This morning I met up with Brian H. and made a run down into Annapolis to pick up a Traveltop. I was a bit hung over, but Peer Pressure fired right up and made the trip easy. After meeting the seller at his house, we wound up talking to him for a good hour and a half before we started turning wrenches. It turns out he’s been buying and parting out trucks for the past couple of years, and he wants to thin his collection out a little.
This top is in really good shape. It’s baby blue with a roof rack, and apart from some minor rust issues under the driver’s window and leaks where the chrome strips sit on the top, it’s clean. The liftgate is in fantastic shape, the handle works perfectly, and the glass is all good. I’m going to pull the sliders out of my spare top and replace these as well as the seals, and maybe weld up a lot of the holes before painting it white.
He threw in a set of Kayline bows he had laying around, and I picked up a spare windshield with a tiny crack in the side as well. We made sure to invite him up to the next wrenching day in the springtime, and hopefully we can get a couple of other locals to meet up when the weather gets warmer.
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Here’s a fantastic rundown of information about rebuilding Thermoquad caruretors from the Binder Planet, with part numbers. The important stuff:
1. Rebuild Kit. I use a GP Sorensen part number 96-246C kit, costs approx. $37.
2. Floats. I use two GP Sorensen part number 779-1726. These are nitrophyl floats. I have found that the brass floats sold for the T-Q will fit the fuel bowl, but are not the correct shape to work properly and could not be adjusted to work properly. The Nitrophyl floats work quite well. Good ones weigh 7.5 to 8.0 grams.
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Peer Pressure hit the road today for the first time in weeks. It’s been raining, snowing, or I’ve been too occupied to get her out on the road. This afternoon I jumped the battery and ran her up in the driveway for a while, then decided to make a quick dump run. She ran really well for having sat so long. Stay tuned for an update here, though– I think I’ve got a line on a hardtop for sale.
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I found this Johnny Lightning Scout at the Wal-Mart last week. I’m told there’s a topless model in black out there that’s not lifted and I’d like that one for my collection, but I haven’t seen it yet. Instead I found one of these, the color of which approximates Peer Pressure before she was painted purple.
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Here’s a great thread on the Binder Planet about D44 Rear Disc Brake installation where the bracket was welded onto the axle flange. Further down in the thread there’s a parts list for a bolt-on solution, which is more my speed, but the combined price list is about $700.
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I stopped on the way home from work (the weatherguessers lied and claimed it would be in the low 60′s) and pulled my spare tire off. It’s changed the handling characteristics of the truck to the point where hitting expansion joints or non-parallel bumps in the road sends the whole truck into a sketchy front-to-back oscillation that I don’t like. I can see the tire vibrating back there and feel it in the handling; for a truck on springs this stiff, it’s not a good feeling. I’ve also noticed a lot more body creaking with the tire mounted out back, and the passenger door is getting harder to close securely.
I’m going to drive it a few more times with the tire off and we’ll see how it feels.
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This looks like it could be a good upgrade: WHITE 4 point 194 style LED replacement bulb – Whitegauges.net. At $5 a pop, it’s an expensive proposition, but knowing how difficult it is to get into the dash, I’d rather only do this once. Especially if the light they throw is brighter than incandescent bulbs.
Update- from the comments below, I pulled this link, which is for ten bulbs. Hmmm…
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Colorado Mike has been feeding me steady updates on his resto project via text. The other day he asked me for paint advice, and I sent him my collection of IH paint codes for the entire Scout II run. He’s leaning towards Lexington Blue, a bright shade offered in 1979. It got me thinking about the distant future, when I can strip Peer Pressure down to the metal, POR-15 everything, and paint it in a more pleasing color. Originally I wanted a shade of English green, but Mr. Scout has that one covered. My second choice is a color from the Scout in a movie called “Fools Rush In”. Based on the grille pattern, it’s a ’75 or a ’76, which could only make the color Glacier Blue (it’s the only light blue offered in the ’74-’77 timespan). Looking at the paint chip, it’s a light, flat blue which looks too powdery at first glance.
It could be the film transfer, the lighting, or wear and tear on the truck, but the blue here looks darker to me.
The other candidate is a shade called Bimini Blue Poly, which is a darker blue with candyflake. I can’t find a good example online, but I’ll keep looking.
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Wow, this is pretty fucking amazing: RotopaX.com. I love this idea. The fact that they are lockable is a bonus. I’m gonna measure the side bed in Peer Pressure and see how much room I’ve got for a gas can and maybe a storage container.
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