Greetings and thank you for visiting our site. We wanted to share our excitement and progress as we embark on a new and challenging project. We’ve always wanted to have a really special old car and restore it to new (or better than new) condition. Not only for the sake of having something special, but also just for doing our part to preserve a small piece of automotive history. While I prefer the muscle cars of the 1960’s (of which I missed out by about 10 years), my wife mostly prefers the cute, simple “Putt-Putts” as I call them. Most importantly, though, we both love cars. We are finally able to begin enjoying this wonderful hobby and were very choosy about the car we selected for our first project. We wanted something different… something you didn’t see over and over again at every car show you attended. It seems that every car show has row upon row of Camaros, Firebirds, Corvettes, Mustangs and the like. Don’t get me wrong, we love those cars, but sometimes it seems like everybody has one. We wanted it to be very rare, but we don’t have the luxury of a bottomless bank account, so we had to be reasonable (I would love an early model Packard, but WOW!!!... Bill Gates I am not!).
So we set about searching the web, car magazines & etcetera, trying to find our “special” car. One night while cruising E-Bay I remembered a long forgotten car that I once saw as a young guy and thought was really cool looking. We looked it up and viola!... there it was. I don’t remember exactly what year it was, but it was one of the ’71 to ’74 era Javelins. Of course we saw some of the 2 seaters as well but the little lady liked the later body style better (she said it was sleek and sexy). We began researching the models, years and options to find out which were the rarest and settled upon the 1971 AMX because of the limited production numbers (2054). But this wasn’t enough… we found that only 745 of these came from the factory with a 401 cid engine and that the “Go-Pak” option package would trim down the numbers even further.
We had defined our dream and were ready to begin our search… we were looking for a 1971 AMX with a 401 and the Go-Pak option. It turned out to be a very long and arduous search, utilizing every method we could think of, including newspapers, special interest newsgroups, E-Bay searches and internet automobile advertising sites. We joined AMO to gain access to their newsletters and advertising as well. Ultimately, our efforts paid off through signing up to receive an e-mail notification from one of the popular advertising sites when our search criteria were met.
After 8 months of searching, we got an e-mail on a Tuesday evening about 10:00 PM and clicked through to view the ad. On Wednesday, I called the poor guy about 4 times, stressing my desire and determination to buy his car. I think he must have felt sorry for me, or maybe he could relate to my passion, but for whatever reason (thank goodness) he agreed to hold the car until we could get there to see it. We left at 6:30 PM on Thursday and drove 27 hours straight through, only stopping when not doing so would have resulted in soiling the upholstery in our Toyota. Fast food junkies for a day, gulping down grease-burgers in the car, we stopped just short of our destination and stayed in a hotel on Friday night and then drove another 4 hours on Saturday until we pulled up in his driveway.
Well, we loved the car… all of the numbers and features checked out and it was exactly what we were looking for. We verified the original drivetrain was still in the car and the car was 99.9% complete (only missing one piece of trim). Even better, it was an early build with a November ’70 build date. The only problem was that in 1981, the owner at the time got a write-up from his service man that there was a rod knocking in the engine. This was the point at which the car got parked in the garage where it stayed until 2005. I wasn’t about to let that stop me and the gentleman generously agreed to let the car stay until we could arrange shipping, so we bought the car and headed home (much less intense than the trip out, you can be sure!).
I’ll never forget the childish excitement I felt when I saw that semi navigating the round-about with that car on the back. It was almost like finding your long-lost love after many years of searching. The trucker followed me home and we carefully unloaded our prize. The links on the left margin of the page will pick up where I’ve left off here and let you follow our quest. I hope you enjoy your visit and come back often to see our progress. I’m sure it will be slow progress, since this is our first attempt (and, as I mentioned previously, we’re not in the top 10%) but I assure you, notwithstanding any unforeseen tragedies, we will progress and we will finish this car.
Enjoy, share our excitement and journey with us… |
Our Restoration Project |
