1970 AMC AMX

You might've read elsewhere in this issue how Canadian Tony Lucas rolled into HMMMusclepalooza in May with this 1970 AMC AMX and drove off with our Favorite AMC and Best in Show honors. For a follow-up act, the firefighter from British Columbia—who'd already trailered his AMX upwards of 3,000 miles one way to New Lebanon, New York— then trekked up to our headquarters in Bennington, Vermont, where his AMX was the hands-down pick for Favorite Independent at our June 7 Cruise-In. This wasn't an easy victory as Tony's trailer kicked off one of its wheels en route, and he braved tick bites recovering the rogue rim in a weedy roadside ditch.

An AMC three-fer sweep is unheard of in our world, though we are always rooting for Kenoshians, which is why we had to get this car featured in the magazine. (Not to mention that we don't often get to the other side of the continent to shoot feature cars.) Tony's AMX is the product of a four-year, first-time restoration that he orchestrated, performing a lot of the work himself while farming out or seeking help with major tasks. It wasn't his intent to pull it around North America collecting trophies—which he's done with amazing success. He's just always wanted a nice AMX.

"I wanted to build the kind of car you take to all the local shows, cruise around in, and go for ice cream in," he said. "A clean car."

Since the restoration was completed seven years ago, the AMX has earned, among other awards, an AMC Rambler Club National first place, the American Motors Owner's Association American Cup, as well as AMO Junior and Senior Gold. In addition to winning at our events this year, it won the Honorary Chief Judges' Award at the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance in Greenwich, Connecticut. This is all a far cry from the mid-1980s, when Tony first flew the AMC flag.

"When I was 16, my very first car was an American Motors Spirit that I'd kind of hot rodded. It had a nice paint job, wheels, and stereo system. I delivered pizza with it, and I was always behind the wheel," he said. "But if you're into AMCs, you know the AMX is the top performer, so I wanted an AMX. Over the years I looked and found a few for sale, but nothing ever worked out."

Years later, Tony had started a career and family but was still on the hunt for the ideal independent.

"In November 2001, I found a Rambler American Rogue twodoor hardtop down in Idaho. So, we packed up our three-monthold baby boy, drove through the night in a Dodge Neon and got there in the morning. I bought that car and drove it home."

Tony kicked off the Rogue's restoration, enthusiastic about his new project, until that special something else caught his attention.

"I took the front clip off, the interior started coming out... and that's when I found the AMX," Tony said. "In 2002, I put the Rambler back together again and put it back up for sale. It went to a new owner in California."

The AMX was located about three hours north of Tony's place, and part of the trip there involved a 45-minute ferry ride. But the car's owner, Glenn Porter, offered a money-back guarantee on the $50 boat tour if the AMX didn't meet Tony's expectations.

"We jumped in the car with the baby and drove up there. As soon as I pulled in the driveway I knew I was buying that car," Tony said. "Glen was very honest, and what he told me over the phone was exactly what the car was. Plus, he's a gearhead and an AMC guy, so he knows what to look for."

Since Glenn didn't wind up paying for Tony's ferry ride, he offered to help deliver the AMX and its parts car. (Later in the project, Glenn would lend his considerable AMC experience and his shop to the buildup of the AMX's 360 engine.)

Once the AMX was stashed in his garage, Tony began pulling as much as he could off of the parts car so that he could get rid of it.

"I wanted to move it along because it was sitting in my driveway— but now I wish I'd taken more off of it," Tony said. "It was really rusty, but I got the dash out of it and the bumpers off it. I also took the taillights, emblems—all of the one-year-only trim stuff. The entire interior I got out of it, as well as the grille and all of the hood trim. Basically anything that was relatively easy to remove. Then I put it up for sale and did okay—it offset some of the cost of the purchase."

Meanwhile, the project AMX went on the back burner until 2007 while Tony sketched out a game plan for the car's restoration.

"Life got in the way, and finally I got to the point that I was going to be caught up on my bills before starting a project," he said. "I didn't want to be one of those guys who starts a project and 15 years later they're still building the engine. In the meantime, I sought out and collected parts."

Pre-restoration, the AMX had plenty of potential—it was mostly solid and mostly intact—but it had some of the typical old-car issues.

"It was a rusty, oily mess under the hood, but fairly complete— though it was missing a bunch of A/C parts, and it hadn't run since 1986," Tony said. "The brake system was a mess. The interior was half apart, and the dash face was off. The panel between the trunk and the rear window needed replacing. The trunk floor was relatively solid, but the body needed lower rear quarters and the trunk drop-offs. Other than that, the front fenders, the hood, doors, roof, and floors are all the factory steel."

Tony tore the car down in his two-car garage, carefully bagging and tagging parts as he proceeded.

