Category: Seats

Licensed Electrician

I had a windy, chilly Saturday to myself this weekend, and made the most of it in the time I had. There were several things on the punchlist I wanted to take care of, and I got a fair bit of them done.

First up, I pulled the Scout out and idled it in the driveway. While it warmed up, I pulled the old parts out of the back—the flywheel and clutch will go back to IHPA at some point for the core deposit, but I have to figure out how to get it to them. Just mailing the flywheel will cost more than a new car, so I think I’ll plan to meet them at Nats this year to do an exchange.

While that was warming up, I cleaned up the garage a bit to make things easier to walk around. It’s really getting crowded in there. When that was done, and after the space heater had taken the chill out, I sprayed a bunch of parts with etching primer to get them ready for paint, and looked through my bins for a couple of things to work on in the basement.

Then I lowered the tailgate on the Scout and spread the contents of my electrical box out to start work on the fuse panel. I’d already made a pigtail on the end of some 8 ga. wire for the battery side, and measured and cut down more to install an inline fuse next to the battery. I found a good place on the firewall to mount the fuse panel and snaked wire in through one of the grommets, then soldered connections to each of the leads from the relay. Looking over the electrical diagram for the truck I found that the heater box was on the accessory circuit, so I wired a lead to the back of the fuse panel and connected it to the relay. With the whole thing grounded, I temporarily hooked up a new 12-volt charging plug to one of the circuits in the fuse panel, connected the battery, and turned the key: Success! By this time the sun had gone down and the wind was blowing cold, so I cleaned up my mess and closed up the truck. But: Success! Now I’ve got the ability to add some more accessories to the truck.

Back in the warmth of the garage, I wire-wheeled two of the headliner bows to bare metal and sprayed them with etching primer. Then I pulled the driver’s seat base down from the attic and brought that inside with the original fuel pump from the truck and closed things up outside.

Down on the workbench, I set up a Hobo Freight spot weld cutter and started to disassemble the seat base. It’s more complicated than it looks, but came apart relatively easily (practicing on Darth’s cowl and both quarter panels of the Green truck gave me a lot of practice). The section I need is a triangular support that sticks out toward the rocker which looks like it would be a rectangle but is actually a parallelogram to match the slope of the floor both front to back and side to side. I took measurements of the seat base and started cutting up some cardboard, making a rough template with some painter’s tape. Then I cut a better version and set it up to lay flat so I’ll know how big a sheet of steel I’ll need to cut. This one is going to be a bitch to bend—tougher than the lockbox lids, because it’s a giant C-shape that won’t fold cleanly under Brian’s brake. I’m going to have to get creative with how I do this.

Finally, I soaked the fuel pump in oven cleaner and washed it off in the shop sink. It cleaned up well, but needs a rebuild kit. It’s an old-school Carter 3405 with an integrated filter in a second chamber; originally this would have come with a glass sight bowl, but the one I have is silver. If I have some extra time I’ll see about getting a rebuild kit and replacing it on the engine.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Licensed Electrician  |  Posted in Electrical, Seats, Travelall

Be Seated

I want up having a bit more time this weekend than I originally planned to work on the seats in the truck. The first thing to do was to finish up the base of the front seat and get that ready to install. Then I cut material down and fitted it to the seat back from the ’63 frame. Looking it over in detail, I remembered that two of the coils directly behind the driver were missing, probably rusted out. Instead of trying to figure out how to fix that, I decided to tear down the ’67 seat and rebuild that one—a decision made easier knowing that I needed the chipboard IH installed to make sure passengers don’t put their knees through the vinyl.

So, I pulled it out of the truck and tore it down in the driveway. After wire-wheeling the rust on the bottom from a pretty sizable mouse nest, I sprayed it liberally with rust converter and let it dry. Later, in the basement, I used the material I’d pre-cut and started stretching the fabric over the frame. This seat probably took the most effort to actually put together, but after I started in the middle and worked my way out to the edges it came together really well. Then, I carried it back out to the truck and put it in place temporarily to see how things look. I’m really happy with the way the whole thing has turned out.

