Floorpan, Continued

I spent a couple of evenings this past week breaking down the green Travelall doors and collecting all of the parts to see how things look. The passenger door is in worse shape than the driver’s; there’s a fair bit of rust-through under the wing window on the bottom. Both doors are down to the metal, but on each one the lower hinge needs to be drilled out. That may make reusing them both tricky, but I think careful screw removal and re-tapping the hole is possible. Both windows, scissor assemblies, latch mechanisms, and most of the window channels are all in good shape. I’ve also got a second set of pre-’65 door latches for both sides from my friend Don in Ohio, which will come in handy as spares in case I need them.

The other thing Don sent me was a spare set of IH mirror assemblies. One of them is basically just the bracket, but the other held the mirror housing (minus the mirror) which actually worked in my favor, because I can see how the interior parts are assembled. Essentially there’s a long rod that goes through the center, threaded at each end, and held in place with two brackets welded to the rod. So even if I wanted to pull the rod out of my good housings I couldn’t.

To recap, the threads on one of my good mirrors was so rusted the bolts snapped off on each side, leaving me with no way to attach it to the bracket. Pretty much the only way I can make my good mirror work is to carefully pull one of the endcaps off, pull the threaded rod out, and replace it with a new one. The rod is pretty simple; it’s 1/4″ and takes a 1/4″ – 28 thread, which is easy to find a die for. It’s getting the cap off that worries me. It’s thin steel over an aluminum housing, so I have to be very careful taking things apart.

Saturday I stopped in at a neighborhood estate sale and picked up $20 worth of brand-name used tools that will come in handy for backups and spares, including four vice-grips and several wrenches.

Sunday I got back out to the truck and continued cutting and welding new metal in to the passenger’s footwell. I wound up taking more metal out, as I was having blow-through issues with bad metal and finding some pinholes as I was cleaning other sections. I think I’ve got all of the bad stuff out, and the stuff that’s still mildly pockmarked just got a thick coat of encapsulator. Underneath I ground out the rest of the welds and got it ready for paint. All of this took the majority of the day, as I was doing a lot of cutting and trimming, which sent me back and forth to the bench grinder.

The paint cured overnight and is now ready for seam sealer, which will be applied liberally around the edges before everything gets primed. On the outside edge of the footwell I ground everything flat and covered it in etch primer; it’s going to get several coats of chassis black and then a layer of undercoating to keep out the water.

Finally, I used some vinegar to flush out the inside of the gas tank and let that sit for a day and a half , shaking it around inside to get the crud out and neutralize any rust. Running a borescope down inside the tank, it looks shockingly clean apart from the remains of mud dauber nests. I flushed it with water and a solution of baking soda, then flushed it again and set it out to dry. The outside was covered with undercoating and some surface rust along the top and sides, so i hit that with a wire wheel and quickly got the whole thing down to bare metal. When the top and sides were clean I covered the trouble spots with Encapsulator and the bare spots with etch primer. I’m back and forth about pulling the fuel sender, but leaning towards leaving it in, as I know that it works and don’t want to mess with that.

So in the next couple of days when the temperature gets above 60˚ I’m going to apply sealer and paint to button up as much as I can.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Floorpan, Continued  |  Posted in Purchasing, Welding

The Verdict

I really dig this. I think they got a lot of things right here. Among others:

  • 200M range, with an optional range-extending ICE engine—this is the way
  • Split rear tailgate with a swing-away tire carrier
  • 4 doors but a silhouette pointing directly back at Scout II design cues (called the Traveler)
  • A 4 door pickup version, called the Terra
  • Optional bench seat!!
  • Buttons for the controls, not touchscreens
  • Multiple roof options (but no removable top)
  • Solid rear axle
  • Body on frame construction
  • Projected price point: $50-60K

It’s still pricey for our budget, but I would really love to move to an electric vehicle in something like this.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   2 Comments on The Verdict  |  Posted in Inspiration

Welding and Steering

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.

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

X-Ray Vision

I stumbled upon a re-listing of C1100 parts on Marketplace by a nice fellow named Don, who I’d bought a handful of things from earlier this year. One of the things in the upper corner of the picture that caught my eye was a set of West Coast mirror mounts, which immediately prompted me to get in touch. He sent me back a picture of them both, cautioning me that one was just the mount and the other was the mirror assembly minus the mirror. I told him that was what I was interested in.

This is almost as good as having an intact mirror; now I can see what the inside looks like and how my existing mirror is built without taking it apart. In the best case scenario I can pull the rod out of this one and put it in mine; in the worst case I can get a new threaded rod and fix the good one myself.

