You know what fucking sucks? I have for many years, taken time out of my day, to attempt to help people. Yourself included. I get about 20-50 emails and calls per day from AMCers. Some I can help, others I can't. When I might not be able to help them (and many times when I can and give them a price quote anyways) I still am committed to hopefully giving good customer service, and many times, forward their request to different forums I am on in a effort to help them. I don't have to do this at all. I could simply tell them, "go here" even though they are not members and do not wish to sign up a internet site, national or local club or chapter. It is a common courtesy, something lacking by many people nowadays. Not sure if you have seen the thread under 'good guys/bad guys' on www.amcforum.net website. It is under 'date codes'. Sad, but people don't understand, nor want to, the volume of emails and calls I get here. And I would guess they also don't understand, nor would want to, realize that I provide a service to many people, for free, in a effort to help them. I would love to see just one of those sons of bitches even attempt to handle this shit I deal with on a daily basis. I assure you they could not do it. Paige jokes that it is less than minimum wage, of which I am sure it probably is. My satisfaction comes simply be being there to help people with questions and parts. And again, if I can't, I will make every effort to somehow try to help them anyhow. Not sure why this is difficult for small minds to try to even attempt to understand.

Maybe that is what is wrong with the whole AMC hobby in general. You have a few detractors who never contribute shit and complain constantly. Many never join anything nor volunteer, it is just easier to bitch, whine and mope. I should be used to it after 21 years! But sometimes it gets old all over again. It is my guess that this is why more automotive writers, national club newsletter editors, historians, high dollar collectors, vendors, national mixed make auto editors, and many others do not bother to get involved. Simply because they see it as a 'who needs it' problem, where no matter what they do, someone will attempt to find fault. Sort of like the recent Hemming's Muscle Machines SC/360 clone article. Some griped about it not being a 'real SC/360. The point of the article was simply that someone took a chance on a AMC that was headed for the crusher, and turned a ugly duck into a swan, saving a car that will never be reproduced, and doing it on a budget of under $5K, showing others what can be accomplished on a limited budget. With that, we all win, not only by the exposure, but also with those who normally would not give AMC the time of day, maybe just one more car will be saved from the crusher for another generation.

 

In other words, some people just don't get it. I would hope somehow that my efforts by forwarding thousands of emails and calls thru the years have made a difference to those who were looking for a getting-harder-to-find by the minute AMC anything. I hope they found what they were looking for whether a whole car, part, literature, friend, vendor, whatever. I would hope that my "free service" indeed played a part of that somehow and they remember it in the future. I would love to see those who find it easier to sit back, gripe, whine and bitch about how things are not perfect in their world, spend a fraction of the time I have helping people without making a fucking dime. If they have any expertise and are willing to answer directly emails and calls I would be more than happy to flood their phone line and emailbox. In other words, let them handle the shit for awhile. Unpaid. Maybe then they might change their tune and be more willing to help out their fellow AMC fans who may or may not have internet, or might not be members of any AMC/Rambler club/chapter, or know where to look for a item(s) that might be long since obsolete. It is not a easy job I assure you, and not very many vendors are willing to go the extra mile, pointing someone in the right direction, much less for free. I find it ironic that only a few of the thousands of hits my website has took in recent years that only a fraction of people have noticed how much "free services" I have on there, from cars for sale, tech, info, window stickers, registries, even a vendors list, there is not one other vendor out there with other vendors listed on their website. Again, it is easier to sit back and cry than get involved I guess!

http://cgi.amcforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=GoodBad;action=display;num=1084449796

I also wish to add that in the 21+ years I have been in the hobby, as a vendor, I have accumulated a massive amount of literature, photos, memos, paraphernalia from not only dealership buyouts, but also individuals, swap meets, regional and national meets, ebay, businesses, you name it. Armed with much of this stuff I have been able to research, and write informative articles about that model, ask questions, and state facts. I do not fully understand why that is also so hard for some to comprehend. I have a shitload of information at my disposal and use it on a daily basis here in a effort to help others. I don't claim to know it all and there is no one in the hobby that knows it all either. It is not like there is one son-of-dick-teague person associated with AMC that knows everything that happened in the board rooms, on the production line, at every dealership lot, although some with The God Complex might have some believe otherwise. That is fine, they are entitled to their opinions and reference and information also, that is what is part of the fractured AMC hobby, and possibly one day everything will be known about these vehicles. 

