A 78 Traveler build

Little time at work so figured I would start a build thread. I don't know when I first found Scouts, but I have been obsessed with them for about the past 5 or so years. About 3 years ago I decided it was time to start looking, and have browsed until finally hitting the right combo of finding one and being ready this summer. The plan is to have it for weekend cruising, tailgating for football and hopefully some hunting/fishing. Wouldn't mind basic offroading but not my main focus.
Huge shoutout to the Scoutman in Douglasville, GA, they have been great to work with on this. I went there to check out some scouts, and they had the traveler which is now mine. It was originally an Idaho truck, minimal rust for a Scout and in great shape. It had a new carb, ran well, and after a test drive I was sold.
Original picture from first looking at it.
Original Interior:

After buying it I had all the brakes redone, a roll bar & seat belts installed, few things cleaned up and was ready to roll. Got it home and instantly swapped out the mirror heads to chrome ones

and added some new tires as the current ones were a little old for my comfort, wanted KO2's but couldn't find any, happy with the general grabbers I got now.


Since having it I drove it around Atlanta a bit and the first thing to be addressed was the metal floors. In my TJ I'm used to hot floors on longer drives, but it has some carpet to help.So putting something to help out the AC was needed for comfort just from driving it around and on longer trips. Back to the scoutman for some lizzard skin, and had the retrosound put in at the same time. I also got the trim added on and the center console put on. Here is the new interior which is a huge improvement imo, the heat is all but gone. Very impressed with the lizzard skin/carpet combo.


This weekend the driver door was rolling up a little stiff, so took it apart and hit it with some white lithium grease, now have a much easier job. Here is after I got everything buttoned back up and it all fit the same way as before luckily enough.


Current plan is to grab a tailgate for when the top is off, and drive it for a while. Seat recovering is next on my list of to-dos, but the covers will be okay for now. Really excited to drive it more and enjoy it! I'm hoping to do more work on it myself, I got the factory manuals and have worked on my Wrangler, so this forum has been a big help even with the little I've looked into.

 

Here is the pic the Scoutman sent me during the lizzard skin install:

and here is how the scout currently looks:

 

Doing a little last min checking before first long drive (hour and a half to 2 hours is most I’ve done) tomorrow. Thought the gas filter was a little crusty so swapped on one of my spares, still have one in reserve.
I might extend the line a little as there is 0 slack from the fuel pump to filter, so might move it a little away from the compressor. Super easy, didn’t have the rear clamp tight enough at first but that was quickly fixed, ready for the road tomorrow!

speedometer stopped working and checked the cables, looks like it bound up and broke where it connected to the transfer case, so that’s on order and will hopefully get swapped out early next week. Also have original style mirrors on order as these ford ones are loose in the arms, so they’re getting on my nerves.

 

Scout did great on the drive! Great to meet JJ and see his shop, and returned to Atlanta tailgate in hand. 1 hour from home the power cut out and it died and had to get towed the last bit.
Tow driver was nice and I’m 90% sure a wire isn’t supposed to look like this:
I was running 65 in the right lane just minding my business and then heard a loud noise and the radio, gauges, lights, all power cut and I was slowing down so I just got right on the shoulder. Got it home and then this morning traced and replaced the offending wire, got everything wired together:
and then on reconnecting the battery saw white smoke so instantly disconnected the battery and saw the wires are now like this:

I think I didn't tighten the nut on the starter for the wires enough and had a bad ground, little annoyed but just gonna bring it to the shop to get looked at before anything else. But learned a lot about the scout on this trip and the damn rats nest of wiring it has. under the hood.

 

Nice Scout. Glad to see you are enjoying it despite some issues. It s all part of the journey. Lol!

 

Thanks! It really is a blast, I love the Traveler. It was a good learning experience with that wire, it got to the shop and started right up first try, so the nut on the starter just wasn't tight enough my first try. Lesson learned. They are gonna take care of a few other things while its there so hopefully after this is a little longer before the next fix.

