MT Scout

Paint Color The original was 6282-21 Dark Metallic Blue. Since the formula for this doesn't exist anywhere a reasonable guess or just selecting a modern replacement color were the options. Here is a picture of the original with Subaru Geyser Blue UAT, Toyota Cavalry Blue, and 2 of the closest swatches from a deck the painter had available. I chose Toyota Cavalry because its close to the original, its available (for repairs) it looks good and the 2 metallic swatches were way to metallic for my tastes.

Filler I used a gallon of Evercoat Rage Ultra from a painters suggestion. It sands easier. And with great expenditure of sand paper all the obvious low spots were filled. I started with 40 in a random orbital (electric DA equivalent) and moved to 80 grit on a larger board. Then 120 grit on a large board. Primer High build primer. I used 3 coats Evercoat Optex Super Build 4:1, which sprays on pink and sands grey. So its essentially urethane primer, filler and guide coat in on. Started sanding with 220 grit on a large block, this created a ton of dust. Then I moved to 320 on a large block, which really cleaned up the entire thing.  Trailer It looked pretty good but there were several areas I wished I filled/sanded that showed up in the sun on the trailer.

Several small dents, 3 holes (2 in the hood), and 3 tears in the end caps. I got a stud welder from harbor freight. It works well for attaching the small studs, they stay on and don't leave a hole like the larger studs (they weld right though). The slide hammer that came with the stud welder quit working after about 3 studs (typical for harbor freight I know).  My son welded the tears and 2 plugs in the hood holes. After grinding smooth they are ready for some filler soon. Many of the dents just "oil canned" out if we could get something in behind to push them out. They stayed when heated with a heat gun, which I think is mandatory for this kind of metal work. 

  I had the differentials, transfer case and transmission oil changed. Two new diff gaskets from IH parts america for Dana 27. The front diff spider gears are damaged and will have to be replaced. Other than that, it drives OK and the gears appear to work well. All the fluid leaked out of the transmission so it probably needs a new pan gasket.

Replacing the valve cover gasket to fix a leak was a good opportunity to degrease and paint it the cover. With some help from a friend we changed the distributor cap, rotor and points. I set the gap/dwell, a first for me, and its idling great but doesn't accelerate (bogs and miss fires). So there's more come, ballast resistor and coil. 

The dashboard has been painted several colors. I'll try to get it back to the original gray color. Because the knobs cannot be separated from the control wires I decided to strip, prime and paint the dash in place. Easier said than done.  Stripped Painted