The BSRi AMX: A Rare Piece of American History
One day, Mark was talking about his latest project, an American Motor AMX. He mentioned that he had purchased a rare model from a friend and was eager to share its story with others. The car in question was a 1968 AMX, one of only 4,000 made that year, and it came with a 290 automatic transmission combination. Mark explained that when cars like this were built, technology was expensive, but labor was cheap. This contrast is still evident today, where the cost of materials has increased significantly, while labor costs have decreased.
As Mark continued to discuss his AMX, he mentioned that he had recently taken it on a long-distance ride for the first time. He described the experience as enjoyable and stated that he loved riding in the car. When asked if the original 8-track player was still functional, Mark replied that it didn't work initially but was eventually repaired by sending it to a radio repair shop. He also mentioned that 8-track tapes are becoming increasingly rare due to their fragility.
The AMX's success was notable, with American Motor selling approximately 19,000 units between 1968 and 1970. Mark's particular car was one of the limited production runs, making it a highly sought-after collector's item. He shared that he had purchased the car from a friend who had been collecting rare cars, including the AMX.
Mark also discussed his experience with the AMX's restoration process. He mentioned that his friend, Allen the Builder, was responsible for rebuilding the car, which required a significant amount of time and effort. The process involved disassembling the entire vehicle, replacing worn-out parts, and reassembling everything on a rotisserie. Mark joked about how he would have been happy to just get the suspension fixed that day.
As the restoration neared completion, Mark took the AMX for a spin, taking it up on the freeway to test its performance. He praised the car's handling, stating that it tracked well and stopped straight. The only minor issues were with the horn and a few other details, which were easily fixable. Mark also mentioned that he had contacted the local AMX club for support, as they often have spare parts and technical expertise to share.
Mark concluded his story by thanking Allan for him and the other members of the AMX club for their help and guidance throughout the restoration process. He praised the camaraderie and knowledge shared among car enthusiasts who have the same vehicles, citing the AMC Club's willingness to assist as an example. The article concludes with Mark's appreciation for the rare AMX and his gratitude for sharing its story with others.
Some Fun Facts About the AMX
The 1968 AMX is a highly sought-after collector's item due to its rarity and nostalgic value.
American Motor sold approximately 19,000 AMX units between 1968 and 1970, making it a relatively successful model.
Only about 4,000 AMXs were produced in 1968, with around 400 of those models featuring the 290 automatic transmission combination.
The cost of materials for cars like this has increased significantly over time, while labor costs have decreased.
Mark's experience with the AMX restoration highlights the importance of sharing knowledge and resources among car enthusiasts who share similar interests.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome another episode of Jay lon's garage today's car is a 1968 AMX fascinating car kind of American Motors version of a Corvette if you will pretty powerful why is it pink well this car has a fascinating story I remember this car when I was 18 years old Mark Melvin well come on in Mark you're the owner of this car and you got your AMX shirt on so you're in the AMX Club I imagine yes sir now before we get into the history of AMX tell us why it's pink well the story of this car starts 5 years earlier than 68 in 1964 when Playboy started giving their Playmate of the Year a car which they all happen to be pink right so uh the fifth year 1968 Playboy went to the Factory American Motors and ordered this car and they wanted it painted Playmate pink that's the official name of the color of the car okay and they ordered it to Angela Dorian the 1968 Playboy play made of the Year this is her grand prize car I think I remember her here's her picture of course I remember her it's 18 yeah now as playmat of the year she kept this car for a long time didn't she yes how how many years she have it uh she had the car from uh 1968 all the way up till 2010 when I bought it wow and was it still pink well actually uh all the Playmates change the color of the car they drew too much attention to him cops for example would pull him over to get an autograph right guys would follow them home sure sure so every Playmate including this one changed the color of the car this Playmate first changed it to to a chocolate brown right then a silver and then finally 20 years later uh to Black it was black when I bought it and then you put it back to Pink CU you hopefully want to be Playmate of the Year one year no no yeah yeah no but then what then I think isn't she currently in jail now isn't that the story yes she shot husband yes there was a problem in the purchase of the car where there was no title to it right and so I kept pounding the car lot where I bought it hey I need the title of the car and I there it wasn't there so I had her name phone number and address I was ready to contact her directly and then I got an email one day saying that she just shot her husband that's great now how am I going to talk to her right