MT Scout

With the floor pans out, the bushing between the floor pan and frame wing was rusted and needed to be cut off. I ordered a body bushing kit from ihpartsamerica.com, with 9 pieces. I'll coat the frame with rust treatment first.

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

With the fuel tank and line installed and it was time to try starting it. With a few failed attempts we inspected the wiring and found the coil wire chewed through by a rodent on both the coil and solenoid sides. With that connected it fired up and died, low idle and starting was not going to happen.  Over the next few days I replaced the plugs, wires, plugged the vacuum tube from the original fuel pump, removed the idle set screw and cleaned it off, sprayed some carb cleaner on the outside and a little in the air horn. Then tried it again with some big success, the idle adjust needed a little help but new it idles and starts well.  I ordered cap, rotor, points and condenser and will install those this week. Coil and ballast resistor also need to be replaced. I tried driving it and within a few blocks it died, and wouldn't restart. It is still not getting fuel so I'll try clearing the lines in the tank with a bike brake cable and seafoam. And I'll order a new ...

As luck would have it, the fuel lines got cut in a couple places while cutting out the floor pans. Not a surprise, and the line needed to be replaced anyway. Underneath tracing the fuel lines, I found this Dupree Electric fuel pump, with old rubber fuel lines, which might need to be replaced.  I decided to get the original fuel pump rebuilt at ihpartsamerica.com. It will take 2 weeks plus shipping so an intermediate fuel pump replacement, which doesn't have the vacuum and looks a lot cheaper. I'll run 5/16 hard fuel line from the pump to the carburetor and rubber fuel line from the pump to the tanks. A path of least resistance. Maybe when I put the rebuilt pump back in, I can run steel lines to the tanks then if that adds value to the vehicle if not, just leave the nylon. Vacuum line locations (so I don't forget) Nylon fuel lines are in but not without a ton of running around today. The 1/4 compression ...

The arm on the clutch master cylinder fell off when we tried to pump it and its bent. So a new one came from IH Parts America and its going in. An extension rod is needed. Push rod extension, reusing the old one with a 5/8" bolt retainer.  Ihpartsamerica.com saved the day again by sending me this link to a clutch push rod on ebay at scouterI https://classicscoutparts.com/ Thanks to Lou and Diane Rochin again, the push rode went in easy and after a bit of bleeding and rusty fluid flowing out, the clutch started working after who knows how long, maybe 10 years sitting in the Lolo campground. 

Other Scout blogs: http://www.azbluewhale.com/Progress.htm https://forums.ihpartsamerica.com/threads/ih-parts-americas-1971-scout-800b.7953/ https://myscout80.wordpress.com/ http://northbeachnotes.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-elusive-steel-wheel-for-my-scout-80.html Vintage Ads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyz_5bx-Lho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKj3sjmRm5U IH Parts America Classic Scout Parts

I made an appointment with a local brake and alignment shop a month ago. I figured it would give me plenty of time to get the scout running and drivable but I missed that mark by a bit. Had to tow it.

This should be easy, but the drain plug and crush washer made it interesting. The filter is mounted on a converter. It looks like the last oil change was done at Vern's Chevron in Metaline Falls, WA. I can't make out a date, but it looks like its been a while.

One bumper from the vehicle needs some welds cut off and one from the salvage yard needs some straightening from a local machine shop. Both will be powder coated a light grey. 

At a salvage yard in Livingston MT, there are 8 scouts there, even one early with slider windows. I picked up the following: Glass Scout emblem Front Grill and clips Rear Bumper, needs some straightening Pedal springs Pedal pads Blinker end