A '72 FST gets a new lease on life (1 Viewer)

[OverLand Cruisers]

We picked up this '72 FST from a Mud Member in California back in August of '17.

Some folks may recognize his very distinctive mailbox...

The story is that a rancher bought it new and used it as his hunting rig, it lived in his barn and he would tow it to his hunts.

He died and his wife sold it to the above Mud member.

It had the wrong carb but other than that it was pretty much intact.

It did have a period correct Kayline replacement top in super nice shape, pretty cool.

Two days later it was in our warehouse in Southern Arizona.

More soon

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

The original owner left lots of fun treasures.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

Time for some love.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

A November baby.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

Brakes and steering that work are best.

More love.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

It is nice to have seats without protruding springs

The spare tire carrier had some cracks that needed love before they got worse, we'd normally powder coat it but the patina on the FST is too good to detract from.

Someone had done some excellent wiring with Scotch Locks (ARGHHHHHH!!!), all cleaned up.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

@Birdhead worked his magic with the steering wheel. What a difference, thanks Jimmy!

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

We yanked the roll bar which was clearly not designed for a 40, it was in a perfect location to whack your head on from about anywhere in the rig....how useful.

Time to address the rear seats as well.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

I'm going backwards a bit but the pics are fun.

We took the FST up to the Overland Expo in '19, lots of folks seemed to enjoy checking it out.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

We ran compression and it was a bit low.

1=133
2=129
3=126
4=106
5=121
6=133

As the 40 had been sitting for several years it was worth daily driving for a bit to see if anything changes....rough duty.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

 

[Birdhead]

@Birdhead worked his magic with the steering wheel. What a difference, thanks Jimmy!

View attachment 2677119

Thank you!

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

After daily driving the FST for a couple of weeks (which was awesome) we checked the compression again with no major improvements. Time to dive deeper.

Looks like some mud daubers had a nice home here for a while.

 

[mtn biker]

You guys do great work and you are so close to me.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

It seems she was overheated once and someone replaced the head gasket without doing any machine work, this piston looks like it got a bit toasty.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

Luckily the cylinders looked great, no ridges nor taper so after some deglazing she's ready for some shiny new bits!

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

The head came back all pretty after a trip to the machine shop, no more mud daubers!

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

Almost time for some field testing...

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

It is nice that the jump seat passengers won't have to worry about getting tetanus from an errant spring anymore.

 

[OverLand Cruisers]

The air filter assembly was a a bit rusty and as powder coating would be too shiny on a rig like this we cleaned it up and used rust convertor to retain a bit of patina and the original sticker.