How bad does this look?

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76Scamp

76Scamp

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I've recently acquired a 1976 Scamp and it has a little bit of a rust problem. I've finally done the job of getting the whole instrument cluster working again, and now I think it may be time to deal with the rust on it. I took some pictures of all of the really bad areas and I'm wondering what I'm in for. A friend of mine said he would help me fix it, but I'm thinking if it's too much money wise to cut and weld, I may just cut it out myself, bondo it, and paint it with a rattle can. How bad do you guys think this is? Keep in mind, this car has been parked under a big oak tree for the last 13 years and it will soon be kept in an apartment parking lot.
 

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Looks like it was repaired once before....and its the old rust coming back.

Honestly....its ALOT of work to fix it right, cost prohibitive. To just fill/sand/paint and enjoy, thats a different story. Cheap, easy, white is easy to match. but it won't hold more than a few months before the bubbles come back........ :(
 
What you see is a tip of the iceberg...what I would also look at is underneath the car. Check out where the rear of the torsion bars seat. Frame rails front and back. Where the leaf springs connect at the rear.

If you really just want it to look better for awhile then knock out the rust...maybe put some por15 on the rust. Then bondo over it and see how long it takes before the rust starts popping out again??
 
That is BAD, and until you strip the car compleatley and have it blasted, you wont know HOW much rust is in it. Bondo over top of that is a waste of time, all rust cut out, and all metal media blasted is the ONLY correct way to fix that car....Sorry to bring bad news, but been through all that myself.
 
Yep. probably too late to park that in the desert. I can't see the downside to taking advantage of the guy who wants to help you fix it, you certainly can't do much more harm.
 
Just drive it as is but before you do make sure the frame and torsion bar mounts are safe. The rust looks very bad
 
From what the owner's grandson knows, the car never saw body work, just a repaint. In the 13 years his grandmother has owned it, this is the rust that has shown up on it. But like I said, it's been kept outside, under a tree for the whole time that she's owned it and it's been driven about 10 or 15 miles every month. The most it was driven were a couple 60 mile trips towing a row boat with it. I have been under the car and other than that one spot that is under the passenger door, the underside is more perfect than my 1990 GMC S15. It looks like it has some kind of an undercoating on it, or it may just be 40 years of road grime. I know that the proper and really only way is to bring it down to metal, cut it out and weld in new, but I can't afford that and this is in no way a restoration project or a show car. This is going to be a daily driver for my roommate. He's buying it, we're both gonna be on the title and insurance, and I'm gonna pay for and do all the work it needs myself. I work at AutoZone, so most of my money goes to the bills and keeping my old daily filled with gas and going down the road. The main reason we wanted to buy this is so he can have a car, and so the owner's son doesn't send it to the crusher because he has a thing against old Chrysler cars. The grandson that I'm dealing with gave me a kinda good price and he wanted me to have it because he knows I'll keep it moving. But I will ask, does anyone think I'm over paying at $2000? I think I am. But other than rust, the interior is about perfect and there's nothing wrong with the old 6 or the trans in it.
 
just as a driver it's ok. offer him $1500 cash.

rust repairs take time. you could do the bondo thing for now then fix it better someday if you get the cash. double check the frame make sure it's not rusted. then pamper the old girl.
 
I forgot to mention that the last time I drove it, it was raining and I had water dripping on my foot while driving it and the same thing in the passenger seat. What should I look at for that? I know that it's had water getting in the dash somewhere for awhile because the back of the gauge cluster was all corroded.
 
moparlover said:
just as a driver it's ok. offer him $1500 cash.

rust repairs take time. you could do the bondo thing for now then fix it better someday if you get the cash. double check the frame make sure it's not rusted. then pamper the old girl.
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I've already looked over the critical parts under it and I know it's safe to drive. Before she bought a different car last month, him and I put almost 100 miles on it in town and it does not drive like it's 40 years old. This is one of the best riding cars I've been in and other than the alignment being off, it drives excellent too. When he told me his grandmother wanted a different car, I offered him $900, and then $1500. He was starting up at $3500 and I finally got him down to $2000. He told me that she couldn't get a decent car for that price, so I found him a 2002 Lincoln Continental that was fully loaded with everything working for $2000. She's happy, he's happy, and I'll soon be happy. He told me that if they kept it, he would have to pull the slant out and drop in a 318 at least, he really wanted to put in a 440. He thinks the 6 is a gutless engine, and it is because it hasn't seen a tune up in years, but I can fix that and make it a very nice engine. She almost wanted to give me the car, but then she found out that it was "featured" in a tv show. In the opening of Highway to Sell on Discovery, you see the car backed in her driveway and it's on screen for all of 1 second in the opening of every episode. After that, she thinks it's worth something, but still doesn't want it.
 
