New Travel Top, New Friends

This morning I met up with Brian H. and made a run down into Annapolis to pick up a Traveltop. I was a bit hung over, but Peer Pressure fired right up and made the trip easy. After meeting the seller at his house, we wound up talking to him for a good hour and a half before we started turning wrenches. It turns out he’s been buying and parting out trucks for the past couple of years, and he wants to thin his collection out a little.

New travel top

This top is in really good shape. It’s baby blue with a roof rack, and apart from some minor rust issues under the driver’s window and leaks where the chrome strips sit on the top, it’s clean. The liftgate is in fantastic shape, the handle works perfectly, and the glass is all good. I’m going to pull the sliders out of my spare top and replace these as well as the seals, and maybe weld up a lot of the holes before painting it white.

New travel top

He threw in a set of Kayline bows he had laying around, and I picked up a spare windshield with a tiny crack in the side as well. We made sure to invite him up to the next wrenching day in the springtime, and hopefully we can get a couple of other locals to meet up when the weather gets warmer.

New travel top

Thermoquad Rebuild Info

Here’s a fantastic rundown of information about rebuilding Thermoquad caruretors from the Binder Planet, with part numbers. The important stuff:

1. Rebuild Kit. I use a GP Sorensen part number 96-246C kit, costs approx. $37.
2. Floats. I use two GP Sorensen part number 779-1726. These are nitrophyl floats. I have found that the brass floats sold for the T-Q will fit the fuel bowl, but are not the correct shape to work properly and could not be adjusted to work properly. The Nitrophyl floats work quite well. Good ones weigh 7.5 to 8.0 grams.

Johnny Lightning

Johnny Lightning

I found this Johnny Lightning Scout at the Wal-Mart last week. I’m told there’s a topless model in black out there that’s not lifted and I’d like that one for my collection, but I haven’t seen it yet. Instead I found one of these, the color of which approximates Peer Pressure before she was painted purple.

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White 4 point 194 style LED replacement bulb

This looks like it could be a good upgrade: WHITE 4 point 194 style LED replacement bulb – Whitegauges.net. At $5 a pop, it’s an expensive proposition, but knowing how difficult it is to get into the dash, I’d rather only do this once. Especially if the light they throw is brighter than incandescent bulbs.

Update- from the comments below, I pulled this link, which is for ten bulbs. Hmmm…

Parts Planning.

Via Mr. Scout, here’s the set of belts I’m going to buy for Peer Pressure, and I’m also going to need this kit for the floor mounts. He used these lights for his license plate, which looks to be a good solution; I need to find a bracket of some kind that I can mount to the swingarm on the right side and then fish the wires through.

Update: Bass Pro Shop has a zinc coated bracket for the low low price of $4.99. There’s also this one, which doesn’t require separate bolts, or this one.

Delivery

I got another package in the mail today: a pair of 2″ seatbelt bungs for Peer Pressure.

Seatbelt bungs

They’re actually longer than 2″–they’re meant to go through the rollbar, out the other side, and get welded on both ends. I’m going to ask Mr. Scout to bring his set of steel bits to get it started, and if I need to buy a large-diameter bit, I will. This is a link to the set he bought for Chewbacca, and I like the way they fit his rig. I also like the way the female side is mounted to a flexible pole so that the clip is always right next to the seat (instead of laying on the floor, like my current belts do).

I’m looking forward to the weekend—this time I’m going to be on the road as early as I can so that we can get as much of a full day in as possible.

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Hardware.

Doing a little digging through the websites of Fastenal and McMaster Carr, I found that Fastenal is much friendlier to low-number orders, while McMaster Carr won’t break up pieces below 5 or so. I priced out the following grade 8 fasteners:

7/16″ x 6″ bolts (2 pcs. for mounting the Hi-Lift jack)
7/16″ washers (2 pcs.)
7/16″ wingnuts (2 pcs.)

9/16 x 1.5″ bolts (6 pcs. for mounting the bumper to the frame)
9/16 x 2″ bolts (2 pcs. for mounting the outer section of the bumper to the frame)
9/16″ nuts (8 pcs.)
9/16″ lockwashers (8 pcs.)

1/2″ x 3″ fine thread bolts (3 pcs. for mounting the spare)

and got a total cost of $27.07 before tax. The next step will be to visit the Fastenal location in Elkridge and then the Ace Hardware out in Ellicott City to see whose prices are cheaper, and if it would pay to avoid shipping.

Update: Ace hardware doesn’t have grade 8 bolts longer than 4″, and no 9/16″ stock at all. Fastenal it is.

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