I snuck a little time into the garage this weekend to clean with the vacuum and a broom, although I didn’t get to drive anywhere. After cleaning out a pile of beach sand and pine needles, I looked over the floors and interior a bit further. The first thing that struck me is the unconventional installation of the front seats, the mounts of which are welded to the bases. So if I want to install Chewbacca’s old seats (one of which needs reupholstering), I’ll need to find a pair of new bases to start with.
I pulled the bikini top out and unrolled it for the first time, and it looks like it’s in great shape, which is a relief. When I pulled the soft top off last weekend, I did a quick inspection and found that it’s in worn but decent shape for the time being. I may pull it off and store it somehow so that I preserve it for as long as possible, because new tops are prohibitively expensive ($1K+).
The weather is lousy this week, but I’m going to try to break away from work early tomorrow evening to go pick parts from a Scout locally; there’s a pile of good parts to be had which have just been waiting for me to get to them.
After a long while away from working on my Scout, I was able to break away for a few hours yesterday to visit Mr. Soundman and pick over the carcass of his parts truck. He’s got this one down to the bare bones now, so that makes two rolling frames-with-engines parked in his driveway, and he’s getting nervous about getting it out of there.
I immediately set to work on the dashboard, because I knew it would take the longest amount of time to remove. Little did I understand just how complicated it actually would be. Apart from the retaining screws he’d already removed, there are a million electrical connections and a handful of mechanical controls to disconnect, which take a ton of time to figure out. We wound up separating the wiring from the dashboard altogether just so that we could get it out, which ordinarily would have given me heart attacks—now that it’s out, how do I put everything back together?!?
Backup dashboard
But I’ve got an ace up my sleeve: Mr. Scout and his father took the dash out of Chewbacca a lot slower and more deliberately than we did, and it’s currently being stored in my garage, so I can take copious notes and photos of what an unmolested dash with intact wiring should look like.
Upon closer inspection, this dash is in reasonably good shape, although it’s covered in mud, faded from sun exposure, and surface rusting in places. The whole thing needs a wash, then sanding, priming and paint. Retaining the stock green is not going to happen, so I’m going to have to go with black instead—along with the two metal door panels I’ve got. The included hardware looks like it’s recoverable, although the more complex light and wiper assemblies need to be cleaned and tested.
recovered loom
The loom is in good shape as well, although I need to compare it closely to Chewbacca’s loom to be sure. I didn’t see any backwoods splicing or creative uses of romex, which leaves me hopeful but cautious. I’m currently debating buying a new wiring harness for the whole thing or just using what I’ve got, but common sense is pointing towards the cheaper of the two options.
water pump assembly
Another big score was the water pump. After removing four bolts, Mr. Soundman handed me the entire assembly from the pump forward, which means I’ve got a non-clutch fan as well. The pump blades were covered in rust and scale, so I went at everything with a scraper last night to clean up the housing, as well as remove the ancient paper gasket. I’ve got a new gasket waiting at the parts store down the street, so at some point this week, I’ll get to work on removing the existing pump.
Finally, the other big score was a new fan shroud to replace the hack-job I’ve got: the PO did a body and suspension lift, which moved the fan blades up in relation to the body (and therefore the radiator). So, he did what countless other Scout owners have done in the past: he chopped the lower half of the shroud completely off, making the airflow to the coolant substantially less focused. I’m going to fabricate up some spacers for the new shroud and mount it properly to the radiator so that the engine doesn’t run excessively hot—and, thankfully, I’m already removing the fan to replace the water pump.
This weekend was in the low 70’s, and between spending time with my daughter and doing a ton of overdue yardwork, I took some time to fool around in the garage. The first order of business was to clean out the space and organize everything better; the back half of the garage has been used for a no-man’s land for years, and thus was piled randomly with junk. I’m also storing a bunch of parts for Mr. Scout, which demanded better accommodations, so I swept, organized, and cleaned up the entire bay.
Next, I wanted to pull the panels off my donor doors and see what shape they were in. It looks like they’re reasonably clean, although everything suffers from light surface rust and needs a good wash. The door pulls and window cranks are both clean, but one foam armrest is toast and the other is marginal. I also pulled what looks to be an original rearview off the driver’s door and took steel wool to the grime covering the chrome; it cleaned up better than I hoped it might.
