Project Petey

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I've been working on this Scout for a while now, so it's time for it to have it's own project thread. My dad bought it for me as my first vehicle in November of 1995. I drove it until I graduated college in 2001, when I bought an '87 K5 Blazer. I parked it for about 3 years, like a lot of guys I planned on fixing it up later. Around 2004 I fired it back up and started driving it a little to the hunting club, but the brakes were starting to get unreliable. Since I barely had the money to keep my Blazer and my wife's car running, I ended up parking it again for another year or so.

A year or so ago, in a somewhat better financial situation, I decided to get it back on the road. A new starter and master cylinder later, and it was back on the road.

One thing I didn't like was knowing that there was some rust in the bed, and the carpet was holding the dampness in and making it worse. My first major undertaking was making patches for the rusted areas and rolling in Herculiner. The Herculiner thread is here:
http://www.binderplanet.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=56191










John and I were talking about what to call the project, and decided that Polished Turd was a good name for it. It started out turd brown with orange stripes, and I've been polishing on it for a while. PT evolved into Petey, and so it's now named.

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Then, I started driving it more, and I was starting to get tired of the Krylon camo paint job. I thought I'd like it red, but didn't want to sink a lot of money into a paint job just to decide I didn't like the color. So, last Thanksgiving I pulled it into the shop and shot a couple of coats on Rustoleum black and Regal Red. That thread is here:
http://www.binderplanet.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=61372

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Today I started on the next phase: SOA and RS.

Before shot:





I pulled the Scout back into the shop yet again.





After dropping the front axle, I started cutting all the original spring hangers and shock mounts off. I used Damian at D&C Extreme's method of cutting down the middle of the mount and bending them back and forth until they broke off. Works like a charm!







I've been waiting for over two months to get some 3X4 .250 wall tubing from my local steel supplier to do the RS as Will Marsh documented. Last week I finally cancelled my order and got some 2 1/2" X 1/4" and 4" X 3/16" flat bar from my dad to make it all manually. It won't be quite as clean looking, but it should work just as well. This is the spring mount for the driver's side:







I had to jack the body up to weld the side of the spring mount, so I'm replacing the body bushings as I go. The driver's side partially welded in:





I left it at this point to go to my parents house for burgers and hotdogs. I still have to finish welding this side on, put the front shackle mounts on the back, and build the spring mount for the passenger side. Then, the SOA and new tires.

[SCscoutguy]

Wow I guess I should of come over today after all. Let me know if you need any help tomorrow afternoon.

[ClemsonScout]

Damn you pulled a Nathan! A sneak tip project.

SOA and RS, thats awesome. I can't wait to see the results!

[jhnyct]

Is this going to be the trail rig project or just a big street truck?

Anyway, I've pull up a chair to watch this one.

[mormetl]

Good show, Jamie. Definitely need another project thread to watch. Looking pretty stout - keep the thread updated, because Lord knows I haven't done much lately.

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I made the other spring hanger tonight and tacked it on. Let me tell you, when you're doing that much welding and grinding on something that small, it gets HOT and STAYS hot for a long time! I had to set it aside for quite a while before I could handle it with gloves on. I borrowed John's angle finder, and after tacking the spring hanger on I compared the two sides. The bottom of the passenger side was forward by 1 degree, easily fixed with a couple of taps from a hammer. Side to side it was dead nuts on. Probably overkill, but it only took a minute to check and get perfect.





I also got the body bushings replaced on the driver's side. The old ones were in surprisingly good shape for being 17 years old. A couple of them were tough to get out, but they all finally yielded to the mighty crowbar.

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Jason, this Scout is my street ride, I just want it to be a little more capable and look a little better. I do take it hunting frequently and playing around a little sometimes, so the 4WD does get used. And, I won't deny that a good part of my motivation is to make it look like I want it to. Lift springs would have done the same thing and would have been cheaper, but I'm counting on this giving a much better ride.

The trail Scout is going to be a Terra. John and I found two of them- one has a complete drivetrain but a shot body, and the other has a usable body. We got the first one to my house last Saturday, and are going to pick up the other one as soon as possible. It will be a little while before I get to start on it, though- I have to put a roof on my shop and build up some money first. I'll be doing a SOA on it as well, but at this point I doubt I'll do the RS. Reverse shackle would help me not bend a spring if I ran it into something, but from what I read it may reduce traction, as the shackle will let the axle move away from something when you're trying to climb it. Not that big of a deal probably, but I don't know that it would be worth the effort on a trail truck.

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I got the RS done today and the rest of the body bushings replaced, but the pics look pretty much like the ones from yesterday. I located the shackle mounts 41 1/2" back from the spring mount, the same amount as stock, and made them flush with the outside of the frame.

Originally I planned to put a piece of square tubing at a 45 degree angle from the spring mount to the front crossmember, like this:




After building it this far, though, I can't imagine that I could need the extra bracing. For the spring to move side to side, it would have to crack the front of the crossmember from top to bottom where the mount is welded to it. What do y'all engineers and armchair engineers think?