Category: Purchasing

Nationals 2026 Trip Report

Our trip to Ohio started out with a bit of a whimper. Brian made his way across the bridge at a reasonable hour, and I was packed and ready to hit the road as soon as he threw his bag in the Scout. After kissing Jen, petting the dog, and forgetting my phone on my desk, we jumped in and prepared to start the truck. Then Brian sadly held up several parts of his seatbelt, which had exploded in his hands as he tried to click it in place.

Finley broke the female side of the seatbelt several years ago and I’ve always been able to get it put back together, but this time it was in multiple pieces and we were antsy to get on the road. So I grabbed one of the spare lap belts from the Red Bus and we swapped it into place while big fat drops of rain started coming down around us. Satisfied we had reached a minimum level of safety,  we hit the road for the Park & Ride on Rt. 32, where we were meeting Bennett. He was driving Heavy D, his red-on-white pickup, now that Mr. Hanky has moved to Pennsylvania under the assumed name Hank. The rain continued for a while, at least until we made it past Frederick, and then the skies lightened up and we drove toward the setting sun. At speed the soft top held the water at bay, for which we were thankful.

We decided to stop off at the Oak Barrel Cafe, an unassuming but absolutely top-notch gas station/restaurant where we’d grabbed dinner last year, and where Mr. Hanky decided to blow a lower radiator hose. This time there was no drama, and we each got a giant slice of cake to go for the road. From there we drove another 3 hours and found a hotel in Washington, PA, south of Pittsburgh, for a layover. We’d been hoping to meet up with our friends Chad and Liz, who live nearby and now own Hank, but they’d left a day earlier.

Thursday morning we woke a bit later than we planned on, ate some powdered hotel eggs, and hit the road by 10. The drive west was pleasant and mild—the first 2/3 of the trip was overcast and the recent rain had cooled the hills of western PA and the plains of Ohio down to a reasonable temperature. With a bunch of expensive gas stops, we made it to Dayton and the entrance of the Air Force Museum by 3:30. This year we walked all the way to the back hangar and spent most of our time there, as we hadn’t been able to see much of it last year. After being shooed out of the museum at last call, we drove over to a restaurant to have some dinner, stopped at a grocery store for provisions—ice and beer, mainly—and then headed to the hotel. We met a few friends in the parking lot, checked ourselves in (a ground-floor room is the way to go) and walked back outside to tailgate.

Chad and Liz were already there, and we met her parents, who were super nice. As we all stood around the bed of Heavy D and caught up, a tall silver-haired man drove up towing a Super Scout on a trailer, parked, walked over and introduced himself: Pate, a fellow we’d met up with years ago when I was organizing local gatherings. I shook his hand and offered him a beer, and we all settled into comfortable, fun conversation. At one point Pate disappeared into his truck and came back with a mason jar full of brown liquid with a wooden block in the center, took a sip, and passed it to me: delicious homemade bourbon flavored with a chunk of oak. This was passed around the circle to unanimous approval. We all stayed out until 11:30 or so, and made plans for the next morning to caravan over to the show.

The next morning we powered up with hotel breakfast and headed out to the parking lot. We helped Pate get his truck off the trailer, which gave me the opportunity to sit in a Super Scout for the first time while warmed up the engine; I can definitely see the appeal of taking the doors off a Scout II. Then we caravanned over to the show. After setting up camp and registering, we hit the parts stands to see what was available. A couple of the usual vendors weren’t there this year, but there was still plenty to dig through and many deals to be had. I restrained myself to only buying a set of new hood bump stops for the Travelall—they require fine pitch bolts, which are specific to IH as far as I can tell. Back at the trucks, I pulled out the Bestop box and put a sign on it. Within about an hour I had three guys trying to talk me down on the price. Eventually we made a deal for cash, and I doubled my money, which meant I had cash for parts!

There were a few tech talks that sounded interesting but the one about electrics that I wanted to hear didn’t actually happen; I don’t know what the story was, but the production didn’t seem to be as professional as it had been last year. The whole day seemed to fly by, and before we knew it we were packing up to head back to the hotel. Bill and his girlfriend arrived from Michigan with his Travelall on a trailer and I made introductions. We stayed up again until 11 catching up and drinking beers in the parking lot.

Saturday morning we met up again for an even larger caravan, this time collecting Bill at a gas station down the street. This was the first time he had driven his truck long distance after thrashing on the drivetrain and front suspension the night before he left, so I think he was happy to have a group of guys in trail. We made it to the show with no problems and set up camp with our group. Scott from the Super Scout Registry parked his truck on the other side of our row and I worked with a couple of guys next to us to make him space so that he could pull in next to Pate to have two original Super Scouts next to each other. I think this made them both happy.