Suddenly, the interior of the truck looks legit:  The color of the piping matches the gray of the door cards perfectly. The seats are comfortable, and feel strong when I’m sitting in them.

So now I’ve got to do some finish painting and clean up on the seat back, run more hog rings along the bottom of the front seat, base, and paint the frame from the green truck red to match the rest of the truck and I should be able to seal that stuff up.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Be Seated  |  Posted in Seats, Travelall

Welding and Seating

We were busy with lots of fun Christmas activities this weekend so my opportunities to work on the truck were limited, but I hit a big milestone Sunday evening. First, I’ll mention the delivery of a brand-new welder from Eastwood, which I was finally able to unbox and use on Saturday evening as the sun was setting. With that, I was able to weld the filler hose bracket onto the front firewall, a captive nut on the bottom of the rocker to mount the fuel tank, and a captive nut on the passenger kick panel to mount the fender skirt properly. After that I found that the fuel hose I’d bought from Amazon—after waiting three weeks for Summit to send me a notification that wouldn’t be able to ship one until 12/28—was 1/2″ too big. I have no idea how I messed that up, but the correct size is on the way.

Returning to the bench seats, I’d started the upright to the rear bench last week but stalled at the corners, as they didn’t resemble the one on the spare ’68 bench I have for reference. But when I returned to the seat portion and realized I had to tuck the fabric behind the metal hinge mounts instead of covering them, I understood how to finish both seats off and how the pattern worked. It took some work but I got the upright 98% finished (I think I might have to try to sew one seam up by hand). Then I consulted a reference photo and connected both seats with refurbished bars and mounted the seat in the truck. I really like the way this looks and I’m excited to get the front seat started.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Welding and Seating  |  Posted in Seats, Travelall

Weekend Recap, 11.24

I spent Saturday down at Bob’s with my brother in law, working to get the Chrysler back in the garage. The engineering problem I faced was how to push a 4,300 lb. car back up a slight incline into the garage, while also moving it laterally by about ten feet. The solution I came up with involved a hammer drill, several concrete bits, lag bolts and barrels, and a cheap Harbor Freight winch with a remote.

After loading up on the supplies, Glen and I opened up the shiny new garage door and set up for the installation. I measured out two holes for the baseplate and had him start drilling while I assembled the winch. After a couple of tries with different bits and an adjustment in hardware which required a return trip to Lowe’s and a stopoff for tacos.

When we got back, the new bits we bought made relatively short work of 45-year-old concrete, and I was able to anchor the winch into the floor. I pulled the battery from the Chrysler and used that for power (it’s been on a tender since I bought it) and we played out the line to the back of the car. The winch wasn’t powerful enough to pull the car by itself, but with three of us pushing, it was the extra power we needed—as well as a safety measure in case the car got away from us. I hauled the wheel over hard to correct the position and then we pushed/pulled the car up about 3/4 of the way inside. With that done, we jacked up each corner and put it on the dollies so that we could push it to the far side of the garage, as out of the way as possible.

Sunday morning I got out to the Travelall and cleaned off the inside roof with acetone before covering the whole thing with Rust-Stop. While that cured, I pulled the driver’s wheel and cleaned the outside face of the driver’s inner fender with the wire wheel. That was covered with Rust Encapsulator, and while that dried I painted the frame with chassis black. And while the can was open I painted the frame on the passenger side where the gas tank will go.

Inside the cab, I used some chalk to mark out where the sound deadener was going to go, and cut a sheet of kraft paper to test the measurements. After some adjustments I flattened the first sheet out and aligned the center with the centerline of the roof, and peeled a little of the backing off to set it in place. It took some work to get everything oriented correctly, and then I peeled one side off to set it permanently. Give or take 1/8″ on either side, I got it aligned almost perfectly; using the long edge to align the second and third sheets, I made it to the back of the truck centered on the rear doors.

By that point it was getting dark and cold, so I closed up the truck and moved into the basement to work on the base of the rear bench seat. After reviewing some how-to videos to refresh my memory, I cut burlap, foam and carpet padding down to fit the seat and attached the burlap to the frame with some hog rings. Then I stretched the cover over the bench as best I could, working to get the scallops in the back edge into place.

