My senior year of High School a buddy of mine, Nick, had a 1969 Jeepster, and a 1970 Gremlin. On New Year's Eve in 1978 to 79, we had a few drinks. By a few I mean 3. The first was glass of about 50 percent vodka, 50 percent OJ. Second was 75 to 25, the third was about 90 to 10. I spent the rest of the night hugging the porcelain throne. About 11 PM, they took me home, opened my door and pushed me into the living room. I looked at my dad, who was in total shock, said Happy New Year, then hit the floor and passed out. Anyway, about 2 pm the next day, my mom was banging on my bedroom door saying Nick was at the door. I felt like I had been hit by a truck and wanted him to go away. Well, he wouldn't, so I went to the door and he was all excited. He told me to open my garage, which was unattached in the back and kind of my man cave since no one used it. In the drive were both vehicles and I asked what this was all about. He said, "You don't remember?" Then it kind of came back to me. We were joking around about putting the Gremlin body on the Jeepster frame. Well, I guess after I left, Nick and his brother keep the conversation going, and took some measurements. Turns out they shared the same wheel base.
For the next 4 months we entered what would be the equivalence of "Monster Garage" on a shoestring budget. The Jeepster was in bad shape due to rust. We literally peeled the body off the frame with crow bars, as the body was really rotten, and none of the bolts even resembled bolts. We disconnected everything underneath the uni-body of the Gremlin, pulled the engine and then proceeded to put it on the Jeepster frame. This is where we realized how stupid we were. The Jeepster frame is pretty much straight and level. The uni-body frame looked like a hairpin with the front way lower than the back. But, before we could even set it down we had another problem. The firewall hit the top of the engine, right about where the carburetor is. So first thing we did was cut out the firewall so it would fit. When we got it on the frame, the front of the Gremlin body was about 18" higher than the back. It we also noticed the steering wheel on the Gremlin met a steering box that was just behind the radiator. The Jeepster steering box was closer to the firewall. We also noticed the back of the Jeepster frame shot out about 3' behind the Gremlin bumper.
So the first problem to fix was getting the Gremlin body level. We picked up an 8' I-beam from a scrap yard for about $75. That was a lot of money in 1979. So we got to cut it into (2) 4' sections. I think we went through 5 metal cutting skilsaw blades before we got through it. Then we had to drill holes in it to mate to the Jeepster frame and the uni-body frame in the center. That too was a nightmare. Went through quite a few drill bits. But, it worked and we got the uni-body and frame mated. Of course now we had to deal with other issues. Due to the engine being so far back, we had a 3' gap between the Gremlin radiator, and the front of the engine. We couldn't use the Jeepster radiator because it was too high for the hood. We had the same problem with the air cleaner, but were able to find a flatter one to allow us to close the hood. We fabricated brackets and moved the Gremlin radiator closer to the engine. We then put diamond plate down, so you could actually stand in the engine compartment to work on the engine.
The 2 frames plus the I-beam created a frame that was about 2' tall and looked really terrible. Nick solved that problem by putting chrome side pipes in the I-beams which broke it up, and it looked really good. Of course it took some work to reroute the exhaust, but it was pretty radical when done. The steering box issue involved moving the Gremlin steering column to a more vertical angle, which meant it also had to be shortened. So we built a bracket out of box steel, welded it together, cut and welded the steering column and re-angled it to mate with the Jeepster steering box. It looked like a bus steering wheel when done. We build a box to contain the engine where the firewall was cut out. It was carpeted and it didn't look horrible, but it was kind of like being in a Hummer with a shelf between the seats.
The frame sticking out of the back let to a lot of creative discussions, like putting a tool box on it, or diamond plating it like the engine compartment. In the end Nick's brother disassembled the leaf springs, shortened them, reassembled them, cut the frame and shortened it. We then put 2 X 8 wooden bumpers on the frame, since the state of Indiana had bumper height laws, and the Gremlin bumpers were way too high. A friend of ours started calling it "The Greep" and the name stuck. We routed the name into the wood, stained them and varnished them. We put bigger wheels and tires on it. We painted the car black with gold accents and it did look incredible. But that first test drive was a nightmare. It was so high off the ground we had a hard time getting in. We used a little step ladder we threw in the back. The steering column would shake like crazy, so we had to redo it a few times before we got it to where it would stay still. The Greep had a really high center of Gravity so off-roading probably wasn't the best thing to do with it, but we did. Changing the air filter was a nightmare because of the firewall being right on top of it. So was adjusting the carb. There was a lot of effort that went into getting everything working again. Nick and I lived on No-Doze caffeine pills for 4 months as we literally slept 2-3 hours a night during this whole ordeal. That 4WD Gremlin was a local legend for a while.
That Summer Nick went to automotive school and I went into the Air Force. He sold the Greep to a guy in Colorado, and I heard it was in a 4WD magazine. I had one picture of it, but loaned it to Nick when I was on leave and I've never seen it since. Oh, and I died laughing when Bigfoot laid claim to being the first monster truck ever. He's obviously never seen the Greep! Now I think they've recanted and claim to be the first monster truck to crush cars. In the end, would we have done it knowing what we know now? I don't think so! I spent my senior year of high school basically working on a jeep full time.
