I decided to get out in the garage and spend a little quality time with the 40 this morning. Its a 1973 (Dec 1972 build date) FST in Freeborn Red originally. One of the PO's got rid of the soft top and installed a hard top. They also did some really excellent wiring upgrades as well as finding every rock and mud hole in AZ. I picked this one up a couple of years ago on an even trade for a 1993 Jeep Wrangler. The PO wanted a back seat for his kids and I wanted a 40, so here we sit. Him with a Jeep and me with a 42 year old piece of awesomeness. I had been having some issues with the blinkers so decided to take a look into the wiring. I soon found this:
Yep kids, that is speaker wire that was spliced into the turn signal wire. Oh and it was just twisted together and a little electrical wire wrapped around the twists. This of course led to more panels getting removed. As I dug more into the wiring the PO struck again with his twisted spliced in wiring. This one had masking tape over one splice but the other was bare behind the license plate.
As one thing led to another I ended up with the 40 basically ready for the body to come off. All I have left to pull out is the gas tank and then the body will be sitting on saw horses hopefully by mid day tomorrow. How she sits now:
This will give me plenty of working room to re-gasket the transmission and transfer case and also room to convert the front to discs and rebuild the rear axle. I am fortunate that so far I have found any rust and the only repairs seems to be the windshield hinge mount points have broken off the dash. Other than that she is pretty sound. I am torn between going back to Freeborn Red or Heath Gray. The PO rattle canned over the original paint with Rustoluem from Lowe's, not a horrible job but she deserves better. Overall, the goal is to do a refresh and make it a solid daily driver. I don't plan on doing a purist rebuild but want to bring it back to her former glory while being more practical. The goal is to do most of it myself so we shall see how it goes. Next step is getting the body off and then rebuild the front axle and swap on the 60 knuckles for disc brakes then on to the rear and then the frame blasted and painted and all stuffed back together into a roller within the next 2 months. Hopefully I don't run into any snags. I am open to all tips tricks and pointers than anyone has on and please let me know if I am doing something wrong. I have more experience with airplanes than I do 40's.
Yep kids, that is speaker wire that was spliced into the turn signal wire. Oh and it was just twisted together and a little electrical wire wrapped around the twists. This of course led to more panels getting removed. As I dug more into the wiring the PO struck again with his twisted spliced in wiring. This one had masking tape over one splice but the other was bare behind the license plate.
As one thing led to another I ended up with the 40 basically ready for the body to come off. All I have left to pull out is the gas tank and then the body will be sitting on saw horses hopefully by mid day tomorrow. How she sits now:
This will give me plenty of working room to re-gasket the transmission and transfer case and also room to convert the front to discs and rebuild the rear axle. I am fortunate that so far I have found any rust and the only repairs seems to be the windshield hinge mount points have broken off the dash. Other than that she is pretty sound. I am torn between going back to Freeborn Red or Heath Gray. The PO rattle canned over the original paint with Rustoluem from Lowe's, not a horrible job but she deserves better. Overall, the goal is to do a refresh and make it a solid daily driver. I don't plan on doing a purist rebuild but want to bring it back to her former glory while being more practical. The goal is to do most of it myself so we shall see how it goes. Next step is getting the body off and then rebuild the front axle and swap on the 60 knuckles for disc brakes then on to the rear and then the frame blasted and painted and all stuffed back together into a roller within the next 2 months. Hopefully I don't run into any snags. I am open to all tips tricks and pointers than anyone has on and please let me know if I am doing something wrong. I have more experience with airplanes than I do 40's.