A-Body Round #2- My '76 Scamp restore...

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rich_mc

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Through high school in the late 90's, I drove a 72 Swinger... this one to be exact...

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Later, like usual, got married, had kids, no money, sold it and have no clue where the money went at this point...

Last year, after getting much older, wiser, and singler, I thought I could probably afford one again... went looking and found this one... https://www.billsmithusedcars.com/details/used-1976-plymouth-scamp/75522398

Since picking it up, I've completed Stage 1 of the plan and gotten a new vinyl top (black), new shocks, new leaf springs, new vinyl seat covers, and a stereo that works... Here it is currently, other than on the motor pic I've since stripped off the non-functional AC compressor and hoses to clean up the engine bay:

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At this point, it runs great and is a pretty decent driver, but wallows all over the road and I hear the rear right brake make a weird noise if I happen to be decelerating in a right curve... After reading a bunch here on the site, I dropped a small fortune on stuff from Summit, PST, POL, and guys here and am getting ready for a full front suspension modification and front disc brake upgrade... I'm likely keeping the rears as drums for now but will be going through them to make sure they are working properly...

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I'm eventually hoping to swap the AC over to R134 components and would like to do the Torqstorm for the Slant 6... Maybe this winter....

And here we go getting started on Stage 2:

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This beauty just showed up on Fedex... Its gonna require some spacers so I need to make forward progress on the rest of the parts before I can confirm dimensions, then order them and the rest of the wheels. Only bought 1 now so I can make sure it'll work right...

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That is a nice looking car and a solid starting point! My question is if you're planning to make the move to front disc brakes? I did the conversion on my 1970 and the it helped the brakes a bunch. If you're taking the front end apart anyway, it would be a great time to make the upgrade!
 
That is a nice looking car and a solid starting point! My question is if you're planning to make the move to front disc brakes? I did the conversion on my 1970 and the it helped the brakes a bunch. If you're taking the front end apart anyway, it would be a great time to make the upgrade!

Yes indeed I am... its still in the box on the parts photo pile, but I've got the Wilwood Big Brake kit for it... still waiting on the new Master Cylinder to arrive, but hopefully it'll be here before I'm ready for it. Thanks for looking!
 
Slowly but sure, progress is being made. The front suspension has taken a lot more time and effort than I would've thought. These monster brakes bolted on pretty easy.

Gotta wait a few days for the pitman arm I ordered today to arrive and then front suspension and steering should be done. I do have a bit more plumbing to do on the brakes.

I did also recently picked up an 8.75 non-sure grip rear from a 68-70 B body to put in. I'm thinking it should fit pretty well with the new style wheels that have much higher backspace than the older units. Once I get the front done then I'll drop the rear end and get moving on the back half.

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What do you think of the Wildwood Rotors. Are they a lot lighter than stock?
 
What do you think of the Wildwood Rotors. Are they a lot lighter than stock?
Not sure honestly how they compare to factory rotors as mine had 10" drums. They certainly feel lighter than those. I didn't really mean to get the black rotors, just black calipers, but I may have not noticed when ordering. Regardless, it seems like nice stuff. I think my rear disc's from Dr Diff will just be grey, but I'm not that picky to where the rotor colors all have to match perfectly.
 
Got a whole pile-o-parts to get the rear end rebuilt.

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Got the rear end housing dropped off at Moser this morning to have the perches moved to the right spot for an A-body since this was a b-body housing... supposed to have it back by probably mid next week.

Also finally got a tire mounted on the trial wheel. It's still up on jackstands obviously so the stance isn't right. I was really starting to question myself as to whether I do like the chosen wheel or not... but after a bunch of looking at wheels on here I saw pics of mosleyme's Barracuda that has a pretty similar style wheel and decided that it looked great, so mine should too once it's on the ground again. Anyway, got the other 3 wheels shipped in this week. I'll probably go ahead and start pulling the 7.25 out this weekend.

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Got the rear end housing back from Moser with the new spring perches put on. Also got the center section casting cleaned up. Used some brake cleaner to clean it up and most of the black paint that was on the housing started washing off. At this point, I'm sure I need to have it blasted before finishing. I guess I need to decide now if I want to take it to the blaster close to home and then paint it myself, or take it to the powder coating place about 50 miles away to have them blast and powder it....Hmmm...

