Nearly three years after quitting my job to produce a six-part documentary series about American Motors Corporation, The Last Independent Automaker has finally begun to broadcast on Public Television stations around the country, and starting today, on YouTube!

Having also experienced the joy, pain, fear, and exhilaration of leaving steady employment to build something of their own, Jason and David were some of the first to support our project. That support continues with this new series of behind-the-scenes articles, where I have the chance to explain how we made The Last Independent Automaker.

This week’s focus is on how we found the over 35 historic vehicles we filmed for the series.

Episode 1: The Missionary

Old Cars, New Footage

As much as we loved “Ken Burns-ing” our way through thousands of old car photos, our team knew from the beginning that we wanted to also capture the look and the sound of AMC vehicles in gorgeous 4K high-definition. This way, the viewer could experience these iconic cars in a richer way than through still images alone.

We obviously couldn’t film every single AMC model ever produced, so we tried to focus our attention on vehicles that were historically significant through their technological, stylistic, or economic impact. These were cars that marked a turning point in the history of American Motors. In some cases it was for the better, like the 1956 Rambler. In others it was for the worse, like the 1975 Pacer.

The challenge was, “historically significant cars” and “valuable collector cars” aren’t always the same thing. The modest AMC Hornet was far more important to the company’s bottom line than the sporty AMX, but because the AMX was a cool muscle car and the Hornet was just basic family transportation, way more AMXs have survived to present day. (Which is crazy, when you consider that 775,000 Hornets were built over eight model years vs just 19,000 AMXs in 3 years.)

Further complicating things was that we wanted to film vehicles that were either original or restored as close to original as possible. Nothing against customs, but LS-swaps, restomods, and lowriders are not historically accurate. Aside from minor upgrades like tires, we were pretty strict on this rule. In particular, it was hard to find clean Gremlins and Javelins, as both were popular for hot-rodding, and lots of owners have customized theirs in little ways.

Another challenge was finding the correct model year vehicles. Our script generally focused on each car during its first year on the market. Given how nit-picky audiences can be, we wanted to avoid situations where the car onscreen didn’t match the narration. (For instance, showing a 1970 Javelin when we’re talking about 1968.)

Often we had to bend the rules, but we at least insisted on vehicles from the right generation, if not the exact year. Occasionally, we used clever camera work to hide tell-tale identifiers, like model-year-specific grilles, tail lights, and badges.

To find the cars, we first reviewed the documentary script and made a list of all the footage we needed to match the story. Then, working with a friend in the American Motors Owners Association, we matched each car on the list to someone we knew with a clean example. Since multiple cross-country flights with camera equipment simply weren’t in the budget, we tried to pick people who lived within a day or two’s drive.

By and large, individual owners were the most gung-ho about having their cars on camera, versus car museums or classic car dealerships, which have a lot more bureaucracy and staff to navigate. But we did end up working with a few.

When none of those options worked, I would join Facebook car groups and start asking around. This “last resort” often yielded a lot of results, but it also created a lot of noise to sort through, as people frequently suggested vehicles that were either too far away, too modified, not the right year/model, or not “camera ready.”

Reeling in the (Model) Years

As Episode 1 explains, American Motors was created by the 1954 merger of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and the Hudson Motor Car Company. So we wanted to include both pre- and post-merger vehicles in the documentary, which meant tracking down early-50s Nash and Hudson models, plus mid-50s Rambler models.

We were lucky to locate a pair of Nash-collecting brothers in Pennsylvania, who provided the 1951 Nash Rambler convertible, 1956 Hudson Rambler (which is mechanically a Nash), and 1957 Rambler V8 that you see in Episode 1.

All of the other Hudsons featured in Episode 1 came from the Old Spokes Car Museum in Kutztown, PA. This beautiful collection included multiple Hudson Hornets outfitted with the wild dual carb, dual intake setup known as “Twin H-Power” atop their mighty 308 cubic inch inline sixes.

Other museum cars included a pristine 1949 Hudson Commodore convertible, a lemon-lime colored 1953 Hudson Wasp, and a variety of 1955-57 Hudson models derisively nicknamed “Hashes” because they used modified Nash platforms after AMC closed the Hudson plant.

By 1957, AMC president George Romney would kill both the Hudson and Nash brands and their large car lines, promoting the smaller Rambler model into a full brand and focusing all company resources on compact cars. The final car seen in the episode is a 1959 Rambler Six, which was a facelifted version of the 1956 model.

Episode 2 (which we’ll show in a future article) brought us to the muscle car era, and we were lucky enough to find a family that not only owned a Marlin, multiple Javelins, an AMX, and a Rebel Machine, but also a Pacer, Eagle, and more–all in our spot! Our 3-man crew spent a July week living out of a mobile home AirBnB in rural Indiana, dodging tornadoes, eating at Culver’s, and filming as much as we could.

Due to the aforementioned problem finding stock Javelins, this family’s 1969 example had been the main draw. But this one was a stripped base model, complete with inline six engine and 3 speed manual, meaning it was not the most exciting Javelin in the world. As a result, I may have substituted some V8 noises over the original sounds during the driving scenes.

The second episode also featured an iconic 1969 AMC Hurst SC/Rambler, essentially a turn-key factory drag car with AMC’s biggest engine shoved into its smallest body. By pulling a few strings with my friends at MotorWeek, we actually got to film a few passes down a drag strip.