Once we were set up, we went back out to the parts stands to see what was left and what was new. With a bunch of cash in my pocket, I was keen on finding big stuff without having to pay for shipping. The first thing I grabbed was a used Scout seatbelt to replace the one we’d cobbled together in the driveway and a length of wire with a very specific male/female connector from Phil Coonrod. This wire connection is the key element for fabricating a wired dome light for the Scout that I’m going to put on the rollbar.  Over at the Scout Connection booth I splurged on a set of door felts for the Travelall. These are expensive, but are well worth the cost, because they make rolling the windows up and down much easier—and prevent the glass from breaking when you close the doors. Ask me how I know. Further down at the Scout Boys stand I spied a set of 800 gas tanks, and before I could ask, Doug told me I could take them for $10 each. I could not get my cash out fast enough: the driver’s side was a little rough, but the passenger side tank looked almost NOS: bare metal with zero holes anywhere. This was the deal of the day. I also picked up a Travelall-specific armrest mount, minus the pad, for $5. I’ve got four of these from the green truck, but two of them are cracked pretty badly.

We returned to our camp and I put my other two parts for sale out in front: a new Straight Steer bar and an early Scout 80 heater plenum, each at what I thought was a reasonable price. We then went to listen to the Scout Motors update, which was delivered by one of the heads of marketing. It sounds like everything is still on track and they are making great progress on the facility. He dispelled most of the odd rumors we’ve heard. It was a bummer they didn’t have the display trucks there this year, but it was good to hear that things are still moving forward.

In the afternoon, we finally got our act together and walked around the display trucks, but people had started leaving early for some reason and by the time we made it out to the rows, probably 1/3 of the trucks had already left. What was still there was really cool though. I talked to a guy with a beautiful, pristine C-series pickup at length about his wheels and some other details: It was a 1964 model with the same 16″ wheels I have. He’s running LT215/85R16 tires, which are readily available anywhere; this will be my new direction. I spent a bunch of time drooling over his picture-perfect grille surround, thinking about how mine is disintegrating.

He also had a really nice GM-style armrest in his truck that looked better than the stock plastic mounts, which gave me an idea for mine. I measured the bolt holes on the plastic one I’d bought and realized it wouldn’t fit the holes already drilled in my doors, so I’m on the hunt for some aftermarket units.

I also stopped by the IHPartsAmerica booth to talk with Jeff and Zaed about two things: I had the clutch core from the Scout from last year that I wanted to turn in for store credit, and I wanted to show them the C-series cupholder I’d designed. Jeff was interested in the design, made a few suggestions, and told me to get a shipment of 10 set up to resell! I cannot explain how excited I was about this. One of the first things I did after chopping the recap video together was to update the design and send it off to SendCutSend.

Reluctantly, we decided to leave at about 4 o’clock to get back to the hotel and prep for the auction as well as get some dinner. Because we got back early early, we were able to score parking spots close to the stage, and cooled off in the pool before the event. There were a lot of donations for the auction this year, and we had gotten word that an anonymous donor was going to match the final amount. Nobody had bought the straight steer or the heater plenum so I put the former in the auction with our names on it. I tried flying the drone over the parking lot before the event started, but I was having issues with stability and didn’t want to crash it on top of somebody’s expensive truck so I put it away and set up a time lapse on a tall pole.

The auction was a lot of fun; there were only a few things I was interested in, but I was surprised the straight steer didn’t collect more money than it did. I guess most people who need one already have one. The auction wound up collecting over $12,000, and with the match they raised $25,000 for two charities. When that was over, we hung out in the parking lot tailgating.

Jim from Super Scouts stopped by with a nice little part he and I had discussed earlier: a washer unit for the Travelall using a modern motor mated to a custom bracket he’d built. All three of the wiper units I have—the original, the one from the green truck, and one I pulled from a parts truck—are all rusted solid, so a new weather sealed unit that’s more powerful is exactly what the truck needs. Grateful, I paid him cash and stored it in a dry bin in the truck. We hung out until about 11 before Brian and I decided our social batteries were low and we hung it up for the evening. Bennett came in not too long after that and we all crashed out after a long day.

Sunday morning we were dragging a little bit but got packed up and ready to leave at about 10 o’clock. By that time we were one of only about 10 trucks left in the parking lot: everybody else had either headed for home or the show by then. I topped off all of my fluids, including coolant, and after gassing up, we hit the road. Right outside of Enon, Ohio I suddenly lost power steering and brakes and was able to pull off the exit and stop out in front of a logistics warehouse. Opening the hood revealed that the radiator cap had blown off, dousing the front of the truck with coolant, which popped the power steering belt off the pulley. The belt was a quick fix: loosening a 1/2″ bolt for slack, looping the belt back on, and tightening the pulley back up. The radiator  cap was another matter, but once again, Bennett came to the rescue: he had a spare in his truck. With that fixed, I started the truck back up and we decided to hit Super Scout Specialists, which was only a mile and a half down the road. On the way I stopped at an auto parts store and got an eight dollar radiator cap for a backup.

