MINI GREMMIE

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   Mini Gremmie is making progress.  On work nights that I haven't had enough time to warm up the shop, I just spend time on the back porch working on body imperfections.  All the hours go to the same place at the end.  I did get down the right side of the body below the decal with watersanding and decided that I just needed to see how it was going to turn out.
Wow!  The original plastic finish is aboslutely gorgeous!  The plastic has ripples in it, so its not like a laser straight block sanded restoration, but the plastic really lights up under hand buffing with the compound and then finish polish.  Has a red "glass" look to it - shiny like paint, but a different glow.  You can actually get this stuff shiny enough to get a full reflection in it.  Below the decal is watersanded and buffed, above the decal in the photo is still original finish:

It's just a shame that the original decals got some wrinkle lines in them.  I guess the plastic has shrunk? just a little over the years and the decals bunched up?  The rest is going to look terrific, but I guess the decals will be what they are - they will be original to the car, so that's what is important.

We had some warmer days this week, so I was able to get the shop temp up quick in the evenings and decided to get the chassis under primer - a 1 - 2 shot of epoxy DTM and then some 2K surfacer to sand out the rust pits, etc.  It was a long work night, but now the chassis is coated and I can move on to the smaller pieces:

Fun Fact:  a full sized AMC Gremlin is 161 inches overall length.  A Gremlin gokart is actually quite large at about 84" overall length, or just a hair over 50% in length!  That makes a tight fit for my parts painting booth that is 8'x8', but I managed to squeeze in the chassis and get it primed.  From the experience, I can tell that that painting this will be one of the most challenging things I've had to paint, with small diameter tube everywhere and going in every direction, but priming is a good practice run for finish paint.

Next up on the list is getting the small parts paint prepped.  The wheels are in particularly bad shape.  Tires on these buggers are horrible to get off!  Because the old tires are completely dry rotted and cracked, I ended up cutting the tire open on one side and peeling it off the wheels.  I have new tires and tubes to go back on but I am not looking forward to that job...  Saturday I got the wheels cleaned and readied for the bead blaster.  Badly rusted linkages are ready to get cleaned up too.

I think this chassis must have sat outside behind the garage for a decade or so seeing how bad the pieces are.  But... they will look new when done, so on with the restoration!

I did a spray out to check Argent Silver Wheel Paint for match to the Rupp wheel silver - it is about a 95% match, so I think we will be using that to color these wheels at the end.

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kcsamc Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Sep/03/2011 Location: Denver, PA Status: Offline Points: 1974	Post Options Post Reply Quote kcsamc Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: Feb/23/2020 at 8:34pm
	Mini Gremmie is making progress. On work nights that I haven't had enough time to warm up the shop, I just spend time on the back porch working on body imperfections. All the hours go to the same place at the end. I did get down the right side of the body below the decal with watersanding and decided that I just needed to see how it was going to turn out. Wow! The original plastic finish is aboslutely gorgeous! The plastic has ripples in it, so its not like a laser straight block sanded restoration, but the plastic really lights up under hand buffing with the compound and then finish polish. Has a red "glass" look to it - shiny like paint, but a different glow. You can actually get this stuff shiny enough to get a full reflection in it. Below the decal is watersanded and buffed, above the decal in the photo is still original finish: It's just a shame that the original decals got some wrinkle lines in them. I guess the plastic has shrunk? just a little over the years and the decals bunched up? The rest is going to look terrific, but I guess the decals will be what they are - they will be original to the car, so that's what is important. We had some warmer days this week, so I was able to get the shop temp up quick in the evenings and decided to get the chassis under primer - a 1 - 2 shot of epoxy DTM and then some 2K surfacer to sand out the rust pits, etc. It was a long work night, but now the chassis is coated and I can move on to the smaller pieces: Fun Fact: a full sized AMC Gremlin is 161 inches overall length. A Gremlin gokart is actually quite large at about 84" overall length, or just a hair over 50% in length! That makes a tight fit for my parts painting booth that is 8'x8', but I managed to squeeze in the chassis and get it primed. From the experience, I can tell that that painting this will be one of the most challenging things I've had to paint, with small diameter tube everywhere and going in every direction, but priming is a good practice run for finish paint. Next up on the list is getting the small parts paint prepped. The wheels are in particularly bad shape. Tires on these buggers are horrible to get off! Because the old tires are completely dry rotted and cracked, I ended up cutting the tire open on one side and peeling it off the wheels. I have new tires and tubes to go back on but I am not looking forward to that job... Saturday I got the wheels cleaned and readied for the bead blaster. Badly rusted linkages are ready to get cleaned up too. I think this chassis must have sat outside behind the garage for a decade or so seeing how bad the pieces are. But... they will look new when done, so on with the restoration! I did a spray out to check Argent Silver Wheel Paint for match to the Rupp wheel silver - it is about a 95% match, so I think we will be using that to color these wheels at the end.
	Kevin Shope 1964 Classic 660 67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)

