I got a little more work done today but after taking a tumble out of the bed of the carrier I decided to take the rest of the day off.
First thing I wanted to do was remove the step from the tailgate. I had thought that they used carriage bolts from the inside by taking the inner piece of plywood/sheetmetal off and drilling from the inside so not compromising the water tightness of the gate. I was wrong. Instead they simply drilled through the gate and mounted the step. I'm going to have to reconsider how to do it once I remount it on the new gate. I don't think I want to do it the same way they did but I'll need to research a little bit. If anyone has a M792 could you look at the gate and see how they bolted that?
The 2 upper bolts went through the large piece of angle iron that runs along the top of the gate. There are 4 holding the angle on and then they drilled 2 more to secure the step. The first bolt came off fine, the second snapped, the third just turned so I grabbed the end with some vice grips in order to get the nut off, and the fourth still turned even holding it with the grips. I wound up just grabbing it tight and bending it until it broke.
You can see from the massive amounts of rust here that not all of the Goat panels are aluminum.
Here's the step after removal.
I pulled the remaining garbage (wooden boxes, blocks, dead 6TL batts, etc) out of the back. My plan was to pressure wash it this afternoon but a bruised knee and ego made me decide to just goof off the rest of the day.
Next I pulled the expanded steel screens that were added over the non-stock tail lights. The stock lights will stick out beyond the recess (once I find some) so the screens wouldn't fit any way. The reflectors, which are now inside this area, are supposed to go above the opening. Inside should be the tail lights and B/O lights.
Unfortunately the Forest Service stored the swim plugs for the hull in one of the wooden boxes that was anything but waterproof. If I ever want to try and swim this thing I'll need to find a few more of these.
I may hit things again tomorrow as the temps are supposed to be up in the 80s. That'd sure beat pressure washing it at 38.
Next week I'm going to try and visit a friend to take pics of his Goat. I need to find out which holes are supposed to be there and which holes aren't.