Forgot to make a thread about the Scamp I bought earlier this year! This car has been around since I've noticed it back in 2011, but has been in the same city I live in since 2002. Would always pass it on the side of the road while walking or driving by, always wondered what was under the hood. Well I saw the guy out one day and stopped by in my first derivable Mopar, a 4 door green '73 Valiant. Can't remember how the convo went per say but he said it had a 360 he built in it, popped the hood and there it was, a glorious small block V8, so much superior to the small 225 slant six I had back then in the early days of wrenching. So earlier this year I decided to hop on the local classifieds once more, even though I knew I shouldn't cause I already have so many cars as is, but there it was, for sale for $2100.
Immediately I jumped into action without waiting 1 more second. Later that day I showed up with a nice wad of cash, and shook hands with this cool guy after a few years once again. He told me the same thing but in more detail, it's a small block 360 that he rebuilt with an RV cam for that better low end torque, work done to heads, and flat top pistons swapped in to raise the compression. There's front n' rear antisway bars (factory 318 car), disc brakes, AC, power steering, KYB shocks, oh and the cherry on top, an 8-3/4 A-body rear out of a '68 Barracuda w/ 3.91 gears, 489 case suregrip w/moser axles.
So after talking for a little, this old asian dude drives on by, and starts talking up a storm about the car, contemplating whether he's going to start a bid war cause he loved seeing the car all the time out there as much as I did, thankfully he drove off after 20 minutes and the tension lifted. I asked him what the lowest he'd go, and I got her for $1900, literally the best score of the decade!!
It's a super clean California car, would suspect the odometer hasn't even turned over with how little rust there is, literally no rust holes anywhere that I can see, and it's a really straight car. The only downfall to the price, it sat there over a year due to 'an electrical problem that involved smoke under the hood'......... With much ambition I was ready to tackle anything that would come my way with this car. Basically in a nutshell once I got it back to my shop, I found he had these aftermarket switches hooked up to circuit.. 3 or 5, on the NON-FUSED side..... So my theory was it put too much amperage on that wire n fried it over time, somebody kept splicing more wires that would burn out like a fuseable link, that goes to the main hot lead of the ignition switch. After so many times that happened, and for reasons unknown the main fuseable link was bypassed, a fire started on the main 12v bulk head connector wire, which caught several other wires on fire.
So I spent a nice Sunday cutting the old out, and very carefully heat shrinking new wires in with what little wire I had left that went to the bulk head connectors. The ignition switch was garbage of course, so I had to replace that which was a whole other story in itself, let's just say the roll pin to drive out with a MAP gas torch was probably the worst part, finally got it all back together, along with a new turn signal switch n' wired it up. Also made sure to completely bypass the ammeter to be on the safe side. By the way, continuity tests with an electrical meter rocks! I hooked up the battery, threw a few gallons of fresh gas in, turned the ignition switch to on, felt around for any wires starting to get hot, which the ignition 12v wire that passes through the bulk head harness started warming up, had to take the new fuse back out of the circuit for blower motor cause something got messed up there that caused the fire, and the main 12v wire cooled down, and still worked.
Cranked her to life! Quite a bit of smoke came out exhaust, most likely after sitting for so long, but could be valve stem seals. Any who, got a few more things finished up and took her on a drive! It was lacking some power compared to the Magnum Swapped cars I've built, but could use a freshen up, carb rebuild n' other stuff. Went to show it off to my brother, and when I threw it into reverse to get closer to the curb to park, nothing...... Drove it back to the shop and parked it.
Pulled trans pan off later to find an ugly mess inside unfortunately, so let it sit in the shop for a few months. Finally got around to it last weekend, adjusted rear band, new filter, need to do front still, and will get it filled up n' take for another drive, hopefully get reverse back! If not, chances are I'll be building up a 400 Big Block and swapping it in there.
So there's the story on my 1973 Plymouth Scamp! Few pics below and a video of it with me driving it off for the first time, it ain't no seafoam. Already have a '73 Blue Dart now with a 383 big block, so not in any hurry to get a ton done to the Scamp yet, but pretty happy to have scored a very clean and built up correctly Mopar, deals like these are very hard to come by these days, especially when it's basically in your own backyard ;).
