Apologies in advance but this is going to be a slow build so don’t expect a grosh level of productivity here :) I’ve embarked on an adventure to make a 1975 AMC Gremlin my daily driver. I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that I am already 1,000 miles in. The car IS my daily driver at this point. Now the goal is to make it more comfortable and also to make it a bit cooler (although I already think it’s pretty damn cool as it sits).
A quick recap to bring us up to date. Bought the car from a fellow AMC club member in January 2014. He had driven the car for a number of years and then it started to become unreliable. He said it stranded him a few times (mostly in the rain I believe). So he parked the car and bought a Gremlin X (factory V8 car). The car sat in his driveway for 4 years before I came along. $600 bucks later it was mine!
He only lives 10 minutes from me so after winching it on my trailer and getting it home it only took me 20 minutes to get it running. Once I had it registered I took it for my first test drive. Just drove it to the local super market. I made it there and back but the clutch slipped really badly (oh, 3 speed on the floor, bitchin’!). Also, the bottom of the car was just caked in oil and crud and it was leaking so badly from everywhere that I had to put a big drip pan under the car. My guess was that the clutch was covered in oil so I thought the only way to fix this is just pull the motor/trans and reseal everything. So I parked it and then it sat again for a little over a year. I wasn’t able to prioritize this car as most of my shop time goes to my road race Javelin.
But, in April 2015 I had the Javelin at the cage builders doing some work and I had a hole in the shop. So I took the opportunity to pull the Gremlin in and yanked the motor. I separated the motor/trans and when I got to the clutch… it wasN’T covered in oil as I had expected… The clutch disc didn’t look really worn either. But it was shinny so maybe it was glazed? Anyway, I spent the next few months cleaning everything and repainting a lot of stuff. I changed all the gaskets and put in a new clutch disc/pressure plate. More time passed and in September I finally got the motor/trans back in. And even more time passed but in early November I had everything back together and was ready to drive driving it again.
So I’ve been driving it pretty much exclusively since then. I have used my truck a couple of times, but like I said, the last 1,000 miles I’ve driven have been in the Gremlin. Btw, this car has a name. I’ve never named my cars but the PO gave it a name and all the local AMC club people know it by that name so I use it. The car is named Greta. There’s a few posts on my blog with some more details and a video of the engine pull on my youtube channel.
I haven’t done too much to it since I’ve been commuting in it. Now that it runs I’m finding I really don’t want to do anything to sideline it for more than a weekend. But, I’ve got 2 weeks off over xmas and hope to hit some items (although, as usual, road race car is first priority). The one thing I did get done is to pull the bumpers. 1975 bumpers are ugly, huge and weigh 60lbs a piece. So now I’m 120lbs lighter :) Here’s my punch list: The bench seat is not comfortable. The drivers side padding is shot so it’s a literal pain in the ass. I want to get some kind of bucket seats for it. The brakes suck. 4 wheel manual drums are not the hot ticket. I’m going with a Scarebird bracket and hubs. No arm rest. I want a center console with an armrest and a drink holder :) (cheap plastic version ordered from Amazon today, $15) The 15” steering wheel is like a giant bus wheel. want something smaller. *if I really get ambitious someday I may try to swap in the tilt column I have from a Javelin. FM radio + more/better speakers. The AM radio and one, dash mounted speaker is not working for me. rebuilt carb - I have a carb on the bench. want to rebuild it and then swap it out for minimum down time. HEI distributor - have one on the shelf. will need new plug wires for it. Dynamat and carpet. This car had carpet but PO put it in the V8 car and put THAT cars rubber mats in this one. Rear view mirror – current one is pretty fogged out so that’ll get changed out at some point. Horn doesn’t work. need to fix that. Driver’s side fender cap is cracked and missing pieces including the side marker light. Need to replace that. Needs all new weather stripping Headlights need a little adjustment It’s doesn’t handle that bad but I’m sure it could use a front end rebuild. Change out the wheels/tires. Haven’t decided what I want to do here. Current tires were added shortly before the car was parked by PO. So no miles but 5+ years old. paint - eventually, most likely do it myself. Probably flat black. motor - long term I want to swap in a 4.0 EFI jeep motor (early ‘90s).
Here’s a few pics:
Day I got the car
Current - Sans Bumpers!
Hangin' out at Sonoma Raceway
Contemplating a career change :)
