Pure Vision Transforms a 1972 Plymouth Scamp With Cool Mopar Mods

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"Nobody cares about a 1972 Scamp."

Bob Florine and Steve Strope both said that to me, despite the fact that we were talking about the incredible hot rod that is disproving their assertion everywhere it shows up.

Every hot rod, from the mildest to the wildest, begins its life as an idea in somebody's imagination. For a lot of hot-rodders, coming up with ideas is easy and driving the finished car is desired—but the in-between step, the actual build, keeps their concept from ever reaching the street. The purchase price of a project car, the cost of elaborate parts, and the fabrication chops required to create the kind of cars you see at shows, on the web, or in mags, can prevent the average enthusiast from building the hot rod they see in their mind.

Pro builder Steve Strope, owner of Pure Vision, builds high-end cars that have earned him his place among the world's best builders. But Steve is one of the loudest proponents of real-world hot rods built by buddies in the garage on an average budget. He showed us how it's done a couple years ago with "Project Long Weekend," his personal 1964 Olds Cutlass.

HOT ROD's June 2019 cover story was Sketchpad Supercars. Steve provided a few ideas for cars that could be built with the same approach he used on his "Project Long Weekend" Olds. One example was a 1972 Plymouth Scamp.

When we think of Chrysler's contributions to the muscle car era of the '60s and '70s, we think of 'Cudas, Challengers, Chargers, Road Runners, and Super Bees. The Valiant Scamp, Plymouth's cousin to the Dodge Dart Swinger, was the "grandma car" of the Mopar family, never reaching a high level of interest among hot-rodders, which is how it earned its spot on Steve's list of obtainable raw material. "It's one of the least desirable Mopars from that era," he said, "so of course that's what I had to build." Steve envisioned a bunch of mods that could move Chrysler's A-Body onto the Mopar A-list.

HOT ROD readers caught on to Steve's Sketchpad ideas, and to Eric Brockmeyer's illustration, which included a Chrysler E-Body Air Grabber hoodscoop, rear spoiler, steel wheels with police car caps, and Road Runner-inspired stripes.

Bob Florine from ARP, Automotive Racing Products, Inc. , was one of those readers. Bob owns the Pure Vision-built 1957 Ford Del Rio wagon, and he and Steve are longtime friends. The two of them were having lunch and talking about the Sketchpad Scamp, when Bob suddenly stated, "We have to build it."

"A Valiant isn't exactly your first choice for a hot rod," Bob told us. "It's thought of as a granny car, and this one literally was. The guy I bought it from had purchased it a couple years before from the original owner. It had 63,000 miles on it. It was completely factory, garage-kept, free of damage, and virtually rust free."

Transforming the Scamp's outward appearance from lukewarm to super-cool didn't involve any sheetmetal modifications—except for the hood, which we'll talk about in a minute. There are, however, a bunch of imaginative details. Steve fabricated a three-piece aluminum spoiler for the decklid. A pair of '68 Charger parking-light lenses were integrated into the front bumper in the style of a '70 Road Runner. As a finishing touch, Billet Badges in Ramona, California, was commissioned to create small center medallions for each lens, decorated with the Plymouth rocket emblem.

Low-key paint had been in Steve's imagination from the first. Chrysler was known for eye-grabbing colors—Plum Crazy, Top Banana, and Panther Pink, among others—none of which fit the vision for the Scamp. At Mick's Paint in Pomona, California, Mick Jenkins sprayed Butternut Yellow, a color used on virtually every GM model from 1965 to 1969. A cartoon devil on the rear stripe uses his pitchfork to form the M in the Scamp logo, just as on the Dodge Demon. That's not a decal, by the way; Brad King used pinstripe brushes to hand-paint the lettering and the character.

As with Steve's '64 Olds, Bob's Scamp project took a few departures from the simple, low-budget formula. Let's talk about that hood. Noted metal-man Rick LeFever invested untold hours into making a Road Runner Air Grabber hoodscoop work on the Scamp. A '70 Road Runner hood was cut up, grafted onto a '72 Valiant hood frame, and repositioned to locate the scoop over the air cleaner. Additional fabrication was required to adjust for the distance between the top of the air cleaner and the bottom of the scoop, which is different on smaller A-Body Valiants than on bigger B-Body Road Runners. All that skill, time, math, and science, along with LeFever's handmade linkage, resulted in a fully functional Air Grabber scoop that looks like it was always there.

The Scamp's 295-series rear tires are a lot fatter than the 6.95-14s that were standard in 1972, requiring work to the unibody floorpan and the suspension to make them fit. USCT Motorsports in Graham, North Carolina, contributed a bolt-on chassis kit (welded in this case) including subframe connectors welded into convertible torque boxes, a radiator support brace, and upper shock-mount bracing. The factory wheelwells were widened using USCT minitub strips. The rear spring perches and Eaton leaf springs were moved inboard a couple inches using a Mopar Performance relocation kit. The torsion bar suspension was retained in the front, with Fatman Fabrications 2-inch drop spindles and Hotchkis tubular upper control arms. Props to Troy Bray, Pure Vision's in-house Mopar expert, for the well-done suspension mods.

