Here’s a collection of clips from the last week and a half, covering some small stuff on the Travelall and some on the Scout. I’ve been working pretty much flat out for the last two weeks (12-hour days this past weekend, actually) so I haven’t really been able to dig into the EFI on Darth or the brakes on Peer Pressure, although I’m going to hire out for the latter once I’ve paid off the transmission on Darth. I did steal away for a few hours here and there to do some small stuff, which is mostly included here.
I had to rent a drone for work and used both trucks as a subject for practice; I specified a DJI Avata with FPV goggles and spent a couple of hours two Saturdays ago getting used to the controls and goggles. After a rocky start getting it calibrated correctly, I got the hang of things and flew it around Peer Pressure until it got dark. Shooting in the driveway was harder because the whine of the blades drove Hazel nuts inside the house, but I did shoot a little bit of Darth while I could.
Ever since I bought Darth Haul, I’ve been collecting and taking photos of other similar trucks for reference, especially for things that didn’t come with or weren’t installed in my truck. One of the things I’ve currently been trying to sort out are the placement of the rear seatbelts, which were never installed in my truck.
Looking at some of my reference photos, I finally clued in on something that wasn’t installed in my truck—those two recessed mounts in the center of the floor that I found in the green truck. Darth’s tub was drilled for the belts on each side of the seat, on the floor next to the doors, but there was no provision for the center belts. One of the photos showed something that should have been clear as day to me earlier: the center mounts were probably drilled in to the vertical face of the step behind the seat, and the two recessed mounts are for a third seatbelt pair in the center of the bench.
Here you can see the two recessed wells with eye hooks sticking out the top right behind the rear seat.The belts on this truck look like they’re bolted to the vertical part of the rear step—they come up between the platform and the bed itself.
My bed was drilled for the seatbelts on the sides of the step, but not for the clips on the wheel wells that the seat clicks into, in this same place:
So I’ve got a basic gameplay for the outer belts, but I’d like to know where the two inside belts are mounted on the step so I can put them in the right place—or find one more clip-style belt and use that instead.
Here’s a video update from the past week, with some more detail on the parts haul and a long review of the tan Scout Brian and I are making an offer on.
Without Darth in the driveway, I’ve been tackling some small things on the Scout that have been bugging me. The biggest of these was the exhaust donut leak, which was not remedied a couple of weeks ago. Looking around the interwebs I found a two-piece flange replacement available locally, and set about to installing it. Getting the original flange off was easy enough, but getting the new one on was trickier. Because it’s heavier and thicker, it sits lower on the exhaust pipe and thus requires a longer bolt. And its location next to the frame meant that there was a lot of wiggling and some hammering involved to get it in the right place before I could tighten it up. But after a brief test ride Saturday and a longer 50-mile drive on Sunday, there’s no leak, and I think I can call this fixed.
While I was under the truck I tightened up the emergency brake cable, which has been loose for months, and checked that off the list.
Sunday I met up with Bennett, Brian and a couple of other folks up at Dan’s place to show our friend Brendan the whole stash in the woods; he’d be the guy most interested in clearing a path and hauling out all the trucks. I prepared better this time, bringing a can of 40% DEET, duct-taping my ankles, and generally insuring that the ticks couldn’t get to me.
We started in the garage and looked over all the stuff in there, and then walked back through the field to the trucks in the woods. The underbrush has grown a lot in two months. Brendan looked over things carefully and then we walked back to the garage, discussing what he’d be interested in and what he wasn’t.
While that was happening, I dug out a trio of good hubcaps from the huge stash in the garage and made a good deal on them. Brian made a deal on a rusty Scout 800 tailgate, which he had to go back into the woods for.
While he and Bennett did that, I cleared off one of the better Scout 800s closer to the house, which was covered in vines, and got a better look at it. I’ve been thinking about a test vehicle for Brian’s electrification project, and that truck looks like an excellent candidate. I think I’ve talked him into taking advantage of the sale. If he had the space I’d recommend grabbing it and the blue 80 to be able to account for all of the changes between early and late production models.
Screenshot
Back home in the garage, I was looking a little closer at the gauge set Tyler handed off to me, and rubbed off some of the dirt to reveal the serial numbers. I was surprised to see the initials SW, which almost certainly stands for Stewart Warner, and started looking up the serials. It turns out they are Stewart-Warner, and they look pretty cool. So, I’ll have to consider if I want to swap those in.
No word on the Travelall this week. I was hopeful they might call me sometime Friday to pick it up, but I didn’t hear anything.
Meanwhile, I was out in Frederick shooting video for work, and when I was done with that, I texted my Travelall acquaintance Tyler, who’d told me a while back he had a bunch of parts left over from his project. We were only about five miles away so it was a short drive over to his house. He showed me the updates to his truck, which is now running and driving, and it is beautiful. He put a Crown Vic subframe under the front and a SBC in the engine bay, tubbed the rear wheels, and put the whole thing on bags. He fired it up and it sounds loud and mean. We looked over the other stuff he’s done, including installing an inexpensive headliner kit from Jegs, and traded some information on parts.
