Happy birthday, Gremlin!

Today marks 40 years having passed since the Gremlin's engine block was cast. My hope was that motor would be finished today in celebration of this event, though it's been a little more than a clusterfuck the past few days.

I want to get back to work, so I'll just toss some pictures up that will hopefully serve as a good enough summary of where things have been lately.

Basically, I narrowly avoided round two of the engine bay fire in the eagle.  The previous fire had warped the valve cover, which was allowing oil to flow like fuck-you-flavored wine.  This started burning up the valve cover, because AMC decided a plastic cover was the way to go on the 258 in these years.  You know, because consumers care more about the noise from the valve train than they care about shit not catching on fire.

I read that '79 and older covers would bolt on, only to find that the Gremlin's old cover has a scalloped profile in contrast to the straight side of the head in the Eagle's 258. Luckily, the 24hr AutoZone provides. They actually managed to have a replacement cover, so I grudgingly installed a replacement plastic piece of shit.  Oh well; keeps the oil in.

The Wrangler is something I came across in the Safeway parking garage. When I first encountered it, the front was supported by jack stands. The next day, they had been replaced by what you see in the picture.  There's nothing about this scene that I've been able to make sense of.  If anyone has any ideas about why the hell this happened, I'm all ears.