'70 Hornet 2D Sedan - The parts car
As you can see, there wasn't much to be done with the car, but to part it out.
When an add ran in the local paper saying:
RAMBLER HORNET '70 x2
232cid koneilla, PALJON varaosia
vain koko läjä, 1500FiM Soita! (Pori)
(which stands for: RAMBLER HORNET '70 x 2; 232cid engines, LOTS of spare parts; only the whole lot, 1500FiM, Call now! (at the time 1500FiM, 300USD))
I got curious, A friend of mine (Rytkönen Timo) had owned a 304cid Hornet for about half a year (from which I later bought the engine&tranny&rear) and I had grown to like the look of the car. Something in it just made sense. It wasn't that I didn't look at every US car that went by this way, I did, but the Hornet just had something no other "small" US car seemed to have. It had style, V8 engine, but still it was a compact compared to my first US car ('63 Bel Air V8). I had sold my last US car because I realized that there was no way I could afford to keep it running while being a student, and plus I couldn't afford to have a daily driver in addition to my US car, because it was just too expensive. I thought about the add long and hard. 1500FiM wasn't much for two US-cars, didn't matter how bad they were. As stated before I liked the bodystyle, and on that, I decided to go and see them, after all they were in my hometown. I asked for a ride from Rytkönen, and he gladly agreed and so I went to see the Hornets with a Hornet, it just seemed proper. =)
The Brown Hornet was on a field, covered with all kinds of junk and the other was by a barn (also outside), though glasses and such were shut to keep out unwanted guests. The brown Hornet (parts-car) was in dismal condition, but the red one was a bit better. It wasn't perfect either, but together they seemed to form a working car (at least in my mind). I had never worked with cars before, outside of changing oil and normal stuff like that, so it still wasn't an easy call, but 1500FiM wasn't much, and I though I could risk it, if it didn't work out, I could always sell the cars forward (and a friend of mine Råberg Arto was already interested).
Next day I came back with a trailer and realized just how much spare parts the seller was throwing in the deal. All together I got 5 232cids, 4 Borg-Warner T-96J manuals, 1 Borg-Warner M-43 automatic and tons of other misc. parts. The Seller also thought that he could throw in a V8 (304cid in parts) for 200FiM, and so he did and while at it, he gave all kinds of parts for it as well (extra pistons, etc). With some essential help from Råberg all this along with the 2 Hornets was transported to the otherside of the town.
Basically this car was destroyed long before I ever saw it. It had some worthwhile parts in it though, and the only logical thing to do was to part it out. By principle I do not enjoy cars that I love being parted out, but this baby should have been caught and fixed LONG before I got it. But what I life this car must have had. I accounted it for numerous crashes and at least one car had burned to cinder right by the driver's side door. I also got the front fender along with the car, they had been sandblasted a while back and left outside to rot. Quite sad.
I got some very good spare parts of this car though, and by a miracle both front and back seats had been saved from destruction, and after redoing them they were better than new.
I also removed and saved the doors, hood(suprisingly good), trunk lid, wheels, all underbody parts, rubbers, glass, basically everything that I could get off the car, and everything was taken off intact. After I was done with the car the plain hull was taken to the parts yard.
Here are a few pics of the car.
