I posted the latest update video on the Binder Planet the other day, which contains a review of the wiring harness I got from the Scout Connection, and a couple of friends there confirmed my suspicions: the new harness is from a 1962 model (the last year of the A/B-series dashboard design) where the fuse panel was mounted down under the dash on the firewall. From what my friend Ray tells me there are other differences and most likely this one won’t be compatible with the dashboard on my truck, so I’ve got to get back in touch with them to figure out next steps. At this point I’ve got two spare harnesses—the one I bought from Marketplace, which is actually from a pickup, and the one from this ’67 Travelall in the driveway, which I have to pull out. I’m kind of tempted to pull the one out of the Red bus and send that along for reference; I’ll have to see what they say when I call.

Date posted: March 28, 2024 | Filed under Electrical | Leave a Comment »

Here’s a recap of last week’s work. I’m testing out equipment and trying to plan out the shoots a little more so that it’s not so jumpy—the pros on YouTube certainly make it look a lot easier than it actually is.

Date posted: March 27, 2024 | Filed under Travelall | Leave a Comment »

On Wednesday the weather was warm enough for me to go out after work and fool around a little bit under the hood of the green truck. I’d sprayed a bunch of the bolts with a fresh can of PBblaster so the washer bottle holder and jack mounts came out easily, as did six of the eight bolts holding the radiator in place. While I was under the hood I pulled seven of the eight plugs out to see what the cylinders might look like, and found they were all dry with a light fuzz of rust on a few. I put them all back and looked over the brake master cylinder, which is a much larger unit than the meager dual-pot in my truck. The reservoir front was full but the rear was empty, and the gasket looked clean—go figure. I originally thought the brake and clutch shared a cylinder but found a separate, smaller IH-stamped pot off to the right of the brake master with its own plumbing to the slave cylinder. Amazingly there was fluid inside and it all looked clean.

Thursday morning, before my alarm had even gone off, I lay awake in bed unable to fall back asleep, and one of the many unconnected bullet points rattling around my brain read: What’s the Baltimore County code for vehicles in your driveway?

Well, it turns out it’s not good news.

428.1. – Vehicle storage on residential lots.

  1. An inoperative motor vehicle may not be stored outside on a residential lot.
  2. An unlicensed motor vehicle may not be stored outside on a residential lot except under the following conditions:
    • Outside storage (i.e., not within a fully enclosed structure) for a period not exceeding 15 days, unless extended by the Zoning Commissioner, in any calendar year is permitted for no more than one such vehicle per dwelling unit per year.
    • The vehicle may not be stored in a front or side yard unless placed in a driveway or other off-street parking area, and the vehicle may not be stored in a rear yard unless placed at least eight feet from any property line.
    • The owner of the vehicle must reside on the lot upon which the vehicle is stored.
    • The vehicle may not be used or dismantled for parts.

So.

I went out and slapped the modern Maryland tag on the green truck for the time being. I’ll keep pulling it apart from the inside out  and hasten to get it out of the driveway as soon as I can.

Friday evening after work I bundled up and went out to see if I could easily get the front bumper off, with the intention of swapping it for the crappy white one that came on the Red Bus. It’s held on with some ancient mismatched bolts of unknown origin and the frame setup on this truck makes it much harder to access the nuts under the cowl area. I hosed them down with PBblaster and moved on to the battery tray, where I got the side support and second horn out (the horn on the passenger’s side works! so that will get swapped into the Scout) and loosened the radiator enough to lift out once I’ve drained it.

I also transferred the list from my iPad to the window of the truck with a grease pencil so it’ll be staring me in the face each time I go out there and I’ll have no excuse for jumping ahead to something shiny. Let’s see how well that works.

Sunday I had a full day to work in on the green Travelall, and made some good progress with the teardown. The focus right now is getting the front panels ready to remove, so I chased after the problem bolts on the passenger fender (under the eyebrow and up on the firewall). With careful application of penetrant and heat, I was able to get the apron sheet metal off the inner fender, allowing for better access to the firewall. Turns out the fuel filler on this side goes to nowhere; there’s no tank under the passenger side.

