By Tim Odell
A stickshift AMC wagon would be postworth enough, but this one’s received some special treatment leaving it entirely ill-prepared for its current environment. Specifically, car ain’t got no roof. At least, ain’t got about 7/8ths of its roof. Which would leave it wonderfully suited for life at a San Diego Beach or ranch in Arizona. Alas, it’s in a Chicago exurb, slowly being snowed and salted to death.
The beauty of the AMC Eagle is its parts commonality with the contemporary Jeep line. Typically oddball early 4×4 cars have drivetrains of pure unobtainium, but not here. And the parts that were Eagle-only are probably best swapped for Wrangler bits anyway.
Anyway, this one’s had everything from the B-pillars back removed, some diamond plate and questionable carpeting added. If you really wanted to show it some love, you could swap the carpet for DIY bedliner and spend a few hundred bucks to have a custom canvas top made.
It’s sitting just over a grand right now, but the reserve’s unmet. Curious what the seller thinks he can get for it.
1983 AMC Eagle Wagon Convertible(?) for sale – eBay Motors
Jeff Glucker
When the photos in the auction appear to have been taken years before the auction itself was posted… I’ll leave someone else to finish that sentence.
One thing I do notice is that in the interior shot showing the steering wheel, the 2WD / 4WD selector appears to be missing. Expect this one to be 2WD as a result, and probably requiring complete replacement of the transfer case vacuum shift lines (at a minimum) to make it 4WD again.
Or just swap in an NP242 from an XJ Cherokee or ZJ Grand Cherokee, grind off the vacuum engagement for the front axle, weld a plate over the resulting hole, and call it good. A little bit of transmission tunnel bashing & cutting never hurt anyone.
Someone in Chicago needs to end its suffering.
The grille and tailgate conversion are truly elegant. To think that could have been done tastefully. Now it’s just a parts car…
Nope! NO! Run do not walk away. Lopping off a roof without proper reinforcement plus using questionable fab skills = High Risk/little to no reward.
However, as a Lemons car, Winner!
If the seller is trying to sell a half-million dollar home with hand-scrawled signs, I’m assuming they want at least $5k for this.
I wouldn’t spent a single penny it, but I like the idea behind the conversion very much! It needs a surfboard on top of it.