My garage is the original, circa 1925, one-car structure that was built with the house, which means it was in rough shape to start with. When we moved into this house, we knew it would either need serious work or total demolition to be worth anything at all. It was originally wood with a dirt floor, and the previous owner added a raised wooden subfloor in order to use it as a hobby shed. He also removed the original barn doors and closed off the front with plywood, which made it worthless for anything other than storing lawnmowers and demolition refuse. When I wound up with this new rig, I asked my friends for a little help getting it under cover, using the best of what I had to work with.
True to his word, Mr. Scout appeared on the doorstep this morning at 8:45 bundled up in Carhartts against the 20° cold to help me haul out garbage, pull up the floor and figure out how to park indoors without collapsing the entire structure around us.
First, we had to get three months’ worth of demo rubble from the center of the floor.
After that was done and hauled away, we pulled up the floorboards to survey the structure. There was a poured concrete footer down the center of the floor with joists laid on top, making our job difficult. After some discussion, we came up with a plan: We’d park the Scout in the center of the floor, on top of  2″x12″x16’s anchored with short scrapwood arranged like railroad ties. This way the differentials would miss the footer and the truck would be up off the dirt.Â
First, we braced the joists with cinderblock and brick, then took a sawzall and cut them off to the width of the channel in the center. Then, we knocked out the plywood on the front of the garage, added new studs and a stronger header. Once that was ready, we dropped the rails in place and nailed them to the ties.
After having all day to charge the battery, a small shot of gas in the carb was all it took to get the truck running again. I turned her around and, with Mr. Scout directing, backed her in over top of the rails, and that was that. We surveyed our handiwork for a few short moments, then went about closing the front back up-it was too damn cold to stand around.
Once the front panel was back up, we loaded everything back in and put the cover over top. And so she’s indoors and out of the rain.
It looks like I’m going to have to buy a new battery, as well as replace the fuel pump-there’s a slow leak right below the pulley that hasn’t gone away since last week. But could I be happier this evening? No, I don’t think I could.
