Same Old Song And Dance.

Taking advantage of the 50° weather this afternoon, I jockeyed the cars in the driveway around so that the Slattern is at the top—now that the snow has melted, it’s back to the commuting vehicle. While I had everything out, I pulled the Scout across the street, let her warm up a bit, and then took a lap around the block. As I got about halfway home, the temp needle suddenly woke up and pinged to the middle of the gauge, climbing steadily. I hightailed it home and got parked before it had any chance of going further. Inspecting the engine after shutting it down, I noted coolant spitting out of the radiator side of the top hose, meaning I hadn’t tightened that off enough. The top of the radiator was cool to the touch, as was the cap, which leads me to believe the radiator itself is blocked with gunk. Which means I’ll have to buy some flush solution, drain the whole thing, and see if I can’t clean it out myself.

In Repairs on 6 March 2010 tagged radiator coolant overheat with 1 comment

Road Tires.

Peer Pressure came with a set of 32×11.5R15 BF Goodrich Mud Terrains, and they are very, very nice tires. However, they’re also noisy as hell and I’d like to have something better suited for everyday driving mounted in their place, so I thought I’d do some preliminary pricing. The first step was to convert the US size to metric, and I found this calculator which translates to 292/74R15, something I haven’t been able to find in mixed-use tires—rounding up to 295/75R15.

FYI, the Mud Terrains I’ve got on now list for about $179 each.

In Future Plans, Part Numbers, Purchasing on 5 March 2010 with 3 comments

Electronic Ignition.

Add this to the list of future plans: adding electronic ignition. I like the idea that it’s a simple install and that you can go back to points if the module fails.

In Future Plans, Purchasing on 26 February 2010 tagged Future Plans, ignition, parts with no comments

Spare Nose.

The other part I got from the Great Gwynn Oak Sell-Off is a spare 1972 nose for Peer Pressure, essentially an unmolested version of the same nose I’ve got, with undented chrome and badge intact. Sweet!

In Uncategorized on 15 February 2010 with no comments

Operation Fan Shroud: Installed.

I had a little time this afternoon to work on the Scout, so I ran outside with some tools, adjusted the shroud downwards about 1/2″, cut a new piece of strap for the lower mount to fit, tightened up all the bolts, and stood back.

Hoses tight: check. Coolant level: check. Gas in the carb: check. Fire extinguisher: check. Of course, I left the window up, so if there had been a fire, the balky linkage would have ensured a few moments of panic as I tried to get the window down to reach the outer door handle (the inner latch is off the door right now) but that’s all just details. Three tries and she fired right up, idling smoothly for having sat dormant since October.

I backed her out of the garage and almost took the driver's rearview off the door (the doors weren't open wide enough, because they're backed in with 3' of snow) after shifting into 4hi—the rear wheels just spun on the cold ground. After idling for about 5 minutes the temp gauge didn't rise off the left peg, so I think she needs a good ten minutes of running time before I know if anything is fixed or not. But just to have her out of the garage again is a huge relief.

While I was out there, I swapped out the green dashpad for the new black one I bought from Karl, which sure does look better with purple.

In Progress, Repairs on 14 February 2010 tagged fan shroud, parts, Progress, Repairs with 1 comment

Heat Reflective Matting.

I stumbled upon some good advice while perusing the Binder Planet this afternoon: an inexpensive alternative to Dynamat, called Peel & Seal. The commenter claims it’s only about $20 at the Home Depot. I’ll have to pick some of this up next time I’m there.

Update 2.20.10: Struck out at Lowe’s. Doing some reading on the product, I don’t know if I’d want to use this stuff after all. I’m also not sure if the idea is to put this stuff on the inside of the cab or out.

In Future Plans, Purchasing on 7 February 2010 tagged parts purchasing links with no comments

Operation: New Fan Shroud.

