My departure..for now...

["Jason and Maria Colavecchia" <jasoncolavecchia@domain.elided>]

Hey folks!!!  Just waded through 450 odd messages...

This is my last posting for now.  I have taken on a new job at a new place,
and my time has become very limited.  As much as I enjoy the digest, I need
to take a break from it until things smooth out at work.

On a more positive note, I bought another Scout II on the weekend!!! It is
a 79, with a 304, auto trans, Dana 20, 3.73 gears in the diffs, along with
a detroit tru-trac in the front and the Dana Trac-Lok in the back!  It also
came with a custom winch bumper (looks like a concrete mixer!!!) and a Warn
6000lb. winch (all manual controls..and it Works GREAT!!)
The amazing part of all of this is the Truck RUNS!!!! All for the princely
sum of $200.00...(CANADIAN!)

The body is totally shot, though..not even worth doing the body work...

I towed her back last Saturday, using a dolly.  It was a bit scary, as the
weather wasn't the best, but my poor Scout II pulled it fine (could have
used deeper axle ratios, though..it realllllly worked hard).  Along with
the truck came the original manuals for everything, as well as some kind of
a brochure the same dimensions as a manual with all kinds of different
options you could buy for your scout!!! (soft tops, winch kits, cb radios,
etc!!)  It was pretty interesting!

My plans???  As soon as I can check out the axles, I am going to swap them
into my current, driveable '79, utilizing all the newer axle-end parts
(brakes, hubs, etc), thereby giving me the axle ratios and equipment I have
been longing for!  the winch bumper is going to come off, get 'blasted,
painted and undented (just a FEW scrapes) then reinstalled on MY
Scout...the winch probably could do with a rebuild, which I will do with my
Dad, and get her rolling!  It's an older model, but pulled REALLY strong,
and sounds fine!  Even though 6000lbs isn't very much (an 8000 would
probably be a better choice, but for 200 bucks (like 125 american) I can't
complain) I'll bet it'll get me unstuck most of the time, especially if I
get a snatch block (20,000lb rated one) and boost it up to 12,000lbs! ( I
wonder if I could use 3 blocks and double-reeve it to get 24,000lbs???)
This truck also has a clean tailgate, which I will use when converting my
Scout to a rag-top this spring...

As for the rest of the truck??? I have already sold what's left of it to my
buddy for 200 bucks....He's going to perform a frame-up resto, and use my
old axles!!!

A quick Question....Does anyone have or know where I can obtain a
Divorce-mount transfer case?  I want to see how much it would cost compared
to me converting a Dana 20 to the same configuration...please e-mail me
directly for this, as I won't be part of the digest soon...

I also completely forgot how to get off the digest, so would someone please
email me on how to do this???? (Richard, etc)

Thanks for everything, folks!! I hope to be back on again in a few months! 
I'm still available at jasoncolavecchia@domain.elided for anything!  I just
can't handle the "avalanche" of email from the digest for awhile...



Jason and Maria Colavecchia
1979 IH Scout II,  V304, modifications ongoing
1969 IH 1210D Travelall 3/4 ton, V345,  restoring slowly