Do I know everything about AMC? No. No one does and only a idiot would be as so blind to believe otherwise. You don't buy insurance at the first place you go, nor do you buy the first car you see on the lot, and you always get a second opinion from a doctor. This is how it is with AMC and always will be.  I have spent countless hours, and in some cases years trying to get things right. I'm not a fucking AMC guru, and don't like that tag a 'AMC Guru' to me is a idiot whose self righteous opinions are the word of god. These people exist with Mopar, train hobby, stamp collectors, I'm not saying they should be discounted, but they sure as hell should not be on a little pedestal they built for themselves. If you only have one opinion, evens stated as fact, you will have a mindset that started Germany on a course to war in the 1930s. Same mindset. Ziegheil. So this is why I encourage discussion, and always have, of a variety fo aMC topics, so hopefully one day everyone will find out the truth of whatever matter. As for some of the material in question? This is what I wrote a fellow about it: "That does not give me the right to claim someone's property however. Again, this gets very confusing when the material(s) could have been anywhere for public to see, read. I compare it to a children's song, Twinkle Twinkle Little star. As corny as that sound, who owns the song? Hans Andersen? Barney the dinosaur? Sesame Street? Your neighbor who sings it nightly? Me?

As for my website, I pay $20 a month here to help people out and again, I don't care if I make a fucking dime off them, just as long as they try to keep it fun, and possibly learn something. Many authors are credited, others are not, due to either a variety of reasons, from deceased, or public record/generic, or open records, to some I don't know who the author is, could be Madonna. 

And no, I refuse to get 'baited' into a shit throwing fest on the forum in a thread about this, that is what destroyed the amxfiles website in 2003 from over 800 people to about 400 today, people just got tired of the shit throwing and left. The shit still flies over there and it is a huge reason that site will never live up to it's potential and never have a variety of opinions, from national auto writers, editors, board of directors, club presidents, vendors on it, as I said before above, these people have better things to do than listen to bitching. So they don't bother. And then you have only one or two people with opinions, ideas, facts and well, the AMC fan is the one who loses. Again. In other words, go to your one doctor with one opinion.

Charles Barkley once said it best: "I am not a role model".

And it finally shows why in that thread the whole motive behind it, someone had a hard on for me because of years ago when Tony Zamisch ripped me off on a NOS 70 AMX/Jav dash eyebrow. Yes, that happened in 1990/91, and I got screwed, so the real motive behind the whole thread was obviously to bring something up I had to write off as a loss 14 something years ago. Guess they are pals, but sad to see the forum digress like the files did. It never was a problem of me writing back someone who may, or may not, have been the original author of such material either. When someone writes me in a fucking uncivil manner demanding, why respond to begin with? I rarely get emails like that except from Nigerian dictators who can't seem to get to their $55 Mil. Again, I was NOT about to be intimidated by someone who may or may not have been the author of material I had on my website. And I sure as hell was not about to be baited into a fight like a fucking third grader either, sorry, well past that mentality!

And no, credibility is not the issue here. You are not going to please everyone whether at your job, relatives, soccer club, there are always going to be those who attempt to be Donald Trump and step all over others in a attempt to make themselves king of the mountain. Such is life. There are people who take my opinions as the 'word of god' while others dismiss it. Not a problem either. There is not one person never wrong in the hobby however. And some have been proven wrong on a number of issues, but while a apology or retraction of 'facts' is not a option,  it still would be refreshing one day to see those folks simply, just once, admit possibly they made a mistake! I have made a number of mistakes myself. Who has not. I'm not sure where the David Simon comment came from either, David is a friend of mine and we speak often. As for things I have had in dealership buyouts, don't know why this is so hard to understand or comprehend either, as all I am doing is passing along the information. Some, like Lynn Barton's family was heavily involved with Nash, Rambler and AMC since the 40s in Staunton, VA. And they had boxes upon boxes of bulletins, forms, memos, everything one could possibly think of for decades, they saved everything. And they had several knowledgeable people like Lynn who did a lot of research, and documentation thru the years. Again, I simply do not understand one dismissing ones' credibility at another's expense. It is not like one sole person has researched these cars we love, nor only one has the keys to the vault. Obviously many did, just like other marques. 

This is one of the biggest problems, with the AMC Hobby, and always will be:
" Now everyone knows the info-which is good"

This dooms us more than anything I could ever print or write. Fact or Fiction. Thank God there are a number of people who are willing to print and share their information like Mays, Foster, Zinn to name a few. Maybe one day everyone will agree as to what is right or wrong, correct and incorrect, what was done on the lines and what was done at dealerships, what you could or could not order, what is a Donohue and is not, and all the damned cards will be on the table while there are still a few cars left, until then, there will be nothing more than a wide variety of those who may or may not know. 

A educated hobby is a strong hobby. 

 

Eddie Stakes