Category: Welding

Warranty

As reported earlier my Eastwood welder decided to stop working completely about two weeks ago. I detached and re-attached the hose and gun assembly, thinking maybe some of the wire had bound up inside, but it came out straight and clean. I was at the end of a spool so I put a new one in, and it worked briefly for a few small welds. But the next time I fired it up I got nothing. The unit powered up fine and the fan was blowing but I got nothing out of the gun. I called Eastwood’s tech support and over the course of a week talked to several very nice CSA’s who took notes and assured me they’d get back in touch, but I had to do the legwork. I took the gun apart and tested for continuity at the switch, which checked out fine, and by request I cracked the case to look over the boards inside to see if anything was visually damaged. I didn’t see anything wrong, but yesterday I was finally sent an RMA by email to exchange for a new unit. I was worried about finding a box to pack it in, figuring I’d already recycled the original, but spied it under a bunch of tarps in the garage, holding the pedal assembly and air cleaner from the green ’68 parts truck. It was a bit worse for wear but I taped it up and reinforced the bottom with some 2-ply cardboard, and sent the unit out this morning. In the meantime I’m going to see if I can rent one locally so that I can finish the small welds required to button up the firewall and gas tank, and get the truck off jackstands. 

The Scout is still at the shop; I haven’t heard back from them yet but when I checked in on Monday he said they’d cleaned off the underside, run it up, and put it on the lift to look for leaks. Apparently there are two outlets on the transfer case that are weeping and another leak up front somewhere. So I’m hoping I’ll hear back from them today, and if not I’ll check in tomorrow.

Finally, I reconnected with a guy who had some parts trucks in a yard close to my sister’s place in New York. He still has a C-series Travelall in his field that I’d like to look over, so I’m making a plan to go check it out when we’re up there for Thanksgiving. So I’ve got to put together a recovery kit to bring north with me, including fire and cutting tools. This might be the impetus to buy a cordless angle grinder, actually…

 

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Floorpan, Continued

I spent a couple of evenings this past week breaking down the green Travelall doors and collecting all of the parts to see how things look. The passenger door is in worse shape than the driver’s; there’s a fair bit of rust-through under the wing window on the bottom. Both doors are down to the metal, but on each one the lower hinge needs to be drilled out. That may make reusing them both tricky, but I think careful screw removal and re-tapping the hole is possible. Both windows, scissor assemblies, latch mechanisms, and most of the window channels are all in good shape. I’ve also got a second set of pre-’65 door latches for both sides from my friend Don in Ohio, which will come in handy as spares in case I need them.

The other thing Don sent me was a spare set of IH mirror assemblies. One of them is basically just the bracket, but the other held the mirror housing (minus the mirror) which actually worked in my favor, because I can see how the interior parts are assembled. Essentially there’s a long rod that goes through the center, threaded at each end, and held in place with two brackets welded to the rod. So even if I wanted to pull the rod out of my good housings I couldn’t.

To recap, the threads on one of my good mirrors was so rusted the bolts snapped off on each side, leaving me with no way to attach it to the bracket. Pretty much the only way I can make my good mirror work is to carefully pull one of the endcaps off, pull the threaded rod out, and replace it with a new one. The rod is pretty simple; it’s 1/4″ and takes a 1/4″ – 28 thread, which is easy to find a die for. It’s getting the cap off that worries me. It’s thin steel over an aluminum housing, so I have to be very careful taking things apart.

Saturday I stopped in at a neighborhood estate sale and picked up $20 worth of brand-name used tools that will come in handy for backups and spares, including four vice-grips and several wrenches.

Sunday I got back out to the truck and continued cutting and welding new metal in to the passenger’s footwell. I wound up taking more metal out, as I was having blow-through issues with bad metal and finding some pinholes as I was cleaning other sections. I think I’ve got all of the bad stuff out, and the stuff that’s still mildly pockmarked just got a thick coat of encapsulator. Underneath I ground out the rest of the welds and got it ready for paint. All of this took the majority of the day, as I was doing a lot of cutting and trimming, which sent me back and forth to the bench grinder.

The paint cured overnight and is now ready for seam sealer, which will be applied liberally around the edges before everything gets primed. On the outside edge of the footwell I ground everything flat and covered it in etch primer; it’s going to get several coats of chassis black and then a layer of undercoating to keep out the water.

