Excellent news. Peer Pressure is back from the garage; after waiting around for IHPartsAmerica to get back to us, I took matters into my own hands and asked the heads on the Binder Planet for help. Within two hours I had a solution, and passed that along to the mechanic. They got back to me this morning and told me it was fixed; the solution I offered was exactly the problem. We ran out to pick it up after getting Finn from school, and they sent me on my way free of charge. If I can’t get Darth moving under her own power, I’m definitely getting it towed to this shop.
On the way home I stopped at a gas station to top off the tank and spied a CJ-7 at the far pump, so I drove across the lot and stopped next to him. He was happy to see another Scout, and as it turns out he’s got two of his own—and he’s just on the other side of town. We chatted up our trucks for a little bit, and I wrote my number on a sticker and gave it to him.
Back at the house after dinner, I vacuumed out the truck, cleaned everything up, and started packing for Nats. Before it got dark I got the snap kit out and made some repairs on the soft top, but there are a couple more I need to re-install tomorrow. This year I’m trying to travel lighter, but I’m also bringing some parts along to sell—I’ve got a buyer lined up for the ’61 grille and light rings which should pay for the entire trip out and back. So I’m super psyched about that.
The stars finally aligned and I was able to drop the Scout off at the transmission shop on Friday to have the noise diagnosed. For a couple of days I’d thought it was going away but on the way to the shop it was louder than I’d ever heard it. Something definitely needs to be adjusted. I shot a video of the sound when I came to a stoplight and played it for the mechanics; hopefully it’s an easy fix and doesn’t require dropping the trans.
Last week I posted a bunch of parts for sale on the BinderPlanet and in a FB Travelall group—mainly stuff from the green truck I’m not going to need, with some other stuff thrown in. The first hit I got was on the ’61 grille and trim rings, and that sale is pending. I had a guy stop by yesterday to buy the roof rack with his son, and we wound up talking in the driveway for an hour. He’s got a Travelall body on a Durango chassis and his son has a ’61 Travelette. They looked through the other parts and he wound up buying the chrome from the green truck. I enjoyed talking with the two of them, and passed along a bunch of links and contacts for parts, window installation and upholstery. The father is considering the tailgate, and told me he’d get back to me. I’d love to get that thing out of the backyard. Finally, I’ve got a guy in Idaho interested in the steering ram setup, and he’s coordinating with his brother in Towson to come and pick it up. I’d really love to get that thing off the floor and out of the way.
I had every intention of diagnosing the ignition issues on Darth Haul on Sunday, but the universe conspired against me. The weather forecast was for rain, which I could work around with a pop-up canopy, but Amazon decided the spark plug set I needed for my 8-cylinder engine should only require 5 wires. This from a “guaranteed fit”. Nobody around here had the plugs I need in stock, so the day was literally a wash. I’ve got new plugs on order which should be here Monday, and I can keep troubleshooting after work.
For the last two weeks I’ve been experimenting with leaving the cover off the truck to see what kind of water ingress I’m getting around the cowl vents and the door seals. The rain started Saturday night at midnight and continued on and off throughout the next day. Looking through the cab of the truck at noon, there’s a little bit of water dripping on both sides at the floorboards that I’ll have to track down, but nothing at the volume that was coming in before I cut the cowl out. There’s a small 1/4″ plug in the roof that I didn’t weld up when I repaired that, which is dripping on the front seat; that will just require some butyl or silicone caulk to fix. Finally, the driver’s rear window gasket is leaking a little bit at the very back corner.
The alternative is leaving a cover on the truck all the time, but I’ve found that the cover I have doesn’t breathe very well and moisture gets trapped underneath—to the point where the engine bay looks like it’s sweating. That’s not good at all. So I’m going to leave the cover off for the next month and see if I can stop the leaks enough to feel better about leaving it open to the elements.
Meanwhile, there’s a ticking sound coming from the transmission in the Scout in 4th gear under load. When I tap on the clutch pedal it goes away. I’m going to drop it off at the shop who did the work tomorrow so that they can adjust it for me; I’ve got a couple of long-distance trips coming up which are going to require a fully functional transmission that isn’t trying to eat itself, and I want to get it in as soon as possible to diagnose.
This is the spare steering wheel Tony got me last fall, completely restored with 2-part epoxy, a layer of adhesion promoter, high-quality enamel, and a top coat of UV protectant. I’m really happy with how this turned out and I can’t wait to put it on the truck.
I’ve had a set of Scout II wing window replacement gaskets on my bench since 2023, right before I bought the Travelall. Given the current temperatures and my desire to stay warm, I dug them off the bottom of the pile and decided it was time to get them installed. The kits come with two gaskets and a small bag of parts—a bunch of tiny screws and two rubber caps for the front of the window. The new rubber is beefy and strong.