PHAT69AMX Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jul/07/2007 Location: West Virginia Status: Offline Points: 5926	Post Options Post Reply Quote PHAT69AMX Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Feb/23/2020 at 10:00pm
	Really neat, thanks for posting
	Link to a Short YouTube Burnout Video

fast401 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Supporter of TheAMCForum Joined: Sep/16/2008 Location: swanton, ohio Status: Offline Points: 3467	Post Options Post Reply Quote fast401 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Feb/24/2020 at 3:51pm
	Nice work! I love the devotion to a project.
	Disturbing the peace since 1970!!! AMX 19245 Facebook page - AMC Nation www.fast-401.4t.com

amxdreamer Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jul/30/2008 Location: Vancouver, BC Status: Offline Points: 8511	Post Options Post Reply Quote amxdreamer Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Feb/28/2020 at 1:30pm
	so cool seeing something "different" being detailed properly!
	Tony Vancouver, BC 1970 AMX 1972 Badassador AMO#10333

kcsamc Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Sep/03/2011 Location: Denver, PA Status: Offline Points: 1974	Post Options Post Reply Quote kcsamc Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: Mar/01/2020 at 9:55pm
	A big hurdle on the MINI GREMMIE comeback is finally behind us this week! After search after search on what to do with the unobtainium plastic seats on these things, I settled a number of weeks back on a search for the best plastic stacking chair seat design that might fit after a conversation with my one friend and fellow mini gremmie owner. The thought was floated that the designs were similar and could work. My first pass was a weekend of roaming the large number of antique shops here in Adamstown, PA, but after that failed effort, I spend several more weeks searching ebay, craigslist and Facebook marketplace looking through page after page of chairs... Finally I hit on one that looked as good as I could hope for. It is a Krueger (Green Bay) chair from the 70s or 80s. The texture is the same and overall shape is about a 85% match. After waiting a week or so to get it shipped in, I finally got the chance to check fit. It's not bad. Only an angular adjustment of the rear chassis to seat mount was necessary. Most importantly the motor fits in behind the seat. So Saturday was a big checkmark day! This past week, I spent my evenings bead blasting the nasty wheels and got them down to white metal, and then after spring house cleaning in the spray booth and doing filter changes, got most of the chassis small parts under epoxy/2k primer coats. Sandout on all these pieces are up next. Motor teardown to get those pieces into the beadblaster as well is next steps. Clean metal again above, protective painted applied below! Gotta keep moving! Spring is just around the corner! Edited by kcsamc - Mar/01/2020 at 9:59pm
	Kevin Shope 1964 Classic 660 67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)

