s of them'. He said 'are you on the internet, I seen some porn there!' Well, yes on the internet, and while lots of porn, I prefer to look at cars. I then proceeded to quickly change subject and distract them and showed him my purdee camera. It has the little window on back showing you the photo before, and after you take it, and holds a whopping 950 photos. 'How much something like that cost?' The big muscled up fellow asked. I said about $150. They both looked at each other and the fellow who owned the car said 'I gotta get one of them for my wife!'. He said he had much invested in her after 24 years and several kids!

 

We struck a deal, as he never mentioned a price for the car, but I did however show him inside the trunk, which has some rust. The car to me at least, is easily restorable, and he indicated that the engine, trans and rear were all in good condition, even though one could never tell it sitting there in the water. Car also has factory 15 inch AMC rims and appeared to have new tires on it also. So I mentioned a price, he bumped it $100 more and I bought it.

 

Next week both that 81 Eagle 4cyl/4spd and 72 Matador 401/727 will be in my driveway. I am not sure what I'll do with either and as usual, will probably get offers on both quickly, but as I always do, will simply try to get them both running, driving, then evaluate both of them, and decide whether I want to tackle one, both, or neither. I can tell you Paige really likes the little Eagle wagon, especially the interior, but she don't drive standards. It would be interesting however if I could get that one streetworthy and she would use it as a daily driver as the gas mileage would be awesome, a big change from the 72 Ambassador SST 360/727 wagon she is currently driving. The Eagle will be the 299th, and the Matador the 300th AMCs I have now owned. So all in all, a unusual, but good, AMC day.