In 1998 I brought home the first car that my wife, Tani, wasn’t thrilled to have in the driveway.
I believe Craigslist was at fault for this one but can’t remember exactly how I found it.
This Rambler checked a lot of boxes for me and I had to have it:
I have always had a love of station wagons.
It was a 1964, like my Ford Falcon Sprint I had sold a few years earlier.
It was rarer than the common Ford or Chevy wagons.
It was orange. <- This was probably the most important.
The car didn’t run. In fact, I didn’t know when it last ran. It wasn’t one of those “ran when parked” scenarios. I don’t even remember how I got it to my house! I do remember the car was practically free. Around $200 if I remember correctly.
The Rambler had a 287 cubic inch V8 and a 3-speed automatic transmission. None of that was important to me though as I had other plans for it.
In my mind, this car only needed two things to be cool.
1. A fuel injected V8 engine
2. Air bag suspension so it could be slammed to the ground.
I scraped together enough money to have my brother, who worked at www.autogator.com, source a fuel injected Ford 5.0 out of a fox body Mustang.
For inspiration of how the car would look with air bags I took the coil springs out of the front and rear suspension. The car was SLAMMED.
Honestly, I had bitten off more than I could chew.
I knew nothing about Ramblers and quickly started to learn that parts were hard to find and expensive once you found them.
I also began to realize that I didn’t know anything about actually swapping the new Ford 302 engine into the Rambler.
Not to mention, I really couldn’t afford a project car at the time as we had our first child due in a few months.
The car sat in one stall of our 3-car garage for many months as I tried to figure out how I was going to get it on the road with no money and a complete lack of knowledge on what needed to be done. (YouTube wouldn’t launch for another 7 years!)
A short time later we decided to sell our house in Reno and move back to California to be with family. I eventually sold the Ford 5.0 engine to recoup some costs.
I tried to sell the Rambler but couldn’t get any takers.
Eventually, my friend John and I pushed the car out into the street in front of my house to get it out of the garage. Since the car had never been registered to me, I called the county and reported it as an abandoned vehicle on the street. A few days later it was towed away.
I still have a love for funky old station wagons and I still plan to own another orange car someday. Maybe I’ll find another 1964 Rambler Classic Wagon?
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