kcsamc Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Sep/03/2011 Location: Denver, PA Status: Offline Points: 1974	Post Options Post Reply Quote kcsamc Report Post Thanks(2) Quote Reply Posted: Mar/22/2020 at 9:56pm
	Well it looks like we will all be under the affects of COVID-19 for a while. Thankfully car guys have a good way of coping with it, with projects just waiting for our attention. With more forced time at home, means more time on this project, so I will also try to share more frequent updates for entertainment. Over the past couple of weeks I have worked off and on with tearing down the motor and watersanding and buffing the body surface. The watersanding I have been doing on short evenings where I just head out to the back porch and spend a little time making progress. The body looks better everytime I work on it but it really is a labor intensive job. Meanwhile in the shop, the motor has come apart. All I can saw is what a GROSS mess on the outside. But inside, I have found the motor in remarkably good shape. Here are some choice photos of the teardown: Check out the trashing on the tank - cap thread... I tried installing the NOS gas cap and got it stuck - it goes on but won't come off. That is going to be a project for this week to try to straighten it. Yeah, fun... Now for the yucky stuff... Yeah, COVID-20 coming up.. How about this stuffy nose? A little carbon & oil up top. Getting a new set of rings. Inside - things were clean and no signs of wear. Crank bearings look good. Bore size is only showing about .002" wear side to side opposite axis of crank, but that is pretty good. Yesterday on Day 1 of official no work quarantine, I sanded out the rods. The contrasting epoxy vs. 2k coats show the extent of original pitting. They did pretty good with just one good hard sanding. They all got their second primer coat last night. In addition to that, my neighbor who does Wheel Horse tractor restoration (yes we are an "AMC" family in the neighborhood), helped me pull the valves with his valve tool so I could get the engine body ready for walnut blasting (exterior), and I got it fully scrubbed as well: Today, Day 2 of quarantine, I started sanding the wheels. Rust pits in these were pretty bad, so I opted for some finger painting on of a coat of USC Icing to get the plentiful deep pits out. First picture below (3) are sanded out completely, #4 has the Icing applied and ready for lots of work... Picture below - all (4) ready for next prime coat and 95% of the pits gone: Sanding these little wheels with all the steps and grooves was not easy and took many hours. But I HATE rust pits in finish work. In fact I'd like to stop here and give a word of encouragement - if you take the time to repaint something, take the time to get the pits sanded out. Doing so, shows how much you love the project you are working on. When I get done with this project, I don't want anyone to know how bad this chassis was when I started. Spend the hours to do it right. On my SCR project, I spent hundreds of hours sanding out the undercarriage on the car - getting every pit out of the body. If you rolled underneath it, you would swear it was a 5,000 mile Arizona car. MINI GREMMIE here needs to look the same! That's all for now. Let's see how far I can get under quarantine... Check back for more frequent, but shorter updates.
	Kevin Shope 1964 Classic 660 67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)

kcsamc Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Sep/03/2011 Location: Denver, PA Status: Offline Points: 1974	Post Options Post Reply Quote kcsamc Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: Mar/28/2020 at 10:00pm
	So.... just when I was getting into the groove of quarantine, work calls and says the governor was letting us go back to work, so since Wednesday I've been back at work, and with the stressful times, didn't feel much like working on this until today again. The bead blaster has been busy, getting ready to hang a bunch of "chimes" in the paint both. Some pieces getting just epoxy DTM, others getting a coat of 2k as well. Lots of pieces for the motor getting prepped. Trying to get all my projects through the bead blaster that need glass beading, including an unrelated project so I can change over to walnut shells to do the motor castings. Today's progress:
	Kevin Shope 1964 Classic 660 67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)

