BigB Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 My name is Ben, I am from Marietta Ohio. Cars have been a part of my life ever since I was little, my dad has always been a car guy, from '64-'66 GTO's to the early 70's Nova's to mid 50's chevy trucks to big old derby cars, it's been in my blood. I am more into the odd ball cars, never really been interested in the cars that everybody else had. When I had the choice of my first car it was between a early 80's Capri (other kids had those and Mustangs) or a 1975 AMC Gremlin....I chose the cooler of the two... THE GREMLIN and that is where my addiction started! Through the years ('95-current) I have owned six Gremlins, one Hornet, a bunch of S10's, two hearses and a few other cars here and there. The car I built was a RARE 1970 AMC Gremlin with the one year only 199ci straight 6 in it and three on the tree. At first I looked into turboing the Gremlin and had everything lined up to do it but them I was told that I "COULDN'T" put a SBC in the Gremlin and that was the wrong thing to say to me. Nothing gets me more determined than to tell me I CAN'T do something, so it was on from there. I drove the car on it's last OEM powered voyage to a Road Devils car show up near Dublin Ohio and that night when I got home I ripped the motor and trans out of the car and started the transplant after MANY years of collecting parts. The motor was a 355 out of a truck my uncle had and I had a freshly rebuilt th350 with stall converter to go with it. The motor went in "ok" but the trans mount required some mods to the original cross member and it worked just fine. I had bought a nice set of headers for it but of course they hit the strut rod mounting brackets where they mounted to the frame so manifolds were required for the time being until I re thought how to work around them. I went with a Ford 8" rearend and bought a centersection off of e-bay. I got the car all running and was happy......for the time being. The car then blew the valve body in the trans so I bought a new Jegs trans and stall and all was well again....for the time being. Then I swapped motors, added headers, aluminum radiator, disc brakes,......the list went on and on....all new prothane bushings through the entire car....bought another Gremlin to start on and had plans of swapping everything to it. Everything was going awesome until I family problems came into play with the car and as much as I hated to I had to sell the car. I sold the car to a member here, hpfiend. We have stayed in touch and he keeps me updated on what's going on with the car and I try and answer questions he has as best I can. I wanted to join the site so I could follow his build progress with the car and to keep involved in the car world. My other hobbies include minibikes, some pedal cars and anything vintage. Since selling my car I have kind of stepped away from the car world and focused more on my family but with the addition of our son I hope to get back into the car scene and find another odd ball car to build with my kids when the timing is right. I current have a 93 S10 that is just a daily driver. I will be honest, I have no car or project or anything in the wind right now but I am ALWAYS looking for another Gremlin or waiting for hpfiend to swap cars and sell me my old 70 Gremlin roller back (Fingers crossed!) so I can build it just one more time with my kids involved. Here is a picture of the Gremlin when I finally had it completed right before I sold it. The best I even ran it was 13.25 ... I think....at 99MPH with a set of 2.79 open gears coming through the traps in 2nd gear wound tight. I had a 4.11 center section with a full aluminum spool but sold it before I ever got to put it in and make an all out pass with it. http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/AMCSBC/th_SU1HMDAyMjEuanBn.jpg If anybody wants to see more pictures of the car I can post plenty...LOL! Thanks for letting me join the site and hope to answer any questions I can and learn anything I can along the way!! Thanx, Ben Sorry for the long intro. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForeverMaker Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
POS VETT Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Welcome, Ben! Go ahead and post more, most of us are suckers for car pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Welcome! Ironically AMC launched that car 43 years ago today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigB Posted April 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Yeah, to me it is not April fools day but more of the AMC Gremlin birthday. Today was the first day the Gremlin was available for purchase to the public! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigB Posted April 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Here was a video of the car after it was all done the first time, this motor was a lot stronger than the one I swapped into it but the new motor was all fresh. Wish I had known that before I swapped them. LOL! I bought this car off of the 3rd owner who was only selling it for his family because they had moved away. His uncle bought it off of the original owners after her husband had passed away, the car only had like 67,000 original miles on it when I bought it in 99. I owned the car for 12 years and have a lot of memories that go with it. Here is a pic from before the headers, aluminum radiator and the wheels. The car looked mean but man are those Mopar police wheels HEAVY!!! http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/AMCSBC/IMG00038.jpg Some more build pics... http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/AMCSBC/th_ZmFuIGluc3RhbGxlZC5qcGc.jpg Fuel cell I had made a work, I drew up all the plans for it, installed the fittings and the filler cap and put the fuel cell foam in it. http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/AMCSBC/th_ZnVlbCBjZWxsIHdpdGggcmV0dXJuIGJ1bmc.jpg http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/AMCSBC/th_SU1HMDAxNjAuanBn.jpg Here is pics of the old strut rods and brackets (The end of the OEM strut rod was cut off and welded to the new one for the steering stop), the old mounting bracket on the frame was HUGE and was not going to allow any kind of headers or exhaust to fit on the car. http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/AMCSBC/th_IMG00035.jpg http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/AMCSBC/th_IMG00034.jpg New installed on the car http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/AMCSBC/th_IMG00033.jpg New frame brackets http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/AMCSBC/th_IMG00032.jpg Just a few of the build pics I have. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Cranium Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Welcome. I look forward to seeing what your next project is. I've talked with HPfiend about the Gremlin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigB Posted April 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Thanks for all the welcomes. I know when I sold the Gremlin that it was far from being done but was a very good start. Looking back on a lot of it there is SO much I would have done different now, there were so many plans I had that I was going to do to the 75 when I transferred everything over to it. The SBC crossmember I bought off of a fellow gremlin enthusiast who already had it built...It was built HEAVY and could have been done a whole lot better. I had bought an engine plate that I was going to use in the 75 but sold the car before it ever happened. I wish more than anything I would have been able to make some full passes on the car with the 4.11's and the full aluminum spool just to see what the car was capable of. I had made SO many changes to the car before i took it to the track the last time and had shaved like 200 or 300 pounds from the car and a lot of it was rotating mass and weight off the front end. Wish I could have seen what the old girl would do. Glad HPfiend got it and is giving it the care and attention it needs. Wish things would have worked out with me so I could have finished the car and seen it through the end though. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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