The first thing to do is break down the old windows. If you’re like me, you’ve got several spares, and between all of them there might be one in good shape. They are 40+ years old at this point and have been mounted in a vehicle with a suspension designed for a covered wagon, so they’ve been shaken to pieces and baked by the sun. I’ve got four spare frames for each side, with two complete passenger frames (good hinge, good frame, solid pivot, intact latch) and one for the driver’s side. The rest have an assortment of problems: a broken hinge, broken frame, broken pivot, missing latch, or a mix-‘n-match assortment of the above. I gathered up the best of each and broke them down on the bench, starting with a driver’s assembly. The spring-loaded pivot was broken in half—a common problem—so after I disassembled it completely I welded two sections of 18 ga. steel to either side of the pivot.
Back on the workbench I installed the rubber gasket based on the instructions on Anything Scout’s video. I found the rubber pretty easy to work with, and after about ten minutes I had it installed inside the channel and ready for the next step. I fed the window back down through the pivot, making sure the washers were in place correctly, and lined it up with the outside hinge. Putting that back in place involves a pair of pop rivets on the outside front face of the frame. I stalled out two years ago because I didn’t have a rivet gun, but borrowed one from Bennett to finish this job out. The instructions say to hold the hinge as close to the frame as possible when you install, which I did.
Then I used an allen key to put four of the tiny screws into the backside of the vertical of the frame.
hard to really see it here, but the glass is cattywampus in the frame.
Opening and closing the window, I found that the top of the window wasn’t aligning with the top of the frame; the top section leans backwards by about an eighth of an inch which makes the whole thing hard to close. I figured I would try rebuilding the other side to see if I could replicate the problem and found that the same thing happened on that side too, this time to an even worse degree. It’s an easy thing to drill the pop rivets back out, so I tried that, put new ones in and got the same results. Doing this with a third test window also resulted in misaligned glass.
At this point I had two options. I tried using a wide-jawed pair of vice grips to get a solid hold on the outer bend of the hinge to try to move it outward in order to widen the gap at the top of the glass. This didn’t work; I couldn’t get enough purchase on the frame without bending the rivets to move the metal of the hinge. The next option is to buy a shoulder rivet kit from the original rubber supplier, pull both of the untouched windows out of the truck, drill the pin out of the hinges, swap the new rubber in place, and rebuild with new rivets.
My next step will be to break the spare driver’s window frame back down because the latch on the window is broken, and replacements are $100. The only good window/latch assembly I have for the driver’s side is actually on the truck, and that frame is broken at the pivot point, so it needs repairing in any case. So I’m really no further along than I was when I started.
I drove the Scout today for the first time since before Thanksgiving. I originally brought her in to deal with leaking seals on the transmission and transfer case, and while those were out I had them replace the flywheel, which was cooked, and the clutch itself. Then I had to find a new transmission mount, as mine were garbage. All of this took time, as I had to get the parts from various sources, and then they had to work the truck in around other jobs.
It was bitterly cold even though the sun was out, so I was very glad the guys at the shop ran her up for me before I got there. The final bill wasn’t cheap, as I expected, but it was work long overdue and I’m happy to have it done. The feel of the clutch is completely different now. The pedal throw is much further before it bites, which is going to take some getting used to, and the sweet spot is smaller. But it was good to get the girl out on the road and headed for home, with wind whipping through the soft top and the smell of exhaust wafting behind me.
I was able to avoid most of the wet on the roads—it’s too cold to melt, really—and I tucked her into the garage until things warm back up and I can hose any salt off the underside.
At the beginning of last year, my brother-in-law volunteered to go check out the yard in New York for me, when the guy still had a Travelette parked by his fence. On his way out, he grabbed me a spare steering wheel, which was apparently just laying on a pile of leaves. I picked it up when I was there in the summer (I believe I still owe him $10 for it) and hung it up in the basement.
Not the wheel in question, but in the same shape
I saw a post on one of the FB groups about a method for fixing the cracks these 60-year-old wheels typically collect, and saved the information for future reference. Sometime in November I bought the epoxy they recommended for the first step, and it’s been sitting on the workbench ever since. It snowed again yesterday and the temperature dropped to 20˚, which makes it hard to work outside on anything I really want to accomplish, so yesterday I decided I’d mix the epoxy up and see what kind of results I could get.
After the epoxy was applied
It was hard to work with at first, especially when it’s 10˚ colder in the basement, but once it warmed up in my hands and I added a little warm water, I was able to get it pliable. When I was satisfied it was mixed, I worked it into all of the major cracks and rebuilt a chipped area around the mount for the horn button. Using water, I smoothed out all the sections I’d added epoxy to and let it sit overnight. I was happy to find it had absolutely no smell at all; other epoxies I’ve used have had a terrible chemical stink, but this had none. It was marketed as black in color but mixed out to a dark gray, and I found that it dried almost the exact color of the existing steering wheel.
The final result. Not too shabby!
This afternoon I got my box of sanding supplies out and started working on all of the sections. I added more of the material than I needed, and in hindsight I probably could have laid it even thinner. Starting at about 1:30 I finished fine-sanding it at 3:30, going from 120 grit to 600 and then 000 steel wool. I think it needs one more run with fine-grit paper and then it’ll be ready for primer. Apparently the stuff I need is expensive (go figure) because it’s got to be able to hold up to baking summer heat, so I’ll probably wait and repair the other wheel first to spray them both out at the same time.
