Dreaming of Warmer Weather

Now that the 800 engine is free, I’m itching to get outside and start fooling with it. Unfortunately the truck is under three inches of snow covered with a layer of ice, and the forecast for the forseeable future doesn’t rise above a high of 25˚. So I’m thinking ahead and making a list for when I can get back out there.

1. Spin the crank around at least four revolutions. This equates to two full engine revolutions and should clear out any crust on the cylinder walls.
2. Bump it over from the starter and clean the cylinders out. There’s probably still some ATF in the cylinders, and that needs to come out so that it doesn’t foul the plugs. This will also tell me if I need to
3. Diagnose and replace the starter, if needed. It’s too early to say what condition this one is in, but I have a spare.
4. Pull the points off and clean them up. I haven’t touched the distributor yet, so I have no idea what to expect. It does have a dust cover, which could mean it’s not full of mice poop, but I’d expect they’re crusty and will need cleaning.
5. Replace the coil with a known good unit. I’ve got two here that test well, so this shouldn’t be an issue.
6. Pull the distributor out and pre-oil the cylinders. This is the easy part. I inherited a pre-oiling tool from somewhere years ago and it’s still in the bag.
7. Stab the distributor back in. This is the part that makes me nervous; I’ve never pulled and re-stabbed one before, and it requires aligning the right cylinder at top dead center and pointing the correct plug on the distributor in the right place.
8. Replace the plugs and coil wire. Easy-peasy.
9. Hook up the new electric fuel pump and boat tank, and fuel filter to the carb. Super easy; I’ve done this a million times on the Travelall.
10. Buy a new battery. I’ve got the old one here to swap as a core; Costco has great deals on these.

Down the line, the next steps will require some purchasing, but again, the intention is to keep things as cheap as possible.

• Swap out the bad tires for good ones. I’ve got two 16×6″ wheels with the truck, and I think there are two more up at Dan’s place. There are period correct bias-ply wheels available for wheels of this size that are cheap, but bias-ply tires aren’t the best for long-distance travel. Not that this truck will be optimized for that in any case. In the worst case, I can find some cheap 31″ tires to slap on the wagon wheels the truck is sitting on now.
• Brakes. At the very least I expect I’ll need to purchase wheel cylinders and soft lines. All four wheels spin—a miracle—but I have no idea what shape the drums or shoes are in. I have plenty of hard line but will probably need to stock up on fittings.
• Drop the fuel tanks and clean/replace them. Brian just sold the plastic tanks from Slowflake, and I’m kicking myself for missing out on them. But I might switch over to a central fuel tank mounted under the rear bed to simplify the system instead of fighting the fiddly factory dual-tank valve setup.
• Find some new seats and a passenger base. Holy crap do the seats in that thing suck. I’ll see if I can source some cheap replacements.
• A rollbar. The blue truck up at Dan’s has a rollbar, and I’ve inquired about buying it. This would make me feel much safer. The alternatives are more expensive; I do like the one Brian has, which is pricy but sturdier than the originals, and covers more of the bed. I’d have to weld it together myself, which would be an interesting project.

Meanwhile, two things popped up in my feed in the last two days which merit mention. The first is this interesting assemblage, which looks to be the marriage of a quad-cab Loadstar and the rear of a Travelall.

Clearly this needs some more fabrication to be finished, but I appreciate the vision.

Second is this shot from one of the Facebook C-Series groups, where one of the members has been talking about fabricating cowl vent replacements for a couple of years. It looks like he’s made some great progress. These look really nice.