I Guess I'm just an AMC Guy!!
Let me start off by saying hello to all.........I’m going to tell you a little about me and my sickness.
I Guess it all started way back in 1983, yeah I know I’m old. My friend had a car in his yard that he was not driving and wanted to sell it to me. We were all getting our drivers license that year and the Volkswagen Super Beetle my dad gave me for my first car was the furthest thing from cool for a bunch of gearheads.
I had no idea what this purchase was to do with my life. It was a 1968 Javelin with a 290 / Automatic, it was primer gray and it was pretty much a beater but I loved its shape and style. From that point forward I was an AMC Guy.
Since then I have taken a beating from big 3 owners with the usual AMC = "Almost A Car" & "Another Misfit Car" "American made Crap" & JEEP “Just everybody else’s parts” You Know what I’m saying here. I can't help it if I did not want to be like everybody else and drive a belly button "A Camaro is like a belly button because everybody has one"
So tell me...what is a guy supposed to do? Keep on keepin on is what I did, from that point forward I have owned various models of AMC's and Jeeps. All of them have quite interesting stories that could only be had with driving an AMC. For instance my first Javelin after a while started leaking oil out the front oil seal and I drove anyway, at the time I was a driver not a mechanic. It left oil trails everywhere I stopped, but did I care..NO I was driving my Javelin. The tranny lost reverse, usually a problem and would most likely get sent to the tranny shop or scrap heap back then....Not me……. I drove it for about 6 months. Nothing like driving through a parking lot looking for that double spot I could pull through so I could get out. Many fond memories from that first AMC. I owned a 1968 Javelin with a 3 speed manual tranny. Ever have one of these god awful trannys with the two rods that slide forward and back? It was awful, it used to jamb itself into two gears at once but having the shifter handle grab both rods at the same time and forcing it into gears. Here's a fond memory....I'm sure you guys have all gone to your local fireworks display for the 4th of July. Now we all know traffic is kind of busy after the finale and me and my friends wanted to beat the rush. We hopped into my trusty Jav and headed on out, well wouldn't you know the tranny did it's trick again except this time I was on a hill and to make it interesting I picked the main road that everybody had to use to get out of the traffic jam. You should have heard the horns...I was in front of 90% of the traffic. Since that time I have learned to be quite handy and learned my way around both mechanical and body aspects of a vehicle.
I could go on for days, but I won't. I have also owned a 42 Willy's CJ-2A which still had its 6 volt wiring in place. I used it to plow my driveway, an old 66 Kaiser J3000 Pickup truck (Kaiser was the name before Jeep), 71 Hornet, 69 Rambler, 69 AMX, 70 Mark Donohue Javelin (Which I still own today), 87 Wagoneer limited which was a Cherokee with woodrgrain and the cool ambassador looking double headlight grille, 97 YJ Wrangler, and my 1990 Cherokee which I am currently driving.
My sickness goes beyond just me, for example my wife wanted to get a new car for safety and reliability since we now have two kids. What do I buy her??? we bought a first year Liberty in 2002. She wanted a Dodge Durango, it just so happens that the Jeep dealership was right across the street from the Dodge dealer. I kept looking across the street saying to my wife...Why don't we go look over there?? Good call because she loved it. She now drives a 2005 Liberty. My tastes have changed with my age (A Little) I now drive my Donohue with respect and keep my vehicles mechanically sound (If possible) But one thing remains.....I will stick to my guns even when the dude in the Staurn / Neon / Rice bucket or whatever drives by me as I am stuck on the side of the road in my broken jeep, I will think silently to myself....Glad I'm not driving that hunk of crap!
But why stop there, I’m sure I will influence my son and daughter into driving an AMC / Jeep Vehicle it’s just what I do.
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I'm Just an AMC Guy
