Gremlin drive report : 4 days driving a '74 Gremlin...

[Gremlingts@xxxx]

 Well, since my Toyota truck broke, I've had to hoof it to work in the 
Gremlin. Luckily it's been a real trooper, but this week alone, I had to : 
fix the windshield wiper knob, replace the wipers ( lots of rain ), replace 
one headlight ( so far ), listen to AM stations only, etc. But it has putted 
on down the highway really well. 
Here's some of my driving impressions of it, having used it for a daily 
driver now just about all week - Seat is comfortable enough, for a bench. 
Raised hood tends to block the road view some, ESPECIALLY going over steep 
grade hills, and over a VERY humped one-lane bridge, saw one accident on 
Monday on that very bridge, you can't hardly see someone coming up the other 
side, that ol' wooden bridge is that rounded on top....but it's a nice 
shortcut to avoid lots of traffic. 
The Gremlin has been puffing some smoke on startup, but that's not unusual , 
considering it's got 127k on it now. Ticks but runs well. The carb still 
isn't right, has hesitation and stumbling, but I will fix that soon, I hope. 
I need to fix the dash lights, several bulbs are burnt out, it's hard to 
read the cluster at night with just two of them working. I also need to blow 
out the ducts, when I tried using defrost on Monday, all sorts of nasty dust 
and leaves and junk starting blowing out, so I shut it off...ew, it stunk! 
First time I'd tried using defrost. Guess I probably should take the ductwork 
apart to clean it out sometime. Or just let it all blow out that it can, and 
clean the interior with a vacuum afterwards. LOL. Minor inconvenience. At 
least we shouldn't be having any more snow storms or major frost in the 
Wash. DC area. I hope. 
As far as road manners, it's jumpy due to the power steering, but fun, 
and the brakes are solid but stiff, being non-power. But it stops quickly 
when "pressed" into service. :) I was hoping to give it a rest on Friday, and 
drive my old Chevy truck, but it's too late to clean that out and get it 
outside the gate tonight. I'll just drive the Gremlin again. 
My passenger side view mirror is loose, it "jingles" around inside the 
housing some, but not too excessively. Enough to be an annoyance. 
I drove it to the auction Wednesday night, and bought a truck box for my 
Toyota, and was thinking it'd fit....wrong! So, I managed to put some wood 
slats out the hatch, put some weight on the inside ends, and put the box on 
the slats under the opened hatch, and tied it to the bumper and inside to the 
front seat with rope. It held ok, didn't shift at all driving the 32 miles 
home like that. Bet it looked pretty funny, witha Gremlin carrying a big 5 
foot plastic box out the back hatch sideways! But it only cost $4, so it was 
worth the effort. :) 
Well, now you know how it went, you all need to rush out and drive a 
Gremlin to work, too! It's a blast. :) That's all for me, I'll be telling you 
another BIG story on Sunday evening, with a great ending, I HOPE....stay 
tuned! This could be very big for me... LOL. G'night, all.

Jerry
....with visions of AMC stuff dancing in my head...