Stretching the cover and clipping it in with the hog rings is exactly the same process as stretching a canvas or mesh for screenprinting: start at the middle of each edge and work your way outwards. Again, the trickiest parts were the indents where the seat is scalloped to avoid the wheel wells, but I realized I could compress the whole seat by kneeling on it and used that to pull the fabric around to the attachment bars.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the results for my first attempt. I put the carpet padding on top of the foam, but Jeff tells me it’s supposed to go underneath, which is what I’ll do with the upright part of the seat. For this I wanted it to be firm directly underneath, and I wasn’t aware there was a firmer foam available for the seat when I bought my materials. I’ve got to carefully add some small holes for the four hinge bolts and the bump stops, which makes me nervous, but Jeff tells me it should be fine.

So next up I have to disassemble the upright for the rear seat and prep it for covering, which means I have to hit it with the wire wheel and spray it down with Rust Converter.

I’m headed north to see my family for Thanksgiving, and there’s a junkyard near my sister’s house with some ancient IH iron, including this rusty Travelall panel truck. I’m not sure what to expect, but he says he’s got other IH stuff in there somewhere, so it should be a fun day for bushwhacking. I bought a cordless angle grinder on contingency but I’m going to leave it in the box so that I can return it if I don’t need it.

Looking at the dashboard, it’s a ’62 or earlier, so it’ll be interesting to get a look at the front clip. At first blush the stuff I see that would be worth something would be the barn doors, but they look pretty rough. Just looking at this photo, the things I see that might be worth picking would be:

  • The barn doors, if they’re salvageable
    • if not, the mechanisms—latches, the rear handle, etc.
    • The windows
  • Any of the chrome—the rear taillights, for example
  • the rear doors, if they’re salvageable
    • Any of the interior mechanisms from these doors—scissors, latches, etc.
    • Chrome brightwork, interior steel surround
  • Either of the bumpers, if they’re in good shape
  • Front wing windows, if they’re OK.
  • Steering wheel/column, if I can get it out

I have no idea what the rest of the truck looks like, but I’ll see when we get out there. And even if the whole thing is a wreck it’ll be fun to go looking.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Weekend Recap, 11.24  |  Posted in Junkyards, Seats, Travelall

Phase 1 Complete

Jeff posted these up on my Binder Planet thread yesterday and shot me a text: the covers are done, and he’s going to get them packed up to ship and send me the invoice for the balance. I think they turned out great, and I’m excited to get them in hand. I think this will be the next job I tackle after we get back from our vacation.

Now I’ve got to borrow a set of hog ring pliers from my brother-in-law and order some rings from Amazon.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Phase 1 Complete  |  Posted in Seats

Seating

I heard from Jeff this weekend on the Travelall seats (actually, while I was trying to pull the dash off) when he texted me a picture of the top half of the rear seat in progress:

I’m doing mine in gray over black because my dash and door cards are gray, but I’m going for something that looks like this (in tan over gray):

I don’t think the vinyl Jeff got is as marbled as the stuff in the reference photo, but I’m excited about moving the seats forward.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Seating  |  Posted in Seats, Travelall

Advanced Surgery

As of Friday night, the passenger side quarter panel is off the truck. I’m still trying to sort out how I might get the axle out from under the truck and still have someone haul it away, but it’s not looking promising. In the worst case I’d either have to forego keeping the axle or pull it and beg Bennett to help me haul it back up on his trailer and off to a scrapyard.

In the meantime, I’m eyeing the inside wheel well covers, wondering if I could drill out the welds and pull those in one piece…

In other, better news, I shot Jeff an email on Friday after I realized I have a perfectly good front and rear 1967 bench seat just waiting for new upholstery, and asked him if that made any difference in fitment. He called me back on Friday night, somewhat relieved, because his patterns are for 1968 benches and he feels better about shipping the covers to me as is. So when he’s got time he’ll finish up the covers and send them down, and if UPS can avoid losing them, I can buy the foam and get started building the seats.

