1973 Gremlin Project.... "The Demise of Sanity"

Traveller wrote: Kind of fun bringing a car back from the brink isn't it?   Looking good so far!

Thank you!
Yes it is! Being my first car and all, I do have a lot of good and some not so good memories with this car. I remember the day that my Grandmother brought it home. I was 8 at the time and she gave me one of those Gremlin sweatshirts that she got when she bought the car. I wore the heck out of that thing. I don't know how many pictures my Mom has of me wearing that old worn out sweatshirt. And of course it was way too big for me, but I didn't care.
I went hunting in this car. I went fishing in this car. I partied my a$$ off in this car. I drove the snot out of it. I got stuck in the mud. I did donuts in an iced over parking lot at 2 in the morning, for over an hour! I took it to California and basically lived in it for a while.
Then there was the time that it broke down on me outside of Walla Walla. Had to have a friend come pick us up and leave it along side the road. Went back the next day and the coppers had towed it to an impound yard. We had a tow bar and it didn't work, at all. So, the next best thing was a cable, cuz that's all we had. We towed it all the way back from Walla Walla to Lewiston on a 6 foot cable. By the time we had got back into Lewiston the battery was dead from the 4 way flashers and having to have the headlights on. I don't know how many semi's I about side swiped and how many times I about rear ended the pickup towing me.
Just crazy kid stuff! And of course the drinking! 95% of the off the dumb stuff was caused from all the drinking that I used to do.
I am surprised that I am still even a live and well because of all the off the wall dumb stuff I did in and with this car.
Now look at me... I am dropping a rather wildly built 401, with a close ratio 4 speed and a twin grip rear end with 3:54 gears!!!
What the he!! is wrong with me!?!?!   


Edited by BrotherBamc - Nov/30/2016 at 12:28am

Got my spring perches back from Opentracker the other day.





Excellent customer service from them! Highly recommend them!

After a fiasco of getting rear seals and the OEM dust covers not fitting, I finally got the right parts and got the rotors mounted up on their spindles.





Couldn't find a socket big enough to install the grease seals, so I backyard mechanic a bearing seal driver. 2 1/2" collector pipe worked perfect...



Next step is to get the rear end cleaned up and get the rear brakes on.

Had a small amount of time yesterday to "work" on things.
I was playing around with my cross member, lower control arms and eccentric bolts.
Put it all together and something wasn't right. (which by the way is normal for me)
Anyways the left control arm didn't look right and wasn't centering itself right in the cross member. So, I dug out the TSM.
Yup... I had the bushing in backwards and when I removed it from the cross member it fell out.
So, this picture is WRONG!



The bushing on the left control arm is in backwards.
Once I got it pressed back in the RIGHT WAY everything lined up really well. And straight too!



Also got my clean gas tank from a member here. So, I have to give a great big shout out to George! THANKS AGAIN GEORGE!!



Other then that, that's about all for now.

Didn't like the look of my rear... so I painted it.



More blasting and painting...



Trying to find bushings for the rear sway bar has been kind of a nightmare, but I "think" I have something that will work.
The end link bushings are not a problem those are pretty common. But the bushing that helps hold the end link to the brackets that attach to the frame...not so much.



My solution is to use some Mopar B bodied spring shackle bushings. They have the same diameter as the original bushings, are just about the same length, but, the only problem with them is that the bolt hole is just a little bit too small to fit the bracket. Once I get a pair of them in my hands, (I do have one used one that I got from my Mopar friend down the road) I can drill it out.
Still waiting on "snail mail" to show up with some parts that I've got from members here. Once those show up, it will be more blasting and more painting.

Gonna have to figure something out though... I'm slowly running out of room! It's one of the main reasons I really haven't started actually "working" on the car yet. My garage is kind of small and I am not sure where all of the old parts are going to go once I start tearing into the car. Probably going to be total kaos and destruction for the first week or so. But, it is coming soon...

BrotherBamc wrote: Still out on springs too. Not sure if I just want to have these springs rebuilt or purchase new ones.

I have used Eaton Detroit Spring a number of times. Not cheap but the quality is top notch and they will do custom lift or drop over factory ride height if you request it. Just put a new set on the Hornet.