so im on the verge of a trade and want to see what you guys think (i know, i know, its ultimately up to me, but i like second opinions 
) . ive had my bike for about a year now (82 kz750 twin), i traded it for a half done project truck. ive rebuilt the carbs, bobbed it, and put new shocks and rear tire on it. the total i have invested in the bike (including the price of the truck i traded for it) is around $1000.
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here is the amc amx that is the potential trade, says the floors are a little rusty, waiting to get some pictures back on that. 258 with a 4 speed manual sounds like a fun combo, he says it has a posi too, any visible way to prove that? also what kind of potential do these cars have to be a decent (not worried about competitive) autocrosser/weekend warrior/corner carver? easy power upgrades/engine swaps? what about parts availability?
so what does GRM think?
In reply to edizzle89:
Just by the ad, the guy seems pretty straightforward, especially about the floor pans.
If you're not too scared of replacing the floor and the rest of the car seems pretty solid, it could be a good trade.
Parts shouldn't be too hard to acquire, but the AMX body parts will be the hardest thing to get. It would be a good candidate for a Jeep 4.0L swap though.
I'd definitely get different wheels though. Vectors would look good. 
The AMX has a smaller pool of buyers than the bike. It's probably worth more, but finding the right guy is hard (which the seller is finding out) it looks like you're mostly to the 'ride it' phase with the bike. What's more fun right now, riding or wrenching?
this is my first bike and it has been fun but man i miss having a car to wrench on 
the bike is basically at its full potential as it sits besides just cleaning everything up, no more room to grow. whereas a car that are almost endless things to do to make it better
through owning the bike ive realized that im more of a car guy then a bike guy. i just want to make sure this is a good car to grow into (performance wise) and not just hit a dead end like i have with the bike, ive never known a lot about AMC cars so i dont know what kind of potential it has
Look at the Jeep challenge truck. You can put that same motor in this car. If that's not potential, I don't know what is.
i do like the sound of a turbo 4.0, im guessing the 4.0 will bolt to the 4 speed since they shared jeep stuff back in the day?
Seems like a cool car if you can wrench it into better shape yourself. I say do it.
If it has floor rust check to see if the unibody is rusted too on the driver’s side. The radius arm ties into the body there and if its soft could makes things difficult to fix. Also check the back side of the rockers on the car. I’ve seen them rot there first before the outside.
4.0L will bolt to the 4 speed but you will need a flywheel with a trigger wheel and you will have to do something about the crank sensor since it normally bolts to the bellhousing if you use the stock computer. I’ve seen some people cut a hole and weld up a mount or you can use the Hesco front balancer crank trigger kit.
Build thread for our team’s Turbo 4.0L Spirit if you want some more ideas.
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1982-amc-sprit-challenge-build/78512/page1/
I also noticed its missing the fender flares and lower airdam in the front. Those prices are hard to come by and expensive. I don't think anyone makes them new.
it does look way better with the air dam and flares but its not a huge concern to me. also how strong is the stock 4 speed? if a swap were to happen would it be worth it to swap the trans while the engines out or will the 4 speed handle decent power?
I think the 4 speed is a T4 and rated for around 200 lbs tq. I don’t know all the details but you can use that AMC bellhousing to swap in a Mustang WC T5 if you need something a little stronger.
If I were in your position I would take that trade in a heartbeat. That is provided that the car matches the description in the ad, and it sounds like the seller is being a straight shooter.
There's a lot of universal flares that could be made to fit. Won't be as nice or original but they'd get the job done. The floors and other rust issues would concern me a lot more than this.
To check for a posi, lift the rear in neutral and spin a wheel. If the other wheels goes in the same direction then it is a posi.
AMC Eagles came with a T5-- 5speed that mated up to the 258. It was a rare combo....but it exists. Plenty of ways to go if you want to get more power out of that engine. Stroker, swap a 4.0 head onto it, or swap an entire 4.0 liter. Even stock, the 258 makes great torque. Just junk the stock Carter carb and replace it with a Webber knock-off and it will free up a bunch of power. Super easy to work on too!
I say trade---- bikes are easy to come by---- cool AMC iron is getting harder to find.
neon4891 wrote:
To check for a posi, lift the rear in neutral and spin a wheel. If the other wheels goes in the same direction then it is a posi.
The only bad thing about that is a posi limited slip diff can wear out. At least the GM ones do.
easy power upgrades/engine swaps?
YES. It' pretty much a jeep engine. You can make a 4.6l engine combining with the 4.0 fuel injected ones and make very good power. Talk to jeep forums about what can be done with these engines, I wouldn't swap anything in that didn't use a jeep I6 at that point. Everything has been done to these engines and the sky is the limit.
AMC Eagles came with a T5-- 5speed that mated up to the 258.
Later non-AMX spirits had a 5 speed with this same engine.
The rust on the floor pan is a handful of quarter sized holes that are next to the rockers, closer to the seat then the pedals.
He may come by tomorrow so ill just have to see it in person to really tell
The nice thing about bikes is that they only take up 14 square feet of floor storage space and provide about 6 square feet of area to stack stuff on. Cars take up room.
If I had the room and that 750, I'd make that trade and throw in a six of American macrobrew in a heartbeat.
well depending on the weather he should be coming by some time this week. he is driving almost 3 hours to come see the bike so he seems serious about it. as long as the amc isnt too rusty like he saying it is it will probably be a done deal
Plenty of room to grow. Also makes a suitable autocross ride. Ive built two now. One with strokersix, oone with 5.0 Ford.
Check firewall, front shock towers, and rear frame rails for rust. Found all 3 on both southern cars.with solid floors.
The car is approximately 900 times cooler than the bike. Other than that, though, I don't know why you'd be interested.
I vote 4.0 head/induction on the 4.2 block, btw.
so got an update, havent met with the AMC guy yet due to conflicting schedules. but i have had a different guy offer me a 99 f250 powerstroke truck. its auto, 2wd, regular cab long bed, it looks clean and he says it has no rust, says the trans has been rebuilt but no papers on it. but the kicker is it has 317k on it. kbb says in fair condition thats still a $5300 truck, how hard would it be to turn it around and sell it for ~$4000? like i mentioned before i only have around $1000 in the bike so it would be a pretty healthy profit.
the guy is local to me so i will atleast check it out this week, while talking to him on the phone he even mentioned that i could turn around and sell it to make more money so he knows that its worth more then my bike, it almost seems like to good of a deal 
Seems too good to be true, but that's never stopped me before.
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