Ultimate International

PART 5: STEERING, BRAKES, AND PLUMBING, OH MY!

- Trenton McGee

IT SEEMS LIKE WE HAVE CLEARED a lot of major hurdles with the Ultimate International. The drivetrain is in, it’s sitting on the ground with a largely completed suspension, and the bulk of the extensive sheet metal work is complete. But why is there still so much to do and so little time to get it done? We’ve been accused of manufacturing drama and tight deadlines, but we can assure you that doesn’t happen. The deadlines are real, and missing them is not an option. So let’s roll up our sleeves and get some work done!

In our last installment we wrestled the Ultimate Dana 60 crate axles under our 1964 Scout 80 and secured them with a set of Skyjacker leaf springs via a combination of parts from IH Parts America and our own design. Once the big stuff is in place you can start tackling all of the other systems to make them function, but all of that work can be really overwhelming. In an effort to keep progress moving forward and to stay motivated, we tried to focus on completing all of the individual systems one at a time. So for example, once all of the plumbing parts showed up, we tackled the brakes, steering, and fuel systems as much as we could, only shifting to something else when we discovered we were missing a part or when something we ordered wasn’t going to work.

With so much ground to cover there are times we weren’t able to get into as much detail as we would have liked, but feel free to reach out to us via our social media outlets if you have any follow-up questions on how we did things. Next month we’re going to wrap things up. At the time of this writing, UA 2019 hasn’t started. If you’ve read about the event elsewhere in this issue you already know whether or not the Scout made it. We hope so!