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That looks FANTASTIC!!! Very nice work and a cool ride for sure! I love the etching as well - that really just sets the whole build off for me.

If I were ever to do one of these ;) it would have to be yours and this one:



...and for the street - a mild 401, 17" rims from a Mustang:

That is a great build! Nice job!

That is one VERY cool build!
And thank you for the license plate maker link - that is pretty slick! Going to have to use that on my next build! :D

Thanks for the comments.

ShotgunDave:: Like Florida Slotter noted, the 401 was not a factory deal for the Gremlin. They did come available with 304cid V8s though. The Hornet had a bigger engined variant running a 360 cid (SC 360 Hornet), and in earlier years there was the 390 cid Rambler (Hurst SC rambler) and of course the 390 powered two-seater AMXs. The interesting thing about the AMC modern V8s was they were all based off the same block. So the 290-304-343-360-390-401 were all dimensionally the same so it was an easy chore to create a 401 powered variant - if the car was V8 equipped from the factory.

Florida_Slotter: Yeah those AMC sixes were amazing. Back in the day most us only cared about the V8s, but that Six was very sturdy and even ran at the Indy 500 in 1978 (with 25 lbs of boost) - Chrysler Jeep kept making them until 2006 - a 42 year run, having been introduced in 1964!

dreinecke: The Pacer is an odd duck - the passenger door was longer than the driver's door! I guess if you squint you can almost see a tall Porsche 928. When they recently re-released the Pacer Annual Kit I thought it would make for an amusing build to rip up on the track. For a race car I think I like the flat hood, shorter grille '77 model a little better than the taller grille '78 style.

TuscoTodd: Thanks - I think the license plate generator is a good tool for modelers, builders etc. Probably should have started another thread just for that. The AMC Pacer is not exactly a subject line that will get a lot of views... anyway the ACME license plate maker is really cool - covering all years and states - very useful. You don't need decal paper of anything, just print it to a color printer - any paper really - maybe put a piece of tape on top to protect it and a dab of glue behind it, and you can add a nice detailed touch to whatever kits you are working on.

Again thanks for the positive comments.

Acid etching looks great. I will have to check into that, Thanks for sharing this.

A long time ago, I remember someone telling me that the AMC I-6 engine was so overbuilt because it was designed as a truck engine. If true, I wonder if that truck was a Hudson, Studebaker, or Packard, or maybe a leftover from WWII wartime expedience? Jeep-Willys was still Kaiser at the time, so that isn't it.

I should mention the guy who told me that had just zipped by a Mustang Mach 1 like it was sitting still... in a Gremlin! That car was legendary in Memphis street rodding circles. Lots of people had stories about how hard it was to beat that guy. No idea what he had under the hood of his car, the subject of the conversation happened to be the old debate about the falsehood of "6-in-a-row-won't-go". I am still amazed at how much we talked about cars in those days, and how much of it I seem to be able to recall, while yesterday's breakfast is still a mystery.

That is a great build! Very cool 8-)

The 401 Gremlins were available froma dealer in Arizona called Randall (I seem to remember). They would pay your airfare from anywhere in the U.S. to come and pick your car up. They were kind of a Yenko-esque set up, just for AMC. A classmate did the fly out thing to get one, he ran it quite a few times out at National Trail Raceway, East of Columbus Ohio. Don't know what finally became of it. There was a quip from their sales department that, while they would pay your air fare to Arizona, they would not cover any speeding fines on the return journey :mrgreen:

I happily drove a 4.0 in my XJ for 12 years - awesome motor!