His headliner is a five-piece set, which might not work with the bows I’ve got, but I liked the look of it. I also looked carefully at the shoulder belts he put in, with nutserts on the B and C-pillars. I’ve been thinking about how I would add shoulder belts to my truck, and I like the way he put his in. So there’s some inspiration for a winter project there.
When I got back home, I went through the bin and catalogued it. There’s some stuff I was happy to find—things I’ve been looking for, and a couple of things I’d forgotten about:
An almost full set of original seatbelts in much better shape than the ones out of both of my trucks. The chrome buckles and metal mounting rings are all in excellent shape, as are the rubber protective covers.
Two round metal dishes with circles in the center, and threaded O rings. It took me a minute to identify these, but when I did I was thrilled: these are the countersunk rear seatbelt mounting points that are set into the wood floor. One of the seatbelts has a carabiner-style latch which is clearly meant to be removed when the rear seat is folded forward. I’ve been kicking myself for having junked the green truck with these still inside; this is a fantastic stroke of luck.
Also in the bin were
A late-model coolant overflow setup, which is basically a Scout-style container retrofitted to a metal panel.
a single rear tailgate pot in good shape
Four late-model IH hubcaps
A brake pedal lever assembly
A dual-chamber brake master cylinder and a clutch master cylinder, which would be an upgrade to my single-pot unit. I’ve got a set from the green truck along with the firewall mounting plate, which will be the firs things I try.
Two rear seat safety rods and latches; these are the pieces that hold the rear seat in place.
A rubber body mount that goes between the frame and the front clip, in excellent shape
Two suspension components from the front steering assembly
A bag of assorted bolts.
A full set of gauges in a style I’ve never seen before—I’m pretty positive these are all aftermarket, but they’re pretty cool, and definitely different.
Another working horn. Out of the four I have, only one works reliably, so I’m hopeful this one is the second of the two tones I need for a proper setup.
I know I can find a good home for a bunch of this stuff; I also sent him photos of my tailgate in the hopes that a guy he knows can use it for another project. So I owe him a trunkful of very good beer, or perhaps some good bourbon if he’s a cocktail sort of guy. We’ll see.
I saw this groovy set of pictures in a Marketplace ad and figured I’d share them here. This is a Chilton’s manual from the early 70’s—the range on the cover says 1967-1973, which tracks with the striking colors and judicious usage of Helvetica.
Update Monday July 28: the second clutch I ordered is on its way, as per FedEx, and should be here by COB tomorrow evening. The first one is still stuck at the warehouse.
I’m currently waiting on two clutch kits from two different vendors which both happen to be shipping from the same warehouse in Kearny, NJ, where everyone seems to be smoking weed out back.
To recap: the transmission shop called me last Monday while I was in a car driving through Pennsylvania, and I used my phone to jump on RockAuto to find the proper 12″ clutch kit and order it. They promised me I’d have it by that Wednesday, which came and went. The FedEx tracking system said the label had been created but they hadn’t received the package yet—which is how it stands a week later. I got impatient on Saturday and figured I’d nudge the universe by going to a second vendor and ordering the same clutch kit to see who could deliver it first. But the joke was on me: both vendors use the same warehouse (both FedEx tracking updates point to the same location, and when I look at the inventory on RockAuto, it says there’s only one left, down from three last Monday.
It’s been too damn hot to do much of anything outside—we got back on Wednesday and I spent pretty much all weekend hiding out inside, apart from taking the Scout to the local Lowe’s for a sheet of plywood and sanding down a fresh skim of filler on each of the doors to cover the PO’s ham-fisted install of cheap mirrors.
The transmission shop dropped the clutch this morning and found some very interesting things. At some point in the recent past, a new clutch was put in with new freeze plugs, pilot bearing, and (possibly) a flywheel. But the crank bolts weren’t sealed and apparently backed themselves out, smoking the clutch surface and possibly the flywheel. Jack sent me photos of the inside of the case and all of the parts, and it’s just puzzling. He gave me a disc diameter and a spline count, and I jumped on RockAuto to find the right replacement. Within five minutes I’d ordered it over the phone, to be delivered Wednesday.
I’m so glad I didn’t continue trying to mess with it in the driveway; I never would have sorted this out myself.
I called up a tow company to bring Darth Haul off to my transmission shop this morning. They’ve got an opening and I’ve had enough of this thing sitting in the driveway. Let’s see if they can sort out the drivetrain and get me on the road.
Here’s an update from the last week with some basic repair work to the Scout and a quick trip report from driving over the bridge to Karean’s house last weekend.