I got a little window of time this afternoon between the blizzard and Finn’s nap to pick up a pair of metal shears. While she was down, I hurried to the basement and trimmed one side of the steel I’d bought, then laid it flat on the edge of my workbench. I bought a length of predrilled strap in order to make a hard edge to bend on. The object was adding a bend at the top 1/2″.

Once I’d bent the top to my satisfaction (I don’t have a metal brake, but a block of wood and a hammer work pretty well) I measured and drilled a pair of holes for the top mounting bolts. I’ve got a spare radiator that I dragged into the basement for test fitting:

Next, I drilled a series of holes to make a long adjustable vertical channel for the shroud and set that in place to test out the height. It turns out there’s a total of 3″ of lift on this truck based on the shroud mounting.

Then I assembled the whole thing to see how it all fit together. I used hex bolts with two flat washers on each side, as well as a lock washer to hold the entire thing in place. Outside on the Scout, it turned out that I was about a quarter-inch two low, so the top of the fanblades were hitting the fiberglas. I brought it back inside, extended the channels upwards, filed everything down, and did another test fit: perfect.

The steel extended down below the open area of the shroud, so I measured an area and cut out a section to allow for maximum airflow.

And once I’d tested it out on the Scout, I pulled everything back off so that I can prime and paint the steel this evening. Tomorrow, hopefully, I can get the bottom mounts made quickly and have the entire thing put back together. Then I’ve got to see if she’ll start. It sure would be nice to have her back on the road.

In Progress on 30 January 2010 tagged repair parts engine cooling with 1 comment

New Parts, New Thermostat.

So our local friend K. is selling off his stash of parts and moving northward, sadly diminishing our local ranks. Two Bs drove north from Columbia to my doorstep with the intention of forming a posse to pick over the goods; while we waited for a return call, we (well, mostly they) tore the water pipe down off of my rig and cleaned it up in preparation for a new thermostat. The gaskets were pretty toasted, so we cleaned them off with a razor blade and ran out to get some RTV. At the parts counter we got a call from K, who told us to stop on over.

He’s got quite a stash in his basement to pick over, but I showed good judgement and only walked away with two parts I need and one I couldn’t pass up. The first are a set of bucket seat bases in much better shape than the ones salvaged from Chewbacca. My plan is to sand, clean, and paint them up, refurbish the tracks, and remount the original green seats (I’ve got those too) to replace the hillbilly buckets that are mounted right now.

The third item is worth celebrating: when I got the truck, it sported a hideous aftermarket dashpad abomination that came out two weeks after we got it running. Because the metal of the dash is painted purple, the green stock replacement I put in looks, shall we say, odd, especially when paired with the red windshield frame and yellow hood. K. sold me a pristine black dashpad for a song, and it will be installed as soon as the weather warms up.

Back in the garage, the new thermostat went in quickly and without a fuss; we even got the upper hose reinstalled with two shiny new hose clamps. Next up is the fan shroud issue; we didn’t have time to tackle it this weekend.

In Progress on 23 January 2010 tagged thermostat parts engine cooling with no comments

Plans for Wrenching.

I got a couple of small packages in the mail this week, one of which contains an OEM Robertshaw 180° thermostat and gasket. Along with some other small chores, my aim is to get it installed on Saturday and try to get the fan shroud mounted in order to run up the engine and test out the cooling system. The thermostat should be a quick job, but the fan shroud is still problematic for a guy who doesn’t have access to a metal shop. I’m going to have to buy some materials at the Home Depot and hope I can make them work.

My local friend Karl is selling his Scout in preparation for a move north into Pennsylvania, so I’m also stopping over to pick through his stash and see if there’s anything I’m interested in besides two clean seat bases—which will replace the ones I currently have installed. The plan is to clean these up, mount the old seats from Chewbacca, and replace the strange aftermarket seats it came with.

In Friends, Part Numbers, Purchasing, Repairs on 20 January 2010 tagged friends repairs parts with no comments

Queens of the Scout Age.

And a good song too. Trippy video. Wait until about 2:16.

In Design on 20 January 2010 tagged sighting with no comments