Hi-Lift.
I stumbled across a used 48″ Hi-Lift jack on Craigslist yesterday for the low low price of $40, and couldn’t pass it up. The height of this Scout obviates any sort of bottle or floor jack, because they don’t allow enough height to get a 32″ wheel off the ground. I met the seller out in Highlandtown and the deal was quickly struck; this is an $80 jack new (not including shipping—it’s 30+ pounds).
It may be that I need to upgrade to a 60″ jack, depending on how hard it is to get my tires off the ground, but this is a good start (and I know a few guys who run/will run stock Scouts who might be interested in taking this off my hands in that case). Or, I could simply buy a 60″ steel bar and replace the 48″.
Weekend Update, 5-30.
Saturday morning, with a mixture of anticipation and nervous fear, I pulled the beast out of the garage and filled the back with garbage from our basement, scrap lumber from the garage, and a year’s worth of dead branches shed from the yard, loaded in a toolbox, made sure I had a towing company number in my cellphone, and set out for the dump.
As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about. The Scout did fine. Even sitting in the line at the dump, the temp needle never went past the first line, the idle calmed down, and she behaved herself. I had to give her a lot of gas to get restarted, so there’s definitely a tune-up in the future, but overall I’m surprised and happy. And my fears for her road manners were unfounded; steering was straight and true at 65mph.
On the trip south, a guy in a Dodge dually honked and gave me a thumbs-up, which put a smile on my face for the next half-hour. After unloading everything (god it’s nice to have a true utility vehicle again) I put the top completely down and drive home in the sunshine.
Sunday morning I was finally able to meet up with the owner of a very dilapidated ’78 plow rig to begin parting out what’s left, after weeks of missed connections and unexpected rainshowers. He bought the truck in order to pull the axles for his ’59 Willys wagon and has no use for the rest of the carcass—although now he’s talking about using the frame and drivetrain for a T-bucket with a plow.
I was more interested in the hard-to-replace plastics and any sheetmetal that might be salvageable, so I brought the Jeep down with my tools and commenced to stripping. He’s a very nice guy, and within ten minutes offered me a cold beer and an air-powered impact wrench, which made life much easier. In fact, he helped me pull a lot of good parts off the truck while also taking out the brake and steering systems for his Jeep. At the end of a five-hour day, I drove home with:
- A clean driver’s fender (with one small dimple at the front curve—nothing I can’t knock back out)
- A clean fan shroud
- One good door panel
- a clean ’78 grille and headlight bezels
- A clean valance panel
- Both headlight buckets, retaining rings, and a spare set of lights
- Marker lights, lenses and buckets
- Taillight lenses (the buckets were shot)
- Gauges (including speedo, the one thing I don’t have a spare of)
- An extra set of wiper arms
- Plastic defroster exhausts
- Steering column plastic
- Driver’s knee vent
- Glove box door (with turn latch, which I don’t have)
- A complete headlight switch
- An extra set of dash plastics (mine are painted purple)
- A complete wiper fluid container
- A complete coolant reservoir
- Two sets of door hinges
- Hoses and clips for windshield fluid
- Assorted other small parts and bolts
I tried getting the door glass out of the driver’s door, but we ran out of time–the upper channel is most likely rusted to the lower. However, the regulators both seem to work better than the ones I’ve got, and also appear to be easier to get out, so I’ll go back for those. We didn’t have time to pull/cut off the passenger fender, which made getting the heater box out impossible, so I’ll go back for that as well. The radiator came out, but I didn’t have space for it in the Jeep, so he’s hanging onto that for me as well.
Overall, it was a great day, and I had a fantastic time getting grease up to my elbows and talking cars (he’s got a ’69 Mach 1 sitting behind the Willys waiting for its turn). I’m stacked for the next couple of weeks, but I hope to head back down and pick up the rest of the parts (and possibly a set of spare wheels) very soon.
Weekend Update, 5-25
I snuck a little time into the garage this weekend to clean with the vacuum and a broom, although I didn’t get to drive anywhere. After cleaning out a pile of beach sand and pine needles, I looked over the floors and interior a bit further. The first thing that struck me is the unconventional installation of the front seats, the mounts of which are welded to the bases. So if I want to install Chewbacca’s old seats (one of which needs reupholstering), I’ll need to find a pair of new bases to start with.
I pulled the bikini top out and unrolled it for the first time, and it looks like it’s in great shape, which is a relief. When I pulled the soft top off last weekend, I did a quick inspection and found that it’s in worn but decent shape for the time being. I may pull it off and store it somehow so that I preserve it for as long as possible, because new tops are prohibitively expensive ($1K+).
The weather is lousy this week, but I’m going to try to break away from work early tomorrow evening to go pick parts from a Scout locally; there’s a pile of good parts to be had which have just been waiting for me to get to them.
First Official Voyage.
