Here's my lovely little AMC Concord sedan that I picked up this weekend for 75 bucks. I drove it all over hell's half-acre, and found that the only things wrong with it are grabby brakes, a dimly glowing charging light, and a slight hard-start condition when hot. The body is nearly mint, with the only damage being a couple of subtle bangs and bruises, a deep scratch at the bottom of the lower right fender, and a somewhat pushed-in rear bumper. Old-style 258 straight-six runs strong, column shift automatic shifts nice. I love it already!
Above are some pics I snapped the day I got it, and here's what it looks like today:
The car was owned by an elderly lady who passed away in February 2008. She had trained as a mechanic and kept the car maintained, waxed, and under cover. On day 2, I took the Concord to the car wash to scrape off some of the turtle wax she'd applied to the vinyl top--I found that dish detergent and hot water worked really well, followed up with a pressure washing at the coin-op.
The rear, showing the bumper damage. The bumper remains straight, so it may just need a new shock. My friend Chris has given my Concord a temporary home in his garage, while I figure out some permanent digs for it.
The vinyl top gleamed like new after I got some Armor All onto it. No rust or rot anywhere around it. Check out the totally retro striped blue velour interior! This was apparently an option for Concords and Spirits only, which is why I've never seen seats like this in an Eagle. Gotta love the burl walnut dash, again like my Eagle only different.
Here's the straight six. New radiator and battery. Plugs and wires not replaced since 2006. It's got a slight manifold leak, just loud enough to sound tough, not enough to do anything about.
JANUARY 2009: After swapping out the bad master cylinder, I've been beating around in the Concord as my daily driver this month. It's been running good, and its carb issues (hard-starting when hot, cutting out occasionally while going around corners) are evening themselves out. Below is the Concord out on the street on Capitol Hill, looking as much like a cop car as that stealth Crown Vic. In the next pair of pics, it's up on Queen Anne hill, overlooking the Seattle skyline at dusk. And don't forget that it's been my little grocery getter and shop hauler this month, too. There it is in the Costco parking lot.
Spring is here, and this weekend my Concord was out in the driveway with two of my other rides: the Escort GT and the diesel Escort.
I've swapped out the master cylinder, which took care of the Concord's braking issues; and rebuilt the carb with the help of John at Autosport. Replaced a faulty headlight switch, which was causing the lights to flash on and off randomly after they'd been on for awhile. Swapped out a tranny mount for one that was slightly split but not causing problems. Replaced the radiator cap and changed the oil.
April 2009: New Tires!
The Concord was well past due for some new meats, as it was spinning the tires on accelleration and locking them up on braking all over the place. I inspected the Sears-brand tires that came with the car and found they had no size markings on the sidewall, putting them at 10-15 years old at least. The DOT marking indicated the tires were manufactured in 1991. That's an 18-year-old set of tires. Safe!
Though I initially figured that raised white letters would be too agressive a look for this nice refined little granny car, I decided to bite the bullet and go for a set of Firehawk Indy 500s. First I popped the hubcaps and removed the wheel weights and with the old tires still mounted, spraybombed each of the wheels with Rustoleum Professional semi-gloss black. For that NASCARed-out look.
The next day I got the new tires mounted at the Firestone dealership. I took a bit of a gamble on the size, which was one wider than the biggest recommended for Concord. They're 215/70/14's. I dig the old-school chubby-sidewall look, the white letters look tough as all getout, and they fill out the wheel wells nicely. No rubbing!
Next, I need to address the lower ball joint that's about to fall out on the passenger side, and to get the alignment done.
Also on the project roster...
KYB shocks front and rear
Taylor race wires, plus full tune-up
K&N filter
Rebuild alternator to fix bad diode
Fix paint (touch-up, block sand and wax)
Left rear bumper shock
Replace broken headlight alignment screws
Euro blue headlight conversion
This will all be done in the month of April, so stay tuned!
April 11-12:
Passenger-side lower ball joint: done.
Check out the crusty old rear shocks next to the new ones...
Replacing the front shocks. It was weird to see the coil springs with light shining through from up top and nothing in 'em:
This is the new KYB Gas-Adjust next to the old Sears shock. Installed pics coming soon.
New 8mm Taylor Spiro Pro race wires! Bosch platinum plugs, too. Now all I have to do is clean up that nasty motor with some AMC turquoise...
The Concord as seen through the Impala's fender. And check out my new K&N filter!
April 14: Concord on the alignment rack at the Firestone!
And on the roof of Target, later the same day:
I took the Concord up to Vancouver, BC for a quick visit with family and friends. It rode great on all its new parts--straight as an arrow all the way up the highway. It actually drives so nice now that I found it easy to get it going a lot faster than I intended, which is a bit of a problem since it doesn't have a working speedo. The Concord was passing fools left and right, but no hassle from the cops. Here it is on Main Street in Vancouver, shotly after we arrived, and on the right, it's sitting in front of my mom's office downtown:
On my second day in town I took it out to Stanley Park, a great Vancouver location for photographing cars. Too bad it was a pea-soupy kind of day, but the following sunny day was Saturday and I didn't want to deal with the crowds.