The radiator came out easily. It turns out there was no coolant in the system at all, so all I had to do was cut the hoses off and the whole unit came out quickly. Later on I’ll rig up some pressurization system to test it for leaks, but for now it’s stashed safely in the garage. The engine still won’t budge, although I still haven’t put a bolt on the crank yet. I pulled seven of eight plugs to see how they looked, and they all came out dry and slightly carbonized. A borescope down a few of the driver’s side cylinders showed a lot of carbon on top of the pistons and some light rust on the cylinder walls. I’ll probably throw some Marvel Mystery Oil down the plug holes to see if I can get the engine to spin, but it’s not my top priority right now (and I’ve got a spare 345 in the garage anyway).

The fender came off after a whole lot of calisthenics and careful use of the cutoff wheel, and apart from the rust at the edge of the eyebrow it looks just as good as the driver’s side. I also loosened the bolts on the inner fender, which all came out easily. The front cowl looks like it’s ready to come out as well—there’s just one heavy bolt at the bottom that ties into the frame that needs to be removed.

I then hooked up the battery from the Red Bus, and saw no smoke or flame from the wiring. A flick of the tailgate window switch moved the window down about 2″ where it stopped in place, so I walked around and shot the tracks with lithium grease, then helped it down as much as possible. Moving back and forth from the switch to the window in that way, I got it to move all the way down into the tailgate. At this point, however, I can’t get the tailgate to release with the latch. I shot it with penetrant and hopefully that will loosen things up; otherwise it’s got a date with a big Phillips-head driver and/or a cutoff wheel.

Finally, I pulled the shiny chrome bumper off the green truck and swapped it for the clapped-out white bumper from the red truck, and that improved things 34%. It’s not in perfect shape; someone put hooks on the bottom side and used it to pull things, so it’s bent up a bit, but it’s not completely twisted like the white one is.

Next up will be getting the heater box out of the cab and the brake assembly from the engine compartment. The latter is still full of clear fluid so I’ve got to find a clean way of draining it without eating a hole in the driveway. I’m going to pull the brass junction block from the firewall and any other hardware I can for that system.

Then I’ll see about getting the tailgate off. Friends from the Binder Planet tell me I should be prepared for how heavy it is; I have no idea what to expect.

Meanwhile, I got a package from the good folks at the Scout Connection, which contained a used, tested wiring harness for the Red Bus. They sent me a harness for a 1963, which looks substantially different than what I’m seeing in my cab. From the layout of the wires and their lengths, it looks like the fuse panel on this one mounts somewhere up under the dash on the driver’s side firewall instead of behind the glovebox door like my truck. The bulkhead connector is correct, and they labeled every single wire, which is awesome for me to base my reconstruction on. Between this new harness, the one I got from Marketplace, and the one I’m going to pull off the green truck, I should have (hopefully) everything I need to swap in a working electrical system.

Date posted: March 25, 2024 | Filed under Progress, Travelall | Leave a Comment »

I would imagine they had to weld some serious support into this thing to get it to stop from flexing like tissue paper with all those people inside. Still, it looks like a hell of a lot of fun to drive!

Date posted: March 20, 2024 | Filed under Inspiration | Leave a Comment »

I had a day of beautiful weather I wanted to take advantage of on Saturday, so I woke up early, walked the dog, and got my chores done early so I could get outside.