Finally, I used some vinegar to flush out the inside of the gas tank and let that sit for a day and a half , shaking it around inside to get the crud out and neutralize any rust. Running a borescope down inside the tank, it looks shockingly clean apart from the remains of mud dauber nests. I flushed it with water and a solution of baking soda, then flushed it again and set it out to dry. The outside was covered with undercoating and some surface rust along the top and sides, so i hit that with a wire wheel and quickly got the whole thing down to bare metal. When the top and sides were clean I covered the trouble spots with Encapsulator and the bare spots with etch primer. I’m back and forth about pulling the fuel sender, but leaning towards leaving it in, as I know that it works and don’t want to mess with that.

So in the next couple of days when the temperature gets above 60˚ I’m going to apply sealer and paint to button up as much as I can.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Floorpan, Continued  |  Posted in Purchasing, Welding

Welding and Steering

On Saturday I got back out to the truck in the afternoon following a yard sale and continued metalwork on the truck. I had to finish welding in the floor plate first, which felt like it took more time than last Sunday, then grind down the welds on top and underneath. I was happy to see I had good weld penetration when I was down under the truck, though it makes for tired arms when you’re grinding upside-down for a half an hour.

Then I started cutting smaller sections out of the toeboard that had rusted through, including a triangle-shaped area on the A-pillar. I cut a section of new metal, got that welded in to the toeboard area, and ground it smooth, finishing up as it was getting dark.

Sunday morning I got up, walked the dog, and drove up to Frederick to pick up a steering column from another Travelall, sold by a guy I’d met last year. He’s grafted a Crown Victoria front suspension and Ranger rear on to his ’68, lowering the whole thing onto airbags and tubbing out the rear tires. It’s really cool, even if it isn’t my cup of tea. His work is really nice (he’s a bodyman), and it’s going to be a sweet truck when he’s done.

The column he sold me is a column-shift unit, which may work for what I need and may not. I think I can cobble together one good column out of the two and probably sell the steering wheel at Nats to make some money back. The plan is to get an electric steering unit from a Toyota Corolla and splice it into the column.

I had errands to run after lunch, so by the time I got back outside it was 3PM and I didn’t want to drag all of the welding gear out for just one hour. So I filled the compressor tank, busted out the needle scaler, and cleaned off the frame and undercarriage all the way up to the front axle. By 5PM I had the frame coated with Encapsulator as well as most of the underside of the body shell. That was extremely satisfying. Next it’ll all get a coat of chassis black and then the body will get a coat of undercoating.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Welding and Steering  |  Posted in Repairs, Travelall, Welding

Welding Projects

The worst rust on this truck, besides the stuff I cleaned up on the roof, was in the passenger footwell. As a result of the same leaks that doomed the cowl and heater box, water got in and sat on the metal under the passenger’s floormat, collecting mainly at the diagonal seam from the tunnel. At some point the PO had fixed the same issue on the driver’s side by hacking a hole out of the floor and welding a crude patch over top, then covering it with some kind of bizarre rubberized material.

Knowing my gas tank was mostly empty, and because it’s only hooked up to the gas feed, I figured this was the best time to attack the rust. I jacked up the passenger side of the truck at three points on the frame and secured it with jackstands. The tank is held in place by a pair of clever straps that secure to two captive bolts on the underside of the body, and one came free easily, while the other captive bolt broke off from its weld. After I cut that loose and disconnected the hoses up front, the tank dropped out easily. I was surprised to find an access hole directly above the sender unit, which should be very helpful down the road. I was shocked to find I’d dropped the tank in under an hour.

I pulled the tank aside and looked over the floor situation. Starting with the area at the front, I cut out the rust that looked the worst, making a rough rectangle with a triangle-shaped section following the seam at the upper left. The body mount and frame mount underneath both looked like they were in great shape, and the metal underneath everything was in factory-fresh condition. I hated to cut a lot of it out, but I wanted to get as much good stuff in there as possible.

When I’d squared off and cleaned up the edges, I cut some cardboard out and carefully made a template to work from. This took some time, because the open area was deceivingly complex in shape.

When I had that sorted, I pulled a sheet of 18 ga. metal from my stash and cut the pattern out. With a bunch of trimming and fitting, I had it ready to go in by about 4PM. Being careful to take my time, I tacked the edges in slowly using butt welds. The section along the rocker got welded from the underside where the good metal was; I didn’t want to cut the raised section out because I can’t replicate that, so I’m taking a chance and keeping it. All of this is going to be treated as heavily as possible with rust encapsulator/undercoating, so I’m hoping I can halt any new rust from forming in the future.

By 5PM it was getting dark so I shut things down after a preliminary sweep with the flap disc. I’m kind of shocked at how much I was able to get done in one day’s time; the process went really smoothly and I’m a lot more confident in my basic fabrication skills, as well as welding.

