So today I was working on my 4 link tabs, and a buddy came over.
So shootin the sh*t we started talking about the windshield, and a few hours later, the metal work is nearly done.
Some sanding, some bondo and primer and itll be ready for paint.
Then ill drop the frame off at the window guy and let the take it from there.
I want to paint it body color before dropping it off for the window to be made and glued in. This way I will know it is got epoxy, primer, paint and plenty of rust and corrosion resistance before the flush mount glass is mounted.
I'm not sure if the ‘red triangle’ needs to be made or not. Currently it is a not so 90 degree corner. I'm guessing the black around the glass will hide the corner. But, it’s something I got to figure out.
Hope you all like the chop, and the rounded window ‘corner’s

So as some of you might remember from my rendering, the door lines aren’t ‘scout’ lines. The scout doors have that inward angled portion on the back.
One of the modifications I wanted to do was suicide doors, and I don’t like how the rear B pillar is on the scout bodies.

Not anytime soon, but my plan is to use my old truck, ‘Alice’ door jambs and flip them side to side and shorten to fit. Peel off the door skins from the scout and modify them to attach to the 2001 doors frame.

This way, itll have inner hinges that are factory reversed for a reverse or suicide opening, just like it came from the factory.

I put the ‘drivers/left side’ door jamb next to the passenger side of Allison to see how much work it will take. I think I need to narrow the door jamb about 4 maybe 5 inches to fit, but, it appears to be a relatively easy modification. I think in a weekend or so I could have the ‘new’ doors hung and functioning. Not fully completed, nor body worked, but able to be opened and closed.

No I won’t be putting the angled lower portion of the door as the scout had, it will be a normal ‘square’ door with rounded lower corners.

Here is a picture for reference.

This evening, I had about 2 hours to spare, so I grabbed the new lower control arms and hacked off the bump stops from them.

Pulled off the front suspension and stuck on the new lowers.

I found it they 'went' up higher than the dehumped stockers I had previously, but they still hit part of the frame.

The sun was getting pretty low and visibility was very low, so I pulled the suspension, jacked up the front of the frame and slid in an airbag for a picture.

The opening. cut out for the airbag is very rough at this point. I am just trying to get everything to fit and operate correctly before it all gets torn apart for the frame rack, final fabrication and welding.

My S22 phone still amazes me at the pictures it takes. This below pic was nearly pitch black out. I couldn't walk without my flashlight, but yet, the phone can take pics like its 5 pm in the afternoon.. crazy

Tomorrow morning ill finish cutting the frame section that is hitting the lower control arm and do a bit more clearancing for the air bag. The object here is to get the suspension going up and down, steering, engine/trans mounts made etc..

Then tear down for final fab work, powder coating etc..

-oh, and no I do not know if I am keeping that sway bar mount there or if I’ll cut it off and move it.

The black around the glas is called FRIT and they should be able to add it at the width you need. The proper way to prep the pinchweld where the glass adhesive will be is to use two part epoxy only. Adding primer, paint or clear compromises adhesion. Yes, the factory does it, but they're using completely different paint not available to us. i apply epoxy, let it cure then just run 3/4 tape over it when priming or painting/ Peel the tape off and you have you epoxy for the glass urethane to bond to.

what paint are they using that is not available?


i called a glass shop and they came by and applied their own 'window primer' to the metal where the urethane will go. Then they said to mask off their 'primer' and do whatever i needed to do.
When done, peel the tape off their primer and it'll be ready for the urethane to be applied.

So yes I removed the sway bar mount..

Did some more hacking on the frame to get the airbags to fit and not rub.



Hooked up some airline and gave it a few up down tests. (down is the fittings leaking at the airbags, theyre only hand tightened..)



The new bushings squeak, but at least it goes up and down in the front, and I can grease them after powder coating.



Next is to tackle the rear air ride and 4 link bars.



