Project Karma

[Tahoedonner]

Awesome
I'm in need of redoing the rear bench seat in my 72 ole yeller scout. Which I Finally was able to drive it home a couple days ago

Thx Scooter. Glad you’re finally getting to drive your beast.

 

[Tahoedonner]

Nice work with that bench!

Thx

 

[Tahoedonner]

I just treated myself to 14 pages of a wonderful build. Great work. You should be very proud of all your hard work.

But now I know why my local hardware store always has a low supply of grade 8 bolts.....you bought them all!!!! I too love the finish color of grade 8. I think if you did some digging, you could probably get the same finish on grade 5 and save yourself a few bucks. But at that point you would probably have to order every size to cover yourself.

Thx. I don’t recommend looking for bolts at the Foster City Orchard Supply. They’re all in my rig.

 

[Tahoedonner]

Spent/wasted a bunch of free time designing the door panels which are next on my list. Got 12 yards of vinyl to match the rest of the interior. Plan is to do door panels, trans cover, dash, visors, headliner and side panels.

Here's a pic of the door panel idea I'm going with. Gray stitching will just be in black. Armrest will also be black.

 

[Tahoedonner]

Well it's not the most exciting post but a small amount of progress has been made. I've got Jeff Jamison doing the seam work for the new door panels and I started on the headliner. Got the board cut to size and cut the holes for the dome lights and mounting points. Also got the vinyl adhered. It'll have a week to dry before I get back to it. Haven't decided what I'm going to use for fasteners on the headliner yet.

 

[Tahoedonner]

As is typical with building a vehicle you start one project, headliner, and quickly realize that to wire the dome lights correctly you’ll also need to deal with the courtesy lights. While that sounds simple enough the amount of wiring that I have done for the courtesy lights and dual dome lights I’ll be using is ridiculous. I realized that I needed some “newer vehicle” style functionality from my dome lights and courtesy lights. Mainly I wanted them to shut off if I left the doors open at a tailgate. I ended up buying this neat “circuit” for about 30 bucks. It gradually brightens the lights when the doors are opened. Fades them when closed. And turns them all off if the door is left open for 10 minutes. I also needed the ability to turn the dome lights on via the headlight switch. This all requires much more wiring then one would think. You have to wire in dual ground wires for the dome lights. One ground running to headlight switch. Other ground running through courtesy light-door switch circuit that’s attached to the dimmer circuit that I bought. I also didn’t like where the original courtesy lights were mounted. The LED lights I purchased look odd hanging below the dash where you can see them. I purchased some alumium, made to tie 2x4’s together (I think), and bent them into some L brackets and attached them to what I believe is a bolt that’s attaches the dash to the body. They’re tucked up underneath away from harm. Pretty happy with how it’s all turned out. Never thought a couple lights would require so much thought and a post as long as this.

Circuit

Bent up bracket

Putting out good light

 

[Tahoedonner]

Back to some work on the Scout. I received the door panels from Jeff awhile back but hadn't been able to get to them yet. Once again Jeff did a great job.

Here they are uninstalled. I haven’t figured out what I’m going to use for the trim piece across the center yet.

Bought some Noico sound deadener for the doors and roof. Supposedly it’ll stick better to vertical and upside down than the peel and seal I used for the floors. Also mocked up the drivers side door panel. Will be adding a tweeter above and in between the door handle and window crank. With the speakers so low in the door I think it needs just a little more highs up near driver height.

Also changed out the tiny, and useless, mirrors for some of the Ford style mirrors. They proportionally fit the truck better in my opinion.

 

[Tahoedonner]

Little more work done on the door panel. Also got new felts for the window.

 

[Tahoedonner]

Drivers door finished. Absolutely love the way they turned out. The added tweeter does wonders for the sound as well. Couldn’t be happier. On to the passenger side next.

 

[Tahoedonner]

Finished installing the passenger door panel as well. Won’t bore with pics of the same. I will however bore with pics of the trans tunnel covered in matching vinyl. Small but significant progress. Wired in the shift indicator light as well.

 

[Tahoedonner]

The last 2 years I have been consumed with my kid and getting ready for him. Throw in COVID and not much has happened. I have now changed the direction of this rig from cruiser/pretty truck to an overland so I can enjoy it with my boy when he’s ready. Got some bumpers delivered today and only had time to get the front one on. Extremely happy. I’ll post more when everything’s all buttoned up.