Project : Barney Por Favor

[indianporfavor]

This is my first ever cruiser build, that was mine of course. I've been a mud member for a little while and made it to Hard Rock to meet a few of yall a few months back. I've been messing around with cruisers for a few years all of which belonged to 40tude and his family. As some of you know, that is A LOT of projects. So I've always wanted a cruiser, but working with others peoples cars and money is always been a lot easier being in school. I finally finished medic school and it was on.

Little is known as the P.O. was not much help but from what we have determined Barney is a 78 fj40, with a v8 from a ford mustang, a C4 automatic transmission also out of a mustang, and a toyota t-case with some sweet angles to it.

We attempted to start it a few months back and that turned out well, it turns out the motor runs, and runs very well, only problem is PARK is not PARK but reverse. and apparently there is no neutral safety switch. SOO Barney roars to life launches into reverse and thankfully the joy ride was stopped by ripping a hole in the door of an 80 and almost breaking 40tude's dads knees. BUT he runs!


The PO engineering is endless on this car and im sure as we dig further into it we will only find more to shake our heads at. its a bit overwhelming right now. one positive is that there is a brand new painless harness that has been fairly unmolested so hopefully that will be able to be worked through fairly easily.

Stuff to do..
-Wiring
-Rebuild Carb - Rebuild kit purchased 5/20
-Modify Seat Bracket
-Fix Hood
-Rebuild Axles
-Cross member
-Reroute Exhaust
-Remount power steering box
-Remove jeep tail lights from rear quarters
-Fix rear door
-Remove sweet rear bumper
-Fix Dash
-New Tires
-Fix Radiator Mount
-Front cross member

Pics...

- Barney as he sat this afternoon - sweet front has since been bumper removed


- P.O. Redneck Engineering - the whole weight of the hood is put on the hinges of the bezel


- P.O. Redneck Engineering - Crossmember - as you see the decreased clearance of the crossmember was greatly improved by the super long bolts..but they figured they would get some extra clearance by running the exhaust tubing under the cross member...to protect the bolts im sure


- Shackles - Designed to glide smoothly over obstacles resulting in minimal snag



- No better way to mount that box then hacking up the front cross member and wedging 16 different thicknesses of metal together and welding it all in place.


- Dual Shock Mount

 

[Coastline]

So, why did you buy a piece of junk?

 

[indianporfavor]

thanks for the kind words i got a decent deal and the motor, tranny, and advance adapter are worth what i paid for the whole rig. dont feel i got a bad deal, just a lot of work

 

[cruiserjunkie]

Love the purple what is the end plan for Barney

 

[indianporfavor]

Love the purple what is the end plan for Barney

Thanks Cruiserjunkie, i really have no idea. Right now im focusing on just getting it drivable. I work on it at a friends house who has many land cruisers. But he is 30 miles away, and then Barney has to be towed across the field it sits in to the house to be worked on. So i want to get it drivable.

i would like to get it set up for some mild to moderate off road fun, nothing crazy...it wont be my daily driver so i wont mind beating him up at all. but EMT pay here in florida isnt the best right now, so progress will be slow

 

[40TUDE]

Subscribed

 

[subzali]

Wow.

Good luck.

 

[40TUDE]

Your bezel is upside-down

 

[cjhollenshead]

Your bezel is upside-down

Hahahahaha never fails, always one! Well best of luck on getting her fixed up! I too recently dove into a project but luckily a little less of one than yours.

 

[indianporfavor]

So i decided it was time to tow Barney home so I could work on some wiring while 40tude has some other stuff going on, but before that could be done as Austin(40tude) pointed out there was some bezel work to be completed.



Since it isnt driving at this time some winching had to take place testing out his new hydraulic winch...thankfully it worked. We ended up having to switch up tow rigs due to some clearance issues. Then lighting issues so the tow will be moved to wednesday when its daylight out





And here is 40tude in his 80, always living by the boy scout motto of leaving the campground cleaner then when you got there.

 

[indianporfavor]

Finally got it home! Woke up way too early for my liking to drive back to 40tudes and pick it up. Fixed the wiring and made it home. Unfortunately, Im waiting for someone to get here to help me unload it but I can post the famous mud pictures of cruisers in the mirror on the trailer

 

[FJsnoozer]

thanks for the kind words i got a decent deal and the motor, tranny, and advance adapter are worth what i paid for the whole rig. dont feel i got a bad deal, just a lot of work

You really should buy another frame part out the stuff that is worth money and swap the good stuff on to that frame.


You are really asking for trouble with that whore of a truck.

Edit: If you need any help with that motor and how to make it run as well as possible, check out www.corral.net

Anything other than a stock camshaft in that motor should probably be pulled and replaced with something like an HO or an RV cam. Those motors can make so much torque.

 

[40TUDE]

The frame is not bad, it needs front crossmember repair and shackle reversal crap removed and filled. No big deal. Re-doing the entire suspension is part of the plan anyhow. No need at all for a new frame. Everything will be redone and done correctly.

 

[indianporfavor]

Last night I started my carb rebuild, I ordered the Holley rebuild kit and have been slowly taking it apart. There are tons of parts for me to lose so hopefully i can make it all back together. Ive been taking every screw and peice and placing them in envelopes labeled with the contents hoping to curtail the losing of parts. Worked today through Saturday so I probably wont be able to get it finished till sunday but im ready to get it cleaned up and wake the sleeping beast! Ill try and take some pics of the carb rebuild to post up here too

 

[indianporfavor]

If you need any help with that motor and how to make it run as well as possible, check out The Corral

Thanks for that link, its ALMOST the mud of mustangs and looks like it should have lots of info for me.

Thanks

 

[indianporfavor]

ok so ive been working the past couple days and have been chasing wire problems... which resulted in me pulling out all of the wiring and seperating the harness. and then started putting it back in and wired the engine up. Finally got the engine to fire today after figuring out i didnt have my 12v going to the distributor so i ran a temp cable to the battery, had spark and she fired, ran for a couple minutes and i turned it off to hard wire the distributor. And have got a couple more times running for a second or two but thats it...on shift for the next 3 days so prolly wont be getting any work done till sunday. anyways here are some pictures, and ill post a video of it running a little later.


Wiring Harness after pulling it out


Wires all nice and seperated


Engine Wiring


...And does anyone know of any problems that I might run into if I modify the bracket holding the steering column pushing the column farther up into the groove? that might be just enough for me to avoid putting a tilt in. Thanks

 

[40TUDE]

When we redo the steering shaft, we can move it up, otherwise the inner shaft would contact the outer tube, due to the angle being moved.
...
Nicely done

 

[indianporfavor]

Thanks, no idea how to post video tho...ill just post a link for now

Short noisy Barney running

 

[40TUDE]

Vid is set to private

 

[indianporfavor]

Well its top secret only special people get to see it I guess...ill work on that