Episode 3 featured a few quick muscle car shots–including a rare AMX/3 prototype, but the real focus was on the Hornet and Gremlin. As it happened, a family near me happened to own both! Both were 1971 models and both were base, rubber floor mat, 3-speed manual cars. The Gremlin had been painstakingly restored, but the Hornet was in more of a “rough and ready” original condition. Both looked good on camera, although part of me wishes we could have found mid-level models that would have better reflected what most AMC customers drove, but I’m thankful for finding them, nonetheless.

Two more Gremlins make an appearance in Episode 3, including a gorgeously restored 1973 example with the coveted Levi’s jeans faux-denim interior. The owner vividly remembered going to an AMC dealer as a little girl and begging her mom to buy one, but being a single mother, all they could afford was a used Rambler. After allegedly out-bidding Gremlin aficionado Jeff Dunham, her dream of owning a Levi’s Gremlin finally came true.

Episode 4 was all about the Pacer and featured two 1976 models. One belonged to the Javelin/AMX family I mentioned before. The other was owned by a woman I met way back in 2013 when I made my first documentary every, The Unfortunate History of the AMC Pacer. Little did I know we would stay friends all these years, and that her car would make a second appearance in another one of my projects! Since 2013, she had also added a 1976 AMC Matador Coupe to her stable, which I filmed as well.

While it only has a brief appearance, we also filmed a 1978 AMC Concord. Finding one presented a slight challenge, as the ‘78 model had a one-year-only front facia. But, if we had filmed a later redesigned model, the 4K footage wouldn’t match the historical photos we used.

Episode 5 is where our search began to get difficult. After buying the Jeep division of Kaiser Industries in 1969, AMC had turned the brand into a profit powerhouse by the late 70s. We knew these had to be a part of the story, but good-condition, unmodified, late-70s Jeeps are sparse, especially if you live in the Rust Belt.

After spending weeks trying to nail down a big private collector, they ghosted us the week our shoot was supposed to happen. Desperate, I reached out to Jim Babish Auto Sales, a small-town dealership with an almost magic knack for finding pristine vintage trucks and SUVs.

Given past experiences with dealers, I wasn’t optimistic, but it turned out that Jim Jr. and Jim Sr. were thrilled to help. They basically threw me the keys to several $40,000+ Wagoneers and said, “Do whatever you want!” and left me alone. The resulting footage of the vintage Jeeps against the Pennsylvania fall foliage was gorgeous.

Similarly to the Concord, the 1980 AMC Eagle had some one-year-only styling features, and we knew that if we showed a later model Eagle when the narrator was talking about 1980, all the Eagle guys would be upset. After finding an owner through Facebook, we managed to combine a trip to film his Eagle with another shoot, which helped us save time and justify the travel.

Episode 6 presented even more challenges. As David Tracy will tell you, the 1984 Jeep XJ is perhaps one of the most consequential American vehicles of all time. Unfortunately, not even Jim Babish had one. I spent weeks scouring Jeep Facebook groups, only for people to recommend mid-90s facelifted models (no), jacked-up rock crawlers (NO), and one guy even asked if we could film his lifted, matte-black Jeep ZJ (NO!).

Finally, we ended up bending the rules a little and traveling to Michigan to film a 1989 XJ that was technically a Chrysler model, but very few people would be able to tell it wasn’t a true AMC-era Jeep. (Especially with the owner’s addition of an AMC-logo plate on the front.)

But the hardest vehicle to find by far was a 1983 Renault Alliance, which appears in both Episodes 5 and 6 when we cover AMC’s tumultuous marriage to Renault. Despite AMC building hundreds of thousands of them from 1983 to 1987, it seems like 90% of them have been scrapped. The ones that did survive were mostly high-end convertibles and sporty GTA models, but we needed a first-year model and those variants didn’t arrive until a few years later.

After begging Renault groups for help, someone recommended a Renault club member who wasn’t on Facebook and lived all the way over in St. Louis Missouri. It was a longshot, but as this was October of 2024, we were in desperate need of the footage to finish our documentary.

Thankfully, this amazing owner was kind enough to drive FIVE HOURS IN A RENAULT ALLIANCE to meet us halfway in Dayton, Ohio where we filmed the car. He also was an incredible mechanic, and knew more about these cars than anyone I’ve ever met. His Alliance was immaculate and probably ran better now than it did when new.

Stay Tuned: Same AMC Time, Same AMC Channel

In total, we filmed over 40 vehicles, resulting in almost five terabytes of footage. Everyone who helped us is credited at the end of the episodes their vehicles appear in, and I will be eternally grateful to all of them.

Much like American Motors, The Last Independent Automaker was produced by a small, dedicated team on a shoestring budget. Thankfully, the AMC community is filled with incredibly generous people who were willing to volunteer their cars and their time, all for no compensation except for maybe a free lunch. (And sometimes, they even insisted on buying us lunch, instead!)

I cannot thank these people enough for saving and restoring all the cars–from the obvious ones like Javelins and AMX, to the oddball ones like Hornets, Pacers, and even one Renault Alliance.

In a future article, I’ll detail how we filmed these cars and the unique challenges that created. But next week, join me for Episode 2 as AMC heads into the muscle car era, and I explain how we saved hours of lost car footage from an archive of strange video tape formats!

The Last Independent Automaker is available to watch now on Public Television stations, the PBS app, and the AutoMoments YouTube channel.

The series is distributed by American Public Television. Maryland Public Television is the presenting station. The Automotive Hall of Fame provided fiduciary assistance. The Last Independent Automaker is funded in part by Visit Detroit, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and MotorCities National Heritage Area. It is also funded by over 375 individuals and organizations who contributed through the project’s Crowdfunding campaign.