Category: Video

Parts is Parts, Week One

I had a day of beautiful weather I wanted to take advantage of on Saturday, so I woke up early, walked the dog, and got my chores done early so I could get outside.

A lot of the highlights are covered in the video, but I’ll bullet-point them here:

  • The three spare wheels I’ve been storing under the back porch for ten years, and often considered hauling off to the trash, came in super-handy for the Travelall: they’re the same bolt pattern and they all hold air, so I swapped out the shredded flats on the truck and got it off the ground. There’s still one that’s flat but I’m going to put the one good tire that came with the truck on there and shoot it with some stop-leak. This means that the wheels won’t fit the red Travelall and I can toss them all out when it’s time to get rid of this truck. The green truck now looks 6% less redneck.
  • Jacking up the truck in back to swap said tires, I found that the top leaf in the driver’s spring pack was cracked in half. I may still try to pull those off to have re-arched at some point, but I have to measure them all first to see if they’ll fit the Red Bus.
  • I tore the carpet off the floors front and rear, and found lots of rust underneath. There are two huge sections under the front seats that are completely gone, and giant patches of rust in the back. My tub is definitely in much better shape here.
  • It always takes more time to get parts off a truck than you think. As long as I’ve been doing this, I’m always stupidly  optimistic in terms of what I believe I can accomplish. Putting in a full day Saturday, I got all of the trim off, the roof rack removed, four aluminum sill plates, the visors and rearview mirror, the headlights, tail lights, and both front marker lights. And then I spent two hours getting the driver’s fender off. It’s in excellent shape and should clean up really well, so it was definitely worth it. I got about half the bolts off the passenger side before I had to pack things in; the most painful bolts need to soak in PBblaster for a week or so. Somehow I thought I’d have half the truck apart already.
  • I’m going to have to hook a battery up to try and lower the rear window to get the gate open. The chances of this being successful are about 1000/1. When that doesn’t work, I’ll have to get a thick Phillips-head screwdriver on the 6-8 bolts at the bottom of the inside panel to get access to the motor. The chances of this being successful are 500/1. But the tailgate—and more importantly, the glass—are very much worth the effort. Jeff J. tells me the glass is curved and very hard to find.

  • Jeff also tells me the power steering box on this truck won’t work on my truck; this truck (with IFS) has a boxed frame while mine is channeled, and there are differences in where the steering box goes and how it mounts. Rats. 
  • Also, the front grille assembly won’t fit my truck; the 1965+ trucks had a square opening in the sheet metal while mine is scalloped on the ends. Doesn’t matter, I’m taking it all off anyway.
  • I pulled on the fan blade to see if the engine would turn, and it’s stuck tight. Once I can drain the radiator and pull that out, I’ll have room to see if I can get a socket on the crank bolt and put a breaker bar on it. Maybe I’ll pull the plugs and soak the cylinders in Marvel Mystery Oil; we’ll see.
  • I wasn’t able to get the cowl cover off to put the borescope in to check out the vents down there, but judging by the rusted edges on each side and the pile of debris that fell out when I opened the driver’s vent, I’d guess they’re pretty well shot.
  • I did a fair bit of ADHD scatterbrain picking before I settled down and focused on a few main items. I had actually written down a list based on a strategy of keeping the outer shell together to keep it looking respectable while I take all of the interior parts out, but hubris got the better of me. The driver’s fender is now hung with one bolt. I’m going to do the same with the passenger side, then work on the front clip. Inside the engine bay there are a lot of parts that will stay behind, and I’ll get as much as I can out of there before I start dismantling the interior.

So in rough order, here’s the basic plan:

  1. Get the passenger fender off
  2. Get the inner fenders ready to pull off
  3. Drain the coolant, and pull the radiator out
  4. Remove the heating box from inside the cab
  5. Pull the plugs and put some Marvel Mystery oil in the cylinders; see if the engine will turn
  6. Continue pulling the front cowl off
  7. Put a battery in and see if the rear window will go down
    1. If yes, then open the tailgate and get the glass out
    2. If no, then get a larger screwdriver and try to get the bolts off to open the access panel
  8. Remove the rear tailgate
  9. Pull the rear bumper off
  10. Remove the entire power steering assembly
  11. Pull the brake booster assembly
  12. Pull out the front bench and base
  13. Dismantle and remove the entire dashboard
  14. Pull the steering wheel out
  15. Pull out all internal trim
    1. Ceiling surround channel
    2. Extra ceiling hoops
    3. Armrests, other minor trim
  16. Pull the front bumper off
  17. Take the doors off
  18. Take the hood off
  19. Take the inner and outer fenders off
  20. Maybe pull the good leaf spring off?
Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Parts is Parts, Week One  |  Posted in Junkyards, Travelall, Video

