1975 AMC Pacer X RHD

[starni999]

Hi Gents,
Been a long time since I posted any pictures, since I last posted I've been made redundant twice in 2 years. Happy days.
Still we have finally started the Pacer, it's in at Redditch now for a total rebuild, story so far is RUST.
The old arches were mostly filler from the '70's, all gone now, just ordered a set of 911 Carrera arches front and rear as the profile's pretty close, anyway here's the bad bit.......

PHOTOBUCKET PROBLEM LOST ALL MY PICTURES...........REPOSTED FURTHER DOWN..........

Chris Warr.

[willowandmikey]

That's a lot of rust but its going to be worth it love the wheels btw

[stealthstylz]

I've got one of these on my "must have one at some point" list. Shame they're so (relatively) expensive.

[Deleted]

Apr 22, 2013 23:03:41 GMT stealthstylz said:

I've got one of these on my "must have one at some point" list. Shame they're so (relatively) expensive.

But when they do come up "quite" cheap, no one wants them... Weird...

ive always wanted an old AMC gremlin myself...

[orangecords]

Me like. Are you Redditch then? Just moved there

[starni999]

Cheers everyone,
No, I'm not in Redditch, I'm not far away though, Halesowen. The car's at Redditch as that's where my mate's garage is. There can't be many RHD Pacers left now, I'm not sure how many were converted but I don't think it was very many.
I paid a grand for it, I've seen some go for a bit more, but not much. I liked the fact it was an old custom, I have a pic of it at Notts Americana sometime in the 80's at a guess, it was red then, and running the same slot mags. I'll keep the wheels just tart them up a bit, lower art the front, no bumper, nice loud set of twin pipes out the back.
The boot has not been opened by me, or the guy I bought it off, I've got a NOS lock now, so who knows what's in there.
It runs fine, just needs a good going over, will go for a gas conversion as it's even worse than my 4.0L Cherokee and that only does about 10mpg.
Will post up some more pics when the arches are on.
Cheers
Chris Warr.

[rld14]

I never knew that RHD Pacers were made. Was it converted?

[starni999]

Yes they were converted, not sure if this was done by the dealers. A chain runs behind the dash and the pedals are on rods so it's not hi tech! Interior is pretty good for it's age........





Chris Warr.

[willowandmikey]

If it works who cares !!!

[starni999]

I really do hate photobucket. All my picture links have disappeared (again!)
So, here they are again.........

[BLU]

How cool. A lot of work but it'll be worth it!

I've always wanted one. Didn't know you could get them in RHD though!

[zircon]

Love it, futuristic with added bubble!

[79cord]

Doesn't sound like a particularly clever RHD conversion, don't think chain steering transfer would be legal here! But at least it made it to the UK where it would always have been unusual & interesting. Love the wild shaping of the frt seats.
Sounds like it will be retaining flared wheel arches, hopefully of better quality & style, & looking forward to seeing the wheels polished up under them.

[Brian Damaged]

Great stuff! Am I right in thinking that the six-pot lump in these saw service much later in the Jeep Cherokee?





(I almost resisted the temptation to mention Wayne's World. FAIL

[starni999]

Cheers everyone,
Yes Brian, my daily driver is a '94 Jeep Cherokee 4.0L, it has the same basic lump, but it was reduced from 4500cc in the Pacer to 3900cc in the Jeep, higher comp ratio and better heads on the Jeep.
The Pacer is getting tubular headers, Edlebrock inlet and a Holley carb if there's anything left in the purse after the body is done. (Not likely this year then).
Chris Warr.

[starni999]

Hi All!
A few more progress pictures on the Pacer, stripping out is complete, what a mess! Glass and interior are all in safe keeping, but there's a LOT of rust to deal with now. The tailgate is shot to bids, so a new one has arrived from Akron Ohio via the AMC Club of America, really helpful guys. The Porsche arches are here too, so we are now at the stage of starting to cut it all out and make it solid again.







Cheers All, Thanks for looking!
Chris Warr.

[mk2polobloke]

You must get some pics up of the awful sounding RHD steering and pedal conversions!
DAAAAMN, this has got some rust on it and fecking loads of filler too! It's always worse when previous owners have bodged up rather than repaired properly. What is it with some people?
Good luck with this mate, I reckon you're gonna need it!

[starni999]

Cheers Mate, good luck and another couple of grand should do it!
To be honest if it wasn't so rare I don't think it would be saveable, but it may just be the last RHD on the road when done, so I can't let it go to the scrapyard.
BTW.....Here's the pic I found of it at (I think?) Notts Americana in the '80's by the look of it.....

CW,

[TurboDieselWeasel]

I think this ranks pretty high in the most awesome rusbuckets on RR!! Bookmarked! I love those odd cars!

Keep us updated on the progress with it, can't wait to see it come together!

[gilbatburton]

Just doing a nostalgic search for types of cars I have owned and the Pacer X is one of them and your post came up.
Mine too was a RHD converted by AMC UK in Chiswick and indeed it was still LHD under the dash and used a chain for the steering and it used a sort of dual control for the pedals in a similar way to learner cars.
Because of this the original dash couldn't be used and a wooden one was fitted(think Dolomite etc.) as this was a popular style for seventies cars.
I found it pretty economical and got about 30mpg out of it driven gently. The single carb was tiny and the straight 6 engine very smooth.
My wife loved it and this has sparked my interest again as she mentioned it today.
I wouldn't mind another RHD but I think they are few and far between now and good ones are fetching silly money lol.
I realise your post is quite old but I was wondering how you were getting on with your mammoth task??
Your rust problems would be too much for me but it's nice to see another one getting rescued.
If I could find one that is at least bodily sound possibly needing mechanical work at a reasonable cost then it might be of interest so I'll keep scanning the ads.
If you have any updates on your progress it would be nice to see some pics??