The seller of this good-looking 1970 AMC Gremlin says that they are the third owner and their original intention was to put a V8 under the hood but decided against that the longer they had it and spent time cleaning it up. They have this non-V8 Gremlin listed here on eBay in beautiful Nampa, Idaho and there is an unmet opening bid suggestion of $6,999.99 and even then it looks like the reserve won’t be met. They have a $13,999.99 buy-it-now price listed.

This Gremlin is too nice to modify according to the seller and given my love of original and original spec vehicles, I agree. On the other hand, I would have no problem putting a V8 in this Gremlin if it didn’t do any permanent damage to the engine bay or anything else. It’s not like there aren’t a hundred other Gremlins for sale at any given time so it’s not like dropping an SBC into a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic or anything. And, they did put V8s into them so it’s possible.

The photos are a little unusual for this one, unfortunately, but they cover most of the bases at least, unlike a lot of other sellers’ listings. Most of the photos are partial/cut-off images for some reason. The opening photo is literally the only one showing the whole car in one frame but it looks great to me no matter how chopped off the photos are. The seller has done a lot of work on this car, including all new shocks and new brakes all the way around and a lot of other things, check out the eBay link for the whole description, it’s a detailed one.

I love the creative use of light-colored duct tape on the left side of the driver’s seat or whatever kind of tape that is. Hey, it works until some matching vinyl can be found and SMS Auto Fabrics may have this exact vinyl. Otherwise, it looks really nice inside as far as I can tell. The back seating area looks perfect. There is a bit of body rust to deal with but not much for a 52-year-old car and they have provided a few underside photos, a very nice touch.

At the opposite end of the spectrum from a V8, this 199 cubic-inch inline-six with 128 horsepower is the smallest engine available in a Gremlin for 1970. This one has a Borg-Warner three-speed automatic. The biggest engine this year was a 232 inline-six, the V8 wouldn’t show up until 1972 when a 304 V8 was an option. The seller says that this one runs like a champ and they wouldn’t be afraid to drive it anywhere. Hagerty is at $7,000 for a car in #3 good condition but that’s with the 232 engine. That value is $0.01 above their opening bid. With that rust that’s where I’d put this one but I don’t make the rules on values, the bidders do. $11,200 is the reported #2 excellent condition value. Would you keep the six or drop in a V8?