February Update

I’ve had a bunch of shorter clips in the hopper for a while, and figured I’d collect them into something resembling an update.

On the project side of things, I used a heat gun to remove all of the old bondo on the driver’s side fender, then cut off the pop rivets used to hold a crappy patch in place installed Back in The Day.

When I had that out, I cut a larger square out to get things ready for a proper butt-welded patch. The other thing I had to do was to try and bend the rear edge of the fender outward and back into original position. At some point somebody really bashed it inwards so it never looked correct when it was hung on the truck. I was able to get it mostly back into place, and used my everyday hammer to do some dent removal. At this point I want to get an actual bodywork hammer and bag to pound out the larger dents instead of trying to hide sins with filler.

Once I had that cleaned up, I cut down a section of metal and tacked it into place. I’m going to have to finesse the bottom edge a little bit—or grind this off and re-orient it further down—but it looks like it’ll go in pretty easily.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on February Update  |  Posted in Travelall, Video, Welding

Welding and Sanding

Here’s a quick breakdown of the repairs to my spare fender. I started with an order to SendCutSend for a set of new laser-cut steel donuts for the outside and inside edges, as well as three 1/2″ strips to bend for a flange to connect both. I welded the outer flange in first because it had a slight curve, then built an inside section and tacked that in place. When I saw that it would collect rain the way I’d built it, I used a second donut and strip to mount flush to the outside edge and tacked it all in place. Next was welding a small patch in at the bottom, where water and mud pool and rust the metal out from the inside.

While that was cooling I sanded the top layer of blue paint off the fender to reveal some past damage and Bondo, which was not unexpected. I skimmed some Bondo over the two welds and sanded everything down, but the fuel mount area is going to need a lot more attention. I’m looking around for alternatives to off-the-shelf Bondo and have found that Evercoat products seem to get good reviews, so I think I’ll buy a gallon of that in the springtime to continue bodywork projects.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Welding and Sanding  |  Posted in Repairs, Travelall, Video, Welding

Weekly Roundup, 11.6

I had to run out on errands Sunday morning, and the weather was in the upper 60’s, so I grabbed Finn and we rolled out in the Scout for a fall adventure. Our first stop was down in Pasadena at the Eastwood store, where I needed to pick up some chassis black and a tube of seam sealer. As we wandered the store, my old friend Steven G. walked in, as he was shopping for supplies for his Scout. We caught up for a bit, and talked about getting a fall meetup together, and then I exited the store in a hurry before I was tempted to buy anything else. We stopped at the Home Depot for some other supplies and a precut 2×4′ sheet of plywood and headed home.

In the driveway, I pulled the original bumper off the mounts and hung it in place to see exactly how well it’ll fit. I think it needs a little more standoff than the original had, but with another 2″ or so it will work perfectly. I think I can make the original mounts work for the short term, and when I can get my hands on some larger longer box steel I’ll fabricate a permanent mount.

I opened up the rear doors and started brushing on the chassis black over encapsulator, and got a good portion of it done before the sun went down. The chassis paint is a lot thinner than the encapsulator, and tends to make more of a mess. While I was out there, Brian T. stopped by on his way back over the bridge, and we caught up for the first time in a couple of months.

After closing up the truck and garage, I brought the sheet of plywood in to the basement, turned on the football game, and set it up as a mounting rack for my spare wiring loom. The goal here is to rebuild the wiring loom so that I can pull the old one out and replace it with this. I’d originally contacted Super Scouts to price out a brand new loom, but after several weeks of waiting I was told their wiring specialist is two months behind. So I’ll take advantage of the inside time and learn how to disassemble, test, and rebuild the one I’ve got. One thing I am going to reach out to them about are some replacements for the bulkhead connectors I’ve got, to see if I can get any with intact mounting tabs.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Weekly Roundup, 11.6  |  Posted in Friends, Purchasing, Travelall, Video

Weekly Roundup, 7.21.23

I had to make some space in the garage on Sunday after we got back, and took the opportunity to break out the wire wheel and clean off both seat bases.

