Scout Motors is unveiling their new vision of the brand this evening at 5PM EST; it should be interesting to see what they’ve come up with. One journalist I respect has been able to peek behind the curtain a little bit, and says he’s very excited about it. I’m not currently in the market for a new vehicle, but we’ll see how this goes.
Category: Inspiration
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.
July 15 Update
Here’s a compilation of work I’ve done on the trucks before and after our vacation, starting from the heater box, moving through electrical, and finishing with some welding on the heater box.
I’ve gotten the wiring to the point where the dashboard is in the truck but I can’t hook everything up permanently for want of two rubber grommets for the smaller bulkhead connectors and several Packard 56 connectors I don’t already have, so I ordered a handful more this afternoon in the hopes that they’ll be here by the weekend.
The heater box came out more easily than I thought it would, and is in better shape than I was expecting, but still required repair. I cut two sections of metal out and welded new metal in, and bathed the interior in Rust Converter until I ran out (I’ll be picking more of that up this weekend). Once that’s completely treated it needs a skim coat of mud to cover the divots and bumps, and then I’ll paint it up and get it ready to re-assemble. I think I’ve found a local paint shop who can scan my existing paint color and mix me a pint to match. I’ve also got to figure out why the blower motor won’t work when I test it on 12v bench power and source some more coolant hose.
The other thing I ordered were a set of floor mats for the Scout, knowing that we’ll be driving through the August heat to Indiana. I figure having something else between us and the engine heat will be well appreciated. And, having something to cover the heat matting will also be welcome. I’m hopeful they’ll be here in time, but they’re handmade and the maker estimates 3-4 weeks before they ship, so it may be a futile exercise. We’ll see.
Posted on | | Leave a Comment on July 15 Update | Posted in Inspiration, Purchasing, Travelall, Video
El Tractor
I’ve been keeping tabs on the Anything Scout racing team as they were competing in the Norra 1000 in Baja this past week, in a truck I saw last year at Nationals: an otherwise unassuming Terra with a 4-cylinder engine they found on Marketplace a couple of years ago. Another guy I follow, Dan from the Binder Boneyard, was running with them as part of their pit crew. They were 30 miles from the finish when somehow they rolled the truck down a ravine 20+ times. They’re both fine; the truck did its job and kept them safe. Sad to see the remains of El Tractor in a picture (they had to helicopter it out) but it went down fighting, and they’ve already said they’ll return.
Electric Steering Installation
This video walks through the addition of an electric steering box from a Prius into an antique truck; this process is much like the one Brian did on Slowflake a couple of years ago. As I’ve gotten deep into the weeds in power steering woes on the Red Bus, and realizing how difficult it might be to find a PS setup on a truck with an I-beam front suspension, this direction might be the way to go.
Found On the Interwebs
I would imagine they had to weld some serious support into this thing to get it to stop from flexing like tissue paper with all those people inside. Still, it looks like a hell of a lot of fun to drive!
2023 In Review
It’s January and currently about 44˚, so there isn’t much getting done outside on the trucks in an unheated garage. In the interest of keeping my motivation level up, I suppose I should recap the events of 2023, as they were pretty eventful for the Dugan IH Barn (or whatever I’m calling this assemblage of vehicles).
March 2023
December 2023
So from the top, in rough order:
- Early in the year, I looked at a couple of crusty C-Series pickups, both in New Jersey, and found them both too rusty to bother with. And way too expensive to consider seriously.
- I was then the first person to respond to a Marketplace ad for a crusty red Travelall right across the harbor, and the first to drop cash in the seller’s hand that morning. I had it towed back home and dropped in the driveway.
- After changing the plugs, oiling the cylinders, swapping out the points and condenser and rebuilding the carb, I got it running.
- I used the Vermont title loophole to get it registered in that state and got a set of plates in the mail.
- I pounded out the dent in the rear passenger’s taillight area and filled/sanded the area, as well as the driver’s flank under the Travelall badge.
- I sanded longstanding hail damage out of the roof and raingutters, treated them for rust, and skimmed with body filler. It’s all primed but will need a finish skim before final paint. I also pulled the two front fenders off and began pounding the dents out of each; they are both still a work in progress.
