I ordered a set of plug wires from RockAuto yesterday afternoon, as well as five dash bulb sockets and lights. Originally I was going to buy a gas tank sender and get the new tank ready for installation, but I suddenly came to my senses and realized that I don’t have an entire weekend to deal with that project. So, I ordered wires to go along with the plugs I’ve already got, and I figure I can get them installed in a couple of hours.
I also worked with the third bench seat a little more, and have it almost to the place where it’s ready to go in—but I have to do some POR-15 work on the mounting plates and bed before it goes in for good. The bed itself needs a good media blasting and sealant coat soon, because there’s some light rust coming up under the purple paint that I’d like to mitigate immediately as well as some flaky areas around the wheel wells.
I’m moving up my plans for a welder to near the top of the list, because I see some metal repairs in my future.
Today was a Scout day, even if I don’t have my Scout back yet.
My mechanic got back to me on Friday and asked for a little more time to work on her, which means Monday or Tuesday. The fact that I missed a week of almost perfect convertible weather has me bummed, but the payoff will be worth it when it’s back in the driveway and running well.
In the meantime, plans to recover the local Scout went off without much of a hitch at all. After Finn and I got some doughnuts down the street, Mr. Scout met us at the house and helped blow up her new inflatable pool while we waited for Alan and his friend to make it up with the trailer. After some jockeying around the narrow streets of the neighborhood, they got the tow rig pointed in the right direction and we headed over to the seller’s house.
Where’s the red? It’s all green
At first, the Scout didn’t want to start. Gas down the carb made it fire up fine but there was no gas getting through the lines from the tank. After a quick trip to the gas station for a couple of gallons, the seller blew out the line and then the filter himself (can you say “motivated buyer?”) and we tried a few tests with everything disconnected. Once we made sure the fuel pump was working—squirting gas alarmingly all over the engine—we hooked everything back up and tried it again. It turned out that I was closest to the driver’s seat, so I fired it up and it finally stayed running, and everyone cleared a path out for me to crawl down the driveway and line up behind the trailer. This time I got up onto the trailer without doing any damage, put it in 4lo and shut everything down.
We ratcheted it down tight, closed the doors up good, and money exchanged hands. All was good!
On the trailer and ready to roll
The seller was very happy to have it out of his driveway, as was his wife.
Mr. Scout’s new steering wheel
Mr. Scout has a new steering wheel for his truck, which makes him happy. We weren’t able to pull it while we were there, so he and Alan will do the swap through the mail, most likely.
Brand-new poly tank and skidplate
Meanwhile, I continued hoarding parts for Peer Pressure. The items above are the reason I organized the whole deal in the first place: a brand-new poly gas tank, unused, with a matching skidplate. I hosed the dust off the tank and looked it over; everything appears perfect. Score!
Clean passenger fender
The next item is a passenger’s fender in excellent shape; this apparently came off a Terra donor rig. It’s in better shape than the fender I’ve already got, which makes me happy.
Side note: I’d say roughly 2/3 of the spare parts I have are or originally were Tahitian Red when they came from the factory—coincidence, or something more sinister? You decide.
Clean tailgate
I also took home a clean tailgate from the same rig, which is in excellent shape. It even sports a factory “Scout II” sticker.
Clean Terra doors
From the same donor rig, there are two clean doors, which are in far better shape than the two spares I have. They still have Terra glass in them, which will get sold or scrapped. The rest of the chrome looks like it’s in excellent shape. There’s some slight rust on the underside of the interior, and some bubbles under the trim on the drivers door, but it’s definitely repairable.
AC Compressor
Alan also brought me some gifts from the last set of scrapped vehicles we picked up: the first is a clean IH-serialed compressor for my AC setup.
Holley 2300
The next is a used Holley 2300 carb, which will be my rebuild testbed. I don’t have an air cleaner housing to fit it, but I’m hoping the ThermoQuad air cleaner might.
Update: The serial number off the carb doesn’t match anything from a standard Light Line application, which means it’s not an exact match. I’ll have to find out exactly what I’ve got so that I can order the right replacement kit.
Holley 2300 with adapter plate
Following that is a Holley 2100 with a spreadbore adapter mounted to the bottom. I’m not as excited about this one, but I’m going to do some reading to learn more about it.
Crappy windshield
Finally, I took the crappier of the two windshields. I figure the wiper linkage and motor might be worthwhile to have, but the rest is definitely scrap metal.
I picked up a couple of handy tools this past weekend at a yard sale here in town: A Peerless brand vacuum gauge, a tach/dwell/volt/ohmmeter and a set of old-school ratcheting boxhead SAE wrenches, which will fit nicely in the Tuffy box between the seats. I found some good information on how to use a vacuum gauge here on the Second Chance Garage site, and I’m itching to get the old girl home just so I can test it out. Next to find: a timing light.
That sound you hear is a 304 V8 roaring to life after a couple of years marooned in the back of a driveway. A splash of gas in the carb, a jumpstart from a highly excited Honda Passport, and a cloud of white smoke produced from the tailpipe marked its triumphant return to the land of the (mostly) running. I confirmed that it shifted into gear and pulled it forwards and backwards, making it a viable candidate for purchasing.
So, this weekend, we will return to sign over the title and take delivery of the rig and all its associated parts. There’s a brand-new poly gas tank and skidplate with my name on it, and we should have a clean rallye steering wheel for Mr. Scout.
