The weather forecast was supposed to be much different than what we got this weekend, which put a bit of the kibosh on my outdoor plans, but I was able to get some things accomplished.
Saturday morning the Boy Scouts were having their yearly yard sale at the church down the street, so I bundled Hazel into Darth Haul and we puttered down to check things out. I made a beeline to a stand where a family was getting rid of multiple bins of assorted tools, and spent a half an hour digging for treasure. I wound up walking away with a decent replacement toolbox for my electrical kit, which I’ve outgrown (and which never really closed securely), and filled the top section with a wide assortment of hand tools. I’ve found you can never have enough US-made screwdrivers, 1/2″ and 9/16″ wrenches, tape measures, and pliers, and I added some unique things like hose cutters, a bag of hemostats, and some specialty wirecutters and dikes, among other things.
Returning home, I picked Finley up and drove to the Baltimore waterfront near my first house, where a very unique ship has been docked for years: the NS Savannah, one of only four nuclear-powered cargo ships ever built. In the 1950’s, President Eisenhower launched the Atoms for Peace initiative, to show the world how nuclear power could be used for the advancement of man. the Savannah was one of the projects developed under that program, and was launched in 1959 as a combined passenger/cargo vessel to showcase America’s command of industry and science. In person, it’s huge, but compared to a modern container ship it’s a plastic bath toy. Designed before the advent of container shipping, it’s long and sleek and looks like an early 60’s sportscar.
Inside, we came aboard at the original passenger embarkation point, which had been restored to its original design. Descending down into the ship, the tour took us through the now decomissioned nuclear containment vessel, through the engine room, to the main control room, and back up to the passenger cabins.
The cabin we toured was actually pretty small and not that inspiring, if I’m honest; I would have expected something a lot more spacious and elegant. Most of the original furniture was gone, but they’ve done a good job of sourcing as much period-correct stuff as possible.
The Savannah will be decertified as a nuclear power facility this year, and her future is uncertain; none of the docents know what’s next for the ship or how long she might stay in Baltimore. So I was glad to be able to check it out while we did, and take Finn along with me.
On Sunday I did some work around the house and countersunk a set of rear seatbelt mounts into the Travelall before driving out to Frederick to pick up a used Mirra desk chair from an estate showroom. This was to finally replace a disintegrating 18-year-old IKEA chair that’s been giving me a sore butt for a year or so now. New Mirras go for stupid money, so I was happy to score this one for a fraction of the price, and I think it’ll last a good long time.
Then I headed up to a Travelall aquaintance’s house north of Frederick to look over a truck he’s selling—not for me, but for another fellow Travelall owner I met through the YouTube channel. I shot some video and caught up with the seller before heading home to buff the paint on the hood of the truck, and when it got dark, headed inside to edit video.
At the bank yesterday, I spied this stupid-looking object in the parking lot and decided I’d pull up next to it for a comparison. Compared to the sexy, compound curves of the Travelall, it looks even more like 3D renders I was making at the game company when I only had a 300 polygon limit.
Does this douchecanoe make my ass look big?
I’d stopped to take pictures with this forlorn Saab last year next to the Scout. It hasn’t moved since; the driver’s front tire is shredded. I have considered walking inside to ask them what the story is but I’m afraid they would make me an offer I couldn’t refuse, and I have no place to put this sexy two-stroke Swedish skateboard, as much as I’d love to own it.
Here’s a recap of the last three weeks of truck projects. I’m getting closer to catching up on these; I still have another day of EV video to cut and edit. Luckily I was able to finish this one up on the plane home from Florida.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
I got Darth Haul running well enough to take her down the street for a pizza and beer run. I’m having a little issue pulling gas from the tank, and after a little roadside troubleshooting I believe there’s something in the tank clogging the pickup. I’m planning on driving her 12 miles out and back to Brian’s place on Saturday, so I’m going to take the boat tank and a length of fuel line with me for backup.
Here’s a video featuring Darth Haul’s first drive around the neighborhood from start to finish. I swapped the EFI out for the original carburetor just so that I could get the damn thing on the road. It’s running poorly right now, so I pulled the carb apart, cleared it out with brake cleaner, and re-assembled everything. Next up, I have to tune the engine properly and then I’ll swap carbs back out to properly set up the EFI.
Here’s a video from this weekend: I was able to spend a little bit of the day working on the truck on Saturday, with Finn sitting in the back seat working on a project of her own. The gist here was that I got the fuel injection system working after swapping the old carb on, running the engine to temperature, and swapping the new carb back.
Four years ago, I knew just enough about engines and brakes and car stuff to do basic maintenance without getting myself into trouble. I was comfortable with the basics of a tune-up; I could swap spark plugs and wires and change oil and brake pads and do basic bodywork—mainly skimming Bondo over dents. I’d had enough experience in the repo lot, with my own cars, and with home renovations to know the ins and outs of most the tools and materials. But as the years went by, the guys willing to work on old iron started retiring, and it got harder and harder to source a reliable mechanic.
When I bought Darth Haul I knew I was going to have to take a lot of the work on myself, and that was the point. I’d already taken the welding class so I knew I was in good shape to try more serious bodywork, but the engine stuff—the deeper stuff beyond cleaning out a carburetor—that was the scary part. Over the course of the last two and a half years, between working on Darth, Bob’s Chrysler, and several of my friends’ trucks, I’ve learned a ton about how engines work, how to diagnose more complicated issues, and most importantly, how to not let the fear of breaking something stop me from trying.
A couple of weeks ago, I took the plunge and installed a fuel injection system on Darth. We’re not talking about something as serious as tearing the top of the engine off and getting down to the camshaft, but it was a lot more involved than swapping the plugs. My experience pulling off grotty old carburetors and cleaning them came in handy for bolting down a shiny new unit. Ordeals with clogged, leaking and absent fuel lines was vital for routing a fuel system not designed the way the EFI manufacturer was expecting. After getting everything installed, I was stymied by a weird electrical glitch—but I fixed that by installing a relay, something I’d recently learned how to do when I put an auxiliary fuse panel in. Then I couldn’t get it to start—and used my previous experience working through Bob’s ignition system to diagnose a burnt out condenser in the distributor, a result of me welding on the truck without disconnecting the battery.
Yesterday I swapped a new condenser into the distributor, switched the cameras on, and turned the key: the truck fired right up. She ran like dogshit, because the timing settings are way off, but she started. I’d been having a kind of shitty week up until that point, and that victory, plus a couple of wins at work was enough to turn my mood around.
It feels really good to work towards something and see the light at the end of the tunnel; if I can get the timing sorted out tomorrow and get the truck running smoothly, then I can try to break the clutch free from the flywheel and see if she’ll move.
Here’s the latest YouTube video from the last two and a half weeks. It’s a bit overdue because of the weather, but it covers a bunch of different projects.
Over on the Scout weblog, I went into detail on the reupholstery and installation of a rear seat in the Travelall.
After doing some online research and gathering all of the materials, it was actually quite easy to do, but it’s still clear I would need practice to get it perfect every time. I’ve got the base to the front bench pretty much wrapped up on a table in the basement, and tomorrow I’m going to haul the backrest down from the garage attic to get that started.
Here’s the video update from the last two weeks of work on the red bus.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.