1972 Scamp in New Zealand

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Check out my axle tube shortening technique in the 8.8 sticky. I believe it's probably one of the better ways of doing this to keep the tube straight. The suckiest thing about the swap is carefully cutting off all the explorer brackets, not nicking the axle tube itself, then having to flat grind the welds down.
 
Also where is the best place to get a new set of spring perches from.

and I’m still looking for a factory K-frame is anyone has one they want to sell.
 
Thanks for the kudos. I have been messing with B body and A body cars for 32 years. Took a hiatus from it all for about 10 years then dove right back in lol.

As far as spring perches go, theres sellers making these for a 3&1/8" axle tube for use in off road vehicles. The explorer rear seems to be pretty popular with Jeepers. Make sure to find a set that's listed for the same width as your stock A body ones. I think 2&1/2" width. Others just buy the Mopar Performance perches for a mopar 3.0" axle tube and either rotary file on them, or grind on them a little bit on either end till they set down nicely on the tube. I have a set of the MP ones for stock mopar 3.0" tube, and a set of the offroad truck ones. Have not decided which ones we are going to use yet.
 
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Oh hey look, another very intermittent update from NZ,


Rear 1/4 panels have arrived, shipping and GST was $950nz which is more than I paid for the panels and more than I expected, to be fair I had nothing to base my expectations on so not a surprise haha.


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sat one of the panels on the car, they look good and the lines seem to line up good so I’m happy.


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the side marker lamp hole at the back of the guard is different because these are technically earlier year Dodge Dart panels, not that it matters as they will be getting filled in anyway,
 
Thread dredge…..

aside from scraping more under seal there’s not too much I can do to the body for now,

so I’ve been working on the Ford 8.8 I pulled out of an explorer.


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everything looks good inside, so that’s a plus

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I wrapped it up to limit the stink, Because there isn’t much that stinks worse than diff oil haha

I drilled out the 3 bungs that hold the long axle tube in and took the diff housing to work,

with a bit of persuasion from the 10t portapower and the gas plant I pressed the axle tube out,

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tomorrow I’m going to work at our Drury branch wherethe engineering department is so I’ll use the drop saw to knock 3” off the axle tube, and then work out how I’ll press it back in so i can weld it up, then I’ll be one short axle and spring seats away from a shortened super strong rear.
 
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luckily it just fit

then I welded it back up, I plug welded it where the factory used plugs to hold the tube in, plus I also welded both tubes to the centre as with it being a press fit it’s not unheard of them seeping.


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Bloody handy having these tools at my disposal at work.

I’ll order some spring seats soon and make a jig based on the old diff to weld them on,

not a huge amount of progress, but better than nothing.
 
I think the cut I had to do on mine was 2&7/8" double check before you cut.

I did check a few sites, most mentioned 3” so that’s what I did, but I just made sure to measure from the outer shoulder of the centre to the axle tube outer flange of the factory short side which was 444mm, and made sure that I replicated that when I pressed the shortened axle tube back into the housing.
 
Great project and awesome to see scamps getting love. And here I thought I was the only Baptist with a 72 Scamp lol. I feel bad all the stuff you have to go through to get parts to NZ though. Are you sticking with the same color or have you decided?
 
Great project and awesome to see scamps getting love. And here I thought I was the only Baptist with a 72 Scamp lol. I feel bad all the stuff you have to go through to get parts to NZ though. Are you sticking with the same color or have you decided?

Cheers buddy, yeah it’s not too bad for the smaller stuff, but the big stuff really hits the pocket, yeah am going to keep the off-white/cream colour, I think it will work well with my overall vision for the car!
 
Cheers buddy, yeah it’s not too bad for the smaller stuff, but the big stuff really hits the pocket, yeah am going to keep the off-white/cream colour, I think it will work well with my overall vision for the car!

awesome! I look forward to seeing it continue to move forward
 
More small jobs have been done , I’ve cut all the old brackets off the diff housing now

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so I just need to order some spring perches for it now. Im hoping to be able to find a local supplier here in New Zealand to save me having to source them from the US,


I also put my big boy pants on and started cutting the rear 1/4 panels off as marked by my metal guy (so that the inside structure can get blasted too)

Before (you can see the lines drawn by my metal guy):

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after:

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No more rust than expected, which is good I suppose haha,

one side down…..one to go……..
 
That's not bad considering that in the northeast US these cars lasted 10 years due to calcium chloride the different states put on icy roads. Back in the 1980s We used to call plymouth dusters, Plymouth Rusters. It was wierd, the front clips and doors would be pretty solid, but everything behind the rear wheels would be eaten away.
 
re the spring perches, if you can't get any locally just make them as i did. it's only metal. at least you can drill the centre bolt hole 'off centre' to put the wheel/tyre back a bit from stock in the middle of the rear arch too.
 
I may not have it as rough as you guys across "the pond" , however in my area of the country, it's all trucks. Scarce cars in the boneyards. I have to search the net for a lot, or examine the part I have and figure out a way to make my own replacement. Heres an A body RH side muffler hanger. These are add ins for dual exhaust. I got a rotted one off a rolled over 68 dart GTS. Templated and made my own.

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re the spring perches, if you can't get any locally just make them as i did. it's only metal. at least you can drill the centre bolt hole 'off centre' to put the wheel/tyre back a bit from stock in the middle of the rear arch too.

if I can’t get them local I will just order a set from summit, but I hadn’t thought about moving the wheel back at all,
 
That's not bad considering that in the northeast US these cars lasted 10 years due to calcium chloride the different states put on icy roads. Back in the 1980s We used to call plymouth dusters, Plymouth Rusters. It was wierd, the front clips and doors would be pretty solid, but everything behind the rear wheels would be eaten away.

Yeah I’m not unhappy as I was expecting a little bit there. I think the LH side will have more rust repair needed though
 
Been a while since I’ve popped in to say hi (I’ve been lurking and reading)

Had a delivery from Rockauto a couple of weeks ago,

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Diff rebuild kit and Rear wheel bearings for the explorer 8.8, Engine mounts and a new water pump for the 318,
Started with the water pump today, which then let me fit all the ancillaries,

cleaned up the engine mount brackets and put the new mounts on.


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I was originally planning on ditching the AC and running a set of gilmours, but I can’t make them work with the PS, and I’m not willing to ditch that for now. So I figured if the PS stays then the AC may as well too!

still need to get a new harmonic balancer, and I’m taking the belt pulleys to work to run through the turbowash, I’ll get them cleaned up, painted and mounted so I can work out belt alignments etc.
 
Been a while since I’ve popped in to say hi (I’ve been lurking and reading)

Had a delivery from Rockauto a couple of weeks ago,

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Diff rebuild kit and Rear wheel bearings for the explorer 8.8, Engine mounts and a new water pump for the 318,
Started with the water pump today, which then let me fit all the ancillaries,

cleaned up the engine mount brackets and put the new mounts on.


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I was originally planning on ditching the AC and running a set of gilmours, but I can’t make them work with the PS, and I’m not willing to ditch that for now. So I figured if the PS stays then the AC may as well too!

still need to get a new harmonic balancer, and I’m taking the belt pulleys to work to run through the turbowash, I’ll get them cleaned up, painted and mounted so I can work out belt alignments etc.
Looking good! @Jim Kueneman has some really good info on rebuilding your AC system and just about anything else for a 72 Plymouth Duster. Check out his threads.
 
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