Front Spring Removal & Rebuild

I finally got around to taking out the front leaf springs on the Scout. Not as bad as I thought it would be, considering I didn't even have the right tools for the job. Unbolting the springs is no big deal, suspend the differential, unbolt the u-bolts and then the spring perches and your basically done. The hard part is removing the old twisted, rotted, rusted bushings. Usually one would use a c-frame bearing press but of course I don't have one and I didn't feel like buying or renting one so I had to pay for it with sweat. Luckily, I didn't have to shed any blood or tears, the bushings came out fairly easy considering their age and condition.



The passenger side leaf spring is missing two leafs compared to the driver side and apparently the center pin/bolt broke off and that is why the leafs had slipped out of place. I looked around and asked in the forums for used replacements or someone in my area that rebuilds leafs spring but I had no luck.





After further research, consideration of final use of the Scout and monetary limitations I decide rather than fix the passenger side leaf by adding the missing leafs I'll just rebuild them and instead remove two leafs from the drivers side spring pack. You can see the leafs I removed, two from the very bottom, the smallest ones.



Below you can see the bushings I hammered out. I'll be replacing them with polyurethane bushings.

Work Continues

Been really busy the last couple of weeks with work and other projects and haven't had much time to work on the Scout. Looks like that might be changing though, I think they're gonna be passing out pink slips any day now at work, with the economy as bad as it is. At least I'll have time to blog and work on the Scout. Anyway, with the body finally off I was able to get the rear bumper cut off.





I'm gonna finish cleaning up the frame, removing all the remnants of all the damned bumper bracing the PO so graciously left to me and then start work on the leaf springs and differentials, gonna work my way slowly up.

Frame Pics

Got some pics of the frame now that the body is off. Been busy dismantling the extra doors and front grill area the PO had included. I'm gonna try to auction them off on eBay and use the cash for parts. This weekend I hope to move the frame over to the garage and start dismantling it in order to get the springs redone and start rebuilding the front and rear ends.


View of the Front


A little further back.


A little further back still


Right side view of mid frame


View of the engine

Finally got the body off!

Okay, finally got the body off. Was a little harder than anticipated due to a lack of man power. It was basically my old man and me just blocking it up little by little until we could brace the body to get the frame out.


Blocking the body up bit by bit.


A little leverage hear and there.


Doesn't look to safe!


Hurry up and move it before it falls on us and kills us.

Slowly Coming Off

Finally started to remove the body from the chassis, thankfully the PO had most of the Scout apart and after I cut the front bumper off I only had a couple of brake lines to remove and a couple of engine parts to remove in order to make rolling the frame out from under the body easier.


A pic of the front end without the damn bumper.


Here you can see a glimpse of daylight between the chassis and body.

Front Bumper Torture

Finally got the front bumper removed. Man what a pain in the ass. That thing had more support bracing than I've ever seen. I looked like they were planning to run into the side of a armored truck or something. I took the torch, Sawzall and disk grinder to the damn thing, now I have the back left to do. Everything should come apart pretty easily after that. Below are some pics of what I went through and the final bumper free Scout 80 front end.


Here is the front end with the grill off finally and the bumper about to be taken off.



On these two you can see the bracing I had to cut through.


As you can see, who ever welded the front bumper on welded right over the bumper bolts. Not too bright.


Here you can also see where someone butchered the frame, I guess to mount a winch. Gonna have to fix that!

Removing the bumpers

Tried to remove the bumpers today and I can now see why the PO hadn't finished removing the body. If you can tell from the pics, the bumper has been reinforced with welded in crossbars. I'm not sure why, those bumper mounts are plenty strong without all that reinforcement, but to each their own. Now I gotta torch those suckers off so I can take the body off the frame.


Here you can see the reinforcement bars going through the grill.


Front left. You can see where the PO started cutting at it.


Front right.


Rear left.


Rear right.

Not much today

Didn't really do much today, just went over it well and checked on all the work it's gonna need. By what I can tell it's pretty original. It has the 152 4 cyl. with the converted oil filter adapter. It seems to have an electric fuel pump instead of using the original one which is still there. The axles look like the D27s that it's supposed to have. The bumpers are going to have to be cut off just to get the body off. I'll probably get that done this weekend and I'll be able to get down to the frame.