After a coat of Rust Encapsulator I brushed on some black chassis coating and let them cure.

Monday we dropped the Scout off at a mechanic for them to replace the manifold and gasket.

Out in the garage I looked over the two seat bases and test fit them in the truck. The rear base will need some bracing but it’s definitely usable. Then, looking for someplace to store parts, I hauled the rear bench out and put it in the truck. It’s really not in bad shape at all, and it looks right at home in there.

The new door cards, behind all of the grease and rust, were originally the same gray as the ones in the truck. I test fit the drivers side to test a hunch, and I was right: there are two holes present to mount an armrest behind the door handle which line up with the door cards. So I’ll have to keep an eye out for those in the future.

I started cataloging parts and identifying what they are. Two of the door assemblies are clearly from a later truck, and they’re both for the right side, so I’ll see if I can resell them at some point. The rear door hinges are in good shape, and I started soaking them in PBblaster to remove various bolts from the assemblies. The glass went up into the attic. I’ve got to pick up a third bin for spare parts and keep working on storage solutions. One thing for sure is that the two PT cruiser seats left over from the Scout are going to the dump instead of taking up space.

Thursday after work I went right outside and decided it was time to lose the platform and old seats. I don’t have a ton of free space in the garage, and what better location to put it all than in the truck. Plus, I wanted to see what the floor looked like underneath.

First the seats came out; they were held in by eight bolts each, and the four rear inboard bolts on both seats were inaccessible underneath, so I had to use the grinder to cut them off. With those gone it took a little while to free up the platform and pull that out; underneath I found decades of dirt, one mouse nest, and some garbage.

After donning a mask and cleaning all that out I disassembled the rear platform base and the extender on the back step.

The floors are all in fantastic shape. The worst part is on the driver’s rear step by the door: water was probably getting in through the door seal and pooling between the wood and the metal. I should be able to cut that part out and weld new metal in. Under the driver’s seat there’s mainly surface rust which can be ground out pretty easily, and a few other small areas that can be cleaned up.

And when those seats are gone, I’ve got to figure out how to get a 4×8′ sheet of 18 gauge steel home from the supplier in Elkridge next week. I purchased it over the phone Thursday afternoon for pickup, and hopefully I’ll have the Scout back by the end of the week. With that and a $30 pneumatic metal nibbler I should be able to start welding things back together on the truck.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Weekly Roundup, 7.21.23  |  Posted in Inspiration, Purchasing, Seats, Travelall, Video

Brakes, Then Clutch

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I made progress on the Travelall on Sunday afternoon after I’d knocked out a bunch of other tasks around the house. I’m still working on the inoperable brake and clutch system, so I started by disconnecting the hard lines to the master cylinder and rigging up a bench bleed system so that I could test it out. The system primed itself quickly, and after I knew it was working I had to fight the hard lines to get them reconnected to the cylinder. When that was done, I jumped back in the truck and tried both pedals. Amazingly, the brake pedal now had lots of resistance, but I still wasn’t getting anything out of the clutch pedal.

Leaving the brakes for the time being, I tried multiple methods for bleeding the clutch cylinder with no success. In the middle of all of this, I jumped in the Scout to move it up the driveway and mistakenly drove over the brake fluid bottle, sending brake fluid all over the driveway and on the back of the Accord. I had to spend the next hour and half hosing off the driveway and washing the car to make sure brake fluid didn’t eat away at the paint or asphalt. That sucked.

Monday afternoon I rallied after spending a nice aimless morning sitting on the couch and fighting off the urge to take a nap. I re-read the bleed directions for the slave cylinder, then went out and got it set up for a two-person operation. With Jen’s help on the clutch pedal I was able to bleed all of the air out of the line and the cylinder into a catch bottle, then buttoned everything up in the expectation that I’d be able to put it in gear.