- I rebuilt the entire brake system, finally tracking down a specialty brake hose, and replaced both the master cylinder and clutch slave cylinder. The truck still isn’t shifting into gear, but it feels like the brakes are working.
- At IH Nationals I found a bunch of C-Series parts specific to the truck and at Super Scout Specialists I found a good pane of rear passenger glass that was exactly what I needed.
- I gutted the interior and got it ready for original bench seats, which were sourced from a Binder Planet member up in Massachussets.
- I drilled out the screws and pulled up the wooden deck in the back half of the truck. I used a needle scaler to knock surface rust off the rear undercarriage, treated it with encapsulator, and painted it with chassis black.
- I pulled out the windshield, drilled out the spot welds on the cowl, and cut out both ruined cowl vents. Then I fabricated new vents and welded new metal in, sealed it up, painted everything, and welded the cowl back into place.
- I bought a new windshield from IHPA and had a guy come to the house to install both that and the rear glass successfully.
- Found a mechanic to take on the terrifying job of replacing the passenger exhaust manifold on the Scout without snapping all the bolts off in the block.
- Painted and installed a new battery tray in the Scout.
- I designed and built a locking steel cabinet to replace the pipe cage IH installed to mount the rear seat to.
- Got the truck titled and registered legally in Maryland, with vintage plates.
Wow, writing it all out like that really helps put things into perspective.
Price Comparison
I spied this red ’65 Travelall on eBay a few weeks ago and it came back up in my feed yesterday, having been sold for $5880 in Marfa, Texas. Old trucks are typically much cheaper in the southwestern states due to the climate being much friendlier, so the (low?) price isn’t that much of a surprise. The outside of the truck is in relatively decent shape, but clearly has some visible battle scars; the rear tailgate, for example, looks lousy, and the front clip has lost paint in exactly the same places mine has.
The most interesting thing about this truck is that it was built and delivered to a dealer in Tuxedo, Maryland, which is right outside of Capitol Heights to the east of D.C. From the build sheet it sounds like a nice upgrade from mine: the same 304/T-18 driveline (2WD) but power brakes with front discs, extra sun visor and both armrests, as well as front bucket seats. OH, THE LUXURY. Most interestingly, this says it was originally Vegas Blue Metallic, so it’s been resprayed at some point. I’d bet a look under the hood would reveal the original paint. There was only one shot of the interior, which was sporting some seriously bizarre aftermarket bucket seats.
There’s a lot here I like—Western mirrors look really good (I’m waiting to mount mine until the springtime, when I can pull the cover off). More and more I like the look of white wheels and roof on a red truck. I think I’m being convinced to change my paint scheme around a little bit. It’s interesting to see the same kind of aftermarket roof-mounted reverse light mine had; I guess this was a thing after a certain point.
Hello There Friend
Driving out to Ellicott City yesterday, I spied the distinctive shape of a C series pickup parked in front of West End Service, our local IH dealer. On my way home I stopped to look it over and snap a few pictures. It’s clearly a heavy-duty model, sitting on a beefy front axle and sporting a dually rear, but everything else was a normal C-series cab. It had recently been painted and a very pretty design applied to each door, but there was a lot of overspray on the steering wheel and knobs in the cab.
I took a lot of pictures of the floor and seat base (the seat itself was missing) so that I’ve got reference for my seat install and eventual floor replacement.
Inspiration
Dan over at the Binder Boneyard posted a picture of a rig he worked on a couple of years ago that I remember lusting after; it started out as a 2WD Travelall that he converted to 4WD, lifted, and did a bunch of other upgrades to. What I’m looking at specifically is the roof rack, which is the setup I’m going for: an eight-point rack with a solid bed and a very minimal rail. Ideally I’d build the metal sections out of aluminum, but that’s a welding skill I don’t currently possess. I’ve got six of the eight drip rail mounts I need, and I intend to spend a cold winter sketching out a plan for the rack itself. I wonder how much a used TIG welder goes for on Marketplace….?
