A Quiet Winter

Goo has been resting peacefully in the garage for over a month now. We had a clear, dry January weekend recently, so Spencer and I took the old girl out for a drive. Everything is looking good. She took about 10 minutes to warm up. I should have let it go another 5, but I couldn’t wait any longer. Heater worked great. The interior left hand turn signal indicator worked for the first 5 minutes and then went out. I wonder if I’ll ever fix that.

We were one of the only ones that parked in the basement of Milwaukee’s awesome art museum. Great photo opportunity. I just wish I had brought a better camera.

 

We were only out for about an hour and then it started to snow.  It was then a race to get Goo back home before the salt trucks hit the road.  We won.

January is such a great time to not drive in Milwaukee, so I fill my spare time with looking at International Scouts online.  I even meet other Scout owners through email or on Binder Planet from time to time.  Recent Scoutaholic encounters include Phil and Larry.

Phil is restoring a sweet 66 in Montana and is also kind enough to share some great fishing and camping tips with me for an upcoming fly fishing trip.

Phil’s Montana Rig

 

Larry has a 1964 right hand drive Scout 80.   I’m extremely envious of his sweet new, blue paint job.  But that’s not the best part.  Check out the killer, pre-restoration plaid seats!

Larry’s Blue Scout

Before Restoration

Larry’s Scout will soon be on it’s way to Australia where it will have many other Right Hand Drive friends.

Nice meeting you both and sharing Scout stories!!

mc

It’s Alive

Please forgive me if you see any typos in today’s post.  It’s hard to see what I’m typing with all of these tears welling up in my eyes.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that I have a quarter tank of gas in my truck.  Amazing – right?  And how do I know this fantastic information? Because my FUEL GAUGE WORKS. I had to run a new wire off the sending unit and then try a few different wiring configurations on the new replica gauge and then blah, blah, blah, whatever, IT WORKS!

Still, I can’t close up the dashboard quite yet.  This weekend I’m rewiring my old backup and tail lights.  Then I’ll move on to the electric wiper upgrade… which is why I took off the dash in the first place.

mc

Some Scouts Work Harder than Others

I’m a bit of a purist and I pamper my ugly little Scout as best I can. It’s not even painted yet and I had to restrain myself the other day when I saw my dad set his coffee mug down on the hood.  Would you set your coffee mug down on the Mona Lisa?  I think it is safe to say that I’m Smeagol and my Scout is a shiny Gold Ring.

Getting right to the point.  I will NEVER NEVER EVER NEVER go off roading with my precious.  In fact, my scout will probably never even see a dirt road or worse – a gravel driveway!  And if it does, you can be assured that I’ll either driving 1 mile per hour or finding a different way to get where I’m going.

All that being said, I have total respect for guys that do this:

But in the back of my head, I’m thinking… Couldn’t they have just parked at the trail head and hiked in?  Did he start to cry when the bumper hit the rock at the end?  Is there a helicopter available to carry the Scout back out?  Why did they do this?  Are they being chased by a very slow bear?

mc

The Wheels on the Scout go Round and Round

The Scout has been in hibernation for most of the winter.  But things are starting to happen.  Goo will be back in the shop next week.   The laundry list of items to fix is just too long to mention.  But in the mean time, I’ve made some minor progress.

First, dad picked up a spare rim that is a dead on match to one of my front wheels.  Why do I have one wheel that doesn’t match the other ones?  I don’t know.  But it’s the same size and it works.  Having a spare will be nice for long trips or just to have here in the garage as a backup.

Plus, it was only $25.  A bargain, considering that I’ve only found one other for $45 in Pennsylvania.

Next, all the tire talk led me to asking a few questions about finding some  hubcaps (or wheel covers) that would fit my 16″ rims.  Hard to do.  The 16″ wheel covers seem very rare.  Long story short… I have the much more common 15″ rims.  Someone on a Scout forum pointed out in this picture that the tire actually says 7.00 x 15.

Apparently, my rims were switched-  since the original line setting ticket specified 16.  And to measure a rim, you measure from the BEAD SEATS (where the bead of the tire rests inside the rim) – not the edge of the rim itself.  Go figure.

Sure, I wish I had the larger 16″ tires – but this makes my next mission much easier.  15″ inch wheel covers are much easier to find.

mc