A lot of the highlights are covered in the video, but I’ll bullet-point them here:

  • The three spare wheels I’ve been storing under the back porch for ten years, and often considered hauling off to the trash, came in super-handy for the Travelall: they’re the same bolt pattern and they all hold air, so I swapped out the shredded flats on the truck and got it off the ground. There’s still one that’s flat but I’m going to put the one good tire that came with the truck on there and shoot it with some stop-leak. This means that the wheels won’t fit the red Travelall and I can toss them all out when it’s time to get rid of this truck. The green truck now looks 6% less redneck.
  • Jacking up the truck in back to swap said tires, I found that the top leaf in the driver’s spring pack was cracked in half. I may still try to pull those off to have re-arched at some point, but I have to measure them all first to see if they’ll fit the Red Bus.
  • I tore the carpet off the floors front and rear, and found lots of rust underneath. There are two huge sections under the front seats that are completely gone, and giant patches of rust in the back. My tub is definitely in much better shape here.
  • It always takes more time to get parts off a truck than you think. As long as I’ve been doing this, I’m always stupidly  optimistic in terms of what I believe I can accomplish. Putting in a full day Saturday, I got all of the trim off, the roof rack removed, four aluminum sill plates, the visors and rearview mirror, the headlights, tail lights, and both front marker lights. And then I spent two hours getting the driver’s fender off. It’s in excellent shape and should clean up really well, so it was definitely worth it. I got about half the bolts off the passenger side before I had to pack things in; the most painful bolts need to soak in PBblaster for a week or so. Somehow I thought I’d have half the truck apart already.
  • I’m going to have to hook a battery up to try and lower the rear window to get the gate open. The chances of this being successful are about 1000/1. When that doesn’t work, I’ll have to get a thick Phillips-head screwdriver on the 6-8 bolts at the bottom of the inside panel to get access to the motor. The chances of this being successful are 500/1. But the tailgate—and more importantly, the glass—are very much worth the effort. Jeff J. tells me the glass is curved and very hard to find.

  • Jeff also tells me the power steering box on this truck won’t work on my truck; this truck (with IFS) has a boxed frame while mine is channeled, and there are differences in where the steering box goes and how it mounts. Rats. 
  • Also, the front grille assembly won’t fit my truck; the 1965+ trucks had a square opening in the sheet metal while mine is scalloped on the ends. Doesn’t matter, I’m taking it all off anyway.
  • I pulled on the fan blade to see if the engine would turn, and it’s stuck tight. Once I can drain the radiator and pull that out, I’ll have room to see if I can get a socket on the crank bolt and put a breaker bar on it. Maybe I’ll pull the plugs and soak the cylinders in Marvel Mystery Oil; we’ll see.
  • I wasn’t able to get the cowl cover off to put the borescope in to check out the vents down there, but judging by the rusted edges on each side and the pile of debris that fell out when I opened the driver’s vent, I’d guess they’re pretty well shot.
  • I did a fair bit of ADHD scatterbrain picking before I settled down and focused on a few main items. I had actually written down a list based on a strategy of keeping the outer shell together to keep it looking respectable while I take all of the interior parts out, but hubris got the better of me. The driver’s fender is now hung with one bolt. I’m going to do the same with the passenger side, then work on the front clip. Inside the engine bay there are a lot of parts that will stay behind, and I’ll get as much as I can out of there before I start dismantling the interior.

So in rough order, here’s the basic plan:

  1. Get the passenger fender off
  2. Get the inner fenders ready to pull off
  3. Drain the coolant, and pull the radiator out
  4. Remove the heating box from inside the cab
  5. Pull the plugs and put some Marvel Mystery oil in the cylinders; see if the engine will turn
  6. Continue pulling the front cowl off
  7. Put a battery in and see if the rear window will go down
    1. If yes, then open the tailgate and get the glass out
    2. If no, then get a larger screwdriver and try to get the bolts off to open the access panel
  8. Remove the rear tailgate
  9. Pull the rear bumper off
  10. Remove the entire power steering assembly
  11. Pull the brake booster assembly
  12. Pull out the front bench and base
  13. Dismantle and remove the entire dashboard
  14. Pull the steering wheel out
  15. Pull out all internal trim
    1. Ceiling surround channel
    2. Extra ceiling hoops
    3. Armrests, other minor trim
  16. Pull the front bumper off
  17. Take the doors off
  18. Take the hood off
  19. Take the inner and outer fenders off
  20. Maybe pull the good leaf spring off?
Date posted: March 18, 2024 | Filed under Junkyards, Travelall | Leave a Comment »

Last week, while considering the two trucks I’d learned about in New York, I got a text from Bennett:

The owner is a friend’s family and they wanted it gone before it collected more tickets from the local constabulary; I told Bennett I wanted it and asked for his help in going to get it. He got in touch with his brother for the towing rig and a plan was hatched.

