This morning I dropped kids off at school in 74 Hornet
Sportabout wagon, and decied to drive to the rude Iranians convienence store to
pick up paper. There was big fat fellow trying to start his newer Chevy Truck
(Chevy Runs Deep in sh*t) but could tell battery dead in it, click, click click.
After buying paper and a sneer from Iranians who are growing eyebrow across top
of head in tribute to Leonid Breznev or Brooke Shields I passed by open hood
truck and asked guy if he needed jump. He had cables to use so backed
up and popped hood. His cables got hot quickly as dollar store type, so
revved the Hornet a little to help his battery, took 3 tries but cranked it. I
told him he had a 2 year old Wal Mart battery and there is a Wallyworld 1
mile from us, to which he was going to buy a new one, change in parking lot and
move on. In meantime, he commented that 'he had not seen a AMC Hornet since high
school' and while hoods up, a guy from lawn crew came over to check out the
Hornet and said 'nice car!' and walked back to gas pump. So 74 Hornet saved the
day. And only 2 'short' conversations if at all.
Somewhere buried in the train wreck of my website is
some article about everyone has a 'Rambler story' it sort of goes with
territory. Not getting on you Terry, and understand time is money, and don't
want to piss off wifey when dinner ready either. And know all too well about
delays with folks who have a Rambler Story, and how sometimes it is hard to
break off conversation with folks once they go down memory lane, see something
like a Gremlin, Javelin, Hornet, AMC Anything, and flood of memories come back
to them, good and bad, and they wish to share it on AMC owner's dime. Sometimes
I fake a phone call on cell just to break and tell them that I have to run,
shake their hand, and thanks them for remembering a car many don't, give them a
business card and move on. Sort of happens a lot with me driving AMC's
daily and don't want to rush someone's story or appear rude on other hand, but
invite them to visit website to check out many AMC photos for more 'memory lane'
stuff, which works well also. Take care,
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: [BaadAssGremlins] Re: Daily driver AMCs: was/is For
Sale: 1977 Gremlin X , 17k miles
|
I understand what you are saying Eddie. I enjoy the honks, the yells,
the thumbs up and all the other things I get when I drive the Gremlin.
Pulling into the local Circle K and a guy wants to spend 15 to 20 minutes
telling me all about the Gremlin he when he was a kid is no problem, I
have drove the Gremlin to work a few times and when I was suppose to leave
at 7 and I leave at 20 after 7 the horn blowing and the yells are not
that much fun. I am trying to get to work and concentrate on my driving. I
am already in a mood and I don't need this. Also coming home from work and
the better half calls and says supper will be ready in 20 minutes grab a
lottery ticket on your way home. This is not a good time for some guy to
go into a long conversation about the car. I end blowing them off and I
don't like doing that when I am in my Gremlin. I am planning on retiring
in less than three years and I have thought a lot about buying an Eagle
Wagon and making it a daily driver. I think it would be a very piratical
as well as unique car. At that time in my life I am planning on it slowing
down one hell of a lot and it won't matter if the 15 minute trip turns
into an hour.
Terry
--- On Wed, 10/3/12, Eddie Stakes
<eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From:
Eddie Stakes <eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject:
[BaadAssGremlins] Re: Daily driver AMCs: was/is For Sale:
1977 Gremlin X , 17k miles
To: BaadAssGremlins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 2:59
PM
On being a daily driver: for what it is worth, I
got my driver's license in 1976 and have driven nothing but the fine
cars of American Motors since. no brand X anything, no Ford, Mopar, out
of control Toyota, nothing but AMC...that is 370 AMCs owned so far 7
counting. Have restored many, MANY AMC vehicles mostly AMX &
Javelin, but still put them on the road DAILY. Just this morning took
the kids to school in convertible Rebel Machine, then drove up to post
office to mail out AMC things, then Best Buy on Bunker Hill @ I-10 to
pick up my cratered computer Geek Squad could not fix, then drove Rebel
into inner Loop 610 @ Old Katy Road to have it evaluated at another
computer place. Had guy in BMW honk and thumbs up, others slowed down on
I-10 to check out car, taxi driver waved near Silber. I don’t count cell
phone photos anymore but know lots of them when I drive my
AMCs....DAILY....in houston Texas, which covers 10,000 square miles
(according to C of C) and 7 counties....it is no big deal.
Yup, you get questions buying gas, hell,
anywhere, yesterday took kids to Hartz chicken buffet on Gessner which
is in front of dollar store, and came out two folks checking out the
Rebel, and made small conversation as they had never seen one (they
won't see another unless online) and didn't know what a AMC is or was.
It's no big deal. We are all temporary
caretakers of these old pieces of Kenosha iron anyways, one day, they
will belong to someone else. Why not enjoy them now? It's part of the
experience of simply owning a AMC anything and having fun with it
whether beater or museum piece. Do I worry about risk? There is risk of
some dumbass using cell phone while filling up tank of gas, or eating
peanut butter right now could kill you with salmonella, or now recall of
some salmon.
