Minor Progress On My Scamp (With Photos)

[Old Moparz]

It's amazing what a day with perfect weather & an empty house will do for motivation. 

I finally had some time to myself to start working on my 1971 Scamp. Last weekend I sprayed all the fasteners under the rear of the car with some penetrating oil so I can start the rearend swap. I bought this car in 1988 with 42,000 miles & used it as my daily driver until about 1993. I still drove it occasionally, but planned on doing a mild fix up of the body & paint, as well as some trim, chrome, & a new front seat cover. The underside of the car got a bit crusty from daily use through New York winters, but it stayed solid.

I had the body & paint done, but never got to finish it other than put the trim, bumpers, grille & a few more things back on the car. I rented storage space for almost 2 years when I got side tracked with building my garage, renovating some of my house, & then my daughter was born. Anyone with a baby or small kid knows you can just about forget any free time to do something like work on a car. 

Fast forward to now, & I'm busy working on the car again finally. It's a 318 car, but only had the 7-1/4" rear in it. The motor was rebuilt with a lot of performance parts, so after a few years of driving & racing it once in awhile, the rear was making noise. I had found an 8-3/4" rear with an open, 3.23 set up from a Duster, so the plan was to swap it. A friend of mine had a NOS sure grip unit he bought from Jack's Auto Parts a loooooooong time ago for $50.00 & sold it to me for what he paid.   

Everything in the rear is new, it just needs to be cleaned & painted. Here's a few photos of the car, rear & underside crust that I will slowly clean up & detail once the old rear is out.

[dads_69]

Cool deal. I have an 8 3/4 for my '72 Scamp now also. 3.91 gears w/Moser axles. Total is close to 2 grand for everything. The stroker motor will soon be in place of my 318 also. When I first seen your Scamp a while back, it made me wanting another A-body badly!
Mark

[Old Moparz]

Today I built a temporary stand with casters to move the rear around. I planned on just using saw horses, but it rained last night & it's overcast today. I'd hate to get this thing cleaned up & ready to paint & have it rain again.

Here's some more photos of the car & the stand.

[Old Moparz]

Cool deal. I have an 8 3/4 for my '72 Scamp now also. 3.91 gears w/Moser axles. Total is close to 2 grand for everything. The stroker motor will soon be in place of my 318 also. When I first seen your Scamp a while back, it made me wanting another A-body badly!
Mark

Got any photos of yours? I'd like to see it if you do. I thought about going with even more HP in this thing, but I decided I better leave it as is & save the money towards the 440 in the Charger. I also decided to leave the 3.23's in it since they were in good shape. If they were beat up, I'd have probbably went with at least 3.91's too. I didn't have a budget in mind, but I had to draw a line somewhere. It's one of those things where if it needs to be replaced, I'll upgrade, but if it's okay, I'll leave it or go broke, LOL.

I bet the stroker in yours will be a crap load of fun. 

Here's more pics.

[Charger1973]

I like the color.   

[dads_69]

I was going to take more photos of it today, but its raining outside right now, car is not in the garage till next weekend, doing other repairs in garage right now on another project. Drivers window is out of the door is why, car cover. Motor is a 377 should have about 400 H.P. or so, other stroker is a 408 w/about 535 or so H.P.
Can't wait to get the 377 in it myself. 408 is going in a different car some day. I was going to have the car completed before summer ended, but we just found out wife is pregnant again on Tuesday, so the car parts I need to finish before summers end will have to wait till next summer, which is cool w/me.
Mark

[dads_69]

Scamp is from Arizona also, never seen snow here, been garaged the hole time its been down till just last month. I paid a grand for the car, now into it about 4 or so. It was stolen and wrecked 2 days after it came to Alaska back in 1994, easy fix for me though.
Mark

[rt green]

3rdstone?

[Brock Samson]

    JIMI HENDRIX   

Third Stone From the Sun...*



     *(earth)

Starfleet to scoutship, please give your position, Over.
I'm in orbit around the third planet from the star called
the sun. Over.
You mean its the earth? Over.
Positive. It is known to have some form of intelligent
species. Over.
I think we should take a look.

Strange beautiful grass of green,
With your majestic silver seas
Your mysterious mountains I wish to see closer
May I land my kinky machine


Although your world wonders me,
With your majestic and superior cackling hen
Your people I do not understand,
So to you I shall put an end
And you'll
Never hear
Surf music again

Secret
Oh, secret
Oh
Shhhh...

ever wonder how why his axe looks like that?..



  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5773724740752529909&q=third+stone+from+the+sun&total=131&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2

[TruckDriver]

Looks Good! 