The other quick thing I tackled was to weld a second set of tabs in on the seat lockbox so that I can drill holes and mount that in permanently. I’m going to clean up the chipped rattle-can paint and hit it with the clear coat just to protect it a little better, but I’d like to finish that up in preparation for the seats later this winter.

One thing I need to upgrade is my safety glass situation. Running the cutting wheel early in the day with my safety glasses on, I got a couple small pieces of debris in my right eye for the second week in a row. After fishing that stuff out I found a pair of old goggles and wore those for the rest of the day, but there’s got to be a better solution. If I’m going to be grinding this much I need a full-coverage set of prescription goggles.

The other thing that was nice was that my $1 yard sale iPod Nano has a built-in radio receiver, which meant I was able to listen to the Ravens game wearing goggles, ear protection, a dust mask, and my glasses on.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   9 Comments on Welding Projects  |  Posted in Welding

Weekend Update, 7.15

Before I left on vacation, I took a little time to pull the heater box out of the Travelall to gauge its condition and access the firewall behind it. Overall it’s in good condition (much better than it deserved to be, given how bad the cowl rust was) but still needed some work. 

I’ve been installing heat matting on the vertical surfaces of the firewall, starting in the center, and worked my way to the outside edges after the heater box came off. I had to use a wire wheel to get the adhesive from the original insulation off, and then slathered everything with Encapsulator for good measure. 

We then went on vacation for two weeks. I took the family to Portugal, where we spent week driving to see some of the sights. The rental company gave me a shiny manual Peugeot for our travels. I got so used to the European shift pattern that I came back and immediately forgot where reverse was in the Honda and Scout. 

I also came back with COVID and missed out on working on the trucks while I was recovering, but got back to my projects the following weekend. The first order of business was to break into a big box from IHPA full of window rubber which had arrived while I was away. This contained the outer gasketry for each of the doors as well as rubber for the rear curved glass on the driver’s side which needs to be replaced. 

Both of the rear doors on the red truck have terrible aftermarket gaskets that have dried into brittle crust, so I focused on the driver’s side rear door to start. The old rubber came off with a plastic scraper and I used acetone to clean off the residue.

The recommended stuff is 3M 08008 Weatherstrip adhesive, which I applied around the top three surfaces, and then pressed the gasket in place with some clamps. I had to look under the driver’s door to see how the other gasket went in place, and when I figured that out I used encapsulator to clean up that section before installing the rubber.

At first I wasn’t planning on reinstalling the dashboard—I’m waiting on the two small rubber firewall grommets to come in before I can put it in permanently—so I used the original wiring harness to practice putting the large connector in place. This was not successful, so I need to reach out to some of the pros to ask how to do it correctly. (I did actually put the dash in place and start connecting some of the easy things because the heater box and plenum are out).

It’s very hot in Maryland right now and I didn’t want to spend a ton of time sweating in the truck, so I sweated in the garage working on the heater box. Rust had eaten away at one of the corners and bottom of the box, so I cut a section out from the bottom and another section from the side.

I used the edge of a large hinge to form the wider curves on a scrap section left over from the seat cabinet project, where I’d already formed a 90˚ lip on a metal brake. I cut the other section out of 18 gauge and used the hinge and my vise to form the bends and curves for the corner. 

I really need to either learn to slow down when I’m tacking together metal with the MIG or just break down and buy an inexpensive TIG for finish welding; I’m getting the metal too hot and not getting the best results possible. Plus, I really want to practice more TIG welding. That being said, it’s not too bad—nothing a light skim coat of mud won’t fix. 

The interior of the box needs to be bathed in Rust Converter and then sprayed out well, and I have to sort out why the blower motor isn’t working with 12V from my bench tester. The radiator unit itself is fine, apart from needing a new hose, and this can get put back in pretty easily. I’ve got plenty of foam tape left over from a Scout II heater box overhaul, actually, so that part is covered.  

Posted on   |   by bill   |   2 Comments on Weekend Update, 7.15  |  Posted in Electrical, Travelall, Welding

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.

 

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February Update

I’ve had a bunch of shorter clips in the hopper for a while, and figured I’d collect them into something resembling an update.

On the project side of things, I used a heat gun to remove all of the old bondo on the driver’s side fender, then cut off the pop rivets used to hold a crappy patch in place installed Back in The Day.

When I had that out, I cut a larger square out to get things ready for a proper butt-welded patch. The other thing I had to do was to try and bend the rear edge of the fender outward and back into original position. At some point somebody really bashed it inwards so it never looked correct when it was hung on the truck. I was able to get it mostly back into place, and used my everyday hammer to do some dent removal. At this point I want to get an actual bodywork hammer and bag to pound out the larger dents instead of trying to hide sins with filler.

