'72 Scamp-not really a "restoration"

The car is a '72 Scamp given to me by my Dad who bought it from the original owner in about '89. The original owner used to drive it up and down the beach in Galveston, and rarely took care of it as evidenced by some rotted sheetmetal. It sat for the better part of a decade down at my Dad's near Houston getting covered in ivy and in dire need of some TLC.

I picked the car up in '07 and had to get a new carb (2bbl) sending unit and gas tank just to get it running on it's own as the top of the tank rotted through and the substance which presumably was gasoline turned into something resembling a tar pit. During this process, the engine bent 5 pushrods due to stuck valves. After installing some new pushrods, repairing the valve situation, installing the new carb, new timing chain set, water pump, t-stat, hoses, wires, etc....I drove it routinely for about a year until I deployed and then it sat for six months and my better half rarely touched it. Since my return and subsequent deployment, we acquired another vehicle and priorities shifted away from ol' blue.

So far, I've rebuilt the braking system completely (minus the rear drums as I can't locate the correct ones), upgraded the points to Mopar electronic, installed new carpet, shocks, and a few nick nacks here and there. The car is still rather taken with cancer, but I don't have the means to pursue repairing all of them with new stampings...not yet anyway. Even if I did have the money, I don't really have the time.

Short term plans include dropping in a 5.2 Magnum sourced from a friend since the 318 currently in there is making some noises I don't really care for. I just need to collect up a few more parts and a few free weekends and it'll be ready to go in. I intend to leave it carbed for right now since the engine did not come with all the EFI garb and again, I don't have the chance to go peruse the junk yards to gather all the pieces parts to do the swap. I'd like to get an EFI setup as I've done a similar upgrade before (more on that in a moment), but just don't wanna mess with it right now.

The 904/7.25" open combo will have to stay in there for the time being until I get around to putting in something with an overdrive and a better rear axle. I'm sure some of you already noticed it's still rockin' the small circle lug pattern, and along with many other things, I'm not interested in chasing that right now as it wears decent rubber and the brakes are functional.

My end goal for the car is: for the body to be straight rust free and wear it's original B5 blue with a white top, and white trunk stripe (according to the fender tag); to have a reliable powertrain with overdrive and can easily acheive 20+ hwy mpg, and not be a wheezing turd; A/C...I do live in Texas...; clean, comfortable interior; daily drivable.

As for the Ford Racing banner-I grew up with, and still "suffer" from, Mustang fever. My first car, a 1984 Mustang GT, is obscured in the first picture. It's also in a state of constant change. Barely anything on it remains the same from 1984 aside from about 45% of the sheetmetal. That car will always be my bigger priority-that's just the way it is. I recently accepted money for the Vortech supercharged 302 under the hood (along with the tranny, ignition, complete EFI, piggyback ECU, etc etc etc) in favor of swapping in a 4.6 4V and a single 67mm turbo (end goal there 550-600 rwhp). The engine for that is in the works, and likely will be for close to if not more than a year from now.

I absolutely love American Iron, of all makes and creeds. There are some that blow my hair back more than others, but if it's saddled with a V8, I'm probably a fan. My biggest prejudice is to a-holes...I've met all kinds of them. Some drive Mustangs, others drive Camaros-I've even met a few folks who thought because they drove a Mopar, I wasn't good enough to talk to them or be in their presence because I was obviously just some token peasant Ford guy.

I'm sure by now I've bored everyone to the point of navigating to another page, so, there ya have it...I'll post up whenever I have updates to ol' blue.

Jeff