{"id":2912,"date":"2021-10-25T06:50:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T14:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billdugan.com\/scout\/?p=2912"},"modified":"2021-11-13T15:44:22","modified_gmt":"2021-11-13T23:44:22","slug":"picking-gristle-off-the-bone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billdugan.com\/scout\/2021\/10\/25\/picking-gristle-off-the-bone\/","title":{"rendered":"Picking Gristle Off the Bone"},"content":{"rendered":"

I drove out to my friend Dave’s house in Flintstone Sunday morning to see if there was anything else I could pick off the Scout II and Scout 80 he’s got beached up on the hill behind his house. Picking parts is fun but also like walking into a loop in the time-space continuum: after the first two hours, you think you’re ahead of the game. By 4 o’clock, you’re racing the setting sun and scrambling to do a cost-benefit analysis to gauge what’s worth pulling before you have to leave, and you still have to figure out how to stuff it all in the vehicle you brought.<\/p>\n

Both times<\/a> I’ve been there before<\/a> I scrambled for the whole day to pull as much as I could in the time that I had, and I always left thinking, “dammit<\/em>, I meant to grab ____ and ____ and ____.” Looking over the photos before I left, I knew there wasn’t a ton of stuff left, but there were<\/em> some things worth going back for. Scouts on the East Coast are getting rarer and rarer on the ground, so I’m trying to get what I can while it’s still available. Dave is a nice guy and knows his stuff isn’t going to roll across the stage at Mecum, so he’s fair on price and happy to lend a hand or grab a tool.<\/p>\n

Originally I was going to drive the Scout, so I put the traveltop back on Friday night and prepped a set of recovery tools. When that was done I installed the liftgate gas struts from IH Parts America<\/a> and marveled at how much nicer they feel than the old mechanical lift. I also put the pod on the roof of the CR-V to hedge my bets. The forecast was wishy-washy about rain and I didn’t want to drive out in the Scout if I was going to get caught in a downpour.<\/p>\n

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The morning looked lousy so I loaded up the CR-V and hit the road a little after 8.\u00a0Dave hasn’t sold anything since the last time I was up there, so I was able to pick up right where I’d left off. I walked around both trucks and hit all of the target areas with PB blaster before I busted out the impact driver and a new set of bits. Over the course of the day I was able to grab:<\/p>\n