There is many of you in areas of the country
where there is not much of winter and car show season never ends. Enjoy
your AMC daily. it sort of goes without saying we living in a time when
many people can't spell or text the word AMC anyways, so sort of goes
without saying when you drive a AMC.....you will get the looks, waves,
thumbs up, honks, cell phone photos and what not, sort of part of
territory by driving something cool! Have fun with them:
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: [BaadAssGremlins] For Sale: 1977 Gremlin X ,
17k miles - make an offer
|
I understand what you are saying. I just had mine for awhile
and I knew what I was doing with it. It was being driven to car
shows on the weekends. I still feel I can drive it any where I
want too. I wouldn't want my Gremlin to be an everyday driver. I
think it would be too big of a hassle. I mean every where you go
having people blowing their horns and giving you thumbs ups
and yelling at you. Every time you stop to get gas or
go to the store you have some person asking you questions. I think
that would get old especially when I was in a hurry. The way it is
now I am in car show mode when ever I drive it so it is all part
of the fun.
Terry
--- On Wed, 10/3/12, Bradley Jones
<wagonmasterx5@xxxxxxxxx> wrote
My main
problem with the restrictions is that if I have a car, I'd want to DRIVE it anywhere
and anytime.
From: Terry Atkins
<twa1950@xxxxxxxxx>
To:
BaadAssGremlins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, October 2,
2012 7:12 PM
Subject: Re:
[BaadAssGremlins] For Sale: 1977 Gremlin X , 17k miles - make an
offer
|
It all depends on what you are going to do with the
car. If you want an every day driver yea your right. In my
case it meets my exact needs. Actually my insurance has no
restrictions as for as what I can do with the car. The
kicker was that I had to have historic plates on it before
they would sale me the insurance. The historic plates do
restrict you some. They read to be used mainly for cars
driven to shows, parades and other car events not to be
used for general transportation. I was told since I
have three other cars sitting in my driveway and only two
drivers for them not to get to concern about the
restrictions. I was told if I started driving
everyday back and forth to work then there might be a
problem but the occasional joy ride and the trip to the
store wouldn't be. When I had the chance to get the tags
and insurance I jumped on it since 95% of my driving was
to cars shows anyway it worked out great for me. Then the
$3.50 a year I pay for the tags and the little over $100 a
year I pay for the full boat coverage with a $5,000
value helped too.
Terry ---
From:
Bradley Jones
<wagonmasterx5@xxxxxxxxx>
Terry, My Hornet was totalled in the house
fire and State Farm gave me only $650 for it
because I decided to keep it. They would have given me
$1700 if I had let it go.
I had regular full coverage on it. Their
collector/ antique car insurance is a pain. Way too many
restrictions.
From: Terry Atkins
<twa1950@xxxxxxxxx>
|
Since I have State Farm insurance I am hoping
you might answer a few questions for me and your
experience with them. Did you have the antique
insurance on the car and if you did what was the
agreed value. If state farm is going to total it
over the hail damage I would think they would have
to give you the agreed value for the car. I would
also think all they are to going to with it is
sale it to a salvage yard for 2 or 3 hundred
bucks. I would see if they wouldn't give you the
money for it then sale it back you for 5 or 6
hundred. You didn't say but how much are they
saying it will cost to pull the dents out of it. I
would let them try if they got the dents out of it
and there is no more body work to be done I
wouldn't think it would cost that much to paint
it.
Terry
--- On Mon, 10/1/12, phaedrys
<dave.stragand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
From:
phaedrys
<dave.stragand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject:
[BaadAssGremlins] For Sale: 1977 Gremlin X , 17k
miles - make an offer
Hello All, My wife has a very nice &
extremely solid 1977 Gremlin X, light blue,
white interior, 258 6-cylinder w/an automatic
trans, radio, aftermarket air conditioning and
17k-ish miles. We have displayed it as a
"survivor" at a few events and it is in
remarkably good condition -- only a few speckles
of surface rust where the paint has chipped
(mostly on the rocker panels). On the Fourth of
July this year, we had it in the driveway with
the cover on, and it was caught in the "derecho"
storm that went through. We had hail damage two
three cars total, though the Gremlin had the
least damage -- probably due to the Noah cover's
help absorbing the impacts. The car is now
speckled with multiple very small dents. It's
entirely possible that they could be safely
removed with paintless dent removal, though the
PDR folks were hesitant to do so due to it
having all original paint. If they paint
chipped, they said, it would necessitate
repainting the whole car to match the color --
and it that would be over State Farm's limit for
the repairs. For anyone looking for a '77, this
one is in otherwise great shape, very clean, and
runs & drives just fine. There are a few
pictures up of the car at amcgremlin.com. It's
very hard to photograph the car's current dings
-- they are small, and it's very hard to capture
them in photos. We are looking to see if anyone
might be interested in purchasing the car from
us before we let State Farm just take it away.
The car would be sold with a salvage
certificate. Price is very negotiable. We would
just hate to see this car go to scrap over some
hail dings. If you are interested, please
contact us directly at dave dot stragand at
amcgremlin dot com. The car is located a little
north of Pittsburgh, PA Thanks, Dave &
Juley
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