73 beast

[Scooter]

One of the things that has been extremely annoying about this beast, is that one of the previous owners int it's life time, used 2inch pipe tube for the body lift spacers. as if the ole worn out original body bushings were not worn out enough as it was, the tube spacers compounded the situation. Anyways, I finally took the time to go into work on my day off last week to use the lathe to machine out a few 1 inch spacers. Only had enough time to cut 5 pieces. Needless to say I need to go back into work on my day off to make a few more.
Here's what I have so far

Btw - the semi rusty one in the finished photo, is 3/4" piece that I made about 8 years ago for my 72. The ones I am making now are one inch thick

 

[Scooter]

Got bored today and was able to get an extra pair of hands for some musical rigs. And since the only thing holding the roof together was the rust and paint and chunks of rust falling apart when hitting every bump in the road, I broke out my plasma cutter and choped up the rust bucket of a roof.

I already have a replacement roof that I have had on the shelf awaiting for some tlc. And some of ya May remember the paint scheme from another Scout build. Because this spare roof was taken off my barrel rolled 74 Scout, which was set aside in storage a few years before the roll. After some minor rust repair/replace and several rattle cans of paint it will be ready for the beast

Btw - I saved all the glass and lift gate from the old roof before getting cut up.

 

[Scooter]

Got busy today and started a rear axle swap. The rear-end out of the 73 beast is a Ford 9" that came out of a lincoln versailles. With 4.10 gears from what I was told when I purchased the beast, but not sure exactly. The axle I am putting in is a Dana 44 out of my 74 barrel rolled Scout. Which has rotors, 4.56 gears, ARB and 35 spline Axles. The 4.56 gears in the d-44 will better handle the 35 shoes that the beast is sporting. Plus, I'm swaping the u-bolts and mounting plates.

The theory behind this madness is due to the fact that I plan on bolting the Ford 9" under my 51 studebaker truck.

 

[vancetater]

Its looking good im glad it went to you and your putting alot of love into it

 

[Scooter]

its looking good im glad it went to you and your putting alot of love into it

Thanks.
Some of the work that I am doing to it is more of fixing the p.o virus. Mostly from the first two owners(p.o.) of this beast, since rumor has it that I'm the fourth owner. And I'm not sure if it's love yet, but more of shacking my head in wondering what these people thinking.

Once I finish with the rear end swap, the next order of business is gutting the 30plus year old wiring out of the beast. To much of a headache to trace one wire at a time, since I have a new wire harness available that I just pulled out of my 74 barrel rolled Scout. The 74 won't miss the wiring, untill I'm ready to work on it.

Btw - while I'm at it, during the rear-end axle swap, I'm relocating the upper shock mounts back to the oem location. But in order to do so, I need to cut off both exhaust pipes from the mufflers back. The current configuration of the exhaust plumbing isn't much to be desired. I will post photos later when I get to that point, which May show why.

 

[vancetater]

Ya I did not do many modifications to that truck, the exhaust came off my first Scout I just bolted it up I did not like how it was routed around the t case.

 

[Scooter]

Yea, that's a whole other issue that will be fixed soon enough. The design of that front passenger side of the exhaust pipe frome header to muffler was very poorly planed out. I'm not pointing fingers, but it sure makes me wonder what the guy was really smoken when that pipe was bent. Can't run a front drive shaft due to how the pipe routes directly in front of path of the shaft.

I won't be dealing with complete exhaust system upgrade until I'm ready to swap in my front d-44 from my barrel rolled Scout. I need to source inner axle seals that fit my custom inner axles. Along with the need to fix/replace the ARB copper air line inside the diff housing. Once I have that figured out, I have considered doing a separate write up on it.

I was actually referring to the rear most plumbing of exhaust pipe from mufflers back to tailgate. Which is why I plan on cutting off the rear most pipe, so I can mount the shocks in the stock upper mounting location. The custom shock mount that was welded to top of frame will also be cut off. A few pics to show off.