right yeah yeah that's typical Car Guy forget shot the husband listen I need the title yeah see that's a true car guy forget the dead husband what what we need to tell so she's in prison now yes okay so and you've got the car and you returned it back to its stock configuration was it hard to do were the original Wheels still with it were all all of this there were original Wheels like this they were in very poor condition as the rest of the car was okay and were you in the uh AMX club before is this your first AMX tell us about it no actually I have this is my second AMX I have another one that I bought uh when I was 18 years old all right uh I still have the car today I've had it 38 years wow okay okay well don't shoot your wife you got two more years so be careful you that's terrible is yours an automatic also or a fourspeed my car is a fourspeed oh fourspeed a 390 actually a 401 oh 401 okay was that was it available with the 401 okay okay you put that in okay now did you do the restoration on this car do you have it done no I had some uh friends in the club help me oh okay okay now you have a friend Allan what is what is his job uh Allen was the the main Chief mechanic uh builder of this car come on in how you doing hi Alan how are you great how you doing come on over here tell us uh tell us a little bit about what it took to restore this car how far gone was it very poor condition there was not a straight panel on it the only part that was straight on the car were the windshield pels from here down to the bottom of the windshield other than that the quarter panels were damaged the doors were damaged the fenders were damaged we had to replace the hood the left Fender the right Fender we had such a tough time finding that we actually rebuilt the original Fender so uh the quarter panel on the right side was all rusted out at the bottom which is typical of AMC Cars right uh this side had a rip in the quarter panel that I had to uh hammer Weld and put back together wow uh the rear panel of the car it had been rear ended and the rear body panel was pushed into the gas tank and it actually collapsed the gas tank oh jeez so those panels were all removed and straightened as well as the uh crossmember on the radiator support on the lower front side was damaged it was uh totally separated from both frame rails now are you an AMC guy is that your main uh place of interest American Motors cars you just do everything well as Mark said when he was a teenager he had an AMX and I had an AMX when I was a teenager also okay okay I had a 394 speeed car right and then uh when I moved out to California my dream was always to get another AMX 3 4 years before Mark got this car I had just completed mine oh okay and I did a full rotisserie roation just like this one okay tell us I am not real familiar I mean I remember when they come out and I thought they were pretty cool I thought it was really neat that American Motors built essentially a two-seater sports car are they really a sports car I mean do they handle pretty well is it more more just like a traditional car with a sporty body well this car was designed as a sports car uh from AMC to compete with the Corvette right and in 1968 when they took this up against a 1968 Corvette the Corvette was just a few seconds faster than the AMX right okay but it it was a very competitive car and AMC has a lot of drag racing history they had built uh 53 SS uh drag race AMX cars that were 10sec drag race cars and I remember the rebel remember that car that was sort of like their Chevy Nova with the big motor in it basically same s of setup so uh let's open the hood can we see what it looks like under the hood sure is it all stock under the hood it's all stock was that the idea to put it back to exactly as it was we uh tried to put the car back as closely as possible to the original state of when this car was sold on an AMC lot wow look at that so well you really did a ground up restoration didn't you yeah yes everything how long it take you to do the car I work a full-time job so I did this uh two years on the on the side uh weekends and week nights so it says typhoon 290 is that 290 horsepower was that the horsepower in the car uh it's a 290 cubic inch engine oh 29 oh okay 29 oh I'm sorry I thought it wasc uses the same engine they they have um in the 68 ammx uh they have a 290 a 343 and a 390 engine which is the engine blocks are very similar on the outside but there just the internal workings the stroke and the B is just a little bit oh I just assumed this was a 390 y okay so it's a 290 okay and what's the horsepower on this about 230 and three-speed automatic transmission right yes and AMC used a uh a lot of different parts this car is got um it's got a borgan Warner Transmission in it okay it's a got a Ford starter in it and it's got a Ford AC compressor on it it's got a Delco Remy distributor and it's also got a Ford power steering pump and a sagg a steering box so AMC used a lot of different things yeah cuz that was coming kind of getting near the end there for AMC wasn't it yeah well they went to other manufacturers to to build the car make it and obviously that is that dual master that stock that's a dual Master it's got power disc brakes on the front Okay and it came with power dis brakes on the front right power disc yes yeah well beautiful restoration nicely done thank you do you have to have this paint mixed special the paint is a really interesting uh story because we didn't have any of the pink paint on the car to really take a spot of right to match the color