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Naturally, after last weekend's little mishap, some repairs and upgrades were necessary.. so I bought some 2x.095 tube and broke out the JD2 and finally made some bends with it.
I used my porta-power to operate it so the going wasn't fast but it was going. I got a little better at resetting the ram to continue my bends as things went on. I'm glad I bought a 220V hydraulic power pack.. if only I had the ram n' such to go with it...
I didn't get too crazy - just two 90-deg bends in the same plane.
Update 5/23:
Turned out about an inch wider than I wanted, but within my "tolerance" and a lot longer.. d'oh.. but that was easily fixed with the bandsaw, and better too long than too short.
Look - the SAME plane..
Definitely a bit tall though..
After trimming it down and hanging the fenders and hood hinge support.
Yes, I screwed up and put the seam on the outside of the bend.. I *thought* to put it on the inside, but then while setting things up, I forgot to double check.. at least it's just the radiator hoop, not the B-hoop.
The plan is to get the radiator mounted before this coming weekend, and race without a front clip.. but here's what I think the finished product will look like.
I'm going to mount the radiator hoop to the front body mounts. I'll weld a nut to some plate, bolt it to the body mount, then the hoop sits right down on top of the mounts, so I'll weld the hoop to the nut-plate.
The hoop should be just under the hood - even or just above the hood hinge plate.
I'll add a rear leg (towards the firewall) brace on either side, but they'll be bolted. I'd like to try using spring bushings and bush 'em on both supports, but we'll see. Definitely removeable though.
I'm going to cutting the corner gussets at the bottom of the frame, so I can drop the radiator enough to clear the radiator hoop. I may add a flange of steel below the frame to protect the bottom inch of the radiator from rocks.
I have a Taurus fan I'll run, which will clear the pulleys if I orient it right.
I'll weld mounting tabs to the rad hoop to mount the stock radiator where I want it.
Now, for the front clip..
Right now, the fenders have the top and bottom A-pillar bolts in place.
I'm thinkng of running 1x1x.120 angle down the fender mounting holes all the way up to the front to the hood hinge plate, and I'll tie it in, too.
I need to pick up some ~ 1x1x.120 square, which I will replace the lower valence with, welding some flat to either end to pick up the stock fender mounting holes. This square tube will be welded to the new hinges, which will be welded to the front bumper.
Another length of 1x1x.120 angle will run along the cowl, tying both fenders together.
I'll then bolt the hood in place, and mount pins to the 1x1 angle somewhere to hold it shut.
I'll add a diagonal or two from the "fender" angle down to the "lower valence" square tube.
Instead of hood-pins or rubber stretchy-hold-downs, I think I'm just going to fab up some 5/16 wing-nut bolts.. and keep using the top and bottom A-pillar bolts for the fenders.
The hood will open and close like a normal Scout, though pinned, so most engine access can be accomplished that way.
When I need to tilt the front, it'll be 4 wing-bolts and then the clip will tilt, with the hood still "closed" relative to the fenders.
One of my goals in doing all of this is to make fender replacement easier.. no extensive customizing, just bolt it on, then trim.
Oh yeah, the trim part.. I have my bald/spare 36x12.50 next to the racer. Once this is all done, I'm mounting it up and come-alonging the suspension down, and I'll sawzall the rocker and nibble the outer fender until I'm satisfied it clears.
Then I'm cutting the rear quarters and doing the same.
Of course, somewhere along the way I really need to finish the basement bathroom project..
--- Been a while.. work has been keeping me busy, but progress has been slowly made..
I mounted the Taurus fan.
Worked the hoop until I was able to mount the radiator, trans cooler, etc.
The Fan is mounted, and I've plumbed in the "stock" in-rad cooler as part of the transmission cooling assembly.
Filling the radiator was a chore, but do-able.
Upper rad hose works fine, lower had to be cut n' spliced to accomodate the ~3" radiator drop.
Put in some rearward supports for the radiator hoop.
Tore down the power steering box and replaced the input seal.
I welded up more on the tilt clip skeleton.
Here's where the bottom of the fenders mount to it.
A view from the top. The fenders just bolt in place - no welding or modifying.
Fenderless, tilted open.
A view from the front with the fenders installed. You can see the hinge mount, too.
After that, I installed the new valvebody and drove it out of the shop to clean it up.
Here it is on the car trailer "ramping" to get easier access to the underside, and help the mud to drain out the back.
And in the driveway after washing.
Here's the skeleton on the shop floor waiting to be "finish welded" after being tacked together on the rig.
With the front coming along nicely, I turned my attention to the rear and started by grinding the paint off the dents in preparation of welding bolts to it and pulling with the slide hammer.
As you can see, there's a lot of dents.
You can also see the end-caps and corners are separating from the inner quarter..
Got the hood dropped in place.
I then mounted the hood pins, marked the hood, and punched some holes.
Then set about lightening the hood a little.
Here's another look at the high-steer setup.
And the brand new Moog balljoints..
I finally put brakes on the rear - this is the first time they've ever fully functioned since I built the Scout.
Then I used my porta-power to lift the rear suspension enough to fix a loose spring clamp.
