Some of you may remember my postings regarding this car before the recent delete.
A recap: Well about 1 1/2 years ago I had a chance at a
rust free '81 AMC Eagle SX/4 (I6, auto, AWD) the guy that had it was a used car dealer. He claimed to have ordered and delivered this car when it was new to a friend of his and then recently the friend passed away, so the family sold it back to him. The used car dealer repainted it and did a few minor things to it. That's how I found it, on my way to a nearby town my Eagle eyes caught a glimpse of it sitting at a mechanic's shop. We pulled a U'ey and went to talk to the shop owner. He told us about the car dealer that owned it, so we hunted him down. He said he'd take $3,500 for it, I talked him down to $3,000 but didn't have that kind of money.
Went home and advertised my miniature horse trailer for sale. Had to go down on the price unfortunately but did sale it (took about a week). So the next day after selling the trailer we drove to said nearby town (some of you might remember my story of getting T-boned by Bambi's dad on the way), anyways make it there and the car dealer said that the family wanted it back so they were coming to get it.
Well this would normally be the end of the story here (and it was for 1 1/2 years)...
In the past few months (and for some odd reason, even after acquiring the Squirrel) I have had an ad out on CL looking for this car, even had the actual pics of the car in my ad.Even had a few people email me- one saying that there was one just posted, I looked and it was a '79 Spirit. Funniest one was someone sent me a picture of a silver Mazda RX7 saying it was the car.
It was a long shot, didn't expect anything really.
But today I had the best email yet...
This guy emailed me saying "I have
that car." I texted him asking for pics, and sure enough there she was!
Unfortunately it was at another used car dealership, I hate dealing with car dealers
. But fortunately this dealer was asking less than the original dealer was.
Went and looked at it and test drove it. Everything seemed fine. Noticed that it does need some minor things here and there (side mirror is loose, visor mounts are cracking, doors sag just a touch, both handles are broke, plastic valve cover)- but I do have the Black Mamba for parts.
Talked this dealer down a little, he wouldn't budge much on his price. Still had the $$ from when I sold my mini horse trailer too.
Drove the car home (around 30 miles) with no ill effects other than noticing a rumbling (at and above 45mph). Got home and had an inkling so checked all rims for heat... sure enough driver side front was too hot to touch. So assuming it's the bearings, we'll tear into it soon.
So here is my newest acquisition, Eagle #5 (no name yet)...
Here is a shot of one of the inner fender wells (it's a little wet), everything looks like this...
SO glad I was finally able to pin this one down!
OD is at 74,896. I wonder if it has rolled over. Undercarriage still has the factory rust preventive coating.
I am pretty sure I have all of the Arkansas SX/4's now.
I really need to thin out my herd
currently at 9 vehicles (not all of them are on the road, thank god).
Poor Squirrel is going to be put on the back burner now I am sure.
But then again I probably should think about selling some of them soon.