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Powder coater came back at $400 estimate, so rattle can it is! I can think of other ways to spend that money on this thing, such as the rear sway bar I still need to order.

Also got the new brake lines for the rear ordered yesterday.

Hoping to get the painting done this weekend and then maybe start bench assembling the rear end next week.
 
Nice job... im following along...Rich

Cool build!

Thanks guys! My goal is to have it all put back together and aligned before the spring driving season and just keep it as is for this summer.... Then hopefully sometime over the summer I'll decide between an N/A build on the 6, a Torqstorm on the 6, or a V8 swap and then gather parts so I can do whatever is chosen over next winter...
 
Much better progress this weekend than I expected. Got the housing painted, new ring gear installed onto the SG unit, the new seals installed into the ends of the housing, and both the races installed into the 3rd member casting. Those races were my biggest worry, as I honestly thought I might be biting off more than I can chew at my skill level by doing the rear end rebuild myself, but so far it hasn't been too bad. Just gotta be patient and methodical and use a little profanity when necessary. Also using the freezer and my smoker to gain some fit allowance has been helpful.

I'm not yet done obviously, but feel like I'm pretty solid on how to assemble and adjust the rest of the gears - this article has been helpful for the description and the pics. Mopar Rearend Rebuild: You Can Do This At Home

Hopefully I can make it into the garage/basement a couple nights this week and make some more progress...

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Well, it took me all day, 1 trip to Harbor Freight, 1 to Ace, and 2 to O'Reilly, but I've got it as good as I can get it. The pinion depth is right on spec within a thousandth or two. Preload though, With .043 shim the preload is up about 40 in lbs. With .046 shim it moves freely and is under the 14-19 in lbs suggested. I don't have any shims to be able to get between .043 and .046 so I'm gonna stay with the .046 and have the preload a bit looser than it's supposed to be. It is a slant 6 after all so I guess less parasitic loss is better.

On a bad note, I got ahead of myself and stuck the pinion seal in before putting the bearing back in. So of course I ruined the seal pulling it back out. Just placed an order for another seal, so I guess I'm on hold for a few days.

I'm afraid to add up all the dollars I've spent on special tools for this 3rd member rebuild... probably enough to where it'd been cheaper to buy one already done, but at least I'm learning a lot... Hopefully it'll work perfectly when I'm done and I'll get the satisfaction of a job well done...
 
Another successful weekend... I got the center section assembled, backlash set, brakes installed, and changed out the studs innthe axle that turned out to be left-handed so I wouldn't end up with one wheel different from the other three...

I'm pretty damn impressed with myself except for my brake line that I had to bend. It's functional, but kinda ugly... I may re-do it but think I'll wait until the rear is back in the car and I get a sway bar and install it as I have a feeling the sway bar may interfere with my current brake line... will see... Regardless, I'm excited that I should be able to get it off the jack stands in the next few weeks...

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8.75 rear is in. Shock plates in. Shocks in... think I'm gonna see if I can't make some modifications to these brackets on the 7.25 rear that came out to make it so I can use the same sway bar and save myself $400...

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Looks like a great car to start with! Are you sure it’s a 76 Scamp instead of a 75? I notice it has the wood grain around the speedometer (it was black for most of the 76) and it has the clear marker light lenses in the front grille (instead of yellow/orange lenses in 76). Does it have a hand brake under the dash or foot operated parking break? What’s the build date of the car? Early production 76 model (August/September 75 when they used up the last of the 75 parts)?
 
Looks like a great car to start with! Are you sure it’s a 76 Scamp instead of a 75? I notice it has the wood grain around the speedometer (it was black for most of the 76) and it has the clear marker light lenses in the front grille (instead of yellow/orange lenses in 76). Does it have a hand brake under the dash or foot operated parking break? What’s the build date of the car? Early production 76 model (August/September 75 when they used up the last of the 75 parts)?
Yep- it's a 76 model but a late 75 build. It was one of the last to sneak out of the factory still with drum brakes on front too since the gov't made them switch to disc's as of January 1, 1976. It does however have the foot operated e-brake.

It has been a very nice one to start with and I'm continually amazed at how solid it is. Truth be told, it's a much nicer car than my yellow Dart was that I had back in the 90s/early 2000s.

Thanks for the interest!
 
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