WANTED: Your Eagle Stories.

[IowaEagle]

Send them in, room for a few more.

[amc78concord]

Ok! well here we go lol...   I didn't find my Eagle in a junkyard, an online auction site, or anywhere for sale. No, I didn't have to do any of that.  My Eagle has simply been there for me for as long as I can remember, my whole life.  My Eagle started off from Johnson and Son's AMC in my hometown of Wisconsin Rapids.  There it was owned by the owners of the dealership and they used it to commute back and forth to the dealership each day.  It was also used as a demonstration car to promote the Eagle around the town.  They owned the car until 1990, when it was sold to Jacob Wunrow, my grandfather.  I was born in 1992, and my second home was my grandparents home, so I saw the Eagle just about everyday.  I come from a very car-loving family, my dad has owned AMC's for years since he got into it by his uncle in the 60's who drove car carrier for AMC.  (He drove for them till 1985!) So my dad was around AMC's all of his life too!  And it was going to be no doubt that his son (me) was going to be passionate for AMC's as well.  My grandfather owned plenty of AMC's in his lifetime, so he was influenced by AMC's his whole life as well.  My whole family has been an AMC passionate family! But seeing that car sit there everyday, I would never imagine that it could ever be mine someday.  That was "The Car" that only my grandpa drove along with "The Truck" (a little 1986 Mazda B2000).

There are so many memories of me in that little AMC Eagle, that I couldn't recite them all.  But one, the most significant, would be "our road" called Nepco Lake Road.  A peaceful and curvey road that we just go for a drive on.  I sat in the front with my grandfather driving, and my grandmother sitting in the backseat always giving me animal crackers... and the radio on that had a cassette playing.  My grandpa never used the radio, but he would use the cassette player.  And it was a country cassette, the only country I could ever listen to, ever.  It would be playing, and playing "our song..."   "I don't need your rocking chair!.." I can still see it and hear it in my head like it was just yesterday... Makes me kinda sad really.  After we travelled on the road, we would go and stop by the small airport in town and watch the airplanes take off and land.  That always fasinated me, I always thought they were crash landing, and going to crash into us! And then after the airport watch, we'd go to McDonald's and see the "boss lady." Then we'd go back to the house and they would watch their "Story" (soap opera), and the Eagle would be put back into the garage again.

My grandfather loved his Eagle, I don't think he ever wanted to part from it... but when the Eagle started to get rusty, so did my grandfather... after battling cancer, he passed away in January 2006 along with my grandmother in August 2006... just 8 months from each other... it was really hard to handle. The house was being sold, the car had to be moved.  My aunt didn't want it, my dad didnt want it... I wanted it. 

And so, I got my Eagle in 2006 when I was 13.  But, it was a special Eagle, my grandfather's Eagle.  The Eagle that went to Nepco Lake Road with the Country cassette playing, with the animal crackers... The Eagle that went to the airport, and McDonalds's... it's beyond just an Eagle.  It was rusty, and I couldn't drive... So it sat, and got worse over the years... It was planned for it to be my daily driver. 

So one week in 2007, our friend came up and agreed to help us get the Eagle in shape for me to drive.  After the one week of replacing the rotted doors, rust spots, and painting... I couldn't believe it... it looked so good...! There's no way I could drive this as a daily driver!  It was going to be my show car.. everything my grandfather never would've dreamed that little car ever could've been.  I even found some wire wheel covers at Iola from an 80's Buick Rivera (Original AMC wheel covers, just Buick used them too), and made a copy of the original center for the wheel cover. That, was the turning point in the car.  It officially looked like a show car then. I still can't believe how far the Eagle has come, and it's not perfect in any way.  It could use a new paint job and some dents taken out.  But, thats not how my grandfather would've had it.  As of right now, it's just about how he had it.  It even has all of his tools and spare parts he kept in the secret compartment, that i never touched.  It's still his car as I look at it, and I'm just watching it for him, waiting for his return so we can go on our favorite road again...

The car and I have been through so much, I am very honored to drive a piece of history, and a piece of my grandfather...

