Catch up

I've been delinquent in my posts of late, so here is a little catch up. 

April 26 was more cutting out rust. I finally decided that the end cap had to come off. A couple of the bolts were too rusted to get off (surprised?), so I cut the corner out. I'll need to rebuild a bit under there, including the rear mount. 

The next day I decided it was time to pull it out of the garage, but Hanky seemed all too comfortable in there. After debating the veracity of my battery, I determined that the starter needed to come out. It came out without a fuss, and so did a pound or so of Pinelands mud. 

Ain't that purdy? Took about 15 minutes to shake the mud out to my satisfaction. I had just ordered a solenoid from Rock Auto cuz I thought it might come in handy. After cleaning up the starter, sort of, and putting on the solenoid, it started right up and got to see sunlight for the first time in months. It also gave me the chance to sweep another 10 pounds or so of Pinelands out of the garage. 

On Thursday (5/1), I got a bit more time and cut the dead flesh out of the end cap and fashioned a temporary patch for the floor between the wheel well and tailgate.  I'll eventually have to replace to whole floor, so this piece may come back out at some point, but this patch gives me a lip to weld the inner fender to. 

This past Saturday, I didn't have a lot of time to spend on the truck, but I identified the horrible racket under the hood as the alternator, not the a/c pump as I had thought. Picked up a new one at Advance, so no sweat.  I remembered to pull off the pulleys, but figured I wouldn't need to swap the fan too, right? Wrong. Good thing I have another core. 

Sunday, May 4 was sand blasting day at last. I *think* I have most of the cancer out if the areas I need to address immediately. So I pulled the Scout out (and it's a lot quieter without that danged alternator), and set about my work. A few pounds of sand later and all the infected areas were clean. A little blow dry and I broke out the POR15 to hopefully put a permanent stop to it. 

 

Why is it that I get POR in my hands even when I wear gloves? And it's usually the day before I have some fancy dinner. 

I also sized up the inner rocker and trimmed the old one. The piece left over from the passenger side repair is the perfect length. I welded in a fish plate and called it a night.  

Door Prizes

No work getting done on the Scout this week, but I did get to pay a visit to ScoutCo headquarters for some bits for another project. I even got to take home a few very cool pieces of Scout swag.  Mike is awesome. If you are ever in the area, pay him a visit. And if you aren't, you can order from his Web site. 

http://www.scoutcoproducts.com/

Playing the post

Thanks to Mike Moore for posting some pics of complete B pillars so I have a reference for how to rebuild mine. I didn't get a lot done tonight, but I did get a patch cut, tack welded and drilled so I could test fit the pillar to the new mount. 

It went together easily and I think the door shuts better now than it ever has. 😜

Running time: 40 hrs. 

Testing the fit and visiting Gigi

I figured I'd spend pretty much all day in the garage today, but not long after getting out there, I got a call from Brandon Byrd saying he was heading out to Glenwood to pick up Gigi. I've been wanting to check out his truck, so off I went. 

There's no mistaking a big blue and white Metro, so the shop was easy to find. Gigi looks just as good in person as in Brandon's pics. 

And with a new 350 under the hood, it will go like a bat out of hell too. It sounds totally awesome, as a hot rod should. Brandon took it easy and didn't burn any rubber on his way out. I got one parting shot as I turned off to head home

Back at the shop, I did a little more cutting and grinding. I'm finding that I'm having to cut out a lot, if not all of the previous repair. Not necessarily a bad thing. 

The new mount fits in pretty well and the b pillar bolts up well. I still need to rebuild the bottom of the b pillar. I'll cut and fit some templates while I have it bolted together like this. Nice to see it come together, but there is a lot of work to be done before Pinelands.

Oh, and the battery is totally dead. Gonna have to chase down the short that's draining it. Hopefully the battery isn't permanently dead. It's on the charger now, so we'll see in the morning. 

Labor to date: 39 hrs. 

Friday Frights

The day stayed off well enough. I etched and POR15'd the other side of the mid mount first thing in the morning. Then while that dried, I figured I'd make a run to Crazy Ray's to get a hydroboost for Heavy D. 

As I set out, I noticed that the brakes were really soft. Thankfully, before I had gone to far, I found that the brakes were pretty much gone. I only had enough pedal to stop it from about 15 MPH. Gah! Having a brake failure is the one recurring night are that I've ever had. Here I am living it. Again. (I'll tell you about the other time sometime). 

I decided that I was close enough to the parts store to stop there (hah!) and get some fluid. Topping off the master didn't help. There is air in the lines for sure. So I limped it home and piled into the car to head to Crazy Ray's. Ironic that it's a hydroboost that I was after? I found what I needed, tho it took me a bit longer than expected for lack of a 15mm socket in my bag. 

Back at the ranch, I finished POR15 touch ups on the b pillar and mount, so those should be ready. Just have to fab up a new bottom on the b pillar. 

I then cut out a bit more of the old mount so the new one can go in. I also noticed a little bulging under the floor, so some exploratory surgery was done. Sure enough. Rust was pancaked between the layers of metal. Haven't quite gotten it all out, but it looks like I'll need to replace some of that floor. Even though from the top side it looks fine, it's pretty thin. 

Clock ticking at 37.5 hrs. 

Bit by bit

Put another hour in tonight. This time welding in the support to the mid mount, then etching and painting one side of the mount with POR15. Every little bit of progress helps. 

Back in black

Had a little time for Hanky today, so after grinding down some spot welds on the b pillar, I gave the outside a coat of POR15. I'll hit the inside tomorrow. 

Then, I turned my attention to the center mount. It won't fit over what's left of the original, so that has to come out. 

So, I need to add a support for the body mount bolt.  I happened to have a piece of a small car square tube hitch in the garage, so I cut that down to fit. All I need to do is weld it in place and I'll be good to go. 

Running time: 33.5 hours