What do you call a ‘group’ of Marlins?

I know what you are probably thinking. He still hasn’t resto-modded and finished the Marlin he has and he’s buying yet another. And this one is not in that great of shape body-rust-wise and it doesn’t seem to want to start. And where is he going to put it?

All valid questions. All of which were raised by my wife during numerous discussions.

Let me make my case.

I was not looking to buy another car. But one day I was watching a YouTube video and the host was plugging an aggregator car sales web site, AutoTempest. Note: I am not being compensated for any mention of any of these sites.

I’ve used AutoTrader, Cars.com, Carvana and many other sites. But AutoTempest promised to search every possible site and include them all in one list. Ok, no big deal. I’m sure there are dozens of aggregator sites out there. But I was sitting in my easy chair, not doing anything constructive, so I called up the site and plugged in a search for a 66 AMC Marlin. I’m always interested my Marlin might be worth. As I clicked through the empty lists, up comes FaceBook Marketplace. Well I don’t believe in FaceBook so I don’t have an account but I clicked anyway and out of the mystery of the World Wide Web, up popped this car.

From the photos, the car looked OK. And the price listed had been reduced and at least was at the level that if I bought it and it didn’t work out, I wasn’t out a lot of cash.

I arranged to look at the car (it was only 45 minutes away) and did this quick “first look” video.

With a close look, I could see this car will need some work. The 327 V-8 turns over but will not start. The brakes seem to sort of work. And the strangest thing, the pan-hard bar is missing. If you don’t know what that is, that’s OK. But rest assured, if the car was driven down the road without it, the back end would sway back and forth like a porch swing and I’d probably end up in the ditch.

The windshield will need to be replaced (it’s been ordered). Most of the metal trim is there but not in great shape. The interior is cooked–literally. Some of the interior plastic is gone. Not removed, just melted from the heat then slowly dissolved and swept away. The door panels are almost gone. The headliner is there but the vinyl covering is long gone. I won’t venture a guess what caused my seats to look chewed on and worn out but it certainly didn’t walk on two legs.

I later talked to the seller and we made a deal. I’ll post details about picking it up in a later post.

I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do with it at this time. I could make one of those “will it run” videos that are all over YouTube, or I could flip it. For the time being, it’s in storage. If and when I decide what to do, I’ll post it here.

By the way, according to my research on the web, most marlins rarely end up in ‘schools’ and are mostly observed in singles or in pairs. That certainly is the case for me!