After a long while away from working on my Scout, I was able to break away for a few hours yesterday to visit Mr. Soundman and pick over the carcass of his parts truck. He’s got this one down to the bare bones now, so that makes two rolling frames-with-engines parked in his driveway, and he’s getting nervous about getting it out of there.

I immediately set to work on the dashboard, because I knew it would take the longest amount of time to remove. Little did I understand just how complicated it actually would be. Apart from the retaining screws he’d already removed, there are a million electrical connections and a handful of mechanical controls to disconnect, which take a ton of time to figure out. We wound up separating the wiring from the dashboard altogether just so that we could get it out, which ordinarily would have given me heart attacks—now that it’s out, how do I put everything back together?!?

But I’ve got an ace up my sleeve: Mr. Scout and his father took the dash out of Chewbacca a lot slower and more deliberately than we did, and it’s currently being stored in my garage, so I can take copious notes and photos of what an unmolested dash with intact wiring should look like.

Upon closer inspection, this dash is in reasonably good shape, although it’s covered in mud, faded from sun exposure, and surface rusting in places. The whole thing needs a wash, then sanding, priming and paint. Retaining the stock green is not going to happen, so I’m going to have to go with black instead—along with the two metal door panels I’ve got. The included hardware looks like it’s recoverable, although the more complex light and wiper assemblies need to be cleaned and tested.

The loom is in good shape as well, although I need to compare it closely to Chewbacca’s loom to be sure. I didn’t see any backwoods splicing or creative uses of romex, which leaves me hopeful but cautious. I’m currently debating buying a new wiring harness for the whole thing or just using what I’ve got, but common sense is pointing towards the cheaper of the two options.

Another big score was the water pump. After removing four bolts, Mr. Soundman handed me the entire assembly from the pump forward, which means I’ve got a non-clutch fan as well. The pump blades were covered in rust and scale, so I went at everything with a scraper last night to clean up the housing, as well as remove the ancient paper gasket. I’ve got a new gasket waiting at the parts store down the street, so at some point this week, I’ll get to work on removing the existing pump.

Finally, the other big score was a new fan shroud to replace the hack-job I’ve got: the PO did a body and suspension lift, which moved the fan blades up in relation to the body (and therefore the radiator). So, he did what countless other Scout owners have done in the past: he chopped the lower half of the shroud completely off, making the airflow to the coolant substantially less focused. I’m going to fabricate up some spacers for the new shroud and mount it properly to the radiator so that the engine doesn’t run excessively hot—and, thankfully, I’m already removing the fan to replace the water pump.