"I was on different AMC forums gleaning as much information as I could, and then I started systematically taking things off the car. Taking things apart is simple: Take the easy stuff off first, and then you start getting more and more, cataloging it, taking lots of pictures and placing things in labelled bags."

He also made a budget for the project then went on the hunt for a shop that could handle the metal work, body work and paint.

"Finding a body shop that wanted to do a restoration was difficult," Tony said. "They all want to change fenders and hoods or do paint work. But I was at a car show talking to a friend of mine who worked at a high-end body shop at the time. I couldn't afford that shop, but he suggested I check out 360 Fabrication. It was a fairly small shop, but everything was organized and clean. I decided this was the kind of place I wanted my car in."

Brothers Rick and Daryl Francoeur at 360 Fabrication paid the AMX a visit and liked what they saw, so Tony finished the teardown then trailered the rolling shell to a media blaster to have the body and chassis parts stripped of their factory finishes.

At 360 Fabrication, the quarter panels were repaired and the panel below the rear window was replaced. After smoothing out the panels with Rage body filler and block sanding, the body was given multiple applications of R-M primer then block sanded until everything was straight. R-M two-stage urethane, replicating the original Glen Green Metallic, was then applied—three coats of base and three coats of clear. The underside of the car was finished with a spray-on bedliner product tinted to match the exterior while the rear axle and chassis were painted low-gloss black. 360 Fabrication also handled most of the suspension rebuild as well as a rebuild of the AMX's 87/8-inch axle.

When the AMX returned to Tony's garage five months later in November 2007, it was painted and rolling, but hundreds of man hours away from rolling on to a show field. While the AMX was away, Tony had been restoring a myriad of small pieces, readying them to be reinstalled. He immediately tackled the car's brakes, installing new lines and later-model front discs.

"I converted it to disc brakes from a 1978-vintage V-8 car," he said. "I've still got all of the stock stuff, but some of the parts are hard to find."

Tony took pains to replicate the factory finish on the wheels, which was textured.

After having the block bored .040-inch over, Tony reassembled the 360 in Glenn's shop using the factory crankshaft and rods capped with a set of new cast pistons. The camshaft used was a hydraulic Comp Cams 268H, while the heads were the originals with 2.025-inch intake and 1.68-inch exhaust valves. The intake manifold was an Edelbrock performer painted engine color to disguise it, topped with a Holley 670-cfm Street Avenger carburetor. Instead of the original log-type 1970 exhaust manifolds, Tony opted for freer-flowing 1971 pre-emissions units, which connect to a 2.5-inch exhaust with Magnaflow mufflers.

"I tried to make the car look stock to the general public under the hood, but an AMC guy could pick out the aftermarket stuff like the painted intake or the Holley Street Avenger vacuum-secondary carburetor," Tony said. "The air cleaner assembly is all stock, but I'm not a big fan of how the heat tube from the manifold looks, so it now has a stubby snorkel off of a two-barrel air-cleaner assembly."

The AMX's Borg-Warner automatic transmission was rebuilt by Tony's old friend Fred Key at Key Imports. Installation of the chunky cast-iron box was handled by Tony and his stepson on his garage floor without a transmission jack and with a considerable amount of sweat.

Inside, the AMX's woodgrain trim was refinished by Mark Shufford of Amark while Legendary soft goods installed by Heart Auto Upholstery cover the interior surfaces.

Tony wrapped up the project in 2011, and his first time behind the wheel was a drive to emissions testing, which the AMX passed with no issues. In addition to collecting trophies, Tony took the car to the local drag strip to test its performance. With the stock 2.87 gears, he clicked off a 14.3-second ET at 96.65 mph.

"I thought, if I go to the track and run 15s, that's going to be embarrassing," Tony said. "The 14.3 is my best so far, but it now has 3.31 gears, and I have yet to take it back to the track."

Today the AMX gets driven locally, and the feeling of getting behind the wheel of the car Tony has dreamed about since high school never gets old.

"I love driving the car. It puts a smile on my face every time," he said. "Since I put the 3.31s in it, it is totally different— it'll light up the tires at will, though it's not as much fun on the highway. I really love the car, and I loved the project, plus I love talking to people about AMCs."

OWNER’S VIEW

This was Tony Lucas’ first total restoration and he achieved show-winning results. His advice to other first-time AMX restorers?

“Get one as complete as possible. Know the car and know the hard-to-find parts. For instance, if you bought this car without a grille, you can expect to pay $3,000 for a replacement because 1970 is a one-year-only car. The hood, fenders, bumpers, rear taillight assembly, the interior, the emblems, and the rocker trim are also unique, and 1970 is the lowest production year of 4,116 cars.” —Tony Lucas