Barn Find 1965 FJ45LPB

[daniel.watters]

Good call IMO!

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

Been busy moving and working on getting my '65 FJ40 road worthy. With that accomplished hope to soon turn my attention back towards the barn find 45. In the meantime I uploaded a walk-around video from when the 45 first arrived, ignore my 3 year old jabbering in the back ground

 

[ucantcme]

WOW! Wow Wow nice nice I cant say it enough WOW!!! Fantastic

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

Pulled the old girl out of storage this weekend in hopes of reviving her for the Carolina Relic Run being put on by ONSC in mid April. I've definitely got my work cut out for me. The farmer I bought her from said she'd be sitting for near 15 years , but I love nothing better than bringing these old rigs back to life! Already ordered a bunch of OEM goodies from Beno. Should have some good progress to post in the weeks to come.

Her twin

Also finally bit the bullet and bought a car hauler... no more U-haul for me

 

[JackA]

Having your own trailer is the way to go. I like your twins in spring green.

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

Having your own trailer is the way to go. I like your twins in spring green.

It really is. I should have gotten one years ago, I probably could have two of them for what I have spent with U-haul over the years.

The other 45 is the first one I ever bought, she has been waiting patiently for a heart transplant now for a couple of years. My new pole barn should be finished in March sometime hopefully and I'll finally have a place for all my projects and hopefully more time to actually finish them

Building Pad is ready!

 

[JackA]

Very nice. Living the dream.

 

[cult45]

A 1HZ is a nice motor. Mmmmmm.

 

[cult45]

Hey @ClemsonCruiser what is 'compound polish' - I've obtained some new-to-me panels that need only polishing up so I can have that Clemson Family look.

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

Hey @ClemsonCruiser what is 'compound polish' - I've obtained some new-to-me panels that need only polishing up so I can have that Clemson Family look.

Hey Cult,
I use Meguiars Ultimate Compound (Meguiar's : Home) but really any polishing compound will work. Just be careful and apply by hand avoid using a buffer as it will burn through the paint quickly. Good Luck

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

Nice Find!

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

Finally had a free weekend to work on the 45. First order of business was to asses the condition of the original F135. I was told by the PO that it was in good running condition when parked 15 years ago, but that is all I had to go on. Since it had been sitting 15 years earlier in the week I removed the spark plugs and poured a little Marvels Mystery Oil in the cylinders and over the valve train. I let that soak in for a few days then Saturday when I went to turn the engine over by hand I was pleasantly surprised that is spun smoothly and with ease. Over all the head looked in great shape very clean and no noticeable wear, later when cleaning the engine I came to realize that the head had been rebuilt at some point hence it clean appearance.

With everything on the engine free and checking out OK so far it was time for a compression test to see if the old F135 had any life left in her In my recent move I lost my good compression tester so I bought a cheap one from Autozone to do this test with. I am not sure how accurate it is numbers wise but I was pleasantly surprised to find the results where very consistent across all cylinders. Seems this of engine might still have life left to give

 

[the gimpey one]

Going to be ready for the relicit run with onsc?

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

last two cylinders

With the engine seemingly in good shape, rather then trying to fire her up we decided to pull it. That way we could clean it up and address any leaking gaskets and seals. I will say it is probably the dirtiest Cruiser engine I have ever dealt with. The combination of oil leaks and very fine powdery sand over the years lead to gunk caked on an inch thick in places . I placed orders for all new components for the engine so we will get her cleaned up, painted, and buttoned back up.

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

With the engine removed and my Pops started on the long process of unbolting all the ancillary items and cleaning all the gunk off, I decided to tackle the engine bay. It has a lot of dirt, grease, and general stains on it, but I knew the original paint was still good underneath. So I got out my green Scotch Brite and some CLR mixed with warm water. Lots of elbow grease later I went from this....

To this.........

Its far from perfect but is certainly much easier on the eyes That's it for now, hope to have all my new parts in this week and get this thing knocked out.

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

Going to be ready for the relicit run with onsc?

That's the plan, might be unrealistic as I only have two weekends left to work before the event due to vacation time coming up. We'll see how it goes

 

[Michael B]

I see you had your pit crew making sure you performed the compression check correctly! Your rig is looking good!

 

[tahoe40/45]

Nice job, that looks really nice!

 

[ClemsonCruiser]

I see you had your pit crew making sure you performed the compression check correctly! Your rig is looking good!

Hehe....yep it was pretty cool having 3 generations of Virgo's helping out all weekend

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

engine bay cam out good! great job.