Just my opinion but I would get it in good shape mechanically and drive it till it dropped.In my eyes it's not worth spending the money to fix the body.
 
I would not pay 2 k for that not even 1k, that rust is bad & the rockers might be compromised, you need those to be good, wheel wells not so much, are you sure those frame rails are not damaged? That is a rough car ,Lawrence
 
Back in Time said:
Just my opinion but I would get it in good shape mechanically and drive it till it dropped.In my eyes it's not worth spending the money to fix the body.
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That's why I'm thinking just make the panels flat and nice looking without spending more than all my cars are worth and just drive it.

VDART said:
I would not pay 2 k for that not even 1k, that rust is bad & the rockers might be compromised, you need those to be good, wheel wells not so much, are you sure those frame rails are not damaged? That is a rough car ,Lawrence
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I really didn't want to, but for some reason unknown to me, him, and hated by my fiancee, I am absolutely in love with this car. I know for sure that there is nothing major wrong with it that would prevent it from being safely driven. I would take it to a friend's place and throw it on a lift and do more of an inspection than I can on a floor jack, but it is currently not insured. It has registration, but no insurance and it'd be about a 20 mile drive one way on I-75. And if there was something major wrong, I think we would've noticed it when we had it doing about 70 or 80 on I-75 from Bradenton to Palmetto; that's a very short highway trip, but I didn't want to deal with in town traffic.
 
$2000 sounds high for that car.
I would throw $1000 cash and to the lady that owns it and say its all I could come up with.
 
$1K max. but it sounds like you REALLY want the car. So get it, its your money and your car. As said before - not worth fixing from an economics point of view.
 
wow! leaks when raining? maybe the huge hole in the roof by the drip rail for a starter. as a rule of thumb on a car like this, take what rust you see and multiply that by5! as it whats hiding. like he said, if its safe, drive it, later you will find a much better body for a basis to transfer good mechanical parts to. around here its a parts car. few hundred $$.
 
barbee6043 said:
wow! leaks when raining? maybe the huge hole in the roof by the drip rail for a starter. as a rule of thumb on a car like this, take what rust you see and multiply that by5! as it whats hiding. like he said, if its safe, drive it, later you will find a much better body for a basis to transfer good mechanical parts to. around here its a parts car. few hundred $$.
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That's actually not where the water's coming from amazingly. But I will say that I just saw it as a car that would be a good driver and not much more. The bad deal that I missed out on a couple days ago was a perfect A-body for free on Craigslist. Just a shell, no interior, engine, trans, axles, or anything; just a body for free and it was too far away and it wouldn't fit in the bed of a pickup, but it would've been perfect for putting together.
 
76Scamp said:
I know for sure that there is nothing major wrong with it that would prevent it from being safely driven.
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Um, the rockers are structural. And based on the pictures you've already posted, they aren't in great shape. Given all that white paint, they could be really bad, and at least in my mind that's something that would keep it from being safe. Won't stop it from driving down the road, but that old girl is flexy flyer.

I wouldn't pay 1k for it. I've seen much nicer cars parted out. You'd be far better off waiting to find something else, $2k will buy you a MUCH better car than that. I paid $2k for my Duster, and less than that for both of my Darts.
 
72bluNblu said:
Um, the rockers are structural. And based on the pictures you've already posted, they aren't in great shape. Given all that white paint, they could be really bad, and at least in my mind that's something that would keep it from being safe. Won't stop it from driving down the road, but that old girl is flexy flyer.

I wouldn't pay 1k for it. I've seen much nicer cars parted out. You'd be far better off waiting to find something else, $2k will buy you a MUCH better car than that. I paid $2k for my Duster, and less than that for both of my Darts.
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This


I hate to rain on your parade, as said the rockers are a major structural part of the unibody and those ones are bad.

Buy it if you want, IMO $2000 is way too much.
 
$2k is way too much. You hinted that it is destined for the crusher if you don't buy it, what does that tell you about its value?
 
cuda65vpt said:
$2k is way too much. You hinted that it is destined for the crusher if you don't buy it, what does that tell you about its value?
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I know it's a lot for it, but the her son would crush it even if it was perfect. For some reason he doesn't like anything that's made by Chrysler and if it were up to him, it either have been gone long ago, or she would never have gotten it.
 
There are plenty of other cars much better in our neck of the woods. That's a parts car at best.
 
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