Related: What's a Mopar? Here's the History of One Hugely Misunderstood Brand

Steve said that he saw painted Mopar steelies and police car caps in his mind when he designed the car. "They look cool, fit the car, and keep the cost down," he told us. Those "steelies" are actually 17x7 and 18x10 aluminum Motor City wheels from Billet Specialties. The Wheel Vintiques caps feature the Plymouth rocket logo. The rims are wrapped in 225/45ZR17 and 295/35ZR18 Michelin Pilot Sport tires. Baer Brakes with reissued PBR calipers provide stopping power, front and rear.

Did we mention that the Scamp was never part of Chrysler's muscle car lineup? Engine offerings in 1972 were a couple of six-cylinders and the 318 V-8. Steve and Bob selected none of the above, and sent a Chrysler Cordoba 360 engine to Ed Pink Racing Engines in Van Nuys, California, where it was stroked to 408 cubic-inches. A Holley Terminator four-barrel throttle-body injection system provides up-to-date performance and allows for a traditional air cleaner underneath that Air Grabber scoop.

A GM late-model internal fuel pump in the Rick's Tanks tank gets gas moving to the engine. A Holley ignition system lights the mixture, with exhaust gases extracted through Sanderson shorty headers. A Ron Davis radiator and dual electric fans keep things cool. The block, heads, intake, valve covers, and air cleaner cover were all shot with GM Hugger Orange paint, just in case the Butternut Yellow exterior hadn't sufficiently upset the Mopar purists. The engine is backed by a TCI Torqueflite 727 transmission with a Gear Vendors overdrive, sending torque to the 8-¾ rearend.

The original interior was mildly reworkedmore of Troy Bray's incredible handiwork. The original woodgrain instrument panel was replaced with textured black vinyl. Redline Gauge Works freshened the gauge faces using Steve's design. In lieu of a tach, the round red light to the left of the speedometer (originally an e-brake light) was converted to a shift light. Several Chrysler E-Body (Challenger and 'Cuda) interior parts were transplanted, including the Flaming River E-Body-inspired tilt steering column, adaptor, and Mopar Tuff wheel. The center console is another E-Body piece, along with the Slap Stick shifter. A Vintage Air heater and controls were mounted in the factory location, with a retro-looking Mark IV Under Dash A/C unit "blowing ice cubes," as Steve put it. Bob uses Bluetooth to control the Kicker audio system. Speakers are mounted in the door panels and package tray, and a subwoofer and amps are installed underneath the package tray.

The seats look like E-Body buckets but are actually Moab seats from Corbeau. They're designed for Jeep CJs and first-generation Wranglers, but they look just right in the Scamp, and they have the benefit of reclining. The seat location was moved rearward for additional legroom, and a dead pedal was added for Bob's long-distance driving comfort. The interior was insulated with Dynamat before Gabe's Custom Interiors in San Bernardino covered the seats and door panels in off-white leather, similar to the factory upholstery style.

Look closely at those seats and you'll spot another subtle but cool detail. Bob ordered small, black seat tags, reading "Corinthian Leather," the material Ricardo Montalban hawked in Chrysler Cordoba TV ads in the '70s. The Scamp's upholstery isn't really Corinthian, but neither was the Cordoba's—it was an ad agency-invented term.

Bob decided to debut the transformed Mopar in the ARP, Automotive Racing Products booth at the 2022 SEMA Show. If the assertion that "Nobody cares about a 1972 Scamp" were true, it would have been a quiet week. "There were throngs around the car," he told us. In a sea of extreme street machinery and a crowd of seasoned industry folks, it was Bob's simple, real-world Scamp that drew big attention and ended up on a few "Best of SEMA" lists on the internet.

Imagination doesn't cost money, and turning a cool idea into a cool reality doesn't have to either. There are still a lot of "grandma" cars out there, waiting to be built into attention-worthy hot rods. What car do you see in your mind that you could transform from something nobody cares about into something everybody loves?

Join host Mike Musto to see how something wonderful happens when you combine passion and drive with old-fashioned work ethic and family values. Meet Northern Bel, the 1966 Plymouth Belvedere that was conceived by owner David Meyer and brought to life by coachbuilder Troy Trepanier. About as tastefully done as one can get, this old Plymouth packs a 526 cubic inch Hemi, twin rear-mounted turbochargers and enough power to launch it to the moon if you placed it vertically. Sign up for a free trial to MotorTrend+ and start streaming every episode of The House of Muscle today!