Project Greta – Greta commutes!

With Greta finally running it was time to take the next big step… drive it to work! I’d been dreaming for several years about the idea of having a street legal 6 cyl AMC to try to use as a legit commuter car. The yellow javelin is reliable and street legal but it’s a gas guzzler and has no heat, wipers or working radio. I wanted something cheap to run that still had the basics and I was hoping Greta was it.

So on Sunday I got her gassed up and ready to go. It rained overnight and was still wet in the morning. I thought about not driving the Gremlin but was pretty sure it wasn’t going to rain more. I decided to go for it but to avoid the highway for my first trip. If the car did die on me I’d rather be on the back roads than on the side of the highway with lots of cars flying by at 70+ mph. Plus the back roads from Petaluma to Novato are awesome! So off I went. Had to keep reminding myself that 1st gear was down on this little 3 speed. When I got the thing up to 60 I had a big smile on my face. I was commuting in a Gremlin!!!

I drove the car to/from work and to lunch for 3 straight days without any hiccups. Thursday morning I went to start the car. It fired right up but died within a couple of seconds and then wouldn’t start again. Hmmm… is this the problem that had gotten the car parked by the previous owner? I knew it was fuel or spark as the starter was cranking hard. But I didn’t have time to mess with it so I bailed and took my truck to work.

Saturday morning I went out to the car and it fired right up. Drove it over to Jeff’s and hung out for a couple of hours and then drove it home with no problems… So, I’m not sure what happened Thursday morning. Maybe I flooded it??? Anyway, I’m going to keep driving it and hope it doesn’t strand me. Performance wise the only plans I have is to install the HEI distributor I have to for it and rebuild another YF carb I have and swap it on. I’ll also change plugs/wires when I do the HEI swap.

So, here’s the review after 3 days of commuting:

1. The bench seat is not comfortable. The drivers side padding is shot so it’s a literal pain in the ass. I want to get some kind of bucket seats for it.
2. The brakes suck. 4 wheel manual drums are not the hot ticket. I *think* I am going to pirate the scarebird kit I installed on the track Gremlin and get something more track oriented for that car.
3. No arm rest. I want a center console with an armrest and a drink holder 🙂
4. The 15” steering wheel is like a giant bus wheel. want something smaller. *if I really get ambitious someday I may try to swap in the tilt column I have from a Javelin.
5. FM radio + more/better speakers. The AM radio and one, dash mounted speaker is not working for me.
6. Dynamat and carpet. This car had 40 year old rubber mats. It’s not super noisy but it just sort of drones….
7. Bumper removal – I’m going to ditch the bumpers. I’m going for good gas mileage so the extra 200 lbs of ugly mid-70’s 5 mph bumpers can take a hike.
8. Rear view mirror – current one is pretty fogged out so that’ll get changed out at some point.
9. Horn doesn’t work. need to fix that.
10. Driver’s side fender cap is cracked and missing pieces including the side marker light. Need to replace that.
11. Needs all new weather stripping
12. Headlights need a little adjustment
13. It’s doesn’t handle that bad but I’m sure it could use a front end rebuild.
14. Change out the wheels/tires. I think I’m going to use my 16×8 Vintage Wheelworks V40s

So that’s the list. It’s not in order and I don’t know how fast I’ll get to it all but to be a good commuter it needs to get more comfortable. Here’s a few pics of the Gremlin out and about during its first week of commuting.