Weekly Roundup 11.13

I don’t have a ton of major updates this week; most of what happened was maintenance-based. The main task was to drop the hardtop onto the Scout to prepare for a 180-mile drive to Southern Maryland, and with a few small hiccups this process went smoothly. With the top out of the way I moved a bunch of stuff up into the garage attic—the cracked rear Travelall glass, extra sheet metal, etc.

The other thing I did was to roughly assemble the front bench seat and drop it into the Travelall to get it out of the way. I’ve got most of the hardware required and it went together pretty quickly. This is the first time I’ve seen both seats in the truck and it’s kind of inspiring, even though they both look ghetto.

One other interesting Travelall development—I was sitting on the bench seat and tested the brakes to see if they were holding pressure, and with a few pumps they built resistance. Later I was out back and walking towards the truck when I looked up and noticed the rear brake light was on. This is the first time any of the lighting on the truck has come to life anywhere; I thought it had all been cut out when the fuse panel was removed. I released the trailer brake (it’s been on since I put the truck on a battery tender) and the light went out, so clearly someone bodged that in and bypassed the fused wiring. How and why this bulb decided to come on is a mystery, but at least I know there’s some signal making its way out to the back.

Price Comparison

I spied this red ’65 Travelall on eBay a few weeks ago and it came back up in my feed yesterday, having been sold for $5880 in Marfa, Texas. Old trucks are typically much cheaper in the southwestern states due to the climate being much friendlier, so the (low?) price isn’t that much of a surprise. The outside of the truck is in relatively decent shape, but clearly has some visible battle scars; the rear tailgate, for example, looks lousy, and the front clip has lost paint in exactly the same places mine has.

The most interesting thing about this truck is that it was built and delivered to a dealer in Tuxedo, Maryland, which is right outside of Capitol Heights to the east of D.C. From the build sheet it sounds like a nice upgrade from mine: the same 304/T-18 driveline (2WD) but power brakes with front discs, extra sun visor and both armrests, as well as front bucket seats. OH, THE LUXURY. Most interestingly, this says it was originally Vegas Blue Metallic, so it’s been resprayed at some point. I’d bet a look under the hood would reveal the original paint. There was only one shot of the interior, which was sporting some seriously bizarre aftermarket bucket seats.

There’s a lot here I like—Western mirrors look really good (I’m waiting to mount mine until the springtime, when I can pull the cover off). More and more I like the look of white wheels and roof on a red truck. I think I’m being convinced to change my paint scheme around a little bit. It’s interesting to see the same kind of aftermarket roof-mounted reverse light mine had; I guess this was a thing after a certain point.

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Weekly Roundup, 11.6

I had to run out on errands Sunday morning, and the weather was in the upper 60’s, so I grabbed Finn and we rolled out in the Scout for a fall adventure. Our first stop was down in Pasadena at the Eastwood store, where I needed to pick up some chassis black and a tube of seam sealer. As we wandered the store, my old friend Steven G. walked in, as he was shopping for supplies for his Scout. We caught up for a bit, and talked about getting a fall meetup together, and then I exited the store in a hurry before I was tempted to buy anything else. We stopped at the Home Depot for some other supplies and a precut 2×4′ sheet of plywood and headed home.

In the driveway, I pulled the original bumper off the mounts and hung it in place to see exactly how well it’ll fit. I think it needs a little more standoff than the original had, but with another 2″ or so it will work perfectly. I think I can make the original mounts work for the short term, and when I can get my hands on some larger longer box steel I’ll fabricate a permanent mount.

I opened up the rear doors and started brushing on the chassis black over encapsulator, and got a good portion of it done before the sun went down. The chassis paint is a lot thinner than the encapsulator, and tends to make more of a mess. While I was out there, Brian T. stopped by on his way back over the bridge, and we caught up for the first time in a couple of months.

After closing up the truck and garage, I brought the sheet of plywood in to the basement, turned on the football game, and set it up as a mounting rack for my spare wiring loom. The goal here is to rebuild the wiring loom so that I can pull the old one out and replace it with this. I’d originally contacted Super Scouts to price out a brand new loom, but after several weeks of waiting I was told their wiring specialist is two months behind. So I’ll take advantage of the inside time and learn how to disassemble, test, and rebuild the one I’ve got. One thing I am going to reach out to them about are some replacements for the bulkhead connectors I’ve got, to see if I can get any with intact mounting tabs.

Hello There Friend

Driving out to Ellicott City yesterday, I spied the distinctive shape of a C series pickup parked in front of West End Service, our local IH dealer. On my way home I stopped to look it over and snap a few pictures. It’s clearly a heavy-duty model, sitting on a beefy front axle and sporting a dually rear, but everything else was a normal C-series cab. It had recently been painted and a very pretty design applied to each door, but there was a lot of overspray on the steering wheel and knobs in the cab.

I took a lot of pictures of the floor and seat base (the seat itself was missing) so that I’ve got reference for my seat install and eventual floor replacement.


