This weekend, Mr. Scout took me to the magical, mystical wonderland of cheap Chinese tools: the local Harbor Freight retail store. It’s amazing how much incredible stuff they can jam into one small location, and how cheap everything is. I wouldn’t buy sockets there and trust them to last more than a year, but to have a throwaway set handy the prices can’t be beat. I took a coupon with me and scored a 4½” angle grinder for $20. Mr. Scout settled for a torque wrench and we both left before we could do any more damage.
Meanwhile, Mr. Soundman made a journey to Virginia to pick up a donor Scout and a load of parts in a box truck. He graciously offered extra space to anybody who needed parts, so I took him up on the offer.
He brought me back two doors with hinges, mounting brackets, full glass, metal inserts and hardware:
Under the doors were a traveltop in decent shape, minus the original liftgate and with some minor rust issues along the back lip area, a liftgate with good hinges, and a step bumper with some minor bending issues.
Finally, there was a plastic tray containing an assortment of hard-to-replace plastic lenses for marker and indicator lights, some door hardware, and miscellaneous other items:
Of course, the weather turned frigid on Saturday, and it started snowing Sunday evening, so any playtime I might have enjoyed this weekend was put on hold. I got everything besides the top indoors and hunkered down for the blizzard. Maybe next week…