There were a bunch of trucks already out in front of the store, and we joined the crowd inside, browsing the displays and parts. There were a lot of things that would be nice to have but nothing I really desperately needed. One thing I did find on a shelf was a reproduction plastic travel armrest with a soft foam pad in a gray that looks like it approximates the original color. These were $50 apiece so I put them back for future consideration.

I did look carefully at one of the ambulances in the front display area to see what they’d mounted on the front fenders back in the day, and realized that instead of extra lights, my truck probably had a pair of sirens on each side. Mine were a different model—I’ve got three bolt holes in a straight line as opposed to four in a square, but the idea is the same.

We wandered through the rear part section and found a good scout 800 dash pad for Brian, which he put back, and a couple of other nice to have items that we didn’t really need. Out in the parts yard I spied the black Travelall I had pulled the window from three years ago and another white truck next to it: both looked to have 16 inch wheels. The ones on the white truck were in much better shape. I filed that away for future reference: I want to see what they’re asking for just the steelies, and maybe they’re in better shape than the ones I have.

We bought some small stuff and hit the road by noon, which meant we were going to be getting home late. The drive was uneventful other than periods of rain; again, with the top rolled up safari-style, there was little water intrusion in the truck other than a leaky corner above the passenger A-pillar, which Brian plugged with a rag. We didn’t hit major weather until we were about 1/2 hour from home, when the heavens opened up on us and traffic slowed to 30mph. Thankfully the wipers in the Scout worked diligently, and two applications of Rain-X made it so that I could see the road ahead of us. I do have to re-adjust the headlights downwards, though.

We rolled into the driveway at about 9:30 and quickly threw Brian’s gear into his truck; he still had another hour to go before getting home. I pulled the truck in the garage, shut her down, and brought my gear inside.

As always, I had a fantastic time at the show. There’s nothing better than getting together with your friends for an adventure, which takes you to a place filled with more friends who are all there for the same reason. I can’t express how welcoming everyone is at the show—and now that we’ve been there five times, we know almost everyone. As I mentioned earlier, this year felt like it flew by. I didn’t feel like I saw everything or got to talk with everyone I wanted to, which is completely different than in years past. I also didn’t take as many pictures or shoot as much video as in years past, which was also strange.

One of the things we’re talking about is maybe attending Harvesters in the Holler, another event that happens in Tennessee in September; this is an 8-10 hour drive, but it sounds just as friendly and fun as Nationals, without the vendor/show component. It’s more of a meet-up/barbecue/camping event, which sounds like a lot of fun. We’ll see. Hopefully gas will be cheaper by then.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Nationals 2026 Trip Report  |  Posted in Friends, Purchasing, Trip Logs  |  Tagged

We May Have This Beat

I think I’ve got the brake situation on Darth Haul pretty much licked—but it’s going to take a little more adjustment before I’m happy. When I last wrote about this, I was waiting on a master cylinder from Rock Auto. I wound up installing that, and as I took the 2-year-old unit off the firewall, I found that the pushrod for the clutch fell inside the firewall, while the pushrod for the brakes stuck out into the engine bay by an inch or so. This pointed at the cylinder being pressurized as I hit the brakes, but not able to release all of the pressure when the pedal was let back out, thus building up over time as I drove and braked.

So I unscrewed the adjustable pushrod and lopped about 1″ of length off of it, and put it back in the truck. I found that I’d taken off way too much and that I wasn’t getting any brakes at all. So I measured the threaded side of the pushrod, then bought a couple of 7/16 bolts with 20 pitch thread and used an angle grinder to fabricate a new pushrod.

After spinning a jam nut down on the threads, I put it back in the truck and gave it a test, but found I wasn’t getting enough brake, and needed more length. So I fabricated a third pushrod and installed that one, and this time I got some stop in the pedal. It still needs some fine tuning—I’ve got to stand on the brakes to stop quickly—but after a 15-mile drive the wheels were cool to the touch and the truck wasn’t struggling against itself.

Now I’ve got to do some tightening up on the front suspension. The tie rods and bushings are all toast, so I have to order new hardware for all of that, as well as pick up a working grease gun (both of the units I have here, circa the repo agency from 1988,  seem to be broken) to lube all the important bits.

