I put another solid day in on the green truck in an effort to get it parted out and moved along as soon as possible. The focus for this day was to get the rear tailgate down and prepped for removal, the seats pulled out, and the brake system drained and removed.
First things first, though: it was warm enough to get the pressure washer out and start hosing the whole thing down. Most of the dirt and lichen came off easily, and some more of the green paint gave way to the red underneath. I got a ladder out and cleaned as much of the dirt off the roof as possible—it’s making the fuzzy inside part of the car cover filthy.
With that done I put the battery back in the truck and lowered the window as much as I possibly could, and then tried the latch—which worked! The gate came down hesitantly. I think the hinges were full of rust and they didn’t want to budge. When that had come down I was able to use the impact hammer to loosen all but three of the bolts holding the inside cover on, and cut those off with the grinding wheel. With the panel open I could see how the door was assembled and mostly what I’d have to do to get it off—I think it’s going to be the hinges mounted underneath the rear deck, which means I have to get the bumper off to access them.
Next I wanted to get the heater box out of the cab, so I cut the bolts off the firewall and disconnected the hoses coming to the engine, which were dry as a bone. The box fell inwards into the cab, and I spent way too much time trying to get the rear cover off the box to disconnect the control linkage when I should have just started with an Allen wrench to pull the knobs off the dashboard. Eventually, I did this, and they all came out much easier than I figured they would. I labeled everything and hauled the box to the tailgate to look it over: it’s rough. I don’t know if I’ll be able to refurbish it, but I might give it a shot with Brian’s metal brake, maybe this winter.
After some lunch, I put a mask on and cut the cover off the front bench seat, vacuuming off years of dust and mouse poop, and made it so I could access the mounting bolts underneath. I don’t have an intact bench seat so I was surprised when the seat portion just popped up and off the frame. With that out of the way it was easy to pull the seat out and put it in the driveway.
After that was out, I got the IH-branded seatbelts off the floor. Two screwed right out but the other two (the ones mounted directly over the existing gas tank) required the grinding wheel. But they all came off in one piece, and now I’ve got slick IH seatbelts for the front bench.
Cleaning up after myself, I must have shoveled about five pounds of rust out of the cab. The cowl vent on the passenger side is so much worse than the one on the Red bus ever was. I don’t know if there would be enough there for me to repair, honestly.
I still had the power washer out in the driveway so I cleaned the bench seat frame and blew a bunch of mildew off the seat, then set them both out to dry.
Toward the end of the day I knew there was some rain coming, so I started the cycle of heat/penetrant on the pressure fittings going into the brake cylinder, eventually getting one to come off cleanly, one to give me a little bit of a fight before it let go, and twisting the third into a pretzel before it gave way. I loosened the bolts on the firewall and was about to find a way to drain both that and the clutch cylinder when it started to drizzle.
Sunday our Easter plans got changed at the last minute so I spent some time in the yard, clearing leaves out from under the porch and clearing out the greenhouse, which were both way overdue. I pulled the Scout out of the garage to access tools, and while I had it in the driveway I took some advice from Bennett and tightened up the bolt to the exhaust manifold on the passenger side, which had come very loose. And magically, my loud exhaust leak was gone!
I pulled the bench seat out into the sun of the driveway to dry off, and late in the day mounted it in the Red bus. For the first time since I bought this truck, I was sitting in the proper seat behind the wheel, and it felt really good! Things like that keep me motivated for sure.
I then spent some time in the garage moving things around to make room, taking some pictures of the Hollywood doors for Bennett, who said he’d be interested in them (which is great, as I need to make space for four Travelall doors shortly) and measuring the box I made for storing the spare rear glass. I’ve got to run to the Lowe’s for more plywood to build out proper crates, and then I’ll be ready to cut the glass out and store it carefully.
This evening I’m pretty wiped out—tired and sore. But I got a lot accomplished, and I’m getting closer to the finish line; the big question is where I’m going to store all this stuff.
