Category: Purchasing

Parts Haul.

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:

spare door

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:

lighting spares

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…

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Stick vs. MIG vs. TIG.

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.

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Documentation.

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? 

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. 

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.

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