Brendan left me a couple of goodies up at Dan’s place a few weekends ago, so I made the most of the trip by hauling a load of broken concrete from our backyard up to the landfill on that side of town in the Scout. His place is right around the corner, so I quietly backed into the side field so as not to disturb his family. Brendan dropped a proper 16″ IH wheel in the driver’s seat of the blue 80 for the Travelall and told me to just take the rollbar out of that truck. I was able to get one of two bolts out with a wrench but had to resort to a portable cutoff wheel to get the other out. With that, the bar was free, and I hauled both parts back to Peer Pressure to head home.

The wheel is exactly what I needed. I’ve got three originals on the truck but the fourth is one I got from a guy on Marketplace, and while it fits the truck, the mounting boss is a different size than the others so I can’t mount a hubcap on it. I wire-wheeled the whole thing, sprayed the outside white, and mounted it on the truck.

With the hubcap on it really brings out the white in the top and makes the truck look sharp. I liked it so much I used the playing card trick to spray the rear wheel white as well. Something else to look into are different tires; the ones on the truck are technically for a trailer, and I’d like to have the right kind of rubber on the truck. It’s an odd size so it’s going to take some searching to find the right thing.

While I was at the Hobo Freight I picked up a bottle of cutting compound and a couple of orbital pads, and gave it a try on some of the red paint with the worst oxidization. It took some experimentation and practice, but after a little while I had the original paint as shiny as it’s going to get, punctuated with areas of rattle-can IH Implement red covering repairs I’ve made. I did the entire passenger rear quarter up to the point where my sheet-metal repair starts (and the spray paint is fading) and both doors, and it looks worlds better. It’s not going to save the peeling clear coat but it’s better than it was.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on We May Have This Beat  |  Posted in Brakes, Purchasing, Travelall

Mission: 800 Recovery

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Mission: Recover Dan’s 800 was successful. More successful than I had anticipated, actually. The Saturday-morning plan was for Brian to bring his fancy new aluminum trailer over from the Eastern Shore for its maiden recovery mission, which meant we needed to meet early so that he could get back home in the afternoon for an appointment. So Bennett and David and I met up before dawn in my driveway and we did a convoy of Hondas stuffed with recovery gear to Dan’s house, with a brief stop at Dunkin’ for fuel. The second-gen Honda CR-V is now the official chase car/recovery vehicle of the Old Line State Binders.

Brian pulled up shortly after we got there, and thankfully the field was dry and cold enough to be solid under the axles of the trailer. After walking the route, we found it clear and dry enough to drive on, so Bennett and I pulled as close as we could to the 800 and started unloading tools.

I gave the family cash and got a bill of sale for the truck, although there’s no VIN number I can find anywhere—on some trucks it was bolted to the firewall and on others it was bolted to the door. This truck has neither, so getting a title is going to be a challenge—but I have two good options there. Later on I’ll scrape the frame rail to find the true VIN and get a lineset ticket.

Brian is a pro at navigating through narrow corridors, and quickly had the trailer backed up to the truck. While he was doing that I started loosening lug nuts—and found out quickly that the driver’s side studs are reverse thread. I’d brought two spares for the front tires, and with an assist from Brian’s corded impact gun (run off the plug on the back of his Ford hybrid, very trick) and my Hi-Lift jack, we had the wheels swapped and the truck ready to roll very quickly. (Note to self: diagnose and repair the lowering linkage on the Hi-Lift). Running the line out from his winch, I hopped up into the Scout, put it in neutral, and we quickly had it up on the trailer. It went so smoothly, in fact, we had it strapped down and ready to move by 9AM. I threw the two bad tires in the back as well as an original skinny 7″ steel wheel and we strapped all of the loose parts down.

Then we went bushwhacking behind the garage and David and I walked the steel half-cab to the bed of Brian’s truck. With that in place, My task was done, but we wanted to stop back in the woods to see if we could get the visor off the junk Travelall for Bennett, as well as scope out the bed extensions on the other pickup. With a bunch of PBblaster, verious screwdrivers and a BFH we got the visor and the mounts off the truck, as well as some other doodads.

With that stuff secured, and a final survey of the remaining vehicles in the bushes, we checked the straps again and got on the road for home. Back at the house, my neighbor moved his second car out of the driveway so Brian could back the trailer up and straight into our yard. We dropped it in between the garage and the greenhouse with few problems, folded up all the straps, and cleared out.

With that done, I treated the guys to a hearty breakfast down the street, and we all marveled over how quickly the job went. Back at the house I handed off some tools and a vise to Brian, and a spare wheel and the manual shift column I’d collected to David, a nd everyone left for home around 1PM. I came inside and promptly fell asleep on the couch with a snoring dog, which was exactly what I needed.