Thanks for listening,

Robert Wunrow
"amc78concord"

-1985 AMC Eagle Station Wagon


When my grandfather first bought the car, 1990


Me when I'm about 2 years old playing in the car with my grandfather. 1994/5? (Notice how calm my grandfather looks lol)


My granfather with my uncle in Kenosha, 1996


Me with my grandparents and "The Truck", 1995


Grandpa's Eagle today, 2009


Me next to the Eagle, 2009


I notice on my computer, they show up a little cut off of the sides, but I think they still do their job.

[IowaEagle]

EGGcellent story --- it is saved for use in the book.

[amc78concord]

Thanks, I've been waiting to tell that story to someone... I mean there is a broken down version of it on my signboard I use in car shows, but not in that much detail.  I would love to see the book when it is completed.

I'll send you some pictures IowaEagle of it, and post some here for others to see if they wish.

Thanks again

[IowaEagle]

Pictures go great with stories.

[IowaEagle]

You can tell how well beloved your Eagle was and is.  It looks as nice today as it did back when it was a young Eagle.

[Gil-SX4]

From the pictures it looks like you look a lot like your grandfather.

[amc78concord]

From the pictures it looks like you look a lot like your grandfather.

You'd be suprised, a lot of people say that lol

He was well known in my town... He always would honk his horn thousands of times for one simple trip to the store, and say: "Hey Joe!" And I would always be asked where is he and what's he doing (and then they would say that lol). Everyone knew Grandpa Jake and his little Eagle...

[mick]

Do you have room for one more?  I just found this topic, weird.  Also do you need any info for the suspension chapter(s)?  Modified stuff of course 

[IowaEagle]

Sure Mick.  We don't have a suspension chapter but we do have one for Modified Eagles.

[mick]

Cool!! Working on it right now.

[thascrambler]

Awesome story       Did anyone else notice "The Car" and "The Truck" have the same paint jobs? I'd almost bet there is a story behind that, maybe something an Aunt or Uncle might know something about?

[eaglebeek]

Great story, Robert! I wish to this day I had been a little more forceful with my dad for my grandfather's 1960 Ford pickup. My dad took it to California and I never saw it again.

If it isn't too late here's my story, which is perhaps a bit more mundane:

It started with a friend's 1980 Eagle wagon. This was, of course, the first year of the Eagle. I was immediately smitten by that car, and a 200-mile-plus trip riding in and driving that Eagle only intensified my desire for one of my own.

Time went on. My friend and I both got married and settled down into family life. My wife had brought a Toyota into our marriage and that allowed me to retire my daily driver-a 1953 Chevy sedan with 140k miles, 80k of it on its second engine. I envisioned restoring it sometime in the future, but life got in the way and it slowly deteriorated until I finally sold it.

Meanwhile, a 1968 Plymouth Fury made itself available at an attractive price, and I snapped it up. The Toyota, on its last legs, was sold to friends in Phoenix. The Plymouth was a sturdy and reliable car, taking us a couple of times to Phoenix and Flagstaff in grand style. There are times I wish I had kept that car...it would be worth something now. Alas, its 440 "magnum" engine required premium leaded gas...in Phoenix I used 100-octane aviation gas in it because it just would not run on pump gas.

One cold and snowy January day my wife and I stopped at a fast-food joint for hamburgers. Next door there was an AMC dealership. After eating we decided on the spur of the moment to look around the dealer's lot. A brown 1984 Eagle wagon was sitting there for the taking. It was a return from a rent-a-car outfit and had 15k miles.This one was equipped with Select-Trac, a 129 transfer case and a 998 with lockup converter. We test-drove the Eagle on ice and snow, and in the space of a few hours we had struck a deal and were driving the Eagle home. The Plymouth was relegated to backup duty and was eventually sold. I never saw it again. An old, beat-up International pickup that was also ours at the time also left the herd. We had never even dreamed of going home in a near-new car prior to that fateful stop at the hamburger joint.

Here is our Eagle now (I can't seen to get a photo to embed from Picasa, so I submit for your viewing this hyperlink):
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Mx5oNzwKaA80hlOvxUotXItSOz9F6AS5Sb6mG_d5V24?feat=directlink

[IowaEagle]

Thank you.  Keep them coming for a while yet.