"I see your site says there are Rogues in the US, Canada, South Africa and possibly Oz. Got some good news for you, I have one in the UK.

"It is a 67 Rogue, auto, right hand drive which I believe was shipped from the States in bits and assembled at the Kahmann Ghia factory in West Germany [my emphasis]. We are still researching.

"We found it in an old garage, [a] bit like Miss Moffatts in "Silence of the Lambs" but without the head and no Hanibal Lecter. It has been stored since 1973 and we have yet to scrape the dust off it."

"We have just extracted the Rogue from its 27 year resting place. We think it was registered in September 1967. It was last taxed for road use until August 1973.

"It is a 232 auto convertible, 81,000 UK miles. 2 owners, one for 6 months and then the last owner for 33 years. Picture attached of how it looked when found.

"We are surprised, the condition is not that bad although we do need some parts. ...We need a rear bumper, two outside door strips, a petrol [gas] filler cap, and a set of wheel trims. That seems about the lot to date.

"The original owner thinks there were only 20 Rogue convertibles exported to Europe and only a few were right hand drive. He thinks they came in via a Mercedes dealer in London. We are going to research all the info we can to try to complete the story. Apparently AMC was testing the UK market with this car. Perhaps they forgot that it rains in the UK. We think this could be the only remaining survivor. Makes it a very rare car indeed. We want to restore it to the exact original condition."

On June 17th, John had more information:

"Just quick up-date on the Rambler Rogue and some pictures. This picture shows the [original] state of it.

"The next picture shows the first cleandown, and the two after that show how she looks at this stage of the restoration job. Now we just have to clean the engine bay and then start the rebuild."

"It's now 8 weeks since we extracted the Rogue from its hiding place. We took her back to the garage and as you can imagine, everything was seized up, brakes, engine, the lot apart from the gearbox. Fortunately it had not been left in park. It took 7 days, using heating oil ( deisel ) before eventually the engine turned over by hand.

"We had an original set of keys, so we tried the electrics. Bingo! Lights, horn, flashers even the old Pye radio lit up but we were very careful with the top. Unlocked the clasps, pushed the button, opened it about 12 inches, then back closed. Now that the restorer has soaked into the fabric, we will take the car into the sunshine to warm it and then take the top all the way down. That's if we get any sunshine in the UK this summer. The interior is nearly finished.

"We've managed to turn the engine over on the starter but even with a lot of coaxing, she refused to fire up. After taking off the head we could see why: everything was passing by the rings and ending up in the oil sump. Out came the engine and gearbox -- might as well do a complete rebuild.

"As you can see the body is looking a lot cleaner but unfortunately the car had been resprayed at some time in the early 70's and it was a terrible job. Wrong colour, bad workmanship and blown over with dust. The new paint job will be done during the winter but now comes the rebuild and hopefully she should be running by the end of July or early August, just before it rains in September.

"We found out an interesting piece of info yesterday. I was talking to the previous owner who told me there were only 3 of these right hand drive cars made for the UK market. They were built in late '67, which could account for the side indicators. I presume that these dates would also co-incide with AMC stopping production of the convertable. Makes it a real rare motor."

"At the last update we had taken out the engine and hoped to have the car running before the rain came. I expect you heard in the States, we have had a lot of rain in the UK. Well, the months came and went, so we decided on a complete restore in one go.

"Through your Rambler Rogue site I met Wayne Kingham from Bay City, Michigan. I have not got enough pages to tell you how much I appreciate what he did for us. He was brilliant. He had a few of bits already but then managed to find another Rogue which we bought between us. Wayne picked up the salvage, stripped off the other bits we needed and sent them to the UK. That sounds easy but I know different -- Wayne is keeping the salvage until our re-build is complete just in case we need something else.

"We have some original Rogue hubcaps but not the spoked ones. We still need some spoked wheel trims (if anyone knows of any going [for sale]) -- in the meantime we stripped everything, bits everywhere.

"At last we have started the rebuild. The underside of the car has been sealed, coated, waxed, brakes relined, servo and master cylinder rebuilt, pipes replaced, new boots (tyres)[tires], the lot. Gearbox stripped and rebuilt, rad[iator] re-cored, restored loom [wiring] and electrics all working but not re-wired. Everything else that wasn't coated and waxed has been re-sprayed, apart from the body, this can be seen in the before and after photo under the bonnet (hood). The doors have been re-hung and now shut with a precision click. We still have to get the top down, we know it works but this will probably be the final job.

"We have started on the engine and obtained most of the parts. The AMC straight 6 engine was used in the P6 Rover in the UK and although the P6 was only 2 or 2.5 litre, most parts are compatable. We needed new lifters, a couple of pistons, shells [?], rings, some valves and various other parts, all easily obtainable in the UK. The rest was OK, after all, the car has only done 81,000 miles since new.

"We decided to give the bodywork a paint restoration job instead of re-spray. The paintwork was rubbed down with 1200guage wet/dry, using face-soap as the lubricant, followed by a very fine T-cut and various polishes, 6 more coats to apply before we know if the hard work paid off, much cheaper than a re-spray. Not many folks know that you can restore your paintwork this way. If you do, be careful, it isn't far down to the undercoat and a two colour paint job doesn't always look good.

"The authorities in the UK have agreed (after much persuasion ) that we can re-register on the original plates. The next up-date should be the final one with pictures of the 'Rogue on the Road'. We hope that next October we will be able to enter the Rogue in the Classic Car show at the National Exhibition Centre. As far as we now it is definately the only right hand drive Rogue convertable to survive in the UK, maybe in the world, unless you know different. [And I don't!]"

John updated us on the condition of his car in early '01:

"I can't believe that it is April already and still raining the the UK. We said the engine was used in the Rover but it was the Triumph. The parts were not as easy to obtain as we thought and a lot had to be ordered from the States. We stripped the engine and did a total rebuild. The picture shows the engine as it looks now and very interesting to compare it with the picture further up this page.

"As usual with all restoration projects, it looks easy but takes 3 times as long to complete. We fired her up a few weeks ago but could not get the engine to run as it should, sometimes 4 cylinders or 5 but never the full set. It does now, like a new one which it very nearly is. We put just one silencer [muffler] in the exhaust system to make it sound a little throaty.

"All the electrics work even the old valve set Pye radio. The hood [top] works OK although we may replace this at a later date and during next winter we will probably complete the respray and re-chrome. So there will be another up-date at the year end.

"The Rogue is now on the road and all ready for the first show.

Note that this is a '67 car with a '66 dash

John concludes:
"Having gone this far, we will respray it next winter."