On Sunday I took advantage of a free hour to pull the spark plugs and dump some Marvel Mystery Oil down to the pistons, as well as pull the carburetor to soak in cleaner. The plugs were fouled with carbon as was the carburetor, which means it was running too rich when it was parked. The whole truck is filthy, which is no surprise, so it’ll need a good pressure wash before I can really start tearing things apart. The plan is to move Peer Pressure up to Brian’s place, where he’s got a spare garage bay he can rent me in January with a plug for a trickle charger while the weather is salty. I’ll keep the 800 at the house where I can work on getting it moving, and leave the Travelall napping in the driveway.

I have a crap-ton of video to edit over the holiday break, including some drone footage I shot before I crashed it into a tree and broke one of the legs. So that repair job is also on the calendar. But stay tuned, it’ll be live soon!

Big thanks to Bennett, David, and Brian for all their help and another fun early-morning tetanus adventure!

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Mission: 800 Recovery  |  Posted in Friends, Purchasing, Trip Logs

Back and Forward

When we last left off, I was rebuilding the original Carter glass fuel pump that came on Darth Haul. I did that two weekends ago but had to wait on re-installing it around work and the weather. At lunchtime last week I ran outside and put it in, filled the carb bowl with gas and started the engine, keeping an eye on the fuel pump. After three tries it wasn’t pulling any fuel.

I brought the spare from the green truck inside, tore it down, and cleaned that one up. I replaced two of the rubber valves and put it back together, and the valves worked when I tested them. On Saturday I swapped that unit in and repeated the process, but it wasn’t pulling fuel either. I brought the original back to the bench, preloaded the main valve properly, and swapped it back in the truck, but it still wasn’t pulling fuel. Frustrated, I gave up, ordered an adjustable pressure regulator on Prime, and turned to other things.

One of those included a dump run, so I loaded up the Scout and took her out for a test spin—the first long drive after replacing the rotors. This went flawlessly; the brakes feel great. They’re even and smooth, and the truck doesn’t jerk to the left anymore. And most importantly, they’re not cooking the wheel hubs like they were before. I’m going to jack up each side and tighten the bolts one more time, but I think that task is complete.

The regulator showed up Sunday morning so I pulled the hose off the mechanical pump and put the electric pump back on, followed by the regulator and a transparent filter. The engine turned right over and the idle settled down after I opened the choke up all the way. I did three test drives: one around the block, one around the neighborhood, and one to Ellicott City to get my hair cut. The truck ran perfectly, and most importantly the front brakes stayed cool and free, which means my second bleed of the system seems to have worked.

I’m not happy about having the electric system cobbled back in, but I’m tired of futzing with the mechanical system right now, so I’m going to stick with this until the spring and sort out the issues then.

Next up, I’ve got some small things to tackle and then some big ones:

  • It sounds stupid, but I’d like to have dome lights in the truck. The lead for the light exists and it does have power, but I’m unclear as to how the circuit is switched on and off. If it’s anything like the Scout, the light switch on the dash controls the dome circuit (there are no door switches) but it shouldn’t currently be live like it is. I’ve got four original IH dome lights ready to be wired in series—two for over the seats and two for over the cargo area; I just need to read up on the wiring diagram for these. Oh—and this will require…
  • Installing the headliner bows. I’ve got these etch primed and ready for paint, but don’t have a headliner solution in hand.
  • It would be nice to have a speaker wired into the dash for the radio; there’s a spot for a single 4″x10″, but I have to buy something to put in.
  • I ordered some stuff from SendCutSend last week: two pairs of lock latches for the seat box that are slightly longer than the ones that came with the locks, as well as a new improved version of the cupholder mount. The latches should be long enough to actually lock, and I can then store tools and parts in the truck securely. The cupholder is modified to have wider openings for the cups so that I can add rubber sound deadening around the openings, and narrower at the flat section so that it doesn’t collect so much dust. I also added holes for the mounting bolts. This will get welded up and prepped for install this week.
  • The rear floor is completely unbolted from the truck because I want to pull the rear springs out and have them rebuilt. Doing this with the floor out will make life much easier, but I’m going to wait until the roads get salty and I’m not driving her as much.
  • I also want to cut out the crappy floor repair on the driver’s side and replace it with new sheet metal. It’s going to take one flat sheet of 24″ x 32″ steel, with a slight bend at the front side and a gentle lip on the A-pillar. I’m going to have to pull the front bench up and drill out a couple of the spot welds on the vertical bench support to get underneath—the rot goes under the corner support I built this spring, so that’s going to take some careful surgery.

Meanwhile, there’s a good chance the stash of trucks up at Dan’s house includes a 16″ wheel with a 4.5×5 bolt pattern, which I would love to swap for the mismatched wheels on the driver’s front of the truck. There’s nothing wrong with the wheel itself other than it won’t accept a fancy IH dome hubcap like the other three, and I would like to be matchy-matchy before I paint them all white. We’re still waiting on the family to find titles for the two 800’s up there so that Brian and I can buy them and haul them off.