one day when I was stripping the paint off of the car I happened to take the underside of the deck lid and put some paint remover on it yeah and I found a spot on the deck lid where the paint was not adhering to the pink paint right and when I put the paint remover on it just lifted the paint right off of the pink and and then we just polished the pink and I ended up taking the deck lid down to a paint store and having it color matched cool cool well I always thought these were nice looking cars and this is just decorative here there's nothing here right yeah this is just the emblem and uh uh American Motors uh uh experimental is what the X standed for was experimental car and your gas filler is where under the well the gas filler is actually right underneath the license plate okay it goes right in here and then um the car did have dual exhaust right um the tail lights um or from here over this is just a uh appearance panel there's no lights in that at all right okay now did the did that fold down or no doesn't fold down no that doesn't fold down that's just a uh a divider panel between the trunk and the passenger compartment of the vehicle but it's a pretty good size trunk isn't it yeah yes it's a nice size car what is the wheelbase compared to Corvette is about the I believe it's 109 in okay okay here we go let's take a look at the inside of the car come on let's check out the interior and these are still pretty reasonable aren't they these haven't become real collector collector cars yet so you can get pretty good deals on them it's a nice looking car on the inside you got your uh atra tape a track Cat Stevens look at that atra atra am automatic tachometer here air conditioning air conditioning tilt wheel tilt wheel look at that 120 mph speedometer boy you did a nice job on the restoration have you taken this to any AMC shows not yet not yet okay how long how long has restoration been finished just a short time very short time okay yeah just like just just before you go you just it's still still tacky the paint is still wet here so you just finish it like an they just finish this an hour ago I mean it's it's an impressive job and then you know AMC always had numbers on their cars yeah they would always number them and because this is the playmate car right they actually took the playmate uh plaque for the numbering and put her measurements on it and her measurements are over on the dashboard oh all right I think those are measurements back in 1968 probably not the measurements now you might have to might have to change the serial number little down that's pretty good well very nice Mark come on in here how many miles uh since the restoration well there's about two miles that I've driven it uh up the street for a little impromptu private photo shoot oh okay cool cool well let's uh can we take it for a ride today sure let's give it a shot any you are so 1968 the playmate she is a celebrity in her own right now she is Playmate of the Year and she met Roman palansky okay Roman palansky gave her a part in his movie Rosemary's Baby wow and while filming that movie she met Roman pansy's wife who was Sharon Tate right okay so you fast forward one year to 1969 to the Manser murders sure I've heard this from one of the Playmates friends I've also read it online I haven't heard it from her directly but the story goes that while filming Rosemary's Baby the playmate and Sharon Tate became best friends the night of the Manser murders Sharon Tate invited the playmate to come up to the house for a party that night but the playmate stayed home she wasn't feeling well and that's why she's still alive wow the playmate would have been one of the ones yeah yeah so Roman plansky was in London Direct in the movie at the time he came home for his wife's funroll he met up with a playmate who was his wife's best friend and he gave Roman plansky gave the playmate his personal handgun for protection cuz the the maner murders were unsolved for 9 months approximately I understand right so she put that gun in her purse for 42 years 3 months after I bought her car she pulled it out and shot her husband wow you know you want to buy a car with a story but that's a real story I mean that's wow that's pretty crazy and then she got what 9 but he didn't die the husband he survived okay and now so she went to jail for 9 years and when she gets out you're going to take her for a ride in the car well I was thinking it might be fun to be waiting at the prison Gates when she gets out and give her a ride home oh yeah yeah that'd be fun you're not married are you no no see see no married guy's wife would honey I'm going to meet an ex-playboy playmate in prison and give her a ride home so you have to be single that's a single guy story when we were uh cleaning the car out taking the seats out we actually found a bullet under the seat which is the same caliber of the gun reportedly that she used to shoot her husband which was uh the James Bond gun the Walther PPK uh 380 yeah you know dve is very similar to a 60s Mustang late 60s Mustang very nice restoration very well very solid no rattles and bangs everything kind of drives nicely well you haven't even driven the car you've only driven It 2 miles right about 2 miles yeah so this is the most miles anybody's put on this thing this more or less is the car's first public appearance well that's pretty cool yeah I can't imagine uh when you take this to an AMC show it's just got to be the hit of the show it's pretty amaz it's probably the most one of the most famous AMX is isn't it it it has