 

Oh man has the last month been an adventure. After getting the wiring cleaned up from the starter to firewall a few new surprises arose. First I had a wicked shake in the front driving home from the shop on the highway, and was losing power on the highway to boot. Got it home and parked, then went to go take it out for another spin, turned the key and nothing. Charged the battery and then it cranked, but turns out the alternator was fried and it wasn't charging. So back to the shop for that to get replaced under warranty and get the shake sorted.
Had the tires balanced and that helped a ton, and had a straight steer put in while it was there. Turns out the first shop never balanced them, but I didn't have the shake this bad on my ride to TN. I'm absolutely going to address the suspension in the near term, but might need to take a break from things for a while and just drive it. The rag join is leaking PS fluid too right now, so going to swap over to a borgeson joint when that is addressed.
At least now its running great and a lot better on the highway. Its also nice to have the speedo back.

I got the oem style mirrors, but might go back to the ford truck style. I'm not sure, the passenger one has been a pain but I also don't wanna keep putting holes in the door. Looks wise I don't mind either style, but the actual functionality has been split. My old truck style ones shook and the passenger one always folded in, and here the passenger one I can't seem to get it adjusted well enough.



Also wanted to get the spare tire up and out of the way, so just took an extension and a piece of wood to mount it as such in the back. this will be a little easier than having it just lay in the back. Its only a 31, wish it fit better. I did a little research here but decided to go with a simple fix for now. I saw the oem diagram and looks like I'm missing a few pieces.

Heres inside with it closed:


So for now its on the road and ready to cruise, but in the future the suspension and steering are going to get looked at, and maybe a new hood in the future as mine is getting all bent out of shape and doesn't close flush on the sides.

 

Looks like it was a real wiring disaster at the starter. Consider doing a rewire to move the primary junction point somewhere else. Click on my link for the Ford Solenoid Ammeter Delete in my sig for more info. It's a treat to have all your terminations at a very accessible location that doesn't get blasted with exhaust manifold heat.

 

I think I have that link bookmarked already! That may be a fall project for sure when I get back from a trip the end of September, but for now the scout will mainly stay around town. All the wires from the starter got replaced except the push start button that a P.O. added.

 

Nice traveler. I also purchased one. Mine was out of Oregon last month (aug 2020) and had it shipped to SC. Lots of little and not so little projects ahead. Might start my own build thread and post some pics. Great forum for info. Will follow this thread

 

Congrats! I suggest the build threads as they are good ways to document your journey and nice when people pop in and give advice like Mr. Kenmore. Post some pics, always like to see travelers! They have really grown on me since I got into scouts and I love mine so far. Also nice to get more scouts in the SE, there are a lot in Nashville I've seen on instagram, and I'm seeing more around me in the Atlanta area.

 

It’s been a while since I could drive the scout, but after two weeks away it fired right up! After being gone I’d been driving it around more and today had an adventure when the pedal slipped out of its assembly as I was turning right and trying to accelerate. luckily I moved to the side and not many cars were coming, so a zip tie later was on my way, that was a surprise on an unrelated ace run! New clips ordered to secure the worn out ones there. Then after that I heard a pop and had a pause on accelerating, but didn’t think too much at the time. This afternoon put the grate under the windshield cowl to keep leaves out as I park under good tree cover.

While poking around under the hood I found the source of the pop, as one plug wire was just hanging off. Pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen. New wire ordered to replace that, hopefully not much more is needed. Am going to look into why it could have popped off like that.

 

Glad to see that you are back at it! I was kinda wondering about you yesterday too.


JJ in TN

 

I'm about to start cleaning that tailgate up too! looks to be past using it this year, but need it ready for the spring. Hope all is well up in TN!

 

While ordering the plug wires and pedal clips a new borgeson joint fell into my cart too, so that will be a project in the next few weeks hopefully.

 

yes sir, all is well here, living the dream HAHA

JJ in TN

 

that is a great upgrade !

JJ in TN

 

I'm looking forward to not only an improvement but fixing a leak at the same time, so two birds one stone. Looks to be a simple enough job from my research. That frankenscout you've started will be a good project.

 

I got my line set ticket back also! Looks like my tank must have been swapped to the 33 gal at one point. Wondering where the ship to is, need to look into that. I was hoping to see more on its origin.

Edit: Also looks like the tilt wheel mine came with was swapped out as mine does not tilt now.