Rick Sipole's Page

Yes, it's a Gremlin. Would you believe I laughed and called them a sawed-off toy box when they first came out.

I purchased my first from an American Motors dealership in Houston, Texas. It was a blue 1974 Gremlin X with the white "hockey" stripe. Although I wanted a V8, the dealer didn't have one on the lot. I settled on the 258 6 cylinder thinking I could always but a V8 in it later. It never happened and I ended up trading it in on a new GMC van in 1978. I wish I had a photo of that car.

I bought another Gremlin in 1979 after I sold (due to a divorce) the van. It was a 1973 model and had a 304 cubic inch V8. The body was rough, the interior was shot and the engine was worn out.....but I had a V8 Gremlin. My third Gremlin, a 1974 model came along when I decided I wanted a rust free body and a bigger engine.

The '74 actually had a 401 engine, but the previous owner was never able to get it running. Soon after that I met a guy that raced in the local sand pits. His Jeep had a 390 and lucky for me, he spun some rod inserts when the engine revved up to about 7,000 rpm's. Lucky for me because he sold me the engine for a couple hundred dollars.

The 390 had (.030" over) flat top TRW forged pistons. The heads had been shaved .030" so the pistons were fly-cut .030" and were also ported & polished. The cam was hygraulic with a .570" lift and 308 degree duration. Between the 401 in the Gremlin and the 390, I built one bad engine topped with an Edelbrock Torker intake and a 600 cfm Holley. The rotating assembly was balanced and the heads were given a three angle valve job. Hooker headers helped the engine breathe and it was mated up to a Turbo-400 automatic engine. It was radical and was a rush to drive. People really underestimate the power of those AMC engines. It really too much for the street and it seemed like I was always have to fix something. I think I got rid of the Gremlin in late 1983. The summer of 1984, my wife and I relocated to Michigan. The Company I worked for transferred me up there.

Long before I ever got my first car (by the way, it was a 1963 Chevy II) I dreamed of building something to either race or something to show. The more I thought about it, the more I came to believe it would be better to build something to show. After all, if I built something to race, I could blow it up or wreck it the first time it was raced. Now I had another delima. Should I build a car or a motorcycle. I finally opted for building a motorcycle thinking it would be cheaper than a show car. Let me tell you, it ain't cheap building a motorcycle either.

During the first year of my second marriage, I came across a sweet deal on a 1937 Harley Davidson. It wasn't running and the owner needed the money with a baby on the way. After we shook hands on the sale, I pulled the bowl off the factory Linkert carburator. The float was laying in the bottom of the bowl. I took a screwdriver and hooked it back up. Within a few minutes the Knucklehead was purring. You should have seen the look on the guys face when he realized that's all it was.

Well, the wife and I really enjoyed ridding that old motorcycle. Then one day, on my way home from work, the oil guage broke off and all the oil puked out. By the time I realized what had happened, it was too late. The crank and rods were destroyed. This seemed like as good a time as any to build her for show.

A local shop rebuilt the engine while I worked on everything else. The frame was black and the tanks were painted Candy Apple Brandywine with a Pegasus painted on each of the fatbob tanks. I polished the cam cover, rocker boxes, transmission top and side cover. She had a suicide clutch and jockey shift. The factory springer front end was rechromed and new shotgun pipes were added the the engine. Before we moved to Michigan, I had actually won Best Paint and 4 first place trophies.

When I saw how long the winters are in Michigan, I decided to sell the Harley and find me a another Gremlin to build. Only this time, it would be like no other. I advertised the Harley in the Detroit news, but never even got the first phone call. In November of 1985, I found an add in the Detroit news for a 1972 Gremlin "project". The asking price was $3,500. I gave the guy a call and asked if I could come and take a look. The next afternoon, I drove up to Ann Arbor.

From his place (he owned a restoration business) we drove up the road to a storage building. There it was.....