Sunday morning I met Bennett over at his storage yard so that we could pull the Hudson off the trailer, park it, and use that for hauling. Before we could leave, we had to replace the hot lead to his trailer winch, which took some surgery and delicate tinkering. Moving the Hudson was pretty easy (we’re used to this procedure by now) so we were on the road north by 9:30.

The truck was at the bottom of a tricky driveway at the end of a fast curve, so I stood outside and stopped traffic while Bennett expertly backed the trailer up the hill (digging the bottom lip all the way up) on his first try. He backed it down the lane to stop at the rear bumper of the Travelall.

She looked worse in person than in the photos (big surprise!) Like she’d been at sea for years and had been beached in a storm. The owners of the house came outside and watched as we busied ourselves setting up the ramps and unloading tools.

The first issue was that it was on four flat tires: two of which were questionable and two of which looked like a dinosaur had been snacking on them. I put my compressor on the “good” ones and got the passenger’s front to fill and hold, while the driver’s side rear would fill and empty at almost the same rate. So: it was up to the winch. We aligned the ramps and yanked the truck backwards up to their edges, and realized the trailer hitch would never clear the deck of the trailer. But we’re pros at this: we stacked up some scrap wood and propped them with 2×4’s to lengthen the ramps and make the angle work better. I put a long board between the hitch and the trailer, levered it over the edge, and we were quickly up on the deck. Turned out the one good tire was bolted to a drum which had frozen, so it was effectively useless.

We pulled it back as far as possible but knew having the engine over the rear axles was dangerous, so we made a plan to flip it around as soon as we found a good-sized parking lot. After strapping it down tightly, we said our thank-yous and I went back out to the street to cover traffic. Bennett got up a head of steam and came down out of the driveway at an angle to avoid getting high-centered, and we were soon on our way.

Down the road we found an empty restaurant parking lot with a couple of steel posts that would be perfect for our next trick: pulling the truck off the trailer, then loading it on facing front. He backed it up to a post which we fastened a strap around, and he gently pulled forward to pull the trailer out from underneath the truck. The front tire—the one with air—still wouldn’t budge. We used the strap to pull the truck backwards to clear the post, and Bennett turned the trailer around to meet the front of the truck.

When we’d gotten the Travelall about 1/2 of the way up the trailer he remarked that he was impressed with how well the battery was holding up on the winch; fifteen seconds later the winch began to sputter as the power dimmed. We dicked around with ratchet straps and a come-along that was definitely not strong enough, and finally unhitched the Ford, pulled it up to the front of the trailer, and used jumper cables to juice the battery enough to get the truck winched all the way forward.

From there it was easy to strap the truck down and get on the road. After a quick lunch at the diner up the street, we drove back to Maryland through howling wind and snow showers to my house, where I’d moved the red Travelall backwards to make room.

Here we used a similar method to get the truck off the trailer: we hooked my tow strap to the telephone pole and the tow hitch on the truck and Bennett simply pulled the Ford forward. We quickly threw a tarp over the carcass to hide its beauty from my neighbor, who is coincidentally trying to sell his house—sorry!—and packed things up. Then we drove back to his storage lot to help get the Hudson back up on the trailer. We got everything covered and strapped down, and took off for home.