[Old Moparz]

I was going to take more photos of it today, but its raining outside right now, car is not in the garage till next weekend, doing other repairs in garage right now on another project. Drivers window is out of the door is why, car cover. Motor is a 377 should have about 400 H.P. or so, other stroker is a 408 w/about 535 or so H.P.
Can't wait to get the 377 in it myself. 408 is going in a different car some day. I was going to have the car completed before summer ended, but we just found out wife is pregnant again on Tuesday, so the car parts I need to finish before summers end will have to wait till next summer, which is cool w/me.
Mark

Thanks for the pic, it looks like a nice solid project.   

I know all about delays on fixing it up, but that's life. Kids are more important & the car can wait.

I like the color.

So do I, thanks. It's the original color, by the way. Also, the vinyl top happens to be the "original top" that came with the car in 1971, it's not too bad with just a few blemishes in it.

3rdstone?

Brock's got it right.   

My favorite Hendrix tune, & one that Stevie Ray Vaughan covered as well.   

Looks Good!

Thanks. 


Here's a pic of what some engine degreaser, a wire wheel on the grinder, a couple of hours labor, & a few Newcastle's can do. 

[Old Moparz]

Someone asked me about the motor, but I couldn't post a scanned sheet in a PM.

I had it built with drivability in mind since it was a daily driver at the time of the rebuild, back in 1991. It's not radical, but I've been able to run a 15.20 at 89 MPH in the quarter mile with it. That's with street radials, the 7-1/4" rear with the 2.76 ratio, dual exhaust with turbo mufflers, 904 trans with a shift improver kit, & 94 octane Sunoco gas. I also have the A/C system in it still, an Edelbrock performer intake, & a Holley 600 carb.

It idles good, but you can tell the cam isn't stock. I think with the 8-3/4" rear & the 3.23's inside, I should be into the 14's with it. It never ran hot, doesn't stall or bog down, but needs extra time in cold weather to warm up. I think I can correct that if I mess with the choke some more.

Here's what's in the 318

[Old Moparz]

Some primer to cover up the clean, bare metal. I was going to use the Master Coat paint from PM Industries, but the stuff was all dried up in the can when I reopened it. (Similar to POR 15)

[red72chrgr]

Looks good Bob  Thanks for the build sheet you scanned,appreciate it.

[The70RT]

Newcastle seemed to really work good. Looks like it etched it pretty good too

[SRT-440]

I love abodies..here's my 71 Dart..the 440 is getting ever so close to being done.

[PocketThunder]

Good work Bob!  i like that color as well.

[TUFCAT]

VERY nice car! 

[Old Moparz]

Instead of starting another thread I bumped this one up. Of course now that I see it's been almost a year, I should have started a new thread so I'm not so embarrassed at my lack of progress....   

After a long, cold, boring winter, & some projects around the house & yard, I finally got some more work on my Scamp done. The rear is all painted now in a semi-gloss black & ready to go in. Before that though, I looked at the underside of the car & my leaf springs & decided there is no way those crusty looking things are going back in. They are in great shape other than the scale & surface rust, so I disassembled the springs to clean them up.

One thing leads to another like always, so I dug out my grinder & wire wheel & went to work. The shorter leaves cleaned up way faster than the longer ones, (Can't understand that one, lol) I had the first 2 done before my first beer. The longer ones took about 2 beers each, so I think I need to buy bigger beers.   

I wasn't sure what color I'd paint them, but I do like the natural finish contrasting the black, axle housing, & went with "Cast Blast" by Seymour. A friend of mine used it & said he liked it, so I bought some. He warned me though, it's hard to tell where the bare metal stops & where the new paint begins while spraying, & has like 3 or 4 coats on things to make sure he has coverage on them. He's right, too. 

[Old Moparz]

I love abodies..here's my 71 Dart..the 440 is getting ever so close to being done.

Looks really nice, the color is great. 

Good work Bob! i like that color as well.

VERY nice car!

Thanks guys.   


Here's one of the reasons this thing is taking so long, my daughter's play house. She asked if I can make some steps so she can get up to it easier, so I said yes. I should have built it at the bottom of the damn hill.   

[moparstuart]

nice work

[69*F5*SE]

Very cool Scamp. 

[six-tee-nine]

Looks nice....

BTW I like those A bodies too. If one day the Charger is done and I can afford a second car, I'd love to have one myself....

[Kevin68N71]

I love abodies..here's my 71 Dart..the 440 is getting ever so close to being done.

Looks really nice, the color is great. 

Good work Bob! i like that color as well.

VERY nice car!

Thanks guys.   


Here's one of the reasons this thing is taking so long, my daughter's play house. She asked if I can make some steps so she can get up to it easier, so I said yes. I should have built it at the bottom of the damn hill.   

Oh I know all about side projects.  I am STILL working on my sons' spaceship, going into the third year now...

[Charger_Fan]

Don't know how I missed this thread last year, but I'll chime in this year.

Nice progress pics, even if it is taking a while...it's still progress. How well did that rear end stand maneuver in the gravel?
You're too good of a Dad to your Daughter, I would have made my kids just hike the hill.