Inspiration

Dan over at the Binder Boneyard posted a picture of a rig he worked on a couple of years ago that I remember lusting after; it started out as a 2WD Travelall that he converted to 4WD, lifted, and did a bunch of other upgrades to. What I’m looking at specifically is the roof rack, which is the setup I’m going for: an eight-point rack with a solid bed and a very minimal rail. Ideally I’d build the metal sections out of aluminum, but that’s a welding skill I don’t currently possess. I’ve got six of the eight drip rail mounts I need, and I intend to spend a cold winter sketching out a plan for the rack itself. I wonder how much a used TIG welder goes for on Marketplace….?

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Weekly Roundup, 10.29

On Thursday afternoon I got a long narrow package delivered by UPS, which contained a set of headliner bows from my friend Ray up in Massachusetts. He sent a pair of square-end bows like the three I’ve already got in the truck, which were made to work with an aluminum channel around the perimeter of the roof that would hold a headliner in place. My truck didn’t come with a headliner or the channel, just three rusty bows (out of five) and the fiberglas insulation glued to the ceiling.

Below that are five point-end bows which went on earlier model Travelalls without the aluminum channel; from what Ray tells me the headliner tucked in under the sheet metal lip around the edge and these bows held it into place. Because these bows are in much better shape than the square-ends I’ve got, I’m going to clean them up and use them when I build and install a headliner.

Meanwhile, I got another big box in the mail via UPS, in which was packed a primer black ’57 Ford F-150 bumper. I brought it out to the truck and laid it on top of the C-series bumper, and apart from the fact that it’s a little narrower, I think this thing will work very well.

I’ve got to figure out how to build a set of sturdy standoffs from the frame horns on the front of the truck—the current standoffs are 4″ deep sections of box channel steel held in place with some long rusty bolts and a wheelbarrow full of washers. I’ll probably do something similar but gusset the boxes for strength.

Saturday morning I went to Bennett’s to help him swap out the rear brake line on his Speedster replica; he’d taken it to a car show earlier in the year and blown the line on the way home. It turns out the manufacturer ran the brake line inside the cabin along the transmission tunnel, ending in a fitting directly behind the driver’s seat. After some careful application of heat and penetrant we got the fitting off the distro block behind the front suspension and cut a new line with some extra length to spare. Bennett then showed me how to make a bubble flange on a brake line, which I’d never seen before, and we installed the new line and bled the brakes.

With that success, we took a test drive to Ellicott City for some barbecue and brought it home to eat in the warm sunshine.

A couple of weeks ago I saw an ad pop up on Marketplace where a guy had a storeroom full of old IHC R-series parts he was selling, and I alerted Bennett. He’d driven up there a couple of weeks ago and picked through the stuff, coming home with a box full of NOS parts for Phantom, his ’53 R-110 pickup. Before I left, we looked through the box of stuff he brought home, and he handed me an NOS doorhandle and window crank for a C-series pickup in perfect shape. I’ve got to figure out what they’re worth and give him some cash the next time I see him. He also had a trio of black NOS armrests in original IH packaging—the foam on the backside was bright yellow like the day they were made—and sent me home with one to see if it fit Peer Pressure. I already have a black set on the truck, but maybe I’ll buy two of these to put in the spares box along with the used ones that look like they were fished out of a river.

Addendum: I forgot to mention that I ran the engine up for about ten minutes on Saturday when the girls were out of the house (the exhaust is super rich and tends to flood the house, so I wait until they’re away) and got it up to temperature. It only took two pumps of the throttle to get her fired up, which was encouraging. Looking at various points of the engine with a laser thermometer, the manifold junction on the driver’s side got to about 450˚, while the passenger side got to 520˚. I then remembered that the coolant was low so I waited until the water neck hit about 160˚ and decided to shut it down, so I don’t know if the thermostat is working yet or not. I added about 3/4 of a gallon of coolant and let it cool down before putting the cover back on. It’s sounding a little clattery but the idle smoothed out after awhile; I think the rings need to come loose and seat properly after sitting for so long, and I need to have a professional tune the carb properly to get her running right.

Weekly Roundup, 10.21

I had a chunk of time on Sunday to get outside in the blustery sunshine and keep working on things. The first project was to weld a set of plates to the back of the seat box to use for mount points on the vertical section of the step. I ran out to a local independent welding shop on Friday and got a tank exchanged for much less than Airgas charged me last time; I was happy enough with their service that I opened up an account to save the extra $15. And, they’re open on Saturdays.

Back in the garage, I had a bunch of 18 ga. scrap left over from bending the doors and I used a section of that to add some stiffness. I cut two rectangles out and welded them in place, then sanded the high points down and prepped the whole thing for etching primer. First I covered all of the welds that were impossible to reach with the wire wheel with rust encapsulator and then let it sit outside with primer to cure. The next step will be to prime it, put some guide coat on the flat surfaces sand it lightly to find the high and low spots, then fill those and get things cleaned up for paint.

