Re: Gremlin gas caps & Hornet louvers
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Gremlin gas caps & Hornet louvers



I never have figured out why there are so many Gremlin 'man' locking gas
caps around. In a dealership parts buyont in the early 90s, I had over 100
of the things. I sold them at meets for $25 a pop, sure wished I had them
now, as I would retire. But I believe those first appeared in 1972, don't
quote me on that however. But it was a response by AMC by their customer's
demands for a locking gas cap as the owners were getting their gas siphoned
off at night or places they left their car; for those of ya'll not around
then, there was a gas crisis, which got worse with the OPEC embargo in
1974(?) which was when aMC introduced the Matador coupe. Large car, no gas,
bad timing.

You can still find those Gremlin locking gas caps 'off' ebay however if you
get to some of the major AMC national meets; for instance there was about 6
of them for sale here in Houston for the 2001 Nats, all priced between
$20-$60 each.

As for the louvers, J. C. Whitney is the only place I ever saw offer them,
at least they were in their catalog. However! I have never seen a set on a
73-77 Hornet or 78-79 Concord. And in all my massive archives of AMC dealer
literature, order forms, accessories guides, you name it, nothing.

Again, someone mentioned that they were probably altered off another make,
and I still say they were from a Aspen of that era. The Aspen was Motor
Trend car of the year, very nice style, and 1/4 windows were very similiar
to the Hornet:
http://www.dippy.org/photo/pred/predasp02.jpg



Not that anyone here needs to know, but there was one of these on a backlot
in Corpus Christi in 1977, blakc, just like above, and I relieved it of it's
front spoiler and rear spoiler and AM/FM/8 track radio one morning about
4:00am....I really thought that stuff would fit on my 70 Javelin. Not even
close in all cases. The guard dog liked my Whataburger too.

So I still say whoever is looking for the louvers will have to modify them
from something like a Aspen or similiar vehicle from that era. You might
start with the old J. C. Whitney catalog found at any large book store
though, they are very heavy into spoilers, louvers, add ons, especially with
the booming ricer market for stuff like that. Good luck,
Eddie Stakes'
Planet Houston aMX
www.planethoustonamx.com

Attachment: jpg00286.jpg
Description: JPEG image



Home Back to the Home of the AMC Gremlin 


This site contains affiliate links for which we may be compensated