Chewbacca’s New Hat.
Mr. Scout sent me this earlier today; it’s the top I got him for his birthday last year. It looks perfect on that truck.
City Bound.
Top down, 70 degrees. I need to get new windshield wipers. Hell, I need a whole new windshield.
Spares.
I read a recent post on the Jalopy Journal about using a 39 Ford as a daily driver, and it got me thinking. The author talked about return on investment vs. the ever-present fear of breakdown when taking a 70-year-old automobile on the road every day; ultimately he found the satisfaction outweighed the worry and determined to press onward. Among the thoughtful and well-considered responses to the post, I found, among other things, an excellent quote from Kerouac’s On the Road, lots of support and admiration, and some good advice for the inevitable breakdown. And a list of helpful items to have in a toolkit:
- Radiator hoses, both upper and lower
- Pipe clamps for same
- A rotor
- A fresh coil
- A starter (heh)
- Fan belt
- Fuel filter
- Fuel pump
- Fuses
This list is something I intend to work on in the next month as the weather gets warmer.
Running.
Thanks Mr. Clean!
Update: Saturday morning, Evil Mr. Clean and I took a brief jaunt out to Crazy Ray’s in Mt. Airy to see if we could find a radiator for Heavy D. What we found was much better pickings than the Jessup location, which is geared more towards later-model cars. Mt. Airy has late-model stock too, but they have rows of 50′s-era iron and some trucks I never thought I’d see at Jessup. We found a 200-series truck of the same vintage as his and had the radiator and shroud out in ten easy minutes. I pulled the washer bottle for the motor mounted underneath. Behind that was an 800 with a V8 in pretty poor shape, from which I swiped the speedo dial. I wanted to stop and pull two more, from a 50′s Chevy pickup and a flat-fendered Willys Jeep, but we were pressed for time. (I did grab a replacement dome light for the Saturn, which made me happy).
We headed back to the house to swap out my starter with his spare. It took a little doing; the top of the starter doesn’t allow for a thick box-head wrench to get a bite on the bolt. Once we’d wriggled it loose, the whole unit came off pretty quickly and we had the replacement bolted in in minutes. After taking some time to clean the electrical leads with some sandpaper and patch up a bare patch of copper with some tape, we reconnected the whole unit and turned the key. Success!
After lunch and a parking lot comparison of the two trucks, EMC left and I had a little time to spare. I tested out the new wiper bottle I’d scored and then used some spare hoses and fittings from the Wheaton Scout to connect my windshield washer nozzles. Success!
Starting Blues.
I’m suffering some new starting woes this week, which have me in the dumps. I swapped out the positive battery cable on Sunday thinking I might be able to fix my intermittent starting issues, but when everything was hooked up and ready, I got no juice to the starter at all. I’ve been getting loads of help from the Binder Planet from guys who have much more experience than me, and I’m slowly making progress on a diagnosis. Tonight I’m going to try jumping the solenoid to see if that might be my issue, and the troubleshooting will continue.
Plug Update.
I did a dumb thing the other day. I ordered a box of plastic vacuum plugs from Amazon before going downstairs and doing a little more investigating on my gas tank. I got fixated on covering the preinstalled brass fittings without considering the obvious: remove them (they’re all threaded, of course) and find threaded brass plugs to replace them. $10 at the Home Depot and I’ve got five 1/4″ square-head plugs that will cap off all the unneeded ports with no fear of disintegration.
It appears, though, that I’ll most likely have to buy a new set of J-hooks for the tank straps I’ve got; the advice I’m reading on the Binder Planet says the OEM nuts will most likely snap off the ends of the bolts.
Now, I just need a warm, free weekend day to pull her out of the garage and drop the tank.
Update: Here’s one of the plugs installed.
Small Updates
I ordered a set of vacuum plugs from Amazon on Friday to cap off the unused ports on my poly gas tank. I think I’m going to try wrapping the ports in something like aluminum foil first in order to keep gas fumes from melting the plastic (it seems like there’s no good alternative to plastic or rubber that I can find) and then put the caps over top of them, then zip-tie or use a small hose clamp to fasten them completely. I also ordered a pinstripe removal wheel for my dashboard veneer; it came this afternoon via UPS. So I know what I’m going to be playing with this evening.
* * *
Finn and I did a quick recon trip to Arbutus on Sunday to look for a truck Mr. Scout showed me several years ago: a topless yellow Scout that looked like it hadn’t moved in a couple of years. When I finally remembered how to get where it was, we found that it had been replaced by a shiny, mildly lifted Wrangler.
Undersea Cable.
Last week, when the weather was getting warm and sunny, I was itching to get the old girl on the road. I was foiled, however, by an intermittent starting problem. Specifically, I could get her to start easily, and an hour later I’d get lights and radio but nothing from the engine—no click, no grind, nothing. Putting the battery on an overnight trickle charge gave me enough juice to get her started Friday morning, but I was wary when I got in her to drive home.
A little research points me to the battery cables, which have been problematic since the day I bought this truck. On Thursday evening I stripped about two inches of insulation from the terminal side of the cable and found green corrosion inside, so I’m going to need to find a new cable and a way to seal it up tight. SSS sells a positive cable for $80, which is pricey. Rock Auto sells one for $12 but I don’t know what gauge or length it is. I think i need to see if Evil Mr. Clean can hook me up with some of the cables like he’s got.
Dangled Mash.
Armed with a little knowledge from the Binder Planet, I’m going to see if I can save this dash panel this weekend. The plan is to cut a clean DIN9 hole around the mangled part, sand the decal off, repaint it black, and use it to install a better head unit.
(Or, alternatively, I may just see if I can clean up the one that’s already installed and cut that one down. We’ll see).
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