My carb rebuild kit arrived from the Carburetor Factory on Friday, so I’ve been spending some quality time poring over the Thermoquad service manuals I found online before doing anything rash like opening the box or tearing down the carb itself. The kit I got is a Walker 15711C which corresponds to the engine year, size, and model I have. I need to pick up some carb cleaner and other assorted products if I’m going to do this myself; I also left a message with my backup mechanic to see if he’d be able to help and for how much. Edit: He called back this morning, and I may be on for an appointment this coming weekend.
Meanwhile, I parked Peer Pressure out in the driveway while I was hauling garden tools and other stuff around the yard. My original plan was to drive her over to the Home Depot in the afternoon to browse the doorknob selection, but plans shifted and Finn accompanied me in the CR-V instead, and rainclouds meant it was back in the garage by 2:30. During the rainstorm I decided to try both of the spare windshield motors I have on hand to see if either of them worked. I plugged them both into the bulkhead connector after verifying that the one I have installed works, but neither one made a sound. I know the wiring on my original unit (the one I’ve been dragging around since 2002) is frayed and the green wire has come loose, so that didn’t surprise me. Doing some research on motors, I found A couple of good threads that deal with the motors and their wiring, another with some info about motor replacements (apparently a 94-01 Cherokee motor will work just as well), and one containing interesting info about testing (putting it on a battery charger at 2 amps).
Anyhow, I was disassembling one on the workbench downstairs, when the doorbell rang. It turned out to be a guy who lives in the neighborhood and who owns an orange Scout I’ve noticed on occasion, hidden behind the shrubs lining his driveway. He told me he was going to sell his truck, and knew I had a Scout, and wanted to know if I’d be interested in what he had?
Well, I said, would you mind if I took a look?
It looked better from the road than from up close, unfortunately. It’s been sitting in his driveway for a couple of years, but he claimed it will run with a jumpstart. The body was toast. The front fenders and tub are pretty far gone. The hood looked to be in decent shape. I couldn’t tell how the top looked from the inside because the inserts were still in place, and I didn’t stop to examine the doglegs or crawl under to see how the bottom of the tub looked (the right rear tire was flat).
However, it’s got a 4-speed and 44’s (3.54 gears according to the lineset). It came with highback buckets, a sport steering wheel, green tanbark interior, and white spoke wheels. And a quick review of the contents of his garage revealed:
A second set of inner fenders (I’d say fair to poor shape, but repairable).
A stored set of Traveler doors in fair to good shape.
A skid plate, looks to be in decent shape
A stored tailgate in very good shape
A stored passenger fender in very good shape (from what I could see; it was up in the rafters)
An unused poly gas tank
A stored windshield in excellent shape
Another stored windshield in fair shape (what looked to be surface rust by the mount points)
And a bunch of other smaller stuff that I can’t remember right now.
The price for what he has is very reasonable, but the problem is where to put this thing, how to part it out quickly, and how to have the carcass hauled away without blocking everything else in the driveway. I think it would fetch decent money for the spare the tailgate, transmission, axles, and doors, and possibly (over time, of course), pay for itself, minus the parts I’d like to keep.
I put the word out with the local crew to see if anyone needs anything, and checked in with Mr. Scout about the steering wheel; I’m waiting to hear back from everyone to see if it’s worth the time and trouble to pick up the whole thing, or make him an offer he can’t refuse on the stuff I’m most interested in. We’ll see.
This to-do list is going to make more sense to me than to anyone else, but I’d like to get it out of my sketch book and up here where I can actually find it. It’s in rough order of importance for the year; I expect only to get about 1/5 of it done, but a guy can dream, right?
Finish sanding and painting the seat bases, weld in some support on the bottom Sand the bed and floors – buy stripper & discs Fix the driver’s window scissors – It’s binding when pressure is first applied to the crank. Clean sand & paint
Inner fenders
Windshields
Travel Top
Dogleg
Fix the rear bench seat – I’d like to replace the upholstery with something cleaner. The replacement bench seat I have doesn’t fit correctly (the latch doesn’t meet the striker on the wheel wells). Fix the brake light indicator – the switch on the pedal is bent.
I think I may bite the bullet and order one of these mirrors from SSS to replace the lousy plastic junk that’s hung on my door. I like the look of these, and I’d rather have metal screwed to something sturdy than the wobbly crap I have now.
Mr. Scout and I took some time last Friday to pull the radiator out of Peer Pressure and flush it, then reinstalled it and tightened up all the fittings. It ran very well for 20 minutes without leaking, although the battery was dead, so I swapped the battery in from the Jeep and took it for a spin around the block. Everything looked great for the next twenty minutes, at idle and under load, and so I brought it back and put it in the garage, thinking the problem was finally solved.
This evening, I found a damp puddle under the water pump, where there’s a visible leak coming from the bottom under the flywheel. So we’re back to square one with the stupid coolant system again. I’m going to have to buy a new water pump and gasket and swap the old one out and see if that solves the problem.
In happier news, I drilled three holes for the Tuffy console Friday afternoon, but each of the three hex bolts they shipped with it are the wrong size. The replacements I bought at the Lowe’s last weekend are all too long to work correctly, so I have to go back out and find shorter sizes in stainless steel.
Peer Pressure came with a set of 32×11.5R15 BF Goodrich Mud Terrains, and they are very, very nice tires. However, they’re also noisy as hell and I’d like to have something better suited for everyday driving mounted in their place, so I thought I’d do some preliminary pricing. The first step was to convert the US size to metric, and I found this calculator which translates to 292/74R15, something I haven’t been able to find in mixed-use tires—rounding up to 295/75R15.
Add this to the list of future plans: adding electronic ignition. I like the idea that it’s a simple install and that you can go back to points if the module fails.