I haven’t had a ton of time to look the truck over, but here’s what I see so far:

The outside sheet metal is all Pennsylvania-good. Meaning it has rust in many of the same places the red truck does: in the front fenders at the bottom and over the eyebrows, in the front grille below the marker lights, behind the rear wheels at the bottom of the arches, and in the bottom corners under the taillights (mine is solid here). There’s good chrome trim around the outside which looks like it might all be intact. There’s one good chrome rocker trim on the passenger side—the driver’s side was ripped off at some point. Both bumpers are in excellent shape, and the rear bumper has a set of inset reverse lights. There’s a beautiful roof rack and luggage rail setup on the roof. It’s a single-tailgate model but we can’t figure out how to open it—there’s no handle anywhere, and this truck came without a key. The drip rail is in excellent shape given how long this truck had been sitting. There’s a lovely patina of the original IH green, buffed down to red primer, splashed with yellow lichen across the whole truck.

Inside, it’s a 4-speed stick, and the furnishings are all Custom—it says this on the dashboard. Fabric door cards, fancy steering wheel, padded dashboard, and deluxe headliner. The front bench is shot, and the rear bench had been folded forward, so I can’t see what shape that’s in. Water has gotten into the truck from the driver’s door seal so the front floors and seat are wet. In the far back, there’s what looks like a heat or A/C unit sunk into the wheelwell on the passenger side, and a square toolbox on the driver’s side. The chrome trim for the headliner inside is all intact, and there are two visible dome lights.

A quick look under the hood revealed a V8 with power steering, and a large brake booster, as well as a mount for an A/C compressor. It’s IFS up front, which means there’s no leaf springs for me to grab, but I can definitely pull the rears to have them re-arched.

So, the next steps are to do an inventory of what’s good and what’s not, and start pulling parts off the truck. I have no title and no bill of sale, although the owner said he’d look for the former. Our cursory inspection showed a lot of rust and I’m sure it’s deeper than it looks, so stripping this truck down to the shell won’t bother me too much. Jen doesn’t want it lingering in the driveway, and neither do I, so I think I’ll sell some Scout parts to make room for Travelall parts. I’ve already dug two spare fenders out of storage, and I can sell one set of spare doors to free up a lot more space—Bennett said he might be interested in them, in which case they are his for the asking.

Date posted: March 11, 2024 | Filed under Friends, Travelall, Trip Logs | Leave a Comment »

Two weeks ago, an ad popped up on Marketplace for a Travelette about 20 miles from my sister’s house in New York, and the only picture provided showed a very tired old truck lost amongst a stand of trees. I contacted the seller and he told me a little bit about it, then mentioned he had a Travelall further back in the field, and was vague on pricing. Later in the week, my brother-in-law generously offered to go bushwhacking to check it out, and he called me from the field to tell me what he was seeing. As I suspected, both rigs were New York-tired, meaning they’d lived a hard life on road salt and were well corroded on the bottom.

He sent me a number of pictures of rusted panels and cabins full of leaves and junk. The Travelette would offer a good grille surround as far as I can tell, and perhaps some glass, but there isn’t a lot of good stuff there to go with. The Travelall was a panel van, meaning the rear area where the glass lives is solid metal. But it was a barn door model, and there were some good parts left here and there from the pictures he sent; the ’62 grille and headlight surrounds might be worth some money, and the front clip looked like it was in good shape.

So, if I can make it up there this spring before the whole thing gets overtaken with weeds, wasps and water, I’ll stop in and pick up some of the remaining good stuff before it all oxidizes into the ground.

On Sunday I spent the majority of the day out in the driveway prepping the rear bench seat for upholstery with Jeff. They were still covered with foam and burlap after I’d removed the covers, and they needed to be separated, stripped down, wire wheeled, and covered in Rust Encapsulator. These two seats were an order of magnitude more disgusting than the fronts. Critters had made nests inside long ago (when I took the covers off, it covered the driveway in nuts and bedding) and the foam and burlap had been damp for a long time, so the springs were all covered in surface rust. I took them apart, soaked those bolts in Evaporust, and wire wheeled the outside of the frames. Then I brushed on Rust Enapsulator over all of the exposed metal, and when that had dried, sprayed the rest with black Rust Stop.