 

[Scooter]

Omg - talken about a serious case of po virus. I'm finally getting around to replacing the body mount bushings. And some one used conduit threaded couplers as 2" body lift spacers

I could have purchased 1" body lift spacers. But where's the fun in that when I can make my own out of a solid piece of 2-1/2" bar stock. Plus I'm a cheap bastard with free piece of material from work. I had just finished the passenger side when I stopped for a photo op.

 

[Scooter]

Well, while I was replacing the body mount bushings, I noticed that the rear most body mount on passenger side, under the tailgate, was bent out of shape and down by roughly 1/2"

So I spent time today fabbing up two new pieces out of 3x4" x .250" thick angle, replacing both sides.

The new piece came out to 1-1/2" longer than the ones I cut off

I have enough material of the same dimensions as those new pieces to replace the oem piece between frame rail. But I will wait until I'm ready to fab up a rear bumper with tire carrier. In the mean time, I am working on bracing the new pieces I just welded in for the body mounts.

 

[Scooter]

Now that I'm taking a brake from worken on some one elses rig, I'm finally getting to working on my own beast. Replacing a section of the floor up front, under drivers feet.

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When I was replacing the body mount bushings I had to cut the one hole and bolt just to get the old body mount bushing and spacer out. Basically it was all glued together with rust. Then plasma cut most of the floor section that I'm replacing and decided to pull the left fender off, due to some cancer rot on the a-piller, and ended up with a little gift hiding behind the fender.

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[Scooter]

Now that I'm taking a brake from worken on some one elses rig, I'm finally getting to working on my own beast. Replacing a section of the floor up front, under drivers feet.

When I was replacing the body mount bushings I had to cut the one hole and bolt just to get the old body mount bushing and spacer out. Basically it was all glued together with rust. Then plasma cut most of the floor section that I'm replacing and decided to pull the left fender off, due to some cancer rot on the a-piller, and ended up with a little gift hiding behind the fender.

Yes, there is a swivel wratcheting wrench tucked in there behind the cut up oil jug. Lol. Gave me a good laugh.

I have some left over pieces of new sheet metal from past work to where I plan on making up a few small patch pieces to fix some of the cancer spots. Basically one section at a time, instead of the whole bottom section of a-piller at once. The body mount wedge, that sits on top of the body bushing, for the most part seems solid, except for the top where the channel piece sits on. So, ill cut and fit a piece of new patch just for the top section of the wedge, instead of replacing the entire wedge itself.

 

[Scooter]

Well, not only was I getting tired of looking at the gaping access hole above the wiper motor in the windshield frame, I was concerned about the rest of the integrity of the rest of the winshield frame, which seemed a little more flimsy than normal. So this afternoon when I got off work, I ended up pulling out the winshield. End result is that I'm surprised that this thing even held in place and didn't fly off to hit some one.

Passenger side - top and bottom of frame:

Driver side - top and bottom:

I currently have two replacemt windshield frames in decent shape. One is complete with glass, minus the hardware. And the second frame has no glass or hardware. For now I will be swapping all the hardware brackets from the rust bucket over to the one frame with glass, along with some rattle can paint. Then the glass from the rust bucket will be salvaged to be installed into the glassless frame to be either used as a spare backup or installed into my rolled Scout, if/when I can get to it

 

[Scooter]

Spent a good part of the weekend welding and fabing on the beast. Also, spent time prepping the spare window frame for install. Had the brackets powder coated.

Since I'm not doing a complete body off resto here, I just rattle caned the frame. Then installed the wiper moter with the linkage and brackets. Was kinda hoping to actually get it installed this weekend, but being it a two person manhandling it will haft to wait till next weekend.

The new patch floor panel and channel have been welded in. Also had to patch up a small section of the kickpanel at the same time. I ran out of gas for my welder, so I could not finish welding a new piece into the bottom outer portion of the a-piller. I would have layed in a coat of por15, but I am not done welding yet. I have another small rust repair to patch up first. Before I welded the top sheet metal on top of the new channel piece, I welded in a small spacer around hole for the bolt of the body mount bushing, so it won't crush sheet metal when tightened up.

