Builds The Barn Find (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jul 25, 2021
Threads
6
Messages
39
Location
South Dakota
Hello and welcome to my first thread!! Over this weekend we picked up 1 1973 FJ40 (red) and 1 1970 FJ40 (green). My name is Brayden, from South Dakota. It is quite possible we are in over our heads with these projects, ha!! But I can tell you this, we are going to give it everything we’ve got. This will certainly be a learning experience for me, and I hope I can use this forum to record all of our progress and to reach out for wisdom.

These units have not seen sunlight for 30+ years until this weekend. We winched Big Green out of the seller’s barn with little to no issues, on Friday. Then came Saturday, Big Red‘s two front wheels would absolutely not rotate. Conveniently the seller had a friend down the street who dropped by with a tractor and managed to pull it up onto the trailer (to note, this was one of the more sketchy things I have ever done, but it made it on the trailer.. ha!).

The plan is to start with Big Red. The front wheels still won’t turn, so we need to do some tinkering there… if you have any ideas, please drop me a line. These are drum brakes FYI.

Where do YOU start with a restoration? Disassemble everything? Try to get the motor to fire? To note, Big Green has half a motor in the engine bay with the other half in the back seat, ha! These appear to be original motors. Big Red has a 3-speed F motor, just missing the top half of the carburetor from what I can see. I believe Big Green is a 3-speed on the tree!? I’m totally thrown off by it…

Anyways, I look forward to being a part of the forums here. Cheers!

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Wow! Let me be the first to welcome you to mud!:flipoff2: For red just tear apart the front axle. Those joints are probably dry as a bone and siezed! Justclean them out and regrease them. Good luck!
 
Drivetrain first. Clean up those axles, flush fluids on everything, check up on engine and see if it needs extensive work or not. Do they crank with a new battery? Do they spin when you try to move it with a torque wrench?
 
BEZEL ALERT! Welcome to MUD!
 
Good score. Love the rotor rooter sign... you also do not see factory drive flanges still in place on many after all these years.
 
Wow! Let me be the first to welcome you to mud!:flipoff2: For red just tear apart the front axle. Those joints are probably dry as a bone and siezed! Justclean them out and regrease them. Good luck!
Thank you! That certainly sounds like a good place to start. Will get the impact wrench out, and start disassembling! Do you know if I should keep all of my updates on this thread or is their a "build thread" of some sort, I am supposed to make? Thanks again.
 
NEVER remove the "Roto Rooter" sticker... thats a sweet find!!
Haha! I totally agree with you. Puts a cool spin on it, right? If I do patch repairs the rust, it will need repainting though :confused:.... Thank you for the reply!
 
Drivetrain first. Clean up those axles, flush fluids on everything, check up on engine and see if it needs extensive work or not. Do they crank with a new battery? Do they spin when you try to move it with a torque wrench?
Thank you for your reply! Sounds like I should start tearing apart the front end to inspect and re-grease etc. The carburetor in Big Red, is half gone. So may just need to drop a new one in there. Big Green needs a complete rebuild, or an engine swap since half the motor is in the back seat unfortunately. Haven't tried turning over the motor in Big Red. The wheels wouldn't turn at all with a great amount of force, we drug it across cement off the trailer (on wheels, flat tires) and they didn't budge there either. Thanks again or the reply, your knowledge is appreciated! 🤙
 
Good score. Love the rotor rooter sign... you also do not see factory drive flanges still in place on many after all these years.
Thank you for your reply! The sign is pretty neat, just unsure what I am going to do, assuming I make cuts to the rust and weld in patches. Since it will require paint... What's a guy gotta do? I love to keep things original too.
 
Thank you!!! Not sure what the bezel alert refers to unless you're talking about the headlight/grill frame? New guy here, sorry haha!!! 🤣
The red one is OK. the white part on the front is the bezel, and a lot of people here on MUD have a stroke whenever the thick part is not on top. Early model 40s even had “land cruiser” printed out on the top. Most people don’t even realize there even is a thick and skinny part until it’s pointed out. Anyway, if you want to fit in, thick part goes up. If you want to piss off some old guys, thick part on the bottom

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Saw those on the Facebook marketplace awhile back. Weren't there 3? Price was steep though. Hope you got them for a good deal and will do them justice.
 
I bet the front pads are rusted / swollen to the drum from wheel cylinders leaking. Replace complete brake system wheel cylinders/pads/ soft lines and master. Might get away with leaving hard lines depending on condition. Great score!! Enjoy the journey!!! Lots of pics!!
 

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