I'll try to post as much as I can on here of the Scamp, but usually I'm posting on Instagram for ease of use lately, same username gwcuda65. Mopar or No Car!!
Immediately I jumped into action without waiting 1 more second. Later that day I showed up with a nice wad of cash, and shook hands with this cool guy after a few years once again. He told me the same thing but in more detail, it's a small block 360 that he rebuilt with an RV cam for that better low end torque, work done to heads, and flat top pistons swapped in to raise the compression. There's front n' rear antisway bars (factory 318 car), disc brakes, AC, power steering, KYB shocks, oh and the cherry on top, an 8-3/4 A-body rear out of a '68 Barracuda w/ 3.91 gears, 489 case suregrip w/moser axles.
So after talking for a little, this old asian dude drives on by, and starts talking up a storm about the car, contemplating whether he's going to start a bid war cause he loved seeing the car all the time out there as much as I did, thankfully he drove off after 20 minutes and the tension lifted. I asked him what the lowest he'd go, and I got her for $1900, literally the best score of the decade!!
It's a super clean California car, would suspect the odometer hasn't even turned over with how little rust there is, literally no rust holes anywhere that I can see, and it's a really straight car. The only downfall to the price, it sat there over a year due to 'an electrical problem that involved smoke under the hood'......... With much ambition I was ready to tackle anything that would come my way with this car. Basically in a nutshell once I got it back to my shop, I found he had these aftermarket switches hooked up to circuit.. 3 or 5, on the NON-FUSED side..... So my theory was it put too much amperage on that wire n fried it over time, somebody kept splicing more wires that would burn out like a fuseable link, that goes to the main hot lead of the ignition switch. After so many times that happened, and for reasons unknown the main fuseable link was bypassed, a fire started on the main 12v bulk head connector wire, which caught several other wires on fire.
So I spent a nice Sunday cutting the old out, and very carefully heat shrinking new wires in with what little wire I had left that went to the bulk head connectors. The ignition switch was garbage of course, so I had to replace that which was a whole other story in itself, let's just say the roll pin to drive out with a MAP gas torch was probably the worst part, finally got it all back together, along with a new turn signal switch n' wired it up. Also made sure to completely bypass the ammeter to be on the safe side. By the way, continuity tests with an electrical meter rocks! I hooked up the battery, threw a few gallons of fresh gas in, turned the ignition switch to on, felt around for any wires starting to get hot, which the ignition 12v wire that passes through the bulk head harness started warming up, had to take the new fuse back out of the circuit for blower motor cause something got messed up there that caused the fire, and the main 12v wire cooled down, and still worked.
Cranked her to life! Quite a bit of smoke came out exhaust, most likely after sitting for so long, but could be valve stem seals. Any who, got a few more things finished up and took her on a drive! It was lacking some power compared to the Magnum Swapped cars I've built, but could use a freshen up, carb rebuild n' other stuff. Went to show it off to my brother, and when I threw it into reverse to get closer to the curb to park, nothing...... Drove it back to the shop and parked it.
Pulled trans pan off later to find an ugly mess inside unfortunately, so let it sit in the shop for a few months. Finally got around to it last weekend, adjusted rear band, new filter, need to do front still, and will get it filled up n' take for another drive, hopefully get reverse back! If not, chances are I'll be building up a 400 Big Block and swapping it in there.
So there's the story on my 1973 Plymouth Scamp! Few pics below and a video of it with me driving it off for the first time, it ain't no seafoam. Already have a '73 Blue Dart now with a 383 big block, so not in any hurry to get a ton done to the Scamp yet, but pretty happy to have scored a very clean and built up correctly Mopar, deals like these are very hard to come by these days, especially when it's basically in your own backyard ;).
I'll try to post as much as I can on here of the Scamp, but usually I'm posting on Instagram for ease of use lately, same username gwcuda65. Mopar or No Car!!
