March 3, 2001

Continuous rain over the last several weeks has really slowed the progress, wish I had a garage to keep the Carryall in. There was finally a break in the storms today and I was able to get out and work on it again.

I spent the day working on the firewall. Did quite a bit of sanding on the cowling surrounding the firewall to cleanup the remnants of the weather-stripping. Got it smooth and then primed the area. Then I turned my attention to the firewall itself. Did some sanding and pushed out the area surrounding the steering column opening. It seemed to be caved in a bit.

I spent a little time under the rig looking over the mounting blocks. Bill, from the east coast had inquired whether or not I had the front mount blocks and if it were possible to get measurements. There appear to be only the two wooden blocks at the front of the cab. I didn't see an indication of any towards the rear of the cab section. It seems like there should be as the next mount is back on the cross member that centers on the battery box. At that location there are 2" square by 1/4" thick pads that appears to be some sort of fiber material. Seems to be some sort of asphalt impregnated material similar to roofing felt. There are two more on the next cross member just in front of the rear tires. On the last cross member, just behind the rear tires, I have two round rubber pads also 2" diameter and 1/4" thick. I don't know if these two are original or not since they're different. I drew up plans for the front blocks, created a PDF file and e-mailed it to Bill. Should anyone else have a need for those plans a copy of that file can be found here (requires Acrobat Reader).
March 4

The rain returned today, so I'm back inside. I started by doing the mesh adjustment on the steering gear box, I can't believe how smooth it feels now for a 59 year old. Still need to clean up the ground strap mounts on the column jacket, then the steering column and gearbox will be ready for paint.

Afterwards I dismantled the fuel filter and cleaned up all of the fittings. I think I'll take the housing and filter element down to Tony at T.G.'s Automotive Machine Shop and have him boil it. It's probably not necessary, but I don't think the filter can be too clean.
March 25

Man I've been jonesing to get back to the Carryall. Having to work for a living can really get in the way of my fun!

I began today's session where I had left off three weeks ago, with the steering column jacket. It took quite a bit of pounding, but I finally got he lower ground strap mount back into a serviceable condition. Then I busted out the gas welder and filled the various cracks and added back the material that had been literally beat away. Once it was ground down it was almost presentable again. The upper ground strap mount required only a little straightening and one small crack welded up.

Next I moved on to the fuel filter. I cleaned up the residue from it's hot tank bath and got it looking awful purdy. Then I screwed up! I decided to clean up the threads on the housing. I saw that it was a fine thread and the 1/2 x 20 tap seemed to be the ticket. It wasn't until I tried cleaning up one of the plugs that I noticed I was using the wrong size! Should've been a 1/4" pipe tap, dammit! Now I've got to try and get the holes back to the correct thread, this will be interesting. Hopefully it'll seal up.

Finished up the day making new mount blocks for the front of the cab. Chris Davis of Lake Forest, CA had a large block of urethane that he sent me in exchange for a set of mount blocks for his Carryall. This stuff will definitely last a lot longer than the oak that was originally used. The urethane is a little hard on the blades of my band and table saws though, it almost wants to melt, leaving a bit of residue on them. This stuff's not original, but I think it's an acceptable improvement. I finished both sets, with the exception of the mounting holes. I need to pull one of mine to verify the size and position.