New Gremlin sunroofer makes it home, checking it out...nice! (long)

[Gremlingts@xxxx]

 I just got back in from checking some things on the sunroof Gremlin that 
Will Krause sold me. He was right that the brakes had a vibration...the left 
front rotor has alot of surface rust, whereas the right side doesn't , so 
either the pads are bad, or they weren't making good contact to wear down the 
rotor. I towed it 70 some miles, so it should have worn them somewhat smooth 
and silvery , and the right side did, but not the left. So the caliper may be 
partially frozen up. I'll have to take the wheels off to look. But it doesn't 
look any more serious than that at this point. The ball joints looked good, 
had bolts so they've been replaced once. Tie rod ends and Idler arm bushings 
were all tight. Had a little play in the left front wheel bearing, too, so 
that may have added to the vibration from the left braking system. But after 
I threw my truck battery into it, she started up, ran smoothly with just a 
few "hiccups", and moved in forward and reverse just fine. I towed it with 
the driveshaft attached, so I was crossing my fingers nothing got damaged in 
the tow. So it looks like it may just need some TLC to the brake system, the 
Master Cylinder looked pretty new, had fairly new front shocks too, still had 
bright blue paint on them. 
I opened up the top on the Gremlin, and slide it back yesterday evening, 
and climbed thru it to stand up, and had Barbara take my picture. I found one 
thing very interesting...the top itself was made by a British company called 
Weathershields, Ltd. After a search on the engine Google.com, I found several 
references to them. One was called Britax Weathershields, then later Britax 
Weathershields was apparently bought by Webasto. A current company called 
DonMar makes a similar top, and mentions the Webasto company, and also 
mentions it was F.K.A. Britax Weathershields. So it looks like AMC used an 
overseas supplier for these tops. They have been used on Lotus and TVR sports 
cars, so the Gremlin is in good company! Here's the DonMar website on the 
tops, maybe the parts can still be found over in Jolly Old. 

http://www.donmar.com/OBSOLETE/curnt_sr.htm

So, I'll probably get in contact with them, and see if they have any parts 
for my obsolete top. Maybe Will can find some for his top he got that needs 
some spare parts to fix/complete it as well. 
Anyway, looks like I'll need a new driver's door, a new early 70-72 left 
front fender, and some other rust repair work done. Probably will need 
another passenger door too, it sags, so the hinge area in the door may be 
rusting out as well like the drivers door is. Or I might can get my body man 
to weld in some sheet metal to try to save the door, dunno yet. But I think 
the car is definitely driveable with a little effort. I'll be trying to 
finish the '74 bronze Gremlin brake project today, and hopefully I can get 
the trans line replaced quickly on it, then I might can just take it out this 
evening for a jaunt to the local cruise-in or a drive around the 
neighborhood. Anyway, times awastin', unfortunately we've had a water main 
break down the street, so we're H20-less for awhile, hopefully they'll have 
it fixed soon. Won't get much house cleaing done without water! :) Any 
questions, fire away! I'll have my pictures I took of the Sunroofer yesterday 
back today, so I should get them scanned and have them available for anyone 
to see shortly. AMC ya, folks!

Jerry
awash in Gremlins, if not water...five now at the house