Build Season on YouTube has a great two-part series on reviving a D-series pickup, which is great to see:

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Back and Forward  |  Posted in Brakes, Purchasing, To-Do List, Travelall

Braked

Well, this weekend was a journey. Mostly a good one; a lot of good stuff got accomplished, and I spent a bunch of time with friends, but it wasn’t without its challenges.

We had a workday scheduled at Brian’s place in the country to work on Heavy D, Bennett’s long-sidelined pickup waiting for welding repairs, a windshield install, and re-assembly of the front clip. The last time I was out there I’d bent and formed a complicated section of metal to weld to the front of the firewall but Brian’s commercial welder was too strong to work the sheet metal without blowing through it. We were also going to help Brian move his pickup around and place the bed on the frame to free up space, and see what other stuff we could get up to.

My plan was to drive Darth Haul out there for her first short-distance trip, so I worked on the engine timing and fuel system on Thursday. I was having issues with the fuel pump pulling debris from the saddle tank up into the pickup and clogging it, so I rigged the boat tank up with a length of hose and put it on the passenger floor. After loading up my tools, welder, and welding bin, I hit the road at about 9 and took my time getting out there. Brian’s place is about 20 miles away, and I took back roads to avoid any high-speed sections. The truck did very well! Shifting is smooth, the engine is strong, and the brakes worked well. I noticed a vibration at 40mph and heard some rubbing in back, which foreshadowed later events.

At Brian’s house, I helped he and Bennett to clean out Mr. Hanky, because our friends Chad and Liz were coming down from Pittsburgh to possibly buy it. Bennett has had it up for sale since Nats in order to free up cash and space for a cleaner Scout, and they’ve been in the market for another project for a while. They arrived at 11 and he showed Chad the truck while we caught up with Liz. By 1PM the deal was done, and we helped them load the trucks up with a pile of extra parts. It was bittersweet to see Hanky drive away, but it’s great to see him going to a good home—it reminds me so much of selling Chewbacca to Carolyn to give to Brian—I know they’re going to do a great job reviving him.

After moving Brian’s pickup and freeing up a bunch of floor space, we had pizza delivered for a late lunch and then set to work on Heavy D. The first big task was to re-install the windshield, and luckily the rubber was designed exactly like what I put in Peer Pressure, so I knew how to align it in the channel. Between the four of us and with judicious use of glass cleaner, we got it in place and then used plastic putty spreaders to guide the edges into the channels, then fold the locking flap over.

With that done, I set my welder up and put the patch in place, ground it down, and got it ready for paint while Brian and Bennett started hanging fenders. Within about an hour we had the truck put mostly back together and ready for a test fire. The carb was mad at being ignored for a year, and didn’t want to run properly, so Bennett will have to go back and diagnose that. By 5PM we wound down and set course for home. I took Bennett back to his place, but noticed the truck working harder as we drove. Stopping for gas I found all four wheels hot to the touch, which told us the brakes were dragging. By the time we got to his house the passenger rear was smoking slightly. We pulled the wheels off and cooled them down with a hose, then banged the drums off with a hammer. The pads were all the way extended, which meant that the system wasn’t releasing pressure. It was getting dark, so he gave me the keys to his CR-V and I drove that home after parking Darth in his driveway.

The next morning I got there at 9 with all of my brake tools and fluids, and we started troubleshooting the system. After tearing apart and rebuilding the rear drums three times, we tested the master cylinder upstream and verified it wasn’t the lines above either axle. So we disconnected and bench bled the master until it looked clear, then connected everything back up to test. It looked like the brakes were grabbing and releasing, and a test drive verified this. While under the truck I also noticed a huge dent in the driveshaft, which explains the vibrations above 40MPH.

I packed up my tools, extended my sincere gratitude for Bennett’s knowledge and time, and set course for home. She ran well and didn’t feel like she was struggling the farther we went. The brakes and clutch felt good, and I got her home with no problems. The wheels were hot when I checked them after parking it, but not scalding as they had been before. It may take another bench bleed to really kick the issue, but for now, I’m happy she’s back in the driveway.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Braked  |  Posted in Brakes, Friends, Purchasing, Travelall, Trip Logs

Laboring

Labor Day weekend we had absolutely nothing planned, so I took advantage of free time and mild weather to focus on getting Darth Haul running reliably. Saturday morning, after walking the dog and having breakfast with the girls, I went out and set up all of the diagnostic equipment I’ve collected for carbureted engines: a vintage dwell/tach/volt gauge, a vacuum gauge, and a  timing light. I hooked the boat tank up to the engine and painted marks on the flywheel and timing marks with a white Sharpie, then ran it up to temperature. Messing around with the distributor, I found that it was happiest running at over 20˚ of advance, which is definitely not the way it should be. Anytime I brought the timing back down to a comfortable 10˚ the engine got choppy and began to die.

