Floor Progress


This is the floor three years ago, after I used a wire wheel to remove the rubberized coating the PO brushed on. You can see how much rust damage there is.


This is the day I cut the old floorpan out.


Here I’ve needle-scaled the frame underneath and sprayed it with encapsulator, wire-wheeled the edge of the floorpan, and sprayed it with weld-through primer.


This is after welding the steel pan in along the edge of the seat support and transmission tunnel.


Here I’ve got the rest of the perimeter welded in and sprayed with primer.


This is after the entire floor and toepanel has been welded in and ground smooth. The sheetmetal got wire-wheeled and cleaned with acetone, then sprayed with etching primer.


Here’s the seat support recent and adjusted to fit, sprayed with etching primer inside and weld-through primer on the edges.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Floor Progress  |  Posted in Travelall, Welding

Floored, Part 2

Here’s an update on the floorpan project in the Travelall, starting with a detour to Brian’s garage where Bennett and I worked on the carburetor in an effort to get the Hudson running right. We pulled it off, put it back on, and he was able to get the car out of the garage and turned around so that the exhaust was pointed out the door. Then it started running poorly again. So we pulled the carb back off and found a bunch of water inside. I got under the car and drained about a half a gallon of gas out of the tank but found no water in the pan. Bennett cleaned the jets and reassembled the carb, and we put it back on the engine. This time we were able to get it to run reliably enough to take a test drive, and Bennett had a big smile on his face.

Back in my driveway, I transferred a paper template to cardboard and test-fit it in the truck, making adjustments until everything sat in the cavity just right. Then I transferred that to metal, cutting out of 18 ga. steel and repeating the process until it fit in the cavity, butting up against the edges of the original floorpan. I was originally thinking I might try to rent a beadroller and replicate the corrugated channels in the original floorpan, but time and money killed that plan quickly. So I got the welder out, dialed it in, and started tacking the floor in. Over the next three nights I got it welded solidly in place, and cut and bent a second section for the toeboard moving upwards to the firewall. That section took some more time to get in place, and I burned through a few places, but with the aid of a copper welding backer I was able to fill those areas and grind it all flat. Underneath I put a section of 1/2″ bar across the pan to take the place of the original corrugation and welded the perimeter of the pan.

I’ve got a small section bent and ready to weld in at the base of the A pillar, which will seal up the cab corner, and then I have to revisit the seat base triangle and adjust the bends there (or bend a new one) to replace the original.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Floored, Part 2  |  Posted in Friends, Travelall, Video, Welding

Video Update

Here’s the latest update I posted on YouTube, covering the day Bennett and I put the replacement axle back in the Hudson, a whole lot of fuel pump fettling, and the first day I spent cutting the driver’s floor out of the Travelall. I’ve already got two days’ worth of footage in the queue for the next video, and I’m hoping to get that one posted by the end of this week in an attempt to get my viewing numbers high enough to monetize the channel. I also pulled the trigger and changed the name of the channel from my decades-old handle to Dugan Heavy Industries to consolidate the brand. And I let my old oldlinestatebinders domain lapse, because I wasn’t using it and I’m now in money-saving mode, so that website will go away for good.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Video Update  |  Posted in Friends, Travelall, Uncategorized, Welding

Floored, Part 3

Wednesday evening I got back outside as soon as the whistle blew and started welding the floor in. It’s a tedious process but if you’re patient, you can make it look pretty good. I hopscotched around the perimeter and filled in the trans tunnel and seat base side, using a flap wheel to grind down the tall welds so that I could see where I needed to fill in.

The seat base side is pretty much done, and I now have to fill the two sections of the trans tunnel side where the pan was corrugated. I put some tack welds in along the rocker side, but I’ll probably go underneath and weld the bottom of the new metal to the old under there, then fill the joint with seam sealer. When that’s solid, I can take measurements for the toepanel and start fabricating that piece. Currently, it’s raining, so I have to wait for the weekend to continue.

Taken in January 2009, right after I bought the truck and before I installed bedliner on the floors.

All of this progress has me inspired to finally tackle the rust at the base of the A-pillars on the Scout; it’s been that way since I’ve owned the truck, and I’d love to bite the bullet and clean those areas up. I’ve got the replacement sheet metal from SSS in one of my parts bins in the basement, so it’s just another project sitting there waiting for me.

Noting the dwindling amount of welding gas in my tank, I found that Tractor Supply has the cheapest refill pricing in the area—$72 to exchange for my 80cu. tank—but I have to drive all the way up to Aberdeen, as none of the local stores around Baltimore handle gas. Go figure.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Floored, Part 3  |  Posted in Travelall, Welding

Floored, Part 2

After spending an entire day behind my desk, I ran outside at 5:20 to continue fitting a flat sheet of metal to the floor of the truck. I’d set up the cardboard template, fit that, traced it onto a sheet of 18 ga. metal, and cut it out on Monday, but wasn’t able to get it fit properly before I had to close up shop. Thankfully, the work I did with the cardboard paid off, and I only had to trim two sides by about 1/8″ before it fit right in.