kcsamc Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Sep/03/2011 Location: Denver, PA Status: Offline Points: 1974	Post Options Post Reply Quote kcsamc Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: Apr/05/2020 at 7:47pm
	OK, I think I might need an intervention... Going way overboard on this little Clinton motor. . Maybe it's just the lockdown, don't know, but I can't help myself but to go way to far on this. LOL Maybe it will bring a smile to your face tonight! So, I've been wanting to get through my bead blasting requirements in the cabinet so I can change over and put some walnut shells in to do the motor casting exterior parts and get ready for put the motor back together. Soo... I thought, lets get all the hardware plating pieces done. That was 4 days ago and I'm still digging out stuff to get refurbished. How many pieces are there on this simple little thing anyway? LOL Going a bit overboard... Flywheel got blasted, and then detailed back to bare metal finish, and bolts plated... yeah I know, no one will ever see them... it gets worse... Above, I ended up plating the throttle plate assembly for the carb, because red paint may only go in so far and I wanted to keep it from rusting. Decided to plate the (2) oil drain plugs since paint on these might get knocked off with wrenches in the future. I cleaned out and detailed the breather subassembly and plated the steel cap as well, as it had some rust on the inside, this will get red paint now on the outside only when assembled. I pulled out the electrical assembly and decided to blow it up and go full on detail. I had all new NOS electrical parts except the spark plug wire to go back in. Coil, points, condenser new, so the rest had to be made to look good. Lots of little pieces of hardware to plate... As removed from motor: As I was taking it apart, I was wondering about what the point gap was on these engines... I had refrained from buying the rather expensive $35 reprinted manual from the Clinton small engine dealers, but little stuff like this was going to be a problem if I didn't know it. Well, I got the cover bead blasted and realized the info was right on the plate!! Check out the Clinton logo stamping in the metal. Cool details. Neat little blister pack of NOS points from Clinton, a shame to open, but its for the cause! All the pieces, cleaned, plated, or replaced! Buttoned up for now, have to set points during assembly. Looks too good to be covered up. But for everyone's viewing pleasure here.. A couple weeks ago, I was scouting NOS Clinton parts on ebay, and came across what looked like the correct spark plug wire NOS, but I needed the cable length to confirm. I messaged the seller (3) times over a period of 2 weeks and he never responded. I guess he doesn't really want to sell it. So... I got my original one out and cleaned it all up, took the original engine paint off the wire and bead blasted and plated the terminal on the end. The insulation is not perfect anymore but I think it will still get the job done. Looks almost NOS tonight... The steering knuckle to chassis bolts were decent but needed refreshed so I got those done last night. They turned out great. The last item to report is the seat mounting. I wanted to get this out of the way, and prep to get the seat sprayed with fresh black finish, so I drilled and mounted the seat. It was a bit of a pain hand filing the holes to a square to get the carriage bolts to drop in correctly, but we got a good "factory looking" attachment. Next up is to prep the seat for paint, and keep moving on the hardware. Getting there! Hey Tony - I think I will finish it here this spring actually!
	Kevin Shope 1964 Classic 660 67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)

kcsamc Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Sep/03/2011 Location: Denver, PA Status: Offline Points: 1974	Post Options Post Reply Quote kcsamc Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Apr/19/2020 at 9:22am
	Plugging along here... The left side of the body is getting polished out now. Below decal done, top still needed work in the photo below. Some more motor pieces got extra detailing. Here the cover plate got a coat of stainless steel bare metal color to match its original surface on the inside. This will get bolted up to motor and the outside will get the the red with the rest of the motor. The body is now under full sanding. It was really rough with pitting. I have spent hours and hours so far. Probably got about 4 - 5 more hours of filling, repriming and sanding to go before the chassis finally is ready for the semi gloss black coat. It will be great to turn the corner and start assembly work soon. Edited by kcsamc - Apr/19/2020 at 9:24am
	Kevin Shope 1964 Classic 660 67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)

kcsamc Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Sep/03/2011 Location: Denver, PA Status: Offline Points: 1974	Post Options Post Reply Quote kcsamc Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Apr/25/2020 at 10:25pm
	The chassis got finished up this week and entered the booth. Friday night it got its tuxedo black coating. Took lots of hours to bring this one back. I opted for a less expensive but still decent Single Stage Urethane, UTECH-500. I shot all my underhood stuff that couldn't go powdercoat on the SC/Rambler with this 70% gloss mix and liked it for spraying. Its far better than the factory DTM topcoat that peeled off! Above - ready to go. Below - 3 coats of 70% gloss black Below - I took care during prep work to keep the serial number free from buildup. It shows up well under the topcoat! Meanwhile on the back porch, one or two nights a week that I don't go to the shop, I spend surface correction and body restore. The hood is all complete now. Will probably make some progress with some minor re-assembly this week and work on prepping the motor castings for re-assembly.
	Kevin Shope 1964 Classic 660 67 Rogue 290-4V 4spd Conv A-Scheme SC/Rambler (69 SC JOURNEY)