I put the light on the Scout just to see where the baseline for a smooth-running engine was, and verified that was at around 8˚, which is what I remembered from the service manual. No amount of distributor adjustment could get it to calm down. Puzzled, I zeroed out the carb and adjusted the mixture screws and the idle to get the engine to slow down, and was happy to find that the stumble at acceleration was gone. At idle I was pulling 20 inches of vacuum pressure. With the engine running better (but not timed correctly), I took it for a spin around the block and was happy to find it didn’t stall out once. I also noticed the speedometer isn’t working.

At around this point my Harbor Freight timing light died, so I had to run out and get a replacement. Strangely, it took a while to get the truck to start when I got back; I’d left it at 10˚ or so, and had to adjust it a bunch before it would catch again. I continued messing with the timing but couldn’t resolve the issue. Stumped, I stepped back and cleaned the truck up as much as possible for Cars & Coffee the next morning: I swapped out the old wood floor in the back for the new one, swept out the dust, and cleaned all the windows.

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Sunday morning I made some coffee and ran the truck up in the driveway before taking it for a spin down the road. I pulled in to C&C and parked it next to a sexy Morgan 8, and I was soon joined by Bennett in his Speedster.

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The Travelall was an immediate hit with the crowd; I got a lot of questions about what it is and where I got it, as well as whether I’d driven it a long ways with the boat tank. We had a good turnout, and at one point I was parked across from an Acura NSX and a McLaren.

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Back at the house I did a bunch of straightening up in the garage, and David stopped by to pick up a bunch of parts I’d sourced for him at Nats and elsewhere. I was able to pass along the passenger fender and 6-cylinder air cleaner from Ohio, as well as a set of metal door cards I got in Pittsburgh, a pair of escutcheons, and the two eyebrow sections I’d cut off the truck in New York. He was super-happy to take delivery, and headed back to his house to get his truck running after a long pause.

One thing he mentioned to me was that he’d talked to a local spring guy about rebuilding his spring packs, and was quoted a  reasonable price to do so. I was VERY intrigued to hear about this, as my springs are also as flat as a board. This would be an excellent fall-winter project, as it would require jacking the truck onto stands and pulling the springs off.

Sunday afternoon we ran a bunch of errands but after getting back home I put my spare door on the worktable and started breaking it down to pull the glass out. What I wound up having to do was take the black inner surround out, pop the clips holding the felt out, and prep the top half to be able to slide the rails and window out as a unit. Both of the screws holding the lower ends of the rails were, predictably, rusted solid, so I hit them with PBblaster but resolved to cut them out with a death wheel. The only angle grinder I’ve got that fits inside the door is the cheap pneumatic one I got from Harbor Freight, and here I was stopped dead by a leaking/broken moisture filter on the compressor. After picking up some new fittings I repaired that after dinner, and got things ready to start on Monday morning.

A few weeks ago, Bennett had gotten a call from a guy who had a mixture of old pickup parts and passed along his info to me. There were some pictures of C-series stuff that I was partially interested in, so after walking the dog and doing some chores around the house I drove a half an hour north to meet up with him. In his garage he had boxes of assorted parts, which I picked through carefully. I wound up going light: a reproduction MT-118 parts catalog for A, B and C-series trucks, a pair of beautiful black C-series sun visors, an ashtray in great shape, an NOS accelerator pedal, and one mirror assembly to pass on to Tyler out in Frederick.

Between odd jobs around the house, I fired up the compressor to notch the two screws at the bottom of the green door enough to turn with a screwdriver, then gently pulled the rails out to free up the glass. When that was done, it was easy to get the glass out. It’s in good shape, and after I wire-wheeled the metal bracket at the bottom, I taped it off and sprayed it with Rust-Stop. Getting the broken pane out of Darth is going to be a challenge, but now I know what I’m doing, and barring any major rust issues, it should be relatively straightforward to swap the glass in.

I also couldn’t help myself and swapped the black visors into the truck. They’re just a little bit longer than the gold ones that came out of the green truck, so they don’t fit into the clips next to the rearview easily. But they look great!