I talked a big talk about creating some kind of press to add a dimple for the floor support, but threw that completely out the window and started tacking the metal into place. I put butt-weld clips in place and tacked the perimeter in on the trans tunnel side and in front of the seat base before it got too dark, and I’m pretty happy with how it looks so far. Next I’m going to drill some holes for plug welds along the rocker and on top of the cab mount and add those. When that’s in place, I can cut and bend the section for the toeboard, which is going to require some finicky geometry.

I have to say, it felt really good to get the welder out and melt some metal.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Floored, Part 2  |  Posted in Travelall, Welding

Floored, Part 1

I decided to use my Saturday to bust out the angle grinders and start cutting the driver’s floor out of the Travelall. Knowing I usually underestimate how much time it’ll take to complete any project, I made a conscious decision to take my time and do it as right as I possibly can. Starting with the triangular seat support, I pulled the entire front bench out and drilled out the last five spot welds. Some gentle tapping with a hammer and careful grinding with a cutoff wheel, I was able to get it out in one piece.

Next, I went around the perimeter of the ‘patch’ that had been scabbed in and ground out the rest of the original welds, except for the one behind the gas pedal, which was impossible to reach from any angle. I finally gave up on getting it out in one piece and cut across the flat section, which came out easily, then bisected the toeboard section and cut it out in sections. When that was clear, I cleaned up all the edges and got them ready for welding. And while the frame underneath was exposed, I cleaned it up with the needle scaler and a wire wheel, then sprayed it with Rust Stop.

Laying in the paper template I cut a few weeks ago, I scribed out the edges of the patch and made notes. Originally, I was going to try to do it all in one piece, but I think I’m going to do it with two—the flat section and the toeboard section. And the good news is that the rust under the triangular support ended there—it doesn’t go under the seat, although the base of the seat support is a little crispy. I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that, and leave it as is.

The other thing I did was disassemble the spare (unrebuilt) fuel pump so that the diaphragm was visible, and bolt it into the truck. With the engine running, the diaphragm was working as it should, which means there’s nothing wrong inside the engine. I know the rebuilt pump will draw manually, so the only other variable is the boat tank I’ve been using to test with. I’m going to swap in the rebuilt pump and stick a regular fuel hose into a regular fuel tank and see if it’ll draw out of that.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Floored, Part 1  |  Posted in Repairs, Travelall, Welding

It’s Been A Minute

…since I’ve posted anything, so here’s the update. There’s a video up on YouTube with the last two weeks’ news. It’s actually been pretty quiet—I’ve handled a couple of small projects, and I took a trip up to New Jersey last weekend with Bennett to pick up a replacement axle for the Hudson. The Pacemaker strangely and suddenly decided to eat its own gears after driving several miles with no issues, so we picked up a used unit from a parts car as well as a bunch of chrome dash parts he can use to replace the odd wooden dash the PO installed (the original Hudson chrome is FAR superior and it makes no sense why this would have been removed).

I continued futzing with my mechanical fuel pump, trying to diagnose why it wasn’t working, and put it on and took it off the truck several times to see if I could pull fuel from the boat tank—with no success. I also used some large paper to draw out a rough template of a floor patch to go in the driver’s side of the Travelall. I’ve got everything I need to complete this project except for free time, but I’d like to make a push and try to get it done before the snow flies.

I’m just below the threshold for being able to monetize the YouTube channel—I’ve got the subscribers and posting cadence but I need another 100 or so watch hours to be able to qualify. If I do a longform video with the floor repair and maybe some deeper looks at the Hudson project, maybe I can get over the hump. I did spend yesterday over at Brian’s shop helping Bennett clean and hang the new axle, and we got everything connected back up—the axle, brake lines, emergency brake cables, and driveshaft. While it was on the jack stands he started it up and we verified it was shifting into gear—even though he’s not quite sure what that pattern is. By looking at the transmission pan we identified it as a 4L60, a popular choice for hot rods, and that should help us understand the shift linkage. All of that is on video including some nice drone footage, so I think it’ll make for a good update.

Back at my workbench, I pulled my mechanical pump apart for the third time and re-assembled it carefully following the best instructions I could find online. This time I verified it’s pulling from the inlet and pushing from the outlet, so when it dries out from this rain, I’ll re-re-re install it and see if I can pull from the boat tank.

The other thing that’s moving forward on the Big List is addressing the damn gas tank in the Scout. I put 4 gallons in before driving over to Brian’s and found that it was pissing gas all over his driveway from some of the lines I installed when I redid the evap system. I’m over this. I can’t fill the tank without it spilling everywhere, I’ve never known how much gas is in it, and now it reeks. I think we’re at the point when it needs to be drained and dropped, and I’ll be going back to the metal tank, which is now up in the garage attic waiting its turn.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on It’s Been A Minute  |  Posted in Friends, To-Do List, Travelall, Video