May 2023


March 2024

Meanwhile, I sanded the high points off the driver’s fender, skimmed some new mud over top, sanded it again, and skimmed a light amount on top to build up the body line for feathering out. It’s really close—it might take one or two light layers of filler to nail the ridge perfectly, but I can see how it’s a million times better than my original attempt to fix the problem.

Date posted: March 4, 2024 | Filed under Travelall | Leave a Comment »

Following a request for help on a Travelall-specific FB page, I filled out a general inquiry form on an auto glass supplier’s website for new production of curved rear glass. I got an email back yesterday with the following quote and a note at the end (emphasis mine):

Dear Customers:

1 side then $1,495 + Fr 400 = $1,895 delivered cost lower 48
Both sides $2,595 + Fr 600 = $3,195 delivered cost lower 48
50% deposit and 50% due when it ships – under 12 weeks.

These #’s are based on 20 lefts & 20 rights being made.
If more PO’s come in b/ we make – cost decreases.

This will be last time we look at making these.

This roughly squares with a separate estimate I’d been given last year before I found the Holy Grail in Ohio, minus freight.

Date posted: February 28, 2024 | Filed under Travelall | Leave a Comment »

From what little UPS has told me, my seat covers are gone. I had to go to the location I mailed them from and ask, and the guy went into the back of the office and looked and claimed they cut me a check at some point for $100 plus the amount I paid for shipping. Which also hasn’t arrived. So I have to organize a meetup with Jeff somewhere between here and Pittsburgh to hand over the seats.

My spare fuse block made it out to the Scout Connection on Wednesday, and Dave called me to let me know it’s actually not the right fuse block for my truck. I asked if we could swap it for a correct used spare and call it even, and he was happy to do that. So that process should be underway, and hopefully I’ll get a harness in the mail sometime soon. I can’t wait to open that Pandora’s box get that process started; having a working electrical system is one of the three biggest obstacles to getting this girl on the road.

I bought a basic hammer and dolly set from Harbor Freight on Saturday morning and got to work hammering out the dents in the driver’s fender. It took a bit of time to understand how the tools worked; there’s a hammer with a small contact area on either side and a flat spoon for wider areas, as well as two solid steel dollies for the backside. I started with the hammer and quickly realized it was too small a contact patch, and switched over to the spoon almost exclusively. In a couple of hours I had the edge shaped correctly and most of the valleys flattened out, as well as the overall curve of the fender re-formed. Hanging it on the truck I was pleased to see it matching up with the body line really closely, and the panel gap looked really close. After a few more adjustments I re-hung it to confirm everything aligned, and then got things ready to skim some filler over top.

Sunday morning I had a little free time so I used the orbital sander to knock off the high spots in the filler and then skimmed a second coat over the fist; the filler portion of things is going to take a lot of time (as the other fender did) to flatten the large areas and also match the curve over the fender.

 

Date posted: February 27, 2024 | Filed under Seats, Travelall, Welding | Leave a Comment »

I’ve had a bunch of shorter clips in the hopper for a while, and figured I’d collect them into something resembling an update.

On the project side of things, I used a heat gun to remove all of the old bondo on the driver’s side fender, then cut off the pop rivets used to hold a crappy patch in place installed Back in The Day.

When I had that out, I cut a larger square out to get things ready for a proper butt-welded patch. The other thing I had to do was to try and bend the rear edge of the fender outward and back into original position. At some point somebody really bashed it inwards so it never looked correct when it was hung on the truck. I was able to get it mostly back into place, and used my everyday hammer to do some dent removal. At this point I want to get an actual bodywork hammer and bag to pound out the larger dents instead of trying to hide sins with filler.

Once I had that cleaned up, I cut down a section of metal and tacked it into place. I’m going to have to finesse the bottom edge a little bit—or grind this off and re-orient it further down—but it looks like it’ll go in pretty easily.

Date posted: February 20, 2024 | Filed under Travelall, Welding | Leave a Comment »