Posted on   |   by bill   |   1 Comment on Laboring  |  Posted in Carburetor, Friends, Purchasing, Travelall

Pittsburgh Road Trip

Sunday morning broke cold but sunny, and I hit the road at 7AM with the car already loaded. I had a 3.5 hr. drive out to the other side of Pittsburgh in front of me, but my podcast app was loaded and I was headed away from the sunrise—which was good, because my sunglasses are AWOL. The drive was unremarkable other than beautiful foliage blooming throughout southern Pennsylvania, and I reached Pittsburgh by 11:30 with one stop for expensive gas. The yard was on a hill above the river, and I found two Internationals among many large tractor trailers in a commercial yard. I texted the owner and got to work on the column.

Because the truck was already pretty well picked over I had free access to the stuff I needed: there were only two bolts under the dash to free up the column there, but the three bolts on the steering box were rusted pretty good and the nuts were inaccessible due to a gusset built into the frame. I’d thought ahead and brought my generator, though, and after about 10 minutes with a corded cutoff wheel I trimmed off the bolt heads and pried the box off the frame with a bitch bar. Now, I had to figure out how to get the column out—and I’d forgotten to bring my steering wheel puller. Thankfully, Joey, the guy selling the truck, had one in his shop down the street, and ran me down to pick it up. We paused to look over a beautiful C-series tow truck he’s finishing up, and then he brought me back up to the yard.

I had the wheel off in 5 minutes and then had to puzzle out how to remove the whole unit. The collar in the cab wouldn’t fit through the hole in the firewall (I had this issue with the green truck) nor would the steering box. I did notice the collar moving as I was tugging on it from inside the cab and realized it wasn’t connected to the box anymore—then saw that if I pulled on the steering box from the front, the rod inside slid out of the outer casing and suddenly I was holding those two elements in my hands. The outer tube came out through the cab with a little convincing, and I put the two sections back together on the tailgate of the Honda.

Then I went through the rest of the truck and pulled some other parts off: The windshield wiper motor, the instrument cluster, the radio blockoff plate, and a slightly banged up ’63-’64 headlight trim ring. Inside the cab someone had stacked some extra parts, and I fished out some more good stuff: two uncut metal door cards, a heater motor (the heater in this truck was melted), an ashtray, a marker light assembly, a window crank unit, two sun visors in good shape, and an emergency brake assembly. I did leave a bunch of larger stuff behind—two D-series windshields, a rear pickup window, an instrument cluster in worse shape, and a bunch of other stuff.

After loading up and paying Joey I hit the road at about 4PM and made it home by 8 after stopping for some dinner. The steering column doesn’t look too different from the unit I pulled out of the green truck, save the fact that it’s attached to a power steering box, so I’ll have two basic units to practice on before I do anything with the one in Darth.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   1 Comment on Pittsburgh Road Trip  |  Posted in Junkyards, Purchasing, Trip Logs

Sunday Excursion

I’ve got a line on a manual steering column, which is excellent news, and the price is right. But excellent news is usually accompanied by a catch, and this is no different. The catch here is that the parts truck in question is outside of Pittsburgh, which is about a 4-hour drive away from here. It looks like it’s perfect for my requirements; the truck is in the open, in a clean yard, and the hood is already gone so there’s nothing in the way. I’d be pulling the entire column from the wheel all the way down to the box; I’ll just unbolt the box and maybe cut the pitman arm, or bring a fork and pound out the link. Then it’s just removing 4 bolts under the dashboard, disconnecting some wiring, and out it should come. Easy, right?

As usual though, I’m going to bring the entire recovery kit, and this time I might even bring my generator and a corded cutoff wheel, just in case. It’s going to be a long day and I don’t want to be out there forever.

Making this trip a little sweeter is a pile of leftover parts another semi-local Travelall guy offered me after restomodding his truck. He’s outside of Frederick, which is right on the way, and he has a full set of gauges, seatbelts, and a couple of master cylinders. The seatbelts are an excellent find, as the mounting brackets on some of mine are pretty roached, and the gauges may come in handy, although I’ve got three full sets already. But I can always bring stuff to Nats and sell it.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Sunday Excursion  |  Posted in Junkyards, Purchasing

EJ Classics

Here’s something I thought I’d never see. EJ Classics, who are affiliated with Dynacorn (makers of new sheet metal for many different muscle car platforms)  is producing new body parts specifically for the Scout II. The stuff I find most tempting right now are the doglegs that go at the base of the A and B pillars. It used to be you’d need to find a roached tub and cut the originals out to replace them, and a couple of years ago the Light Line dealers were hand-making them. Now I can get a set of A-pillar doglegs for $90, which is definitely in my price range.

Passengers A pillar
Passenger’s A pillar

Three of my four doglegs are in rough shape so this has been on my radar for years, and now that I’m feeling more confident in my welding and fabricating skills, this might be a project I can tackle this year. I’ve already got patches for the bottom of the inner cab wall, which need to be replaced on both sides.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on EJ Classics  |  Posted in Future Plans, Purchasing