reputation it's been in books yeah yeah see the kick Down's not working so we kick it down by hand there we go there you go and shift after this car was awarded to her it was her daily driver uh it it was mostly uh hidden from the public for 42 years until I bought it yeah so now that it's restored I want to share the car with the world with the AMC Community I don't want it to be hidden for another 42 years yeah yeah no I think that's great I want to see it I think that's great now what tires are on this have you got radial on here or these are these kind of bias supplies these are bias Supply tires okay and the old Magnum 500 chrome rims were really beat up so I bought a new pair of wheels and found a set of polyglass tires yeah had those put on so these are the correct tires for this era of car and these p as these pilot when you get on an arm rant if it says 35 mph and you're going 36 these pilot glasses go off but this is exactly what a 1968 car would drive like in 1968 that's kind of fun and you know it's actually quite nice it's comfortable got plenty of headro nice looking car when you think of American sports card you think Mustang and Camaro and Viper and Corvette nobody ever thinks AMX but it really is it really was a a pretty cool car and if you look up the bseri AMX the one he did that one's really wild have you ever seen it it's really a wild looking car so this is actually your first longdistance ride riding a car how does it feel what do you think I I love it I'm actually enjoying this ride yeah yeah and was the a track player still in it when you got it no I had to track one of those down yeah and I had it in a box for 2 years then when it came time to put it in of course it didn't work yeah so then I had to send it to a radio repair shop and that doubled the cost of that yeah and I'm surprised eight track tapes have got to be pretty old now you think they just disintegrated as soon as you put them in actually this morning I tried this tape player for the first time with this tape and it worked oh there you go yeah how successful was it do you know do you remember were they did they sell a lot of them was it a considered a successful car do you know uh American Motor sold approximately 19 a little over 19,000 amx's wow in a 3-year period from 68 to 70 well that's not bad uh this particular car was one of a little over 4,000 made in 1968 and one of about 400 with a 290 automatic transmission combination okay well when cars like this were built technology was expensive was labor was cheap now it's completely flipped around and when this car was built I remember a buddy of mine was making 250 an hour and I went whoa it's pretty good 250 an hour that was at McDonald's for a buck 25 an hour well the car now has about six miles on the restoration obviously we're not going to do burnouts with this thing cuz it's a brand new restoration we'll take it up on the free freeway see how it cruises then we'll go down a windy road see how she handles it's actually nice driving car you know this is not obviously the full-on high performance model it's the base model but it's about similar in performance to maybe a 68 Mustang uh 289 uh automatic you know base motor nice car nice restoration come on let's take it up on the freeway guys have done a nice job on the restoration it tracks nice and true got my hands off the wheel doesn't wander you hit the brakes it stops nice and straight As we said couple of little things got to fix the horn one or two other things but that's all part of the fun the real fun is going to literature swap meets and trying to finding uh the brochures for the car have you got a bunch of those yes yeah that's always kind of cool all that stuff your mom threw away now worth Fortune yes it takes a secure man to drive a pink car that it does but we had this car we took every nut and bolt off of this car yeah uh we had it on a rotisserie for a year then finally the day came to take it off of the rotisserie I would have been happy that day just to get that much done so by this time we had the the front and rear suspension on the car we got the car down off the rotisserie I would have been happy just getting that much done that day then Allen the Builder says oh let's go get the engine put it in so we did that and then he said well there's still 2 hours of light left let's go get the transmission you put that in as well that just illustrates the pace of his work well he did a good job you that's the great thing about having cars like this or the clubs involved no matter what car you have there's a club for that car and you always want to go to those folks for your information and for your parts and the technical knowledge well should make a lot of friends too you should bring us over to the mansion and show he well I'd like to well what a fun car this is you know we spent a lot of times on Camaros and Mustangs and stuff like that but uh this is a real rare piece of Americana built in Wisconsin and uh Mark you did a beautiful job congratulations thank Allan for me too and all the guys in the AMX club and the AMC Club you know that just shows you when you were storing a car no matter what car you have there's a club for it so contact those people and those guys will help you out they love to help out people that have the same Vehicles as they do I know I certainly do and they've always been very helpful to me so uh again that this is probably one of the most famous amxs out there and thanks for debuting on our show mark thank you very much thank you sir see you guys next week a\n"