Category: Progress

We spent most of the weekend cleaning the pantry and basement out to eradicate Plodia interpunctella, more commonly known as pantry moths, so I didn’t get a lot of driveway time, but what time I did have I used wisely. During breaks when the paint was drying I went out to the spares pile and pulled a connector off the original A/C compressor from the Travelall, which I then used to connect the inlet and outlet hose of the heater core together. With that off it was pretty simple to remove three bolts holding the heater box to the firewall and pull it out of the truck. It’s in very good shape, actually. Being bolted to the firewall against fiber insulation for sixty years definitely meant the back of the box was going to be rusted, but it’s in much better shape than I was hoping. There’s a hole at the bottom right side, directly under the cowl vent, where water was dripping down and through. But the heater core is solid, the motor, blower, and motor mount are solid, and the flapper still works as advertised. I put some penetrant on the screws holding the back panel on, and with a little help from some vice-grips was ale to get them out. I’ve got to blast the inside of the box, cut out some bad metal and weld some new sections in place. The motor needs to be tested, and I have to find a gasket to go around the top of the box that meets up with the cowl vent. But I can continue working on the truck while that’s sitting on the bench.

Then I wire- wheeled the rest of the insulation and glue off the passenger’s firewall and got it ready, first with some rust converter. When that was dry I slathered rust encapsulator over all the seams, joins, and rough spots I could see, including the inside of the cowl vent I wasn’t able to touch last summer. When that dried I covered the gaps with seam sealer. Then I got some more cardboard out and set up a template for each side of the firewall out to the A-pillar. Starting with the passenger side I cut out heat matting and set it aside. Then I flipped the template for the left side, cut it down to fit all of the controls under the dash, and cut out some matting for that side. Everything under the dash is going to cure overnight and if I can get away for a little time tomorrow evening I’ll fit the matting in.

In other news, I happened on a stash of C-series interior parts for sale on Marketplace and messaged the seller, who turned out to be Don, an old International guy in his 80’s. He’d sold his truck and was now selling off the remainder of his stuff. We talked on the phone for a bit, and he told me his last truck was a ’63, which is where most of the parts came from. We struck a very good deal on a set of exterior doorhandles, ’63 door strikers (different than later years, so that was a win), a dome light, interior door handles, two of the green lenses in the dash for turn signals (one of mine was bad) and a set of front turn signal lenses and frames. He told me he’s got more stuff stashed away, so I asked him to let me know when he digs it out.

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.