Yesterday I woke up early and got to the DMV as it opened to get my title and tags taken care of, and surprisingly it only took about 20 minutes for the whole process (minus the wait outside the front door). After work, I zip-tied the rear plate onto the carrier, opened the garage back up, drove the rig down the street to the gas station, put $10 of regular in it (the gauge still reads zero) and washed the crud off the front window. Then I pulled it around the side and let it idle while I pulled the top off for the first time since I’ve owned it. Let me say I much prefer the fast-trac top to the snap-fastener version!
I saw no leaks from anywhere under the hood, and idle calmed down real quick, even though she was hard to re-start at the pump; I’ll have to check the plugs this weekend. There’s also a tendency to stay at a high idle when coming to a stop, which only a goose of the accelerator will solve-it’s almost like the linkage or the carb is sticking somewhere. I’ve got to adjust the throw of the clutch pedal, which seems to be a lot higher off the floor than I’m used to-plus it’s got a stupid aftermarket racing pedal that I keep catching my foot on.
She has much different highway manners than my first Scout, which had a stock driveline. This one tracks pretty straight but the steering is tight and very twitchy. It’s going to take some getting used to. The brakes seem to be in good shape, and the electrical system is functioning enough to work (even though the BRAKE light never goes off).
I stopped over and picked up Mr. Scout and his wife, who were at his mother’s place around the corner, and we took a quick trip around the block with the top down, the three of us grinning the whole way. Even though I offered the driver’s seat several times, he’s still holding out for his baby.
Last word: I came to a stopsign in the neighborhood behind my house, and two kids in a white pickup gave me the thumbs-up as they turned the corner. The kid in the back (the one with all the drum equipment) looks it over and says, “That is one bad-*** big purple truck, man! Right on!”
No Joy.
The Maryland MVA is not open on weekends for titling or tags, despite what it says on their website, so I will be forced to sit in their waiting room at 8:30 in the morning sometime this week in the hopes that I can be out by 9:15. Ha, ha.
IT LIVES!
After a long wait and many rainy weekends, I finally got some time yesterday to put some doors in on my garage and pull the Scout out into the sunlight where I could crank it over without asphyxiating myself.
Mr. Scout stopped over to pick up parts he’s been storing (his Scout is moving this weekend to get serious bodywork started, but I’ll let him tell his own story) and helped me hang two rough doors that are wide enough to accommodate.
The good news is that she fired right up after some fussing with the battery connections and a squirt of gas down the carb. I pulled her out and let her warm up, and expected to see coolant dripping from the water pump like we’d seen in February, but after 20 minutes at idle without a fan shroud, there was no sign of leakage. I’ll have to pull the fan and pump off anyway to put a new shroud on, but knowing the pump itself seems to be OK is a fantastic break. Which means there is no bad news!
So, the next steps are:
Insurance and registration
Fabricate new mounts and get the spare fan shroud installed (and replace the water pump gasket while we’re at it)
Put the top down
Enjoy!
Painting, take 1
I took a little time this morning—now that it’s not pouring rain and below 50°—to get some black paint on my spare dashboard. The glovebox door also has two coats, and they’re beginning to look really good.
rattle-can satin black
Sunday In the Garage.
I got a little time to work on Scout-related stuff this weekend, and it felt good to make some progress. Because I couldn’t leave the house on Saturday, I worked on the spare dash in the basement. I got the entire thing disassembled except for the washer control and spent an hour cleaning about a pound of swamp mud from the backside of the sheet metal.
filthy
When it was dry, it didn’t look like it was in bad shape at all. There was some surface rust and some corrosion on all surfaces, though, so I went at it with some fine-grit sandpaper and a lot of elbow grease.
washed
When it was cleaned up enough for my liking, I hit it with some automotive primer to see if I’d missed anything; it turned out much better than I’d expected. I have to wet sand it down before I hit it with the finish coat of satin black, but I’m really pleased with the results. I can’t wait to put it all back together.
primed
Out in the garage on Sunday, I started pulling the old fan shroud off to get a better look at the fan assembly, and one half of it fell off. From what it looks like, after the PO added a 2″ body lift, the radiator moved in relation to the fan—and the coolant hose on top. In order to fit the shroud under the hose and over the fan blades, he chopped the bottom half off and then must have snapped the shroud in two to fit underneath. Or, perhaps the shroud came into contact with the heat from the hose and snapped on its own. Either way, it’s off now; I’ll use it as a template for the new shroud mounts and then toss the pieces.
original fan shroud
It turns out the dead headlight was only playing dead; I fooled with the connector a while and found that there’s a dead spot on the female side. I’ll have to read up on how to clean the contact inside the plastic housing.
Finally, I bought a 25′ length of flexible HVAC hose and hooked it to the second tailpipe, primed the carb and turned her over for about 5 minutes, long enough to get some water out of the tailpipes and scoot her back a foot or so. I have to tighten up the hose so the exhaust doesn’t blow it off and open the other windows, but it sure felt good to hear that thing turn over again.
Parts is Parts.
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?!?
Backup dashboard
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.
recovered loom
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.
water pump assembly
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.
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