He’s also got a set of pre-’64 door latches, which are a lot more rare on the ground than the spares I’ve got, and something I can refurb on the bench and install at my leisure. We settled on a very fair price, and he’s going to throw the stuff in a box and ship it out to me next week.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on X-Ray Vision  |  Posted in Purchasing

Steering and Commerce

I popped on Marketplace Wednesday morning to find that a fellow up in Frederick, who I’ve talked to before, has a Travelall steering column for sale. Crucially, it’s from a straight-axle manual steering truck, which means it should be a direct replacement for the one in the red bus. Which means I would have a direct replacement/test case for an electric steering setup. He’s got the manual box and some other odds and ends, so I’m going to make plans to go up and get it.

While I was on that site, I got a notification and found that my old college buddy Mike bought one of my shirts and was modeling it! I think it looks great. I should have several of my own arriving shortly—a longsleeve and a shortsleeve that I can use on the videos to model. I also ordered a sticker while I was there and was….less than impressed. The material is flimsy and the sticker is small. I’m going to pull these from the storefront and stick with my other vendors, I think.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Steering and Commerce  |  Posted in Inspiration, Purchasing

Welding Projects

The worst rust on this truck, besides the stuff I cleaned up on the roof, was in the passenger footwell. As a result of the same leaks that doomed the cowl and heater box, water got in and sat on the metal under the passenger’s floormat, collecting mainly at the diagonal seam from the tunnel. At some point the PO had fixed the same issue on the driver’s side by hacking a hole out of the floor and welding a crude patch over top, then covering it with some kind of bizarre rubberized material.

Knowing my gas tank was mostly empty, and because it’s only hooked up to the gas feed, I figured this was the best time to attack the rust. I jacked up the passenger side of the truck at three points on the frame and secured it with jackstands. The tank is held in place by a pair of clever straps that secure to two captive bolts on the underside of the body, and one came free easily, while the other captive bolt broke off from its weld. After I cut that loose and disconnected the hoses up front, the tank dropped out easily. I was surprised to find an access hole directly above the sender unit, which should be very helpful down the road. I was shocked to find I’d dropped the tank in under an hour.

I pulled the tank aside and looked over the floor situation. Starting with the area at the front, I cut out the rust that looked the worst, making a rough rectangle with a triangle-shaped section following the seam at the upper left. The body mount and frame mount underneath both looked like they were in great shape, and the metal underneath everything was in factory-fresh condition. I hated to cut a lot of it out, but I wanted to get as much good stuff in there as possible.

When I’d squared off and cleaned up the edges, I cut some cardboard out and carefully made a template to work from. This took some time, because the open area was deceivingly complex in shape.

When I had that sorted, I pulled a sheet of 18 ga. metal from my stash and cut the pattern out. With a bunch of trimming and fitting, I had it ready to go in by about 4PM. Being careful to take my time, I tacked the edges in slowly using butt welds. The section along the rocker got welded from the underside where the good metal was; I didn’t want to cut the raised section out because I can’t replicate that, so I’m taking a chance and keeping it. All of this is going to be treated as heavily as possible with rust encapsulator/undercoating, so I’m hoping I can halt any new rust from forming in the future.

By 5PM it was getting dark so I shut things down after a preliminary sweep with the flap disc. I’m kind of shocked at how much I was able to get done in one day’s time; the process went really smoothly and I’m a lot more confident in my basic fabrication skills, as well as welding.

The other quick thing I tackled was to weld a second set of tabs in on the seat lockbox so that I can drill holes and mount that in permanently. I’m going to clean up the chipped rattle-can paint and hit it with the clear coat just to protect it a little better, but I’d like to finish that up in preparation for the seats later this winter.

One thing I need to upgrade is my safety glass situation. Running the cutting wheel early in the day with my safety glasses on, I got a couple small pieces of debris in my right eye for the second week in a row. After fishing that stuff out I found a pair of old goggles and wore those for the rest of the day, but there’s got to be a better solution. If I’m going to be grinding this much I need a full-coverage set of prescription goggles.

The other thing that was nice was that my $1 yard sale iPod Nano has a built-in radio receiver, which meant I was able to listen to the Ravens game wearing goggles, ear protection, a dust mask, and my glasses on.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   9 Comments on Welding Projects  |  Posted in Welding

Heater Box

Yesterday I got a late start on the red bus after I had a little trouble with the Scout. I’d driven her to get a haircut and pick up some new bolts for the heater box, and she started immediately in the driveway. When I came back out after the trim, she wouldn’t start. I was a little nervous because Jen was already on the road to Southern Maryland and I was on my own. First I checked for gas, and sure enough I was getting plenty of that in the carburetor. The air filter was clean so I knew that wasn’t the problem. My next thought was that maybe the coil had died so I pulled the spare out of my recovery box and swapped it in quickly. I still wasn’t getting the motor to catch so I did what I should’ve done first and pull the cap and rotor off to check the points. Sure enough, there was corrosion around all of the contacts on the inside of the cap, so I cleaned those off with sandpaper and the top of the rotor.