Once I had that cleaned up, I cut down a section of metal and tacked it into place. I’m going to have to finesse the bottom edge a little bit—or grind this off and re-orient it further down—but it looks like it’ll go in pretty easily.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on February Update  |  Posted in Travelall, Welding

Compression

Saturday morning broke with the first good sunshine we’ve had in a long time, so I decided that I would take advantage of as much of it as I could. After a mile-long walk with the dog and a cup of coffee with Jen, I put on my coveralls and headed out to the garage. The first thing I wanted to tackle was pulling and inspecting each spark plug I’d installed last year to ensure they were gapped correctly and to do a compression test. I pulled the coil wire, started with the #1 cylinder and worked my way backwards on the driver’s side, then finished on the passenger side.

All of the gaps looked right at spec, and the tips were all covered in gassy-smelling oil—which I expected, considering that I haven’t been able to get her running consistently for a long period of time. The most important information was good information: all of the cylinders had excellent compression, with the lowest of any of them at 125psi. This means the rings are in great shape and have hopefully reseated themselves after their long slumber.

When that was done I pulled the passenger fender out into the sun and hit it with sanding blocks for the second time, working the high spots down and smoothing out the second skim coat. It’s really shaping up on the outside, and I’m having great luck with the new filler.

One drawback was that the inner metal collar I’d welded on to the backside of the fuel port came off as I was sanding it down; when I welded the inside edges and then sanded off the excess metal apparently I was a little too zealous and weakened those welds. So this time I predrilled a bunch of pilot holes along the outer circumference and used those to tack the collar back in place from the back side—something I should have done in the first place. I’ll fill the inside edge with seam sealer to hide the welds, which are mostly hidden anyway. Then I skimmed filler on the low spots, which are (thankfully) decreasing in number.

Sunday morning I ran up the Scout for the first time in two weeks and let it warm up in the driveway. After attaching my ghetto exhaust extender (a 5′ length of HVAC pipe attached to the tailpipe, with 20′ of PVC reaching past the side of the garage) I turned both idle mixture screws all the way back into the carb and then backed them out 1/4 turn. Adding a little starting fluid to the carb, she fired right up and idled much smoother than she had two weeks ago, but then I saw the giant clouds of white smoke coming from the end of the exhaust and figured I’d better shut her down. So the rough idle issue is mostly sorted out, but I need a good windy day to run it up and clean the Berrymans out of the fuel system.

Next, I got to work tearing the front bench seat base down to the metal. I set up a GoPro and took a bunch of pictures, then started tearing the old vinyl off the frame. Removing the foam, burlap, and reed padding, I cut the old hog rings off and wire wheeled the outside elements, and then looked it over. There were three sections that needed to be welded back together, so I set up the MIG, dialed it in for thinner metal, and put them back together. Then I brushed encapsulator on the whole thing, which was a tedious job.

There are two sections on the back side that look like they could have been welded originally, but also maybe they weren’t. I texted Jeff to see what he thought and he told me his seat is from a ’68 and doesn’t look like mine. I’m mulling over whether I should weld in a set of supports there just to keep the whole thing sturdy.

While that was drying I pulled the fender out and continued sanding the high points down. It’s getting very close. There are only about five small areas that needed to be skimmed—hopefully for the last time—so I put some filler on to cure while the weather was still warm.

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

Welding and Sanding

Here’s a quick breakdown of the repairs to my spare fender. I started with an order to SendCutSend for a set of new laser-cut steel donuts for the outside and inside edges, as well as three 1/2″ strips to bend for a flange to connect both. I welded the outer flange in first because it had a slight curve, then built an inside section and tacked that in place. When I saw that it would collect rain the way I’d built it, I used a second donut and strip to mount flush to the outside edge and tacked it all in place. Next was welding a small patch in at the bottom, where water and mud pool and rust the metal out from the inside.

While that was cooling I sanded the top layer of blue paint off the fender to reveal some past damage and Bondo, which was not unexpected. I skimmed some Bondo over the two welds and sanded everything down, but the fuel mount area is going to need a lot more attention. I’m looking around for alternatives to off-the-shelf Bondo and have found that Evercoat products seem to get good reviews, so I think I’ll buy a gallon of that in the springtime to continue bodywork projects.

Posted on   |   by bill   |   Leave a Comment on Welding and Sanding  |  Posted in Repairs, Travelall, Welding