I got this car in a barter trade about 3 years ago and just started on it this past December. This is going to be my wife's car and I thought it would be a cool ls swap. The car is from Arizona and has sat in upstate NY for the last 20 years of it's life in a gravel parking lot. The car itself is in great shape minus the windshield crack that rotted out the front floorboards. The Torque boxes and uni-body are very clean. I like the pitina on it but she wants to paint it a forest green so we decided it's going to be forest green. It was a 199 with 3 on the Tree that actually ran after some messing around with it back in 2014. The goal is to have it running, stopping and driving before the Syracuse Nationals this year in July. If I have enough time to get it painted and get the interior in it, I will. Rundown on the parts:

2002 4.8- Ls1 Intake
862's with PAC1218's. China studs, Ls9 HG's.
Sloppy Stage 1 cam
4l80e with stock TC
Front Disk Brake Conversion from a Concord. New in Box from 25 Years ago!
Ford 8.8 out of a 92 Ranger with 3.27 Gears.(1.5" longer than a AMC 15)
Flipped Trunk Mani's with Monkey Fab T4 Support & Flange.
Borg Warner S475 T4 off my firebird.
80lb's, -8an feed, -6an return, AEM380, China rails. 65 Mustang Gas Tank.
PSI Harness, American Auto Wire Main Harness, 02 PCM Tuned with HPT.
17" Grey Torque Thrust Wheels.
Black and Grey Gut

 

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Off to a good start.

 

That light little car should be crazy quick!

 

I really like AMC Ramblers and this one is perfect. The patina would stay if it was me, but forest green would look good too.

 

Hell yeah another AMC!!! Off to a great start.

 

Car is running and driving! Fought me the entire way but getting all the bugs worked out. The interior will be all in this weekend and will paint it over the winter. It's really fun to drive and worth all the work.

Bodyworked the dash and painted all interior trim pieces instead of trying to find a dashpad. Ended up going with the Insight Edge and Autometer Analog gauges for the dash. Really like the set up in this.

 

That is a great looking car. You did a good job with the swap. It's amazing what a set of wheels and tires will do to a vehicle!!!

Care to share some pictures of the transmission tunnel that you fabbed up to fit the 4l80e?

 

Thank you and much appreciated. Pics below of the tunnel.

 

I know patina is the new hotness, but I don't get the attraction. I think the car is going to look fantastic in that forest green color.

 

Man that looks great. I didn't think it was going to, in all honesty I thought why put such effort into that dumpy body style, but man, the wheels really brought that thing to life. You got just the right rake on it too.

You do good work. You got that together in a hurry. Need some burn out videos next.

 

That trans tunnel looks great!

Personally for me, the patina makes the car look old and worn, but new suspension and new drivetrain makes it so it could be a reliable daily driver. But also, the completely refinished, absolutely perfect show car thing is a little boring now a days IMO. It's great and I still love a perfectly finished hotrod, but I want to drive my car everyday. I want to hammer on it and not be scared to get it a little dirty. I want to drive it hundreds of miles at a time, front end rock chips be damned. Plus the patina gives it some character. Shows the hard life it's lived and the new life it's been given.

Check out ICON's Derelict cars. They're building older cars with all new frames, suspension, engine, transmission, etc. They build perfection out of older cars with the perfect patina.

 

love your car

 

Great job! Turned out looking almost stock. You should surprise a lot of people on the street!
Jarhead

 

always liked those cars...nice work

 

Always loved the simplicity of this body style. Did a tune up for a HS classmate of mine that drove an early American with a flathead 6. Agree with your wife -- paint the car. The word 'patina' stems from a Latin root which means "I didn't finish my car". 'Sloppy' comes from the Greek -- means "I'm a really bad mechanic".

 

ROFLMAO!!!!
I agree, the Rambler/AMC American is one of my favorite body styles. It just says "neat small American sedan" to me.

 

haha. The car isn't finished and its a bit sloppy!

But it will be painted this winter and it will look good. I don't know if I would have done the green but I built it for my wife and that's what she wants. Going to drive it the rest of the summer/fall and work out all the bugs. Got it driving/shifting/idling great right now and its fun to drive. Keep the boost around 10lbs-12lbs and make it last awhile.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

 

What kind of output does one get from a 4.8L at 10-12 psig?

Edit - occurs to me that one reason I like this so much is that the Rambler American 2-door looked a lot like a Volvo 242 before there was a Volvo 242.