Pricing out the products above, it’s going to be about $75 for all three cans. But I figure the price will be worth it for a wheel that doesn’t cut my hands when I hold it. The big issue will be finding the right color to match the wheel.
I’ve finally got the initial word back on the Scout from the transmission shop. They’ve got her up on the lift and have pulled the transfer case and transmission to reseal everything, and the owner called me with some pictures of the flywheel, which looks terrible.
Those cracks are Not Good
He suggested putting a new clutch in while we’ve got everything apart, which is not cheap but probably worth the time and money now that it’s torn apart. I found a rebuilt kit at IHPA, and they hooked me up with a used flywheel which is going out for resurfacing before they send everything to me.
Given that I’ve gotten 15 years out of a used clutch with no idea of its condition when I bought the truck, I’m not as bitter as I could be; she’s given me great service for years and it’s probably time she got some driveline love. I’ve also had a transmission mount in my parts bin for about four years that I’ve meant to install which is going to the shop with the other parts.
The garage is currently empty, which is a strange feeling. I dropped the Scout off at a new garage to have the transmission looked over, after the drive back from Indiana coated the entire undercarriage with oil. It took a while to find someone who would work on the truck. My long-standing transmission shop, who had worked on it as recently as three years ago, isn’t servicing manual transmissions anymore, and the fellow who fixed the manifold for me last year didn’t want to deal with heavy stuff like that either. This new shop was recommended to me by a truck guy I’ve met at Cars & Coffee, and when I got the owner on the phone I got a good vibe from him. I drove it over on Wednesday and buttoned it up for possible rain; they told me they’d store it inside for me. So now we wait to have the problem diagnosed. If this works out, I’ll look into having the Travelall towed down there to sort out the transmission.
Speaking of that transmission, after researching it some more Sunday morning, I was surprised to find that I’ve been wrong this whole time about it. I’d thought it was a non-synchro manual like Brian has in his Scout. It’s actually a T-98A, which is synchronized in all but the first gear. I’d been thinking about how I’d have to find a more modern transmission to swap in, like the T-19 in the Scout, but maybe I won’t have to.
Meanwhile, the passenger firewall is 95% buttoned up; all that’s left is to weld the hose bracket back on to the angled face and paint the new metal. I can’t weld anything, though, because my welding gun isn’t advancing any wire. I disconnected it, put a new spool on, and checked the contacts but the wire won’t go. I called the Eastwood store on Saturday and after talking with the shop manager, he gave me the 800 number for tech support; tomorrow I’ll call them and walk through some diagnostics. The unit has a 3-year warranty so he told me they’ll send me new parts free of charge.
So, I focused on what I could Sunday afternoon by busting out the needle scaler and cleaning off the frame and underside of the passenger inner fender to prep things for encapsulator. The area under the rocker on that side got cleaned off, and the underside of the bed is curing to get ready for a layer of undercoating. I then installed weatherstripping on both of the front doors, finished painting the gas tank, and needle-scaled the frame on the driver’s side before it got dark.
Down in the basement I cut down a 12″ section of 1/4″ rod and threaded it with a 28-pitch die on both ends. The goal here is to fabricate a new rod for the mirror mount that I can swap out for the rusty one in the broken unit. Now I have to pop the endcap off of the spare mirror to test the method before I go banging on the good one.
On Saturday I got back out to the truck in the afternoon following a yard sale and continued metalwork on the truck. I had to finish welding in the floor plate first, which felt like it took more time than last Sunday, then grind down the welds on top and underneath. I was happy to see I had good weld penetration when I was down under the truck, though it makes for tired arms when you’re grinding upside-down for a half an hour.
Then I started cutting smaller sections out of the toeboard that had rusted through, including a triangle-shaped area on the A-pillar. I cut a section of new metal, got that welded in to the toeboard area, and ground it smooth, finishing up as it was getting dark.
Sunday morning I got up, walked the dog, and drove up to Frederick to pick up a steering column from another Travelall, sold by a guy I’d met last year. He’s grafted a Crown Victoria front suspension and Ranger rear on to his ’68, lowering the whole thing onto airbags and tubbing out the rear tires. It’s really cool, even if it isn’t my cup of tea. His work is really nice (he’s a bodyman), and it’s going to be a sweet truck when he’s done.
The column he sold me is a column-shift unit, which may work for what I need and may not. I think I can cobble together one good column out of the two and probably sell the steering wheel at Nats to make some money back. The plan is to get an electric steering unit from a Toyota Corolla and splice it into the column.
I had errands to run after lunch, so by the time I got back outside it was 3PM and I didn’t want to drag all of the welding gear out for just one hour. So I filled the compressor tank, busted out the needle scaler, and cleaned off the frame and undercarriage all the way up to the front axle. By 5PM I had the frame coated with Encapsulator as well as most of the underside of the body shell. That was extremely satisfying. Next it’ll all get a coat of chassis black and then the body will get a coat of undercoating.