-----> small video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEP62aCrY-E



....one step closer

The glass company window primer is a 1K product and is typically used to cover bare metal from scratches caused by removing the old adhesive. I would not use that for large areas. A 2K epoxy is the recommendation from the auto makers. You really should be using epoxy first on all bare metal anyway so it becomes a no brainer.
It is possibe there are some primer advancements, I need to do glass in a week or so, I'll ask around. Glass work is unregulated and shady things happen. I'd ask for training documents before using a glass company.

Paint answer:
Not sure exactly what it is but paint companies tell me it is different, they bake at much higher temps. I aslo think they are uncatalyzed with heat instead of chemical cure. They also use different application method, bell sprayers. For PPG, DuPont and SW that I have used there was automotive finish paint (OEM) and automotive refinish paint (us).

This evening i was able to weld up all the holes on the window frame.

And i started rounding the upper outer corners.

Tomorrow ill finish the metal work, add some bondo, and get the first coat of primer sprayed onto the window frame.

Will need to block it out, and primer again before spraying on the color.

I want to get this to the glass shop asap so there is no excuse not to have it completed by the dec car show im trying to make...

Good luck making that show!

ugh, dont jinx it !!! :)



Tonight I did the first round of body work to the window frame.
Possibly tomorrow i can block the areas and reprime it.

It is plenty straight i could paint it now, but, i want to finger the inner window areas another round before i paint it.

Today, slightly hung over, i wet sanded the window frame and sprayed the base/clear onto it.
Tomorrow I'll drop it off for the flush mounted glass to get cut and installed.

The color is a tri-stage, grey base, violet pearl and then clear.

I had planned on gold pearl, but i didnt have any when i thought i did. So i grabbed the violet to see how it looks.

Now that this window frame is completed, i can get back to fabrication...

photoshopped a 'window' in to see how it should look when i get it back..

i think only the 'purists' will even noticed the work i did to this windshield frame.

I picked up a 1964 ford car front bumper I think im going to section and cut down to fit my lowered scout front end. It's nearly 18 inches too wide 😆 lol

Here is the bumper shortened to fit the scout. I have not shortened the sides of the bumper asi can't really do that until i assemble the front end to see how far I want it to go onto the fender..



I had to 'strgihten' out the bumper as it was more V shaped then it looked.



Came out pretty good though.



I am not sure if i am going to weld up the bolt holes, or use them..

I know this next picture will almost make no sense until I post a better one..

but I cut the front 5 inches off a hood and welded it to the front end and welded the left and right fenders to the front panel, or core support we will call it.

This will make it into a 1-piece front end, and I am now forced to making a hood that will fit.

I always wanted to do this anyways, as the original scout hoods fit really weird, and I never liked it.

better pics to help understand the pallets...

I looked at the picture and realized immediately what you were doing. I just leaned my head to the left and it looked perfect.

sat the frotn end onto the body and propped up the bumper to see how much i have to cut out of the sides of the bumper.

Thought this pic looked cool with the scout between the other cars.

Little more trimming to the bumper..

i need to fab up brackets now to hold the bumper to the frame so i can make final cuts and adjustments on the bumper to fit the fender well openings and body lines better

no idea why its upside down

Well the show I want to take the scout to for the first time is coming up.
December 7th. So much to do before that date, but, if I can get it on and off the trailer then I'm happy. I really wanted to drive it there, but there is still so much needing done.

My goal is to get it there to the show, lay it out, and enjoy some margaritas and tacos..

The windshield is supposed to be done ‘by the weekend’..not sure what that means, but fingers crossed.

Ugh still so much more to do..

Crossing my fingers you will make it.

Just got this beautiful 1942 Cadillac rear bumper dropped off. I think I can make it work for the rear of the scout. I didn’t need this extra work, but, the front bumper is coming out so good looking, I might as well adapt a bumper to the rear end as well..

thank you sir... always kind words from you

here is a quick photoshop of what it could look like....

I like it !!!

Well,
I cut,
I cut some more,
I cut a bit more...

now to fab up some brackets and mount this to the rear...