Unfortunately, all I could do was grind gears. There’s a chance the clutch rod isn’t adjusted long enough to throw out the clutch all the way, but beyond that I’m pretty stumped. I’m going to run through some more diagnostics now that the pedal actually works, and see what I can find.

I also attempted to bring the idle mixture down on the carb, with no success. She really wants to idle high for some reason; both screws are pretty much all the way in the bore of the carb, and I brought the curb idle screw in a bunch as well. Spraying starting fluid around the base of the carb revealed no vacuum leaks, and every hose coming off the carb or manifold is either connected or plugged. So I’ve got to sort that out as well. The challenge moving forward is that the weather, which has been remarkably mild and friendly through the first half of June, is about to turn wet and rainy, and I might not be able to do much with this forecast.

Moving to the Scout, a lot of the advice I’m reading on the Binder Planet has me confused; there are some saying my symptoms point to actual rod knock and some that don’t. I only hear it when I get on the gas, so I’m unclear as to whether or not this is knock or could be something to do with the timing or possibly a water pump going bad. The other thought is that the heat riser valve itself is bad, or there’s another exhaust leak somewhere else. I’ve got a cheap Harbor Freight stethoscope so I’m going to pull a tire today and take a listen to see if I can hear anything with that at idle. Then I’ll dig my timing light out of the box and check the timing itself to see where that stands; if it’s retarded or advanced I’ll bring it back to zero and see if that helps. Then I’ll try the next non-invasive diagnosis—one of the accessories going bad, or a hidden exhaust leak.

The next step will be to take the Straight Steer bar off, drain the new oil and drop the oil pan itself to see if there’s any metal at the bottom—if there is indeed a bad bearing or worn cam lobe, something solid should show up at the bottom of the pan; if there is and it doesn’t stick to a magnet it’ll be bearings.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Brakes, Then Clutch  |  Posted in Repairs, Video

Runner!

In the quest to get the Travelall running, I started amassing a pile of new parts based on my attempts with friends smarter and more experienced than me. When Erick stopped over he shook his head sadly at my old distributor, so I ordered a brand new HEI unit and then had to wait while it was on backorder. During that time, I spent a total of about $8 on the correct points unit and five minutes installing it, and suddenly I had spark at the wires. So I pulled the carburetor off and soaked it in some cleaner Friday night, then followed a set of instructions online to rebuild it.

It was exceptionally clean inside, but the gaskets had all fused to the metal so I had to spend a good bit of time scraping and sanding the paper off all the surfaces. The accelerator pump diaphragm had solidified, so that got replaced. Once I’d cleaned everything reassembly was straightforward—the Holley 2300 is a very simple carburetor to work on compared to my Thermoquads.

Sunday afternoon, after chasing a generator all over town, I re-installed the carburetor and filled it up with fuel for giggles. This time I followed some of the advice I’d seen online and filled the bowl with fuel before turning the key over. After a couple of tries and the addition of even more fuel, I was happily stunned when she caught and turned over for a few brief seconds:

Flush with success, I started modifying fuel lines to simplify the delivery system and plumbed the boat tank/fuel pump combo to charge the carb. There were no leaks (huzzah!) so I primed the carb and turned her over: after thinking about it for a minute, she fired right up and idled immediately. I topped off the coolant and let her run for a few minutes, noting that the idle was fast—that’ll get adjusted this week—and that there’s a little clatter here and there. The tailpipe sounded good and only a little soot came out, which is a good sign there are no critter nests in the muffler.

So I’ve got a fancy HEI distributor that’s going right back to California this week for a refund. While I was idling the truck I started really looking under the hood and finally clocked that the clutch is a hydraulic system paired with the brake cylinder, which explains why both pedals have no life in them. I’ve got to source a dual cylinder and a shit-ton of soft brake lines as well as a flaring tool and start replacing those in order to get any kind of gear-changing going. Which is good, as the next project on the list is rebuilding the rear drums.

The truck is currently up on two jackstands with the rear wheels off, waiting for two new tires to arrive at my local NTB from TireRack. I pulled the drums off and I’ll have those resurfaced when I have the tire mounted, and I can spend evenings this week rebuilding each rear drum. I’m only mounting one tire because the fourth rim is 15″ and won’t accept the tire, so I have to source a 16″ rim with a 3″ backspacing and 4.5″ bolt pattern from somewhere (ideally, I’d find two).