What do we have?

Well, I had a chance to take out everything that was inside the Scout and I was surprised to what level of disassembly the Scout was actually in. It's a miracle it didn't fall apart during transportation or when we pushed it into the yard. When you take a look at the pics you'll see what I mean. The doors, hood, shell, windshield, interior were all loose and ready to be taken off. All the screws are in Sharpie labeled Ziploc bags and coffee cans with the complete wiring harness in a plastic storage container. As far as I can tell all the parts are there and the rust on the body is minimal. I also have two sets of doors and front fenders, along with an extra front grill area and front bumper. Since its as far apart as it is I'm gonna take it down to the frame and start from there. Wasn't planning on a frame-off but no better way to really bring back a nice classic back to life.


Look ma, no doors, windshield or interior.

Another view of the cab interior.

View of the bed.

A pair of doors, a pair of fenders, a windshield, a Hi-Lift jack & 1 front seat.

The back seat, dash and extra front grill.

Finally!

Lee over at Distinguished Transportation, the carrier for Momentum Transport, gave me a call at around 8 p.m. last night, that he was in Orlando and if last night or today would be better for the delivery. I agreed to last night, just to get it over with and get my Scout home. Lee arrived with the Scout at about 11:30. He parked the trailer in the street, unstrapped the Scout and I, along with Lee and my sisters boyfriend, pushed it into the yard. The Scout looks great, for a beat up piece of s--t. It's full of parts right now, you can't even get in the drivers seat. I'm gonna get all the parts out and I'll post some picture soon.

1 day to go

Got a call from Lee at Distinguished Transport, I guess there the carrier for Momentum Transport and he says he should be here by 6:00 P.M. tomorrow. I can't wait.

Hallelujah!

The PO emailed me last night to let me know that Momentum Transport had shown up and had picked up the Scout within 20 minutes of getting there. I emailed him back wanting to know how the transporter was able to the undoable, at least according to the other carriers. He mentioned that he and the driver just pushed the Scout out of the garage, up the ramp into the trailer and then ratchet strapped it down and that was that. Amazing what the desire to do your job properly can do. I can't believe I went through all the s--t I did with Cosmos. To their credit it wasn't entirely their fault as it was more the fault of the carriers they sub-contract with. Anyway, Momentum Transport made it happen for $80 more than what the final price Cosmos quoted me was and they picked up the Scout the same night I placed the order. Now that is service. Now I'm just waiting for the tractor trailer to get here and finally have possession of my 1963 International Harvester Scout 80.

WTF!

I can't believe this s--t. I ended up calling Cosmos, who hadn't heard anything from the carrier, so I could find out what was going on with the Scout 80. They gave me the carriers number, since again they had heard nothing, so that I could call them. Blue Line Transport said the house is on a hill and that since the brakes on the truck where not good enough they could not winch the Scout unto the trailer without it crashing through their cab. I have a feeling I'm just dealing with mediocrity. Nobody wants to do their job if it's gonna get difficult. Pass the buck, someone else will take care of it. Well, I've spoken with my wallet before and as of late with my blog so I'll do both. I called Cosmos back and just canceled the whole thing with them and requested a refund, good thing I only gave them a deposit, and I recommend you think twice before using them as your shipper of choice. Looked at my notes and did a little more research and with some new quotes I decided on Momentum Transport. Steve was kind enough to understand my situation and offered to help out. Let see how this goes. My fingers are crossed. I emailed the previous owner(PO) and let him know what was going on. Thankfully he too was and has been understanding.

Un-Cool!

Just heard from the previous owner that the carrier had shown up tonight after an hour of directions and refused to take the Scout says the brakes aren't good enough. I don't understand how hard this can be. You all have seen the pictures on here, why can't they just send a flatbed to pick up the Scout and then put it in a enclosed trailer or whatever? From my understanding the first carrier showed up in a full size car carrier and the second guy in a 18 wheeler. I'm going to have to call Cosmos and see what the hell is going on. I'm gonna be left with no choice but to find another shipper or talk to the previous owner and see if we can work something out. What a piece of s--t!