Maybe flip it over and trim the bottom of the cab to be flush?

that is a good idea

the 'picture' is just a hand drawn image, its not the real scout body

Ill get a few real pictures later today when i weld the bumper back together as it is in 2 piece in the picture above.

then i'll try to get it positioned closer to the body and not photoshopped so i can actually see it.

also, not one single person will be laying on the ground lookin at it straight on like the picture i drew above. So you have to take that into consideration, the height of the bumper is like 2 inches off the ground..

welded the two pieces, and taped it some what in place.
its a bit shadowy where the vehicle is sitting, so ill get a few different pics more around lunch time.

OK so still taped in place, and have spent a few hours walking by the scout today while working on other jobs.

I like it. Eventually, maybe, i might add some on to the ends to wrap it around the corners a bit. Probably cut the ends off a 68/0 camaro bumper and weld them to this one to give me the material to work with and should be pretty easy.

But for now, I'll keep it the way it is, and make some bumper mounts.

I might, might tackle one door jamb and see if I can get one modified for the upcoming show.

The vehicle isn't pretty right now, and needs gobs of work, but I'd really like to get it to this particular show and see some reactions on it.
It's a local show, and nothing spectacular, just want some friends who don't know anything about it to see what has been going on.

Also, i think I'm going to make the tailgate open like a car door instead of drop down like normal.

Was able to get a few hours on the rear suspension.
Got the 4-link all tacked in place.
I lifted it 8 inches and had 2 degrees of movement on the pinion, which is more than fine, as ride height will be about 3 inches off the ground.
Started looking at cross bracing, fuel cell and the other final components that need to go back there -such as air tanks and compressors.

Need to make the mid and front body/core support mounts and then remove the body for final fit and welding.

I think the last thing I'm going to tackle before the show is the gauges in the dash and steering.

I'm not stressed, but I'm trying to get it to the show as a motivator. If people, see it now it'll get me going to push harder.
I have already 'failed' as it's not running and driving, but that is how life goes.

I ran the upper bars on the outside of the frame rails to not have them visible once the inner sheet metal work is done. I wanted to keep a non-cluttered section visible. I think I'm going to run the spintech mufflers as well, as I like their square small boxy appearance, and they have such a unique sound to them.

-oh and windshield wasn’t done. Maybe today I’ll get it back…

laid out some 3 inch tubing to visualize and exhaust system

Today was able to get some more work done on the chassis, exhaust system and motor/trans mounts.



Chassis is 80% complete now. I still need to make some cross bracing and a mid body mounts, but I'm getting there slowly.



Going to try hard to make my goal and hit the show this coming saturday..

Windshield, tinted for the car show...

?Maybe a one-off, not sure how many scouts have such a custom window/window frame out there.

Nice progress

Im tryin, Im tryin...

my plan is to get it as much tacked together as possible so i can winch it up the trailer and get it to the show.

It's a project, and Im tryin to get it to a point to where people see and understand what I'm doing.

Plus not many people know I'm building this, so It'll be a fun debut...

I didnt like the original Scout firewall, so I cut it out and replaced it with a new one..lol

I put on some heads and an old intake I used for displays, and almost done 'under hood' as far as the car show goes.

Tomorrow, mount steering column and hook it up to the gear box, front bumper mounts along with front body mounts.

Got the front bumper somewhat mounted. I got a few real good ideas on how i will be permanently attaching it after the show. But for now it won’t fall off and I can get some good eyes on to see where I need to adjust it. Not trying to be perfect, but, wanting to make it look like it is supposed to be there.

I think this is the 1st Scout with a car type bumper, and I want people who see it to not know that. Unless youre a scout fan, you probably wouldn’t know anyways.

Started workin on the steering column mounts. The lower is done, just need to fab up a column drop for the upper.

also started the dash panel. im going to not use the stock scout panel and just start fresh with a piece of sheet metal as it will save time of me trying to weld up all those spots for no real reason. Also, I might mount the gauges in the middle of the dash.

I had an old GM truck billet grill laying around so I butchered it to fit, not sure how I feel about it yet, but, we will see.

I think I'm not posting any more pictures until after the show. Sort of want a bit of a surprise for y'all..

-james