Saturday morning broke with the first good sunshine we’ve had in a long time, so I decided that I would take advantage of as much of it as I could. After a mile-long walk with the dog and a cup of coffee with Jen, I put on my coveralls and headed out to the garage. The first thing I wanted to tackle was pulling and inspecting each spark plug I’d installed last year to ensure they were gapped correctly and to do a compression test. I pulled the coil wire, started with the #1 cylinder and worked my way backwards on the driver’s side, then finished on the passenger side.
All of the gaps looked right at spec, and the tips were all covered in gassy-smelling oil—which I expected, considering that I haven’t been able to get her running consistently for a long period of time. The most important information was good information: all of the cylinders had excellent compression, with the lowest of any of them at 125psi. This means the rings are in great shape and have hopefully reseated themselves after their long slumber.
When that was done I pulled the passenger fender out into the sun and hit it with sanding blocks for the second time, working the high spots down and smoothing out the second skim coat. It’s really shaping up on the outside, and I’m having great luck with the new filler.
One drawback was that the inner metal collar I’d welded on to the backside of the fuel port came off as I was sanding it down; when I welded the inside edges and then sanded off the excess metal apparently I was a little too zealous and weakened those welds. So this time I predrilled a bunch of pilot holes along the outer circumference and used those to tack the collar back in place from the back side—something I should have done in the first place. I’ll fill the inside edge with seam sealer to hide the welds, which are mostly hidden anyway. Then I skimmed filler on the low spots, which are (thankfully) decreasing in number.
Sunday morning I ran up the Scout for the first time in two weeks and let it warm up in the driveway. After attaching my ghetto exhaust extender (a 5′ length of HVAC pipe attached to the tailpipe, with 20′ of PVC reaching past the side of the garage) I turned both idle mixture screws all the way back into the carb and then backed them out 1/4 turn. Adding a little starting fluid to the carb, she fired right up and idled much smoother than she had two weeks ago, but then I saw the giant clouds of white smoke coming from the end of the exhaust and figured I’d better shut her down. So the rough idle issue is mostly sorted out, but I need a good windy day to run it up and clean the Berrymans out of the fuel system.
Next, I got to work tearing the front bench seat base down to the metal. I set up a GoPro and took a bunch of pictures, then started tearing the old vinyl off the frame. Removing the foam, burlap, and reed padding, I cut the old hog rings off and wire wheeled the outside elements, and then looked it over. There were three sections that needed to be welded back together, so I set up the MIG, dialed it in for thinner metal, and put them back together. Then I brushed encapsulator on the whole thing, which was a tedious job.
There are two sections on the back side that look like they could have been welded originally, but also maybe they weren’t. I texted Jeff to see what he thought and he told me his seat is from a ’68 and doesn’t look like mine. I’m mulling over whether I should weld in a set of supports there just to keep the whole thing sturdy.
While that was drying I pulled the fender out and continued sanding the high points down. It’s getting very close. There are only about five small areas that needed to be skimmed—hopefully for the last time—so I put some filler on to cure while the weather was still warm.
