New Owner, Humbly Looking for Guidance

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69conv said:
It might be a good idea to get the title and maybe even have it signed over, that way there isn't any question of ownership.
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The son has been told by his dad (my buddy) to sign my buddy's name to the title. I am supposed to receive the keys, the title and the car. I don't think the problem is the son. I think the problem is the D-I-L, and her vocal talent in swaying a reasonable man's mind. And is also why my buddy suggested to hold off calling his son until tomorrow (Friday), to coordinate picking the car up. That will limit the time available to the temptress / blabber-mouth.

The only reason the D-I-L has been tolerant of my buddy, and all the hassle and loss of privacy with him and his wife moving in, is she found out how much money he has (hence why he gave me the car). And since finding that out, she's been playing "cool" with him, hoping for a payout.
 
Vehicle in possession as of 12:30 pm. It's back at my parents' house now, where I'm going to spend the night, the car is sitting in the trailer. I'm going to try to attach a picture here from my phone, but the file size is likely too large. If it won't work, it will be Monday before I can compress them.

It took a while to crank because it had been a while since it had been cranked, and little or no gas was in the carburetor. But once it fired up, it ran well. Just a touch of the throttle and it came off idle well. No brakes, but the hand brake worked great. It felt like the transmission was slipping as i was going up the rear door ramp.

Well ... I couldn't figure out the picture upload from my smartphone. Look for pictures Monday.


7milesout
 
Kinda like Christmas, isn't it!!! Now the fun really begins. Glad the possession part went well.
 
69conv said:
Kinda like Christmas, isn't it!!! Now the fun really begins. Glad the possession part went well.
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Yes. True. At about 2 pm I'll start the 2.5 hour tow back home. Some moving around some things in the driveway and the car will go up on car dollies and in the garage.
 
Guys - I'm blown away at work. Finally, as I'm new here and have been just hanging out ... until mid-week last week. I'd rather be blown away than bored though. I'm also downloading pictures from my phone and having some trouble there. While that's going on, what's the best place to host the rest of the pictures? I have a good amount of pictures of the Scamp.

Attached are a couple pictures, just to wet your appetites.

I got home at 4:15 pm yesterday, and got the car nestled into the garage on auto dollies. Then I've made a list of the things I want to get done to it. Please add your recommendations to a few items (below) from the list, while I finish with the pictures.

  • Oil & filter: I read some oil recommendations about the LA V8's. This is a 360 cubic inch LA V8. I read that HDEO (I think that's what it was, and I believe that stands for Heavy Duty Engine Oil) was a good option. Like Delo 15W-40. Well, I happen to love Valvoline Premium Blue 15W-40 (which is recommended for my Cummins). Is that a good choice? Why or why not?
  • As for the filter, I will remove the one that's on it and figure out what size it is, unless someone knows or has a good guess.
  • Does anyone know the spark plugs to use in this engine off hand?
  • Does anyone have a transmission fluid recommendation? A transmission filter part number?
  • Lastly - Does anyone know the timing on this engine? Or where I might find the spec? And, is there a vacuum hose that will need to be pulled to set this timing?
All these things above, and quite a bit more are going to be serviced before I put this car on the road.

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A Mopar being towed by a Mopar!
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Well, my son had a golf cart break down today so i had to take the ATV out right after work and drag the golf cart home. I'll deal with fixing that later.

I just did a few things that are easy to do. I aired the tires and removed the horrible wheel covers. The black wheels underneath look mo' bettuh. I noted bulb numbers for those that need replacing. I aired the rear shocks. They call for between 25 psi and 200 psi. They had 0 psi. So I aired them to ~100 psi. It lifted the rear end 3 inches.

I checked the air filter, it looks new. The carburetor is a 750 cfm (not 600 as i guessed). I checked the coolant ... uh ohhhhhh! Way way low. But i could see some wetness near the top so at least there is SOME in there. I'm glad I only ran it minimally. I added some 90 octane no ethanol gas which is what i buy for my mower and dirtbike. I will be looking for higher octane no ethanol, but i don't think I'm going to find any. These engines stock run (from memory) about 8.4:1 compression so 87 octane would be ok. But this engine is not exactly stock. But I doubt it's high enough to need 93 octane. I take it back, I saw some like 114 octane no ethanol gas on the puregas website. I suspect it's race fuel and not necessary.

Tomorrow I'll get some bulbs and coolant. And maybe some oil, an oil filter, and spark plugs if I get some feedback here or find some info online. I heard that diesel engine oil was good because it has a better ability to suspend particles in the oil (i.e. soot). Once suspended it gets carried to the filter. And this old engine, and especially since it sat around so much, probably needs a lot of crap carried to the filter. So, unless someone says different, I will be using Valvoline Premium Blue 15W-40. I will run it 1,000 miles and do another oil change.
 
Sounds like a solid game plan but I wonder where the coolant went? Do you know how many miles on the car and how many on the engine?
 
79ish, thousand from my memory. The way the car looks i would believe it hasn't rolled over. On the engine? Probably less than 10k.

It may have been 10 years or more since my buddy checked the coolant. He's got to be 80 years old or a little more now. He is 100% in mind and body. It's amazing. But his wife who is probably 10 years younger she's had a smaller stroke and fell last year and got hurt. And now he takes care of her nearly full time so he has not had time for the car.
 
Very nice Scamp! I'm jealous, especially at that price!
Congrats!

