Category: Travelall

Sunday was a day of tying up some loose ends from the last couple of weeks in between snowstorms. We’re supposed to be getting a major accumulation this coming week so I wanted to get in under the cover, get some stuff buttoned up, and prep it for the weather.

First off, I drilled holes in the cupholder mount and the seat base and installed it with a couple of 5/16″ bolts. I’ve been waiting to do that for a long time, and it really looks good there—even in etching primer. I’m toying with the idea of taking it to be powder coated in black for some added durability.

I grabbed the bracket for the fuel filler hoses, pulled the fender off, and took some time to install it, the new hose, and a refurbed filler cap ring on the temporary fender. It all fit well, with the hose from the tank being maybe 1″ too short on the long side, but it’s good enough to reach the filler neck. So everything is ready for when the good fender gets sprayed and is ready to install permanently.

Then I used some zip ties and a wire holder to tidy up the fuse panel install from last weekend, moving the jumper wire up behind the heater plenum and directing the bundle from the panel upwards and out of the footwell. That made a big difference behind the pedals.

In the garage I fished out a sheet of 18 ga. steel, traced the pattern I built last weekend for the seat mount out, and cut it down with the angle grinder. When it was roughed out, I trimmed the sides down on the bench grinder and prepped it for the brake. I don’t know when I’ll get back out to Brian’s again but that will be another good project to dive into.

Finally, I wire wheeled the last three headliner bows and cleaned them up for etching primer. All five are now ready for a coat of the interior gray I used on the door cards, which will have to wait until springtime.

This may sound like a simple thing, but simple things are giving me joy in a dark time right now: I’ve got working brake lights. After spending the time and money to source a new wiring harness, pull out the dashboard, swap in the wiring, and replace everything, I was much closer to a street-legal truck:

• All four running lights work.
• The headlights work.
• The turn signals work, after some grounding issues.
• The dash lights all work.
• The heater works.
• The license plate light works.
• The truck starts from the key.

But that wasn’t everything, and there was one major roadblock:

• The brake lights didn’t work.
• The high-beams cut off the running lights; this isn’t a dealbreaker.
• There is wiring for a dome light, but it’s constant power right now—there’s no way to turn it off.

Doing a little research, I realized I’d swapped the old brake light switch from the original brake master onto the new one, and most likely it was broken or clogged. I found a new one on Amazon (after some dedicated research) and swapped it in this afternoon. In two  minutes, I had working brake lights.

So next up, I’m going to sort out the dome light situation, and wire three in parallel—two over the seats, and one for the rear cargo area. And as I mentioned before, I’ve got a plan for an additional fuse panel with switched power for more accessories.

I braved 20˚ weather to sit in the back of Darth and weld in the valance above the barn doors on Sunday morning. The idea was to get out ahead of the weather before it dumped a predicted 6″ of snow on us, which it’s currently doing. It was a bit tricky, as I think the metal was cold enough that it didn’t promote clean penetration in the smaller plug welds I drilled, but I got the majority of it on and ground down for paint. I’ll have to do a little filler work to clean up a couple of places when it’s warmer as well.

On the brake/electrical front, it turns out the brake master from the green truck has an entirely different switch system (my guess is that the switch was on the pedal assembly but I haven’t checked that) so I had nothing to swap in and test. I did finally track down the part I need, Standard Motor SLS30, and ordered it via Amazon. So after we’re dug out and the project I’m managing at work is done, I can test it out.

I’ve been doing a lot of research into wiring in an additional fuse panel for accessories, and I think I’ve got a good idea of what I need and how it works. It’s actually pretty simple; I need a new panel wired up to a 30amp relay, which is then connected directly to the battery and a ground. The fourth wire goes to the accessory circuit on the existing panel, which acts simply as a switch. Turn the key on, and power goes to the new panel. All of the load goes through the new wire into the new panel, ensuring I don’t burn the truck down by overloading the old wiring harness. My truck was spec’d for a larger alternator but I have no idea if the used wiring harness I have was made to handle that increase in power. I’m going to over-engineer it so that I’ve got room to expand with things like A/C, a backup/rearview camera and electric steering, but for now just having some accessory plugs will be great.

Down on the workbench, I carefully drilled the lockset out of the barn door handle from Darth and laid the parts out. The used barrel I’ve got will not stay in the handle with the key in the lock, so I think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and order a second lockset keyed to the existing door locks. I was really hoping I could get the used barrel to work but it’s just not happening. The handles attach to the door with two threaded rods which were rusted solid to the retaining nuts, so I soaked them for two weeks in PBblaster. I put two new nuts on the rods, torqued them tight to each other, and used them for leverage to spin the rusted nuts off. The rods were  soaked clean in Evaporust and are now mounted back on the handles.

While I was diving back into locksmithing, I pulled out my spare Scout II T-handle assembly and looked it over. There’s a method for popping the lock out with a thin rod that compresses a brass retaining clip on the barrel, but no amount of PBblaster or lithium grease would free that clip up. So I drilled the face of the lock and pulled the top 2/3 of the barrel out. It was in such bad shape that the bottom 1/3 took some digging to pull out, but once it separated the handle was easy to clean up. If my lift gate latch closed all the way shut I’d look into buying a new barrel for this, but it doesn’t so there’s really no point.