Although the Gremlin had no engine, transmision or interior, it looked great to me. The body was rust free. The owner had already installed a rear sub-frame and a Ford narrowed 9" rear-end. It had a full spool nodular center section and was hung with coil-over Koni shocks and 36" ladder bars. He had even fitted some aluminum wheel tubs in the back. I think the small fuel tank came out of a Cortina.

Older model rust free cars are hard to come by in Michigan. Knowing what I wanted to do with a Gremlin and seeing what he had, I was willing to make a trade for my Harley. I told him what I wanted to do. He seemed interested but wanted to see it first. Once he did, we shook hands and sealed the deal. While we were talking, I mentioned that I wish I could do all the work on the Gremlin because if someone asked who built it, my answer would be "me". He told me right then and there I could hang out as much as I wanted and learn. Over the next 6 1/2 years, I spent a LOT of time in his shop.

My first task was sanding the engine compartment of a 1970 Trans Am Javelin to get it ready for a good coat of self-etching primer. It was the shop owner's personal car and it had been dipped to remove all the grease, oil, body filler, primer and paint. Once it was in primer, everyone in the shop picked the body up and flipped it over on it's side. After that, I sanded until every square inch of the steel under the car was shinning. I've worked an old Henry J, several Corvettes (one was a '63 Split window), a couple Mustangs, a '49 Mercury, two Panteras, a 62 Jaguar, an MG, an AMX, a '58 & 74 Mercedes and numerous other cars. It was a few years before I even tried to work on the Gremlin. But there were other things I did.

When I got it, the deal included fiberglass fenders, hood and front valance. Since I already knew I wanted to install later model Hornet fenders and a hood, I decided to sell the fiberglass pieces. The ad ran in the Detroit news for a few days and I got a call. The guy wanted the pieces and wanted to know if I'd be interested in a trade. I said it depended on what he wanted to trade. Lucky for me, he offered up an AMC 401 cubic inch V8. I told him I would deliver the fiberglass pieces the next day.

Sure enough, he had a 401. It used to be in a car a family member owned, but was totaled in a wreck. The engine was low milage and didn't even have a ridge at the top of the cyclinder walls. I was able to rebuild it with the standard bore factory pistons. While he and I were talking, he happen to mention that he had a Hurst AMX Cross-Ram Dual Quad intake manifold. I got it in the deal too. I had no plans for it, but I figured it would come in handy for trading. As it turned out, the guy I got the Gremlin from traded the manifold for an NOS Javelin Ram-Air hood. The rear corners of the hood were damaged, but the scoop was perfect. Later, I purchase the scoop vents, trim bezels and "Y" at a swap meet when I visited the AMC Nationals in Kenosha, Wisconsin. That was about 18 or 19 years ago.

I found the Hornet fenders, a hood and headlight bezels in a salvage yard. A friend gave me an NOS Hornet grill. Back then, it was a lot easier finding parts in salvage yards and the prices were rather decent also. The rear valance was salvaged from a Hornet. I even found a set of NOS quarter panels and inner wheel wells. Since the second owner had butchered the wheel well lips to install aluminum tubs, I decided to replace the quarter panels. The rocker panels end would require some work since they had been torched to remove the factory wheel wells. The Gremlin remained in storage while I learned as much as I could, honed my skills and searched for parts I would need.........like three roofs. Yes, that's right, three more roofs.

Chopping the top on a Gremlin is a MAJOR task for a novice like me. It would require lengthening AND widening the top to get it to fit right so I decided to use the roofs to cut four oversize pieces. This way, filler panels would not be needed and the finished roof would have one seam running the length and one seam running the width. Unfortunately, it didn't exactly work out the way I planned and I ended up having to find additional roofs. I think that's when I learned measure twice, cut once. To this day, I still haven't finished the roof.

In 1991, my employeer transferred me again. This time we moved back to Texas. Although I kept searching for parts, the Gremlin project sat on the proverbial back burner for several years. Back then, if someone had told me I'd be looking for parts on the internet, I would have just scratched my head and said "huh?" At that time, eBay was probably just someones dream.......

To be continued........