Quote Originally Posted by 68gopacinak
he car in question is a 1968 390 GoPac - white with black interior. It was purchased in California 20 years ago and stored in a garage up here before it was traded to a local contractor in exchange for work. It has been living outside for the past 1 1/2 years. (Although we live in Alaska, our area is considered one of the largest rain forests in the world. Combined with the ocean air - rust is ALWAYS a concern.)
What other options does the car have?

The trunk, floor pans, wheel wells, frame rails, engine compartment, door jambs and interior apprear to be rust free and very solid. The exterior paint surface has bumps all over it. The trunk lid was sanded down by the current owner to reveal rust on the sheet metal (no pitting). It appears whoever re-painted this car had moisture in their air lines when it was painted. There are some light rust bubbles on the bottom corners of the rear window and surface rust inside the double panels of the trunk lid and the underside of the area between the trunk and rear window.

All the trim is in tact and appears to be in good condition. Bumpers are straight with minor surface rust specs on the outside and medium surface rust on the back sides. Although the lower rear quarters apprear solid and rust free, I can't see the back sides due to the trunk floor layout. Are there any other areas that I need to look at or ways to access problem areas such as this to determine condition without dismantling the car?
It sounds like you have the rust inspection pretty well covered. The rear window and decklid rust areas are pretty common (my AMX was a SoCal car it's entire life and had the same deck lid and under window spots). If you're going to do a resto then the paint surface flaws are immaterial, so long as what's underneath is ok. I could only suggest that you take a magnet to the car for areas you can't inspect visually. So long as the main body tub is solid you should be fine, as the bolt on parts can be replaced. I'd check the cowling, window pillars and the top of the fenders too. Other than that there's no real spot where they are notorious for rust (at least that I'm aware of) - they're pretty much the same as any 40 year old car.

If purchased, our intent is to strip it down, put it our our rotisserie and restore it to its original condition. Initially we wanted to tub it and put a blower on the motor. But after reading more about these cars we feel that returning it to original might be the best. The asking price started at $8,000, but quickly went to $7,000.

Our previous two builds include a 1968 VW Bug that was pristine, but looked like every other 1968 bug in the world. So we chopped the top, suicided the doors, put super-fat fenders on it and gave it a one-of-a-kind paint scheme to make it unique. The other build is a 1934 Ford 3-Window Coupe. We removed the fenders, running boards and hood, gave it a blown 350 Chevy and tubbed the rear end. (You can see these builds on cardomain.com under "alaskastreamin").

Any information as to value and what trouble areas to look in would be greatly appreciated.
I would guess that $7-$8k for a complete, running, 390, Go-Pack AMX that is fairly solid would be a smoking deal for the buyer. And you'd be right to restore the car to original condition. White/Black is a nice color combo too. Custom AMXs just have no where near the value of a properly restored AMX - even if it's not a Concours resto. An original AMX is so unique there's no need to customize, they'll turn heads anyway.

You've done some beautiful work on your other cars, I'm sure you'll make the right decision regarding the AMX.


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