After researching the spare 1960 196ci engine that came with the car I was convinced to find a newer 232ci to swap in.  The 232 should be easier to fabricate motor mounts for. The parts are easier and cheaper to get, and it should perform better that the old 196.

I needed to find a 1968–72 engine that would bolt to the 1963 bell housing of my existing transmission. CL to the rescue, I found a rebuilt engine from a 1968 Javelin an hour and a half away.

Transporting home to start its new life.

Team Fool Injected has acquired its vehicle for the 2012, Big Apple to Big Easy ride from New York to New Orleans.

http://www.streetsafari.com/streetsafari-events/bigapple2bigeasy-babe-rally/

It is the Motor Trend car of the year a 1963 Rambler 660 Cross Country Station Wagon!

I have been searching intently for a $500 vehicle for our inaugural BABE Rally. There were a lot of no callbacks, a couple of missed opportunities, and some “you have got to be kidding you want how much for that” moments.

I almost missed seeing the Rambler. It was just outside my craigslist search area, but Sunday afternoon, instead of doing something productive around the house I was hitting the internet hard looking for the perfect vehicle.

I stumbled across the CL add. “1963 Rambler Wagon 660 – $500 (Silver Spring) Blown 6 cyl motor but the car is in pretty good shape. Needs some work and it will be the ultimate surf wagon. Have another motor but it’s a 1960 and the motor mounts will have to be changed. Lots of spare parts. Call with questions.”

The pictures looked good. I checked with my wife Diane, team member #1, and sent a text to my buddy Kevin, team member #2. They both approved so I called up the seller John. He answered his phone but was at the store and he asked me to call him back in 15 minutes. I said just call me back on my number when could talk. 45 minutes later and I hadn’t heard anything I called him back and it went to voice mail and I left a message. Hmmm, he sounded interested in talking to me. After another 45 minutes he called me back. It turns out his battery had died and his cell was in the car charging. I got the information on the car, and it sounded like it was worth a trip. The problem was he was 2 hours away and by the time I would have arrived, it would have been dark. I have a standing rule of not looking at cars in the dark (especially $500 cars) I asked what the sellers availability was and he said he could meet me during the day Monday or Tuesday… perfect.

I had commitments at work on Monday but it looked like I could take the afternoon off on Tuesday to check out the car. Plus the weather was going to be much nicer on Tuesday. I called the John at 11:30 on Monday to see if we could meet Tuesday afternoon. He said someone else was coming to look at it at noon, but to call him back at 1:00. If the guy didn’t take it we could meet Tuesday. Aggghhh $#!^%#$

1:15 I called John back and he said it was still available and to come on down Tuesday. WooHoo. 

Kevin showed up at my house at noon on Tuesday. I called John to make sure it hadn’t been sold in the last 24 hours, and he said come on down. I said great, I’m bringing a trailer. We stopped by U-Haul and picked up a car trailer. Since I have not towed anything with my newer truck since I had taken the 2” factory lift blocks off the spring to level out the ride, the trailer was riding low. After flipping the hitch over and flipping the ball, we were on our way.

The Rambler sounded like I would be bringing it home but even if I didn’t I was only out $60 for the rental. I would spend close to that in fuel for the truck making a second trip down.

We got to John’s house and the Rambler looked better than I had expected. It was solid, the interior was nice, and there was a bunch of spare parts. We’ll take it! The only problem was the gaping hole in the block which I knew about.

The rest of the afternoon was spent loading everything up. John was a great guy and helped us get everything loaded. He had a lift we used to put the spare engine in the back of the truck.

We unhooked the trailer from the truck, blocked the trailer wheels, and with a long rope John had I pulled the car up onto the trailer. It was easier then trying to use the come-along we brought.

After some running back and forth, because we forgot the cars gas tank, we were back on the road and headed north. We decided to take an alternate route home and try to avoid the DC / Baltimore traffic. Both Kevin and I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and we were starving, the sun had gone down and it was hard to tell from the highway what exit to get off for some good food. I finally picked an exit. We saw some possible choices in the westbound side and decided to turn the truck around in an AutoZone parking lot. I wanted to get the Rambler used to where the auto parts stores were.  It looked like I could take the trailer around the back of the building to turn around, but I ended up in a dead end. I did find out that when you spin a dual axle trailer around on itself, the tires do cool things.

We got turned around and ended up at“Coal Fire Pizza” With some awesome pizza cooked in a 900 degree anthracite coal fired pizza oven. Yum

After some food and beverages we were back on the road. Our friend Steve from Team Jackwagon had just rented a 1500 square ft garage to work on his car and offered us space for the wagon project. He just got the keys earlier in the day and we were moving in before he was able to get his car over to the garage. What a great guy. After some sliding around on the ice and a really small garage door opening the wagon came to rest at its temporary home.

Here is a gratuitous engine shot. 195.5 cubic inches of straight six glory.

The gas tank is out. It had a leak, and should be recoated.

We had some 2x4s at the garage that we used to slide the engine off the truck. Again saving our backs.

I’m looking forward to starting to tear into the project and see what I dragged home.