On the sad side, the liftgate is rusted out beyond economical repair; every time I moved it I left piles of rust in my wake, so I’ll just strip the parts off and ditch the frame.
Finally, I got a strange urge to pull the dashpad off for examination. Someone paid a good deal of money to cover a cracked green foam pad with blue vinyl, ruining the foam with staples and glue. Hopefully the pad Mr. Soundman’s offered me is in better shape than this one.
This weekend, Mr. Scout took me to the magical, mystical wonderland of cheap Chinese tools: the local Harbor Freight retail store. It’s amazing how much incredible stuff they can jam into one small location, and how cheap everything is. I wouldn’t buy sockets there and trust them to last more than a year, but to have a throwaway set handy the prices can’t be beat. I took a coupon with me and scored a 4½” angle grinder for $20. Mr. Scout settled for a torque wrench and we both left before we could do any more damage.
Meanwhile, Mr. Soundman made a journey to Virginia to pick up a donor Scout and a load of parts in a box truck. He graciously offered extra space to anybody who needed parts, so I took him up on the offer.
He brought me back two doors with hinges, mounting brackets, full glass, metal inserts and hardware:
Under the doors were a traveltop in decent shape, minus the original liftgate and with some minor rust issues along the back lip area, a liftgate with good hinges, and a step bumper with some minor bending issues.
Finally, there was a plastic tray containing an assortment of hard-to-replace plastic lenses for marker and indicator lights, some door hardware, and miscellaneous other items:
Of course, the weather turned frigid on Saturday, and it started snowing Sunday evening, so any playtime I might have enjoyed this weekend was put on hold. I got everything besides the top indoors and hunkered down for the blizzard. Maybe next week…
One of the things I’d like to (re)learn with this new truck is welding. Twenty years ago, I was given basic instruction by a guy in the sculpture department at college in exchange for a six-pack of beer, and I’ve forgotten almost everything about the lesson other than “wear a helmet”. After practicing on cast-aside strips of angle iron and flat plate, I built a guitar stand out of rebar, but that was about the limit of my hands-on experience.
Stick welding seems to be the cheapest, but from what I’m reading it’s also the hardest to master and is limiting as far as the thickness (or thinness) of the metal being welded. I don’t know if I’l be doing anything thinner than 18 gauge, but the idea that I could use it on rusty or dirty metal is interesting.
I learned on a MIG welder, so that would be the one I’d like to pick back up if possible. It’s cleaner, easier to master, and works with thinner gauges, which makes it attractive for more than just automotive applications. (What else I’d be welding I have no idea, but I’d love to find something).
TIG welding sounds great, but the cost of entry is extremely prohibitive.
The trick, it seems, is to find a MIG welder that will do longer duty cycles on a regular 110-volt circuit that isn’t over $500. I’ve read up on some of the recommended brands, and it seems that Miller and Hobart are the two most highly regarded—I’ve heard several stories about Miller’s excellent customer service.
Looking over the water pump on this new Scout, I know what I’m looking at, and I know where most everything is, but I’m lacking the important technical information. This is where the service manual would come in real handy–what’s the correct procedure for pulling the water pump off with a clutch fan? What’s the proper torque to be applied to the new bolts?Â
When I sold Chewbacca, I didn’t think I was going to have another Scout for a long time, so I threw in the bin of parts I’d collected, as well as the service manual. I figured Mr. Scout, her new owner, would need them more than I would, and I hope I’ve been proven right. Some recent digging in my boxes produced a dogeared Chilton’s manual, but that’s only good for a brief overview of how things go together, not how to do specific tasks.Â
So I’m going to buy another copy when the budget allows. Along with this eventual purchase, I’m going to need to stop in at Harbor Freight and pick up an inexpensive torque wrench as well as some cheap air tools–I’m thinking a wire sander and possibly an impact wrench.
In the meantime, we’re breaking down some very expensive cube farms at work this week for eventual disposal, and I was able to score four ready-to-hang fluorescent lights for the garage. I’ll have to rig up some ghetto wiring to get power out there, but that shouldn’t be too difficult.
