It’s a funny thing how we can develop a sort of relationship with our cars. The amount of sentiment that can be built is something that no one but our fellow gearheads can understand, and no one at all can take away.

For Linda Towers of Paris, Texas, this bonding between man and machine (or woman and machine, in this case) took root in April of 1974, at the age of 21. Her affection for the car she has now been in love with for over 40 years began not when she first got one, but when someone close to her did.

Her husband, Dickie Towers, tells the tale of his Linda’s rollercoaster-ride of a relationship with her own ’74 Javelin, stating that it all began when his sister received a fresh-off-the-lot ’74 Javelin for her 16th birthday. Linda was starstruck, and but a month later was placing an order for her own. Her’s would have all the same options as Dickie’s sister’s Javelin, and wear a gorgeous G-4 Plum exterior paint.

Dickie continues, stating that the car arrived at the dealership the following month and five days later was in the ownership of one extremely-happy Linda. Dickie also recounts that this was shortly after their return from Germany, where he had been serving in the US Army.

For 8 years, Linda drove her Javelin, until it encountered its first disaster. Dickie explains, “In 1982, a massive tornado had struck Paris, Texas, with little warning while the Javelin was parked in our driveway. It was severely damaged on the top and passenger rear quarter. The insurance company considered the Javelin a total loss and wanted to scrap it, but Linda refused to concede that, and instead had the Javelin repaired and drove it for several more years.”For 16 more years after the disaster, Linda gleefully drove her Javelin – putting 118,000 miles on the car from 1974 to 1998. In ’98, Linda and Dickie put the machine on hiatus, placing it in storage with the intention of one day having it fully restored.

May of 2010 marked the end of that hiatus; Dickie continues, saying “We decided it was time to get the Javelin out of storage to assess what shape it was in and drive it a little. After sitting idle for about 12 years, the automatic transmission would not operate, but a cleaning of the screen and new fluid got it working properly. Linda then drove the Javelin on a limited basis for the next 2 years.”

He went on to say, “In July 2012, we decided it was time to get the Javelin restored, but we had no idea what was involved. Linda was not interested in making the Javelin a Concours, rotisserie-level show car – she just wanted it restored so she could drive it and enjoy it, as she had in the past. Like most folks would, we got a few bids on the restoration work and took the lowest. Big, big mistake.”

At this point, the nightmare began. Linda and Dickie tasked the first restoration shop with tackling the whole restoration, and they agreed to work on the car part-time at nights and on weekends. According to Dickie, “Initially, this body shop did a few repairs on the body, but after a couple of months, they basically quit working on the Javelin. Every time we would visit the body shop and inquire about the Javelin, they would give an excuse as to why they had not been working on it, but promised to start again on it ‘next week’.”He continues, “For several months we believed them, but finally, in June 2013 – after the Javelin had been at this body shop about 11 months and no work was being done – we knew we had to take the Javelin somewhere else. We were lucky enough to find another local man that agreed to restore the Javelin.”

This, in and of itself, would have been trivial in the grand scheme of things. It no doubt would have been frustrating, considering the almost-year wasted with little progress. However, as Dickie goes on to explain, their car was hopelessly mistreated and disrespected. “When we picked up the Javelin from the initial body shop, it was in 1,000 pieces, like a jig-saw puzzle – nothing labeled or categorized, parts thrown everywhere, nuts and bolts just piled on the floorboard, chrome trim pieces and miscellaneous parts thrown in the trunk, and even the radiator was laying in the back seat with coolant still in it,” he said.He goes on, saying “The shop had let their kids play in the Javelin, and they broke several items: the front windshield, the steering wheel, the dome light lens, the sail panel, the turn signal lever, and other things. But to top it off, the shop even had large dogs in the shop at night and they urinated on the Javelin’s wheels, causing them to rust. Linda actually started to cry when she saw how her baby had been treated. Overall, the experience with the initial body shop was a complete nightmare – and a valuable lesson learned.”

Luckily, however, they were able to sort through the chaos that was Linda’s Javelin (literally and emotionally), and ended up finding a new pair of hands willing to handle the project. Dickie remarks that, “Most restoration shops probably would have walked away from the project – considering the mess and disarray the Javelin was in – but to his credit, Mr. Gary Armstrong of Reno, Texas, agreed to complete the restoration.”Prior to running the shop where Dickie and Linda found him, Armstrong had owned and operated a Corvette restoration shop for a great deal of time. But while Linda’s Javelin was far from his first restoration, this would be his first undertaking with an AMC.

Dickie says, “He was unfamiliar with sources for parts, so I agreed to supply all parts as needed and even bought a complete technical service manual for him to use. Thus, in mid-July of 2013 at Mr. Armstrong’s shop, work again was started on the Javelin.”

Finding a good shop to handle the restoration did not solve all the car’s woes, however; the tragic treatment it received at the prior shop resulted in problems that carried over into the work by Armstrong. Dickie recounts that, “Along the way there were several bumps in the road, one being that the initial body shop was supposed to have rebuilt the engine. We took them at their word, but after Gary installed the engine and primed everything, there was no oil pressure and a very loud noise was coming from the lower engine area.”

He explains, “In order to find out exactly what was wrong, Gary had to remove the engine and tear it completely down. When he tore the engine down, he discovered that the initial body shop had rebuilt the engine but did not order the correct size main and rod bearings. There was excessive slack in the rods, and this was the reason the engine would not pump up any oil pressure. So a new crankshaft and matching bearing kit had to be ordered, the engine was rebuilt, installed, and oil pressure was corrected.”

This was just one of the many things that the initial body shop had done in an unprofessional way, according to Dickie. However, Armstrong was able to work through the seemingly-endless set of problems that the Javelin inherited, and the car was eventually (and expertly) finished.

Using OEM and new old stock parts, Linda’s Javelin was restored to nearly the same exact condition it was in as it left the lot in 1974. But per Linda’s preference, a few things were tailored to her taste – such as a chromed air cleaner and valve covers, wheels painted to match the Plum body, and the exhaust modified from a single-pipe to dual exhaust system.Start to finish, the restoration took nearly 2 years; Linda and Dickie spent three times what their initial budget was for the project. But therein lies the beauty of loving and sacrificing for your cars – all the trouble in the world is worth the end result. Dickie happily states, “That tear I saw in my Linda’s eyes when she was handed the keys to her restored Javelin on May 16, 2014, by Gary Armstrong was priceless”.

“Linda plans to enjoy the Javelin for many more years,” Dickie continues, “keeping it in the family by passing it down to our daughter, Nicole. I can honestly say that this restoration of a piece of AMC history would have never occurred without the persistence and dedication of my wife, Linda, and her sentimental love for this car. I personally feel that this story needs to be told, to provide an inspiration to others interested in keeping the AMC Hobby alive.”