In the truck, I decided to do a little archaeology and see what was under the weird rubberized coating on the driver’s floor. I used the wire wheel to grind out the edges and revealed a series of 1/2″ spot welds around the perimeter, which should be pretty easy to grind out and replace. The metal is, predictably, lousy the closer to the pedals it gets; moisture stuck under the rubber mat did a number on the “repair.

Elsewhere, I pulled the driver’s rear wheel off, got on the creeper and continued knocking rust off all of the rear frame elements I could see with the needle scaler, and then covering it all with encapsulator. I think I’ve got about 80% of the rear finished; I need to do the same with the passenger’s side and do all of the vertical surfaces over there. Finding true marine-grade plywood in stock locally has been a challenge, but Brian tells me there’s a brand at Home Depot that’s essentially the same thing: 7-ply Douglas fir made with waterproof glue. I’ve got to find it in stock locally and pick up a sheet this coming week.

A reader named Mike wrote me last week and offered a parts list he compiled while building a ’67 1100 with a 304; essentially the same truck I’ve got, but with an auto transmission, power steering and brakes. He was kind enough to share it with me this morning, and I’ll definitely put it to good use. Thanks Mike!

Locked Box

I spent most of Saturday sitting on the couch while my COVID vaccine made me feel sore and loopy, but it rained all day so I wasn’t that upset. Sunday was partly cloudy but not actively raining, so after getting the dog out for a walk and doing some small errands, I got back out to the garage to keep working. At this point the box project is just finishing up small details; I got a set of locks from Amazon and had plans for how the doors should close.

The plan was to weld in a set of doubler plates underneath to add support, then carefully cut holes in the doors and widen them on two sides to accept the lock barrels, which are notched on either side to prevent them from spinning when the key is inserted. After doing a test run on scrap metal, I got this done pretty easily and used one of Dad’s old files to widen the holes. After burning them in, and test-fitting everything, I carefully cut notches in each of the square tube to accept the latch arms. The passenger side was just short of the arm so I had to add a small plate on the face of the square tube to catch it.

I did some experimenting with thin strips of metal to see what I liked for doorstops, but everything I had seemed way too big or wide to work. Conscious of avoiding anything with sharp edges, I settled on a length of 1/4 rod from a different project. I cut 6″ sections and welded them at the lock ends, then ground down the high spots so that everything is smooth.

Next, I wanted to reinforce the hinges, so I drilled three holes through the plate inside the box and welded the resulting hole shut. This way each hinge is borrowing from the plate but I’m not adding ugly beginner welds to the outside edges.

Finally I put a plate in between the two hinge bars from the bottom to make a shallow tray for tools or other gear. I’ll cut a rectangle of floormat to go in there after things get painted.

I’m almost ready for paint. The last thing to be done is to weld in a set of gussets/mounting points on the backside that will go through the vertical wall on the rear step. Out of curiosity I called a powdercoating shop nearby and was quoted $100 from a disinterested shop foreman, so I think I’ll stick with my budget rattlecan approach. So now I’ll practice my sanding and filling skills to clean up the outside.

Outside in the truck, I pulled the wood floor back up and kept grinding at the rust. The needle scaler did all the work, and I made it all the way forward up the frame to the rear step. I was able to get encapsulator on everything before I had to close up for dinner, and I left the floor out of the truck to air it out. I have to pull each rear wheel in order to reach the outside of the frame rails completely, but I’ve gotten to most everything I can with the floor up.

After calling Super Scout Specialists twice in two weeks to inquire on having a new dash wiring harness built, they told me the guy who builds their harnesses is two months behind and hasn’t been in the shop in two weeks. I thought about it over the weekend and figured I’d better place an order now to get the thing sometime this year, as I haven’t found anyone else building them for a competitive price (scoutparts.com wants to charge an extra $3-400 over what SSS is asking; no thanks.) I’ve actually got a harness from a ’68 pickup on the bench downstairs, so I theoretically could swap it in for what I have; I don’t know whether or not they updated circuits between ’63 and ’68, though. Wiring this thing is going to take a lot of time and learning.

Meanwhile, my friend Ray from the BP has a set of five headliner bows up in Massachusetts he’s going to sell me, which should provide a solution to a future problem: what to do with the insulation glued to the ceiling, and how to cover that up. There’s an aluminum J-channel in later Travelalls that acted as a trim ring but from what he tells me it’s very hard to remove and would be impossible to ship. I think I might experiment with some thin Luan covered with fabric and use these bows to hold things up.

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Painting Your Beater

Here’s a real nice video from Eastwood going over the basics of how to paint your beater in the driveway without blowing it apart into one million pieces. There’s a lot of good information in there—some extra steps on body filler and sanding that I -ahem- have skipped over, etc. As I look toward the spring and painting the roof of the Travelall, this will come in real handy.

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