In the mean time, until Friday when I can get to welding supply store, I will be working on the next phase of a complete re-wire of the beast. I been stranded a couple times due to electrical issues already. Along with a major battery drain.

 

[Tahoedonner]

Looking good scooter

 

[vancetater]

Would that happen to be a 9/16 ratcheting wrench

 

[Scooter]

looking good scooter

Thank you. May not be as clean of a build as yours. I'm just addressing the most obviouse issues. At some point I will start another build thread for my 72 Scout II. And I will try and be more detail oreanted with the rest of that build.

would that happen to be a 9/16 ratcheting wrench

Nope 16mm. You missing it? I don't need it. I just thought it was kinda funny seeing the cut up oil bottle, the oil filler breather and that wratcheting wrench hiding in that pocket. If I have time, I May try and pull off the other fender to see what's hiding behind door number 2 - lol

 

[IHRunner]

Took my front fenders off and all I found was leaves and a nickel. You got a way cooler find

 

[Scooter]

took my front fenders off and all I found was leaves and a nickel. You got a way cooler find

Well the presents left behind were just on the driverside. Last Saturday, I ended up pulling off the passenger side fender and it was prety much stuffed full of leaves and packed with dirt. When I was cleaning up the forest off the floor, found some old crusty points. Once I cleaned up the inner area, I came across what I figured would be there. The a-piller on passneger side, is all rotted out and needs attention. Just like the driver side

 

[IHRunner]

Found half of mine. Ended up welding in a little patch

 

[Scooter]

wow. Has it been that long since I did any updates on this beast?

Sigh. Anyways, I finally had a brief break and decided to start doing something about the piss poorly designed roll cage that came already installed in it when I got the beast. I had pulled the cage out way back when I was fixing/replacing part of the floor, which I still have a couple cancer spots that needs attention.

In the mean time, this is the cage that I have to start with:

All out of 1-3/4" tube. And after cutting it up into sections it looks to be either crew or hrew material. Not so bad, but after my barrel roll in the 74 Scout, I prefer dom. After further inspection today of measuring the thickness of several pieces from this cage, it's way too thin for my taste, at .090. I am of the mind set that .120 wall would be the bare minimum thickness in the tube for the cage. Unless it was chromoly tube. Now with this minor set back of hopes of salvaging the front hoop around the windshield frame, I have decided to replace the whole thing, starting from scratch of building a full cage out of all new dom tube. My plan is to use 1-3/4 x .120 wall, which I just received 5 sticks at 18 feet each last month. Once I'm done with the cage I will be able to replace the e-brake handle(that was butchered up from a po who had the old cage built) and will also have easy access to the glove box with out having to modify it.

More to come in the in next few weeks when I get to bending and fabbing.

 

[Thunder Scout]

Great lookin work!

 

[Scooter]

great lookin work!

Thank you. I have been hoping to have more progress accomplished by now. But as with anything in life, other things sorta got in the way.

Although, for the last several months, I have been purchasing and collected parts for this rig, for when I actually get back to working on it. Hopefully, with in the next couple weeks I will have time to actually work on my own Scout. The cage that I pulled out and cut up will be completely replaced. The one in previous post is too thin, at .090 wall, for my taste.

More to follow in the near future

 

[vancetater]

Yes .095 wall is much to thin for a cage the po said he pain 900 dollars for that thing.

 

[vancetater]

Yes .095 wall is much to thin for a cage. The po said he paid 900 dollars for that thing.

 

[Scooter]

yes .095 wall is much to thin for a cage. The po said he paid 900 dollars for that thing.

that much for that pos cage? Guy got had. Who ever made the cage pocketed a crap load of cash for the build. My first thought was to only use the top half of the front a-piller hoop, untill I realized how thin the tube was. So the whole cage is getten scrapped and I will start fresh with some 1-3/4" dom .120 wall. I already have a few plans drawn up here on the puter to choose from. It will be a couple weeks before I will have time to actually start bending and fabing the new cage.