Desperate for some answers, I tried something radical on Tuesday. I pulled the 15″ spare tire out of the back of the truck and put it on the driver’s side front hub. After warming the truck up in the driveway, I took it out for a run-up on the highway toward the airport. And it was stable! Only the slightest shake in the steering wheel but no death wobble at any speed. I had the truck up to a high of 64mph and the vibration didn’t get any worse.

So this rules out anything still wrong with the suspension—the last remaining tie rod or the sway bar bushings, although I’m going to replace those in any case. It’s definitely the wheel, and now I’ve got to find a replacement for the one I swapped out. Brendan at IHScout.com told me they’re around $100/ea, which is a hell of a lot better than $600 for a pair of new wheels and tires. For now, the 15″ tire is still on the truck, and she looks kind of stupid.

I uploaded three new designs to the Dugan Heavy Industries storefront this afternoon: a flat side, step side, and Travelette, all C-series trucks. I still have to develop a design for the D-series, but that will come later.

With the power steering pump on the Scout fixed, I’m now in a position to try to figure out what the next big project might be. I’ve gone out to the garage a couple of times this week and farted around, unsure of what to tackle next. Some of these things are going to take multiple weeks, and some are going to take an afternoon. So to clean the cobwebs out of my brain, let’s list them here, in order of easiest to hardest and order of importance:

• Fix the upholstery on the front bench seat. Some of the padding on the top of the seat under the vinyl has shifted and I don’t like the look of that, so I have to cut a bunch of the hog ring clips off and move the padding around. I’m going to do this while it’s still warm, in the sunshine, and that will make stretching the fabric much, much easier. I did this, and it was pretty easy, but I think I’m going to need to re-do it some point using actual upholstery spray-mount because I suspect it’s going to move again.
• Install heat barrier around the muffler. The floor above the muffler was super-hot the last time I drove the truck, so I’d like to get under it, scrape off a bunch of the undercoating, and install some heat matting to reflect that downwards. Done! I hope this makes a big difference.
• Move the electronic fuel pump down closer to the tank and replace the fuel filter. I’m told these pumps like it better when they’re down closer to the outflow port on the tank, which makes sense. And the filter is pretty gross right now. This will only take a couple of hours.
• Install hooks and latches on the rear bench seat. I still have to install the chrome latches on my seat, and Bill C. just sent me some measurements from his truck. Between those measurements and the general location of the latches, I should be able to figure this one out. This one should only be a few hours.
• Replace the wing windows. Both of my wing windows are delaminated and stained around the edges, and the driver’s window does not stay open. I’d like to replace these with the two out of the green truck, which are clear but probably need new rubber. This will involve breaking the interior of the door back down to its base parts to slide the triangle into place, unless I can find a way to squeeze just the window portion out of the frame and squeeze the replacement in. Done! This took more and less time that I thought it might. I will need to eventually pony up $300 for new rubber for both of these, but for now they’re both clear and look good.
• Fix the mechanical fuel pump. I’m still not sure what the deal is here, but I’d love to delete the electric pump—as much as I hate sitting and grinding the starter until the fuel hits the bowl. I also have to put the borescope into the engine block and see if the gear inside is intact. This will take longer than I want it to.
• Continue painting the frame.  Before I redid the springs, I was crawling under the truck to go over the undercarriage with a needle scaler, and that kind of sucked when I could barely fit under there. Now the truck is taller and actually runs, which means I can drive it up onto ramps and really see what’s going on under there.
• Build a roof rack. I have the aluminum channel for this, and a simplified plan. I also know that my abortive attempts to TIG some scrap aluminum together was done in an unprepared way. So I’ll do some more test runs and see if I can get some decent beads together, and try again. This is a long-term project.
• Fabricate and weld a new driver’s floor. This will probably be one of the easier jobs on this list, as difficult as it sounds; cutting out the old floor shouldn’t take long, but cutting and fabbing the new pan will take a little time. I’m also going to cut out the rotted support at the corner and weld my new one in. This is a long-term project.
• Strip, sand, fix, and prime the spare doors and hood. I’ve got a quartet of doors sitting in the garage that I’d love to swap on to the truck eventually with a fresh coat of red paint. And the hood is in better shape than the one I’ve got—I probably don’t need to do any paint stripping, just clean up and scuff the surfaces before shooting it with primer and paint. That would go a long way to cleaning up the look of the front of the truck—minus the grille surround, which is the dog’s breakfast. Another long-term project.
• Fabricate a grill surround from the two I have (??) I’ve got two 1968 surrounds that don’t fit the shape of my grille insert, so I’d have to figure out how to bend that metal—but the good one is solid around the indicator buckets, which is where mine is crumbling. This is a pie-in-the-sky project.