[Coco] CoCo crew old car reference

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 02 June 2017 17:29:11 farna at amc-mag.com wrote:

> I've had an AMC Rambler since 1979! A few might remember the 91-96 or
> so CoCoFest years when I usually drove my green 63 American from
> Warner-Robins, GA, to Elgin. One night Allen Huffman, Linda Podraza,
> and someone else (can't recall now!) went into Chicago to eat at the
> Hardrock. Taxi slammed on brakes in front of me in town on the way
> home. I caught his back bumper on a front headlight. The headlights on
> the old Rambler are at least 2' off the ground... that's how hard that
> idiot stood on his brakes! Luckily I rode a motorcycle a lot -- as
> soon as I saw he was going to stop I looked for a way out -- knew I
> couldn't stop fast enough, even though I wasn't going fast or
> following close. He started to go through a yellow light... gunned it
> then changed his mind (no traffic, back road!) abruptly and stood on
> the brake with both feet!! Well, at least he got out and looked at my
> car, then his. Only bent the back bumper a bit on his late 80s LTD...
> so he said no need to call the cops (might have been drinking...).
> Jeez... well, thanks for that anyway! Fender was crushed into tire. I
> had a tow strap in the trunk. Hooked it to lip of fender and a
> convenient light pole, backed up and pulled fender out. Holed the
> radiator, but I had a gallon water jug too! Filled radiator, drove 30
> minutes or so, stopped, refilled, repeat twice more. Finally got in
> about 4 AM IIRC!! Tony was a little worried...   What an adventure!! I
> ended up staying at Tony and Linda's a couple days while a local shop
> fixed the radiator, beat the fender into enough submission to drive
> home. Got a LOT more comments at gas stations and such with the
> crunched fender... lots of condolences!!
>
> Sold that car in late 1999 when I found my current 63 Classic wagon.
> Built myself, everything but paint (and I did spray the interior paint
> and primer on outside!).
> Jeep 4.0L EFI engine, slightly modified, Jeep AW4 four speed (OD) auto
> trans with custom manual shift controller, late 80s T-bird rack and
> pinion steering, late 80s Jaguar independent rear suspension. Only
> four wheel independent suspension/disc brake Rambler on the road! Also
> has a cobbled together AC system with the original 63 inside unit,
> Jeep 4.0L Sanden compressor, late 90s Chrylser LS parallel flow
> condensor, universal dryer. Seats are from an early 90s Eagle
> Premier... power buckets in front, along with the console from the
> same. It's a mild hot-rod with the hopped up six. Still gets 22-24 mpg
> on the highway, averages around 20 mpg combined. Built it to drive --
> was my daily driver while I was in the USAF, from late 99 (well,
> basically 2000) through 2008 or so. Retired in 2007, got a J-10 for
> work around the house, later replaced with a Ranger. Wanted to rebuild
> the J-10, just ran out of time/money... well, mostly patience as the
> build was going too slow and I needed a truck! So sold the parts off
> and got the Ranger. Worst thing I ever did!! Still have the 63 wagon,
> doing some slight upgrade work on it now. Will be driving it up to
> Kenosha, WI, in late July for an AMC Homecoming show, happens every
> three years.

Backup another 30 some years to when it said Nash on it, 49 Ambassador, 4 
door. The main thing it lacked was enough brakes to haul it in from 
around 120 mph without cooking the drums a 1/2" out of round.

That big tall stroker of a 6 cylinder with teeny pistons running a 4 inch 
stroke was a blast.  I needed to snug up the conrods and reseat the 
valves shortly after I'd bought it, but in those days Motors had the cam 
timing figures right in their big blue book. Amazingly the timing was 
quite early, possibly to help the low end torque, but after doing a port 
and polish on the intake manifold, and finding a bigger throated Carter 
single barrel that I bought a bag of assorted jets and needles for, I 
lagged the cam timing a tooth on the chain.  It bucked the starter too, 
so I had to rig an ignition retarder, then pulled the timing back up for 
best idle.  By 2500 revs I could hear a light ping, so half the weights 
in the distributor left, then there were none on the next reassembly.

That head, combined with flat topped pistons made a squish area that got 
more violent as the revs went up. That counteracted the lack of any 
spark advance over and above the 30 some degrees it idled best at.  The 
tappets were mushroom shaped faces, 2" in diameter, and the cam lobes 
were as square as any I've ever seen.  That engine could take a deep 
breath and mean it. It was full race then purposely detuned. 

But when the light turned green, and low gear had made it to around 2500, 
from there on it was Katy bar the door. This was circa late '55, and 
there was only one vehicle in Iowa City that could dust it, a 55 chevy 
with the 270 horse Duntov engine in it.

Still single, I could throw a suitcase of dirty clothes in it, hit old US 
6 for a run to the folks place in Redfield & use mothers old Easy 
Spindryer, about 30 miles west of Des Moines, running 90 to 125 
indicated all the way and getting at least 19 mpg.  Iowa had a speed 
limit on the open road in those days of "reasonable and proper". That 
was the funnest vehicle I ever had. Few factory cars could touch it. For 
the lean angles it gave in the corners, it still stuck like superglue. 
Some of those long sweepers on that old road I'd set it into the corner, 
straighten the wheel and steer with the throttle.  Highly enjoyable 
times, those.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming now.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
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