It doesn’t sound like Bennett is going to be able to make it to Nats with us this year, but I think Brian is on board for a ride-along with me. He’s not interested in taking Slowflake so I offered shotgun in the Scout. I’ve got to start organizing parts for sale to see if I can make some money bringing them to Ohio; I figure the tailgate might bring some money if priced properly, and I wonder if anyone would be interested in the heating unit in its current shape. There’s more in the pile but I’ve got to go through it all to see.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Advanced Surgery  |  Posted in Friends, Seats, Travelall

Weekly Update, 2.26

From what little UPS has told me, my seat covers are gone. I had to go to the location I mailed them from and ask, and the guy went into the back of the office and looked and claimed they cut me a check at some point for $100 plus the amount I paid for shipping. Which also hasn’t arrived. So I have to organize a meetup with Jeff somewhere between here and Pittsburgh to hand over the seats.

My spare fuse block made it out to the Scout Connection on Wednesday, and Dave called me to let me know it’s actually not the right fuse block for my truck. I asked if we could swap it for a correct used spare and call it even, and he was happy to do that. So that process should be underway, and hopefully I’ll get a harness in the mail sometime soon. I can’t wait to open that Pandora’s box get that process started; having a working electrical system is one of the three biggest obstacles to getting this girl on the road.

I bought a basic hammer and dolly set from Harbor Freight on Saturday morning and got to work hammering out the dents in the driver’s fender. It took a bit of time to understand how the tools worked; there’s a hammer with a small contact area on either side and a flat spoon for wider areas, as well as two solid steel dollies for the backside. I started with the hammer and quickly realized it was too small a contact patch, and switched over to the spoon almost exclusively. In a couple of hours I had the edge shaped correctly and most of the valleys flattened out, as well as the overall curve of the fender re-formed. Hanging it on the truck I was pleased to see it matching up with the body line really closely, and the panel gap looked really close. After a few more adjustments I re-hung it to confirm everything aligned, and then got things ready to skim some filler over top.

Sunday morning I had a little free time so I used the orbital sander to knock off the high spots in the filler and then skimmed a second coat over the fist; the filler portion of things is going to take a lot of time (as the other fender did) to flatten the large areas and also match the curve over the fender.

 

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Weekly Update, 2.26  |  Posted in Seats, Travelall, Welding

Shiny Red

Jeff gave me a ring early in the week and asked me to send him the existing overs off the seats I have because he’s worried what he has might not fit correctly. So I went out at lunchtime on Tuesday and quickly pulled the covers off the rear bench and front vertical section, wrote where they came from, and boxed them up to be UPS’d up to him. I would like to have spent more time taking pictures of how they were assembled, but I was up against the clock and weather, and wanted to keep the process moving.

Jeff said I’m welcome to come up to his place and he’d show me how they go together when he’s got them completed, and it’s looking more and more like I might take him up on that offer. I’m sure I could figure out a lot of things on my own but I’d rather have an expert show me the right way first before I ruin anything.

The other thing I did on Saturday was to cut and fit two sections of steel to the corners before welding them into place. I have no idea why they would have kept these parts separate, and I figured sturdier is better in any case. A spray can of Rust-Stop helped me reach all the sections the brush missed, and with that the front bench is ready for upholstery. Next I’ve got to clean off the rear.

On the fender I got all of the low spots mudded out and sanded down, then used fill & sanding primer to identify any last trouble spots. When I was satisfied with the way things looked I used some 1000 grit to polish it up and then sprayed on two coats of rattle-can IH Implement Red to cover things. Overall it looks very good, and there’s only a drip around the fuel inlet port I have to smooth out. The next step will be to scrape all the old undercoating off the back, wire wheel any remaining rust, cover it with Encapsulator, and then spray on some undercoating.

I took the driver’s side off and started knocking off all the Bondo I’d applied in the summer as well as the stuff it came to me with; I’m going to take it back down to bare metal and start over again. This time I’m going to cut out the bad metal and riveted patch and try to get it as close to the original as I can while I keep looking for replacements. This one is going to take a lot more time to fix.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   1 Comment on Shiny Red  |  Posted in Seats, Travelall