I grew up in College Park and have been to PTC many times. As a kid I used to practice on the BMX track, jump bikes off a dock into the lake, and skate the half-pipe,.
 
OK ... for the rest of the pictures - Click the below link.

Scamp - Google Drive

On the brake master cylinder, the 2 reservoirs, is the front for the front, and the rear for the rear? Tonight is brake bleeding night. The front reservoir has fluid, the rear is dry.
 
72dart - I can't figure out how to PM you. Maybe by next week I will have the car able to get out on the road. Maybe. When it can, I'm ready for a meet n greet.


7milesout
 
7milesout said:
72dart - I can't figure out how to PM you. Maybe by next week I will have the car able to get out on the road. Maybe. When it can, I'm ready for a meet n greet.


7milesout
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Hi 7milesout PM's have been changed to "start a conversation". I sent one to you with my phone number. let me know if you got it.
 
Correction: I thought the car had 74k miles. But it's actually 107,400 miles. When I took the time to actually read the odometer i noticed my mistake. I also noticed an oil change sticker on the top left of the windshield, it says the next oil change is due at ~110,400 miles. Which means the oil was changed and then the car was driven home and put away. That sticker was dated 2004. So that car has just sat probably untouched for nearly 13 years.
 
welcome from sunny california , right out of the gate , getting your hand in it , very cool . just remember there just nuts n bolts . got any pics , we like pictures here . thanks .
 
I met up with 7Milesout today and enjoyed meeting and talking with a fellow Mopar enthusiast. He is a good solid guy with an awesome Scamp. This car in my opinion is a survivor that looks almost mint. It is solid with no rust and with the exception of a tear on driver side seat the interior looks brand new. The dash bezel still has the chrome finish with no fading. In the trunk are NOS seat covers with the Chrysler logo that the previous owner bought long ago. It even has rally wheels that are painted black minus the center caps and chrome rings. This is the kind of project car you always dreamed of finding! 7Miles is way ahead with such a solid foundation and got it free to boot! I look forward to watching his progress and helping any way I can.
 
Thanks 72dart - My buddy, he's the smartest guy I ever met. He was my mentor at my first engineering job. He's got to be in his low 80's and he's still 100% in mind and body. But his wife is not, and he's caring for her full time. So, he has no time for the car any longer, but took great care of it. Thanks for the book, I read through some pertinent sections.

I really like the black rally wheels, for the furthest flanges are scratched up from the hub caps that were put on it. I strongly dislike the looks of those hub caps and pulled them off on day 2. I'm not sure if / when I'll apply beauty rings, or just paint or powder coat them or what. But the car looks much tougher without the hub caps.

An update for the group: The heater core leaks. And the car has A/C. I'm going to start the disassembly of the heater core, maybe from this evening if I get done with other plans before nightfall. I've read some FABO threads, and learned a couple good tricks. Rather than draining the radiator, I think I'll disconnect the lines to the heater core and blow compressed air through one side at a time to empty it as much as possible before attempting to remove it. But with the A/C lines and evaporator to deal with, it may not be so easy. But I'll getter done either way.
 
7milesout said:
The original engine was a 318, and the transmission was a 904. These were swapped for a 360 and a 727 out of a 1975 Dodge Regal (he thinks it was).

7milesout
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Well, Dodge/Chrysler never made a "Regal" (that's a Buick). I'm trying to think of what might be a similar name... maybe a Royal Monaco?
 
Yeah, I've considered that. I've been looking at various 75 model cars. He mentioned that the car it came from was, "a big one." But couldn't remember the donor.
 
BTW if you are going to run high rpm its really easy to blow out a heater core. They sell a restrictor the goes in the intake manifold that slows the water to the heater core.
 
69conv - 72dart and I found a needle valve on the input hose to the heater core. Maybe this is the restrictor? I'm not planning on running high rpms. This will just be a cruiser, with an occasional brisk acceleration. I hope the next heater core last as long as the first.

UPDATE - This status has existed for a while, but I've become very busy at work (who do they think they are?) and am late getting back up in FABO. The bench seat & seat belts came out, and the bench seat is not very heavy. I was hoping to find a brown bag filled with money & scribed with A. Capone under the seat, but no such luck. It was very clean up underneath. The cabin is WIDE OPEN now, easy to get up under the dash.

A coolant hose was disconnected at the LF fender area, and drained into a bucket. Then I blew air from my compressor into that hose into the heater core. It pushed a significant amount more coolant out of that hose and into the bucket (props to FABO I read that tip on here). So the heater core should be fairly empty. The hoses were disconnected at the firewall. As of last night I was taking the motor seal plate off, but ran into a problem. No 1/4" wrench, and a socket wouldn't fit into the area to fit that little bolt & finish removing that plate. But hopefully soon I'll be able to drop the heater core out. I suspect I'll have to disconnect the A/C lines / evaporator and pull it out at the same time. Just trying to take my time and do this job right. I don't care to ruin anything, or have to have the car towed home because I rushed and did it half-arsed.

I'll order the new heater core once this one is removed so I can eyeball it and hopefully order the correct heater core the first time. I'll take the leaky one when I buy the new one and hold them up together to make sure I'm taking home a winner.

Later.


7milesout
 
The restrictor screws into the top of your water pump or intake depending on the direction of your water flow to the heater core. You'll notice the extra thick wall on the nipple, this slows the water flow so you can see how important to get it installed in the correct water flow direction. Think I got mine from Summit or Jeggs.


s.
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Hope this helps
 
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