Replacing everything, I squirted a little fluid in the carb, crossed my fingers and tried starting it. At first she didn’t want to catch, but after about five seconds, she slowly caught and began running. I let her idle for a couple of minutes and then turned her off and started her again to test it out. Thankfully she started right back up. So I continued running errands for the rest of the morning and came home. I have no idea why she would have run so well in the morning but not after she’d warmed up and dried out.

Saturday’s goal was to get the heater box installed in the red bus. After some finagling with the box itself, I connected the cable from the dashboard to the passenger vent, which took a little bit of time because I couldn’t find the retainer clip that went on the chimney. I went through three of my bins before I found a tall plastic container marked “Random Travelall Bolts”. I spread those out on the table and found the clip I was looking for. With that installed, I put the box in place and used three new bolts to mount it to the firewall firmly. Then I made a mess on the driveway hooking the coolant hoses back up. I hooked up the leads to the heater box and tested those out to the switch on the dash; it turns out that switch system is keyed to the ignition, so with the ignition off, it doesn’t work. But the blower motor does fire up, so that’s another electrical question solved.

Next, I took the heater plenum, mounted that back up to the box and attached the defrost cable to the dash control. All of the cables are pretty crusty so it took some WD-40 and some effort to get those to work a little better. Both of the heater hoses are 60 years old and pretty dry rotted so I’m going to have to buy some new hose to hook up to the defrost vents.

Because I don’t want to pay $50 for two small door clips I went to the garage and pulled OEM clips out of my second set of Scout doors. While I had the passenger door free I pulled the wing window assembly out, which is in almost perfect working condition, and swapped it for the less-than-perfect replacement in Peer Pressure. It took all of about 1/2 hour and went extremely smoothly. I dunked the clips in Evaporust overnight and sprayed them with Rust-Stop.

Then I worked on the driver’s side door lock to try to figure out why it didn’t unlatch from the inside, and why the lock cylinder still fell out of the lock. The passenger side worked as it should—I could lock and unlock the door and the cylinder stayed in the lock on that side, but crucially, the inside and outside doorhandles worked the way they were supposed to on that door. There was something wrong with the driver side door mechanism that I wasn’t able to figure out.

So I pulled the spare green driver’s door out of the garage, laid it on the table, and continued disassembling it. I started this process back in March, but the weather got warm pretty fast and I put it aside for outside work. Continuing where I left off, in about an hour, I was able to get the entire door stripped down. I put the door latch mechanism back in to test out how the key worked with the rest of the system; it’s a lot more complicated than the one on the Scout and I couldn’t figure out how the key mechanism interacted with the door latch to stop the door latch from working.

Sunday morning I walked the dog and took care of some small errands before getting back outside; it was another beautiful day so it felt great to spend it outside. The first thing I worked on was the driver’s door; I realized pretty quickly that the rod on the back of the lock never made it into the mechanism and thus was spinning freely. D’oh! Once I set it in place, the lock worked exactly as designed, and I felt a lot better. I swapped the refurbished clip in on the passenger side and verified that both doors lock and unlock from each side.

Then I padded the top of the truck and pulled the canopy down carefully. I was hesitant to do this, but I’m going to need as much light as I can get under there, and I can’t have the canopy up forever. The top of the truck really looks good in the sunlight; it’s great to see my work clearly for the first time.

(the water hadn’t dried completely in the photo above)

I put some gas in the carb and fired the engine up for as long as that lasted; she turned over immediately. I really can’t wait to get the fuel system buttoned up for good, but I think I’m going to drop the tank this winter and weld some new metal in on the passenger floor while it’s empty.

I spent the rest of the day farting around with some small stuff; now that the canopy is down I have to finish up the weatherstripping. So I pulled the old rubber off the driver’s door and ran a nylon brush around the perimeter to clean off all the old adhesive, then hit it with some red Rust-Stop. When that’s cured for 24 hours I’ll put new rubber around the perimeter of the door to seal things up.

The biggest win was finding out why the turn signals stopped working: I pulled the instrument panel and found that one of the leads to the temp gauge had come off when I was messing with the bulkhead connectors. Hooking that back up, I got signals back, and I felt immensely better about that situation. So: progress on a couple of fronts that I’m feeling really good about.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Heater Box  |  Posted in Electrical, Progress, Travelall