Front tire back on, preparing to check tire clearance.
I wrapped a chain around the frame and the underside of my floor jack, then jacked away.
This compresses the spring without raising the vehicle.
With about 2" of up-travel left, I had to stop - the jack wanted to pop out - so I checked tire clearance.
The splash-guard at the rear of the wheel opening will be cut off, and just the bottom front will be trimmed back for good measure, to make sure the 31" tires clear.
I then took it for another spin.
Now my big problem is the front looks so nice, and the rear looks like crap.
I started welding bolts to the rear quarter and pulling with the slide hammer.. that's a lost cause.
So last night I visited my storage shed and removed the two brand new steel quarters and brought them into the shop.
I'm going to cut the old quarters off, finish cutting the end-caps and corner posts off.. pound the end-cap back into something that resembles the right shape, then weld the corner post back to the quarter (since it's been seperating), then weld the new quarter and smoothed end-cap back into place.
I'll still need to pull the dents in the tailgate, or just use a bunch of filler, but the quarters will look good and straight - like the front fenders.
Because of the way the rollcage is mounted, I will NOT be cutting things to clear anything bigger than the 31s currently on it. :( On the plus side, it'll look very much like a Scout II still, with the stock wheel arches intact.
-- 4/29/05 --
Back in the shop, I started trying to pull the dented quarter panels with a slide hammer and made zero progress.
I finally decided that since the front fenders looked so nice, I'd make the rears look nice, too.. and pulled the steel quarters I picked up from Super Scout Specialists back at the 2001 NWBRU 
(You can't quite make out the quarters strapped to the rollcage) from my storage shed..
So I picked up a spot-weld bit.
Wound up with two, since I burned the first one up in short order. The trick seems to be to use a 1/8" bit to drill the pilot hole (after center-punching) for good measure, then SLOW and with little pressure, use the spot-weld bit.
Fast and/or a lot of pressure results in a a pretty smooth hole-saw bit. :D
For the passenger side, I wound up using a 5/16" drill bit to through-drill the spots, and then my air-chisel.
Here's the old next to the new.
Here's MORE CRUD that came out of the quarter panel. I wash this thing often, and the rust at the bottom of the rocker/quarter area makes for a good drain, but..
I think I'm going to cut the whole "splash guard" area at the front of the rear wheel well out, leaving the top of the rocker exposed to make cleaning easier and get better results.
The end-cap/corner-post area after removing the end-cap.
And a view of what's left from the rear.
I think I'm going to cut the outer edge of the wheel well off completely, since it's too far gone to easily weld the outer and inner together over the wheel arch.
Backside of the outer quarter.
Here's a mock-up of roughly what it's going to look like.
After a little more cleanup and removing the last bits of the outer quarter. Blair loaned me his Beards, and the passenger seat is sitting in place for mock-up purposes in this picture. I'm going to have to cut the front seat mounting cross-bar out and move it forward and up a little to make the bigger Bear suspension seats fit where the little poly buckets were.
And the driver's side.
Both quarters, with end-caps removed, stacked against the wall.
The end-caps will get straightened a bit then welded to the new quarters then everything gets welded back to the tub.
Had some not-rollover-related items show up, too.. my new fresh-air system from PCI.
Combined with my new helmet and helmet skirt, this should pump clean filtered air into my helmet, keeping the dirt and dust out and keeping it from fogging up.
--- 05/23/2005 --
A few outside pictures with the quarters off.
Back inside, with the tilting front clip tilting.
And with the fenders removed.
I trimmed the outer portion of the rusty wheel arch away.
You can see that I also cut the splash-guard portion at the front of the rear wheel arch out.
That should make clean-out easier.
Here's the banged-back-closer-to-right end-caps.
And installing them onto the quarters again.
Making the spot welds..
Putting it in place, and using the clamp to hold it while I weld.
I started welding the top of the B-pillar, then worked my way down.
I then worked my way back along the top seam, then did the tailgate area.
Here it is, hung.
One side down, one to go.
Another trip out of the shop for cleaning the shop, and more pictures of progress..
Now a layer of fiberglass..
Front fenders installed again..
Sanding the fiberglass.
Then, in my inexperience, after a couple coats of 'glass, I used some "glazing" to try and smooth things over.. didn't work as well as I'd hoped.
So here's fellow Frontier member Scott working a little "real" Bondo filler to smooth it out some more.
And here, on 5/15, it's ready for paint..
I should've done a better job of removing the decals and old paint on the front fenders - it shows up as texture now. :(
On 5/22, I mocked up the new seat mounts..
I then wound up making new "drop" spacers to drop the rear of the seat only 1.5" from the "spring perch" looking part, instead of the 3" it is in the picture. To compensate, the front will actually sit above the seat rail almost 2" to keep a 5-6deg rake in the seat (tilting backwards). The end result puts the driver a little taller to see over the hood, while still keeping the rollcage almost 3" from the top of my helmeted head.
This is a good thing, since I remember hitting my head on the ground when I rolled in February - I didn't have quite enough clearance as I should've had / needed.