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Runner!  |  Posted in Repairs, Travelall, Video

Weekly Roundup, 3.24

I removed three sections of the inner fender skirting a couple of weeks ago in order to look at the starter and wiring. In the video above, they would hide the frame rail at about 1:30—you can see the speed clips that hold them in there. I’d cleaned them up with the wire wheel and sandblaster last weekend, and took advantage of 60˚ weather today to shoot them with Rust Encapsulator and then two coats of flat black. They’ll get one shot of undercoating and then go back on the truck so that I don’t forget what they are or where they came from.

A big box sealed with IHPA stickers arrived on Monday. Inside were two wrapped bundles: Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the 1962-71 Pickup & Travelall Service Manual, unbound, prepunched for a 3-ring binder. Each bundle is about 2″ thick, so I have to hit the Staples to find a solid pair of binders to protect them. This will be my bible for the next couple of years as I resurrect the Travelall, and I’m sure it will pay for itself many times over.

Looking through my books, I realized I have thre different Scout service manuals—a new bound reprint, and two original IH printed copies, one of which is incomplete. This makes me think of building a list of stuff to bring up to Nationals to sell:

  • Original bound IH Scout II service manual
  • A somewhat ratty Scout 80 windshield—I might have to clean this up before I bring it out there
  • An early Scout 80 heater plenum, not refurbished
  • A spare Scout II windshield—it’s not pretty, but it’s worth good money
  • A spare rear Scout II seat
  • A (mostly) complete Scout II air conditioning setup—IH compressor, cabin unit, and refurbished stock plenum
  • An air cleaner for a V8 (the diameter of the air cleaner opening is too narrow for my Thermoquad)
  • A 1965-66 grille for a D-series pickup (this is the original I bought for the red bus that doesn’t fit).

In order to not make the folks running Nationals mad, I’m going to post them on the Binder Planet with a clear note that I’m bringing them with me to exchange but  that I’m not interested in shipping. I figure the Scout windshield, D grille and maybe the 80 windshield will sell.

Speaking of Nationals, I sent in my registration last week and blocked off my work calendar, so I’ll be headed out to Ohio the first full week of June. I’m planning on leaving Thursday so we get there on Friday with enough time to scope the new venue out (it’s in Springfield this year, not at the Troy airfield) so things will be a bit different. I think we’re staying at the same hotel we always do, however.

In the meantime, I put the Travelall on my Hagerty insurance plan to prepare for a trip to the MVA for a title and plate change. For that process, I need the Vermont paperwork, the bill of sale, and proof of insurance. I’m in no rush there, but it’s good to have it on the policy.

On Tuesday I swapped the aftermarket roof racks from the Scout over to the Travelall in preparation for three solid days of rain; I’m going to lay some boards down over top of the racks and then hang a tarp over the whole thing to keep the cowl and windshield section dry. This is going to be the strategy for keeping her out of the rain until I can remediate those problems, and I figure it’s going to go through some modifications until I get it sorted out. The other bonus is that I can drop some plywood down and sit or lay on the roof rack while I grind out the rust up there, instead of working on a ladder. We’ll see how that goes.

Another package arrived today: a true ’63-’64 grille for the Travelall. This one is indented on either side to avoid the headlight buckets, and the grille pattern should allow for getting one’s hands inside to release the secondary hood latch—the current vertical grille makes that pretty much impossible. It’s not perfect, but perhaps some careful straightening and polishing will get it looking better—and who am I kidding, nothing on the truck looks good right now. Also, I can bolt it in place instead of relying on zip ties.

Looking at the cab floors the other day I investigated a little further and saw that they were both cut out and replaced with flat steel at some point. From what I can see the steel was laid over top of the old floor but I can’t see how it was attached—whether it was welded, glued, or something else. That’s not bad news, actually, because I might be able to cleanly cut out the bad stuff and weld in some good stuff on the driver’s side. The passenger side is the question: it looks like that’s the original floor.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Weekly Roundup, 3.24  |  Posted in Future Plans, Travelall, Video