We lost one of our Scout friends a couple of years ago unexpectedly. A. was an encyclopedia of Scout and International knowledge. If you needed to know the size of a particular bolt on an engine or the diameter of a piece of hose, he knew exactly what it was. If you needed to know what carburetor came in a particular truck for a particular year, he knew. When I first got Peer Pressure, I was having problems diagnosing accelerator cable issues and shot a picture of what I was dealing with to the local Scout group. He reached out to me within a couple of hours, told me I had the wrong throttle cable mount, and offered to swap with me for the correct manual mount. He mailed me the part the next day and within a week I had the truck running much better than it had been before.
Later on, he was part of a group of guys who joined me in parting out a truck we dragged out of the woods, and we got up to all kinds of fun scout shenanigans. He was also one of the group who came and swapped the brakes out on Peer Pressure when I was recovering from cancer. He was a good guy and our little Maryland scout group misses his knowledge and expertise.
When he passed, his estate went to his sister, and he left behind a truck and a whole bunch of parts at his house. She’s been storing it ever since and reached out to Bennett to help her figure out what’s there and what it’s worth. So we’ve organized a scouting trip up there to survey and catalog everything, and figure out how we can help her sell it. Bennett and I are driving up next weekend and we have no idea what to expect. Part of our plan is going to be to getting the truck running. We are told it ran a couple of years ago, but we don’t know if he had done any extra work to it or what shape any of the major systems are in. So I’ve got a list of tools and parts for an engine revival ready to go.
We’re also told there’s a bunch of parts that he had collected over the years, but we don’t know if they’re organized, or for what vehicles they might be. His truck is an original scout 80 or 800, but from what we remember he had collected a bunch of Scout II parts. So it’s going to be a very interesting trip.
William J. Miller says:
Bill, please accept my most sincere sorrow for the loss of your friend. I’ve had that experience and it really does touch the heart in ways that cannot be explained. I miss my friend but also look back with fond memories of past discussions and good natured humor. Best wishes for a safe and productive trip.