Saturday was forecast for sunny 70˚ weather, so I swapped my travel day to see the FiL and hauled my tools out to the driveway. The goal here was to strip the truck down to get it ready for removal on Monday, so I broke the entire front clip down and stacked the parts neatly in the garage (the driver’s fender is actually on the Red truck right now). Then I hit all of the bolts on the doors, starting with the driver’s front. The top hinge didn’t want to separate from the backing plate, which was too large to remove through the access port, so I busted out the angle grinder and cut the hole larger. I’d sprayed the bolts on the rear doors with penetrant weeks ago, and Friday night I went to Harbor Freight for a hammer with a short handle so that I could pound the pin out of the retaining arms on each side. Those doors came off easily, but I had to cut into the A pillar on the passenger side front door for the same reason as the driver’s.
With those items off and safely stored, I pulled the Scout alongside and hefted the liftgate from the back of the green truck to the Scout; that thing is heavy. But with the back of the truck clear, I swept it out and had Jen come out to help me carefully remove the rear windows. This process was easy because I’d done it once in Ohio: she sat inside the truck pushing outward while I cut the seals around the outside. When they were gone, a few gentle taps behind the rear passenger door released the window, and it fell inwards into her lap. I then brought it to the crate I’d built a few weeks ago and laid it on some moving blankets. The other side came out just as easy, and with that, the crown jewels were safely stored away.
I considered cutting out the sections I’d need for the rear fender arches and calling it done, but something in the back of my head told me to drill out some spot welds to see if I could pull the whole rear quarter panel off. So I did.
Two hours later, I’m about 95% of the way there; I’ve got a few hidden welds to hunt down and I think the whole thing should come off in one piece. Then I’m going to do the same with the passenger side. Where these two sections will go is unknown (probably up in the garage attic) but when that’s done I think my time with this truck will be too.