Bringing a 60 series back from the dead; mobile car detailing / cleaning info? (1 Viewer)

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swelltimes

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Location
Western MA
Hi all -

Buddy of mine was looking for a new home for his '86 FJ60, which has sat in a field for ~ 4 years.

Price was right ($800), and he's got boat loads of parts for both 40 and 60 series trucks that were included in the deal, so I couldn't say no. Especially since the :princess: said, "Oh, great! This one can be mine!"

Anyway: frame, body panels, glass, all are solid. It hasn't run in ~ 4 years, but the 2F is intact, oil looks fine, and this weekend I'll charge the battery, try to turn the crankshaft a bit by hand, check the plugs, and add a bit of gas to the carb to see what we've got.

Assuming that all goes well, the next big issue is dealing with the interior of the car, which has been a playground for field mice. Smells awful, is filthy, and needs help.

I read a thread somewhere about mobile detailing services, and I wonder if anyone here has any experience with anything like that? Don't get me wrong, "detailing" isn't what I'm looking for: I just need some proper cleaning of the seats and interior. I understand I'll have to pull air filter / heater / ducts, etc., on my own.

Thanks for any thoughts / info.
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Nice project you have there. Good price for a FJ60 too!
I have a similar project on my hands. Field mice droppings and mold smell everywhere. I had no choice but to gut the carpet, seats, headliner , door panels and go new.
So far My neighbor and I have got it running , rebuilt the front end and our taking our time to do it right. If this going to be for your wife. She probably won't be happy until that smell is 100% gone.
Simple green and bleach will help out a lot.
Good luck with your new rig.
 
pull the coil wire and turn it over for a bit to get the oil flowing in the motor before you try to run it
 
Pull the plugs before you turn it over, break it lose by hand to make sure it spins freely, then let the starter spin it to build oil pressure. After that put plugs in and see if it will fire.
 
Cool, thanks for the tips guys. Pretty sure I'm going to have to pull carpets / door panels / seats out to deal with mildew / animal issues....

Hoping to get some time this weekend to try to fire her up.
 
Quick update: checked the oil, pulled the plugs, turned engine over by hand a bit. Put in new battery, cranked it a bit without the plugs in. Reinstalled plugs, gave her a bit of starting fluid, and she fired right up! Next up to check fuel system, and start cleaning / lubing things like choke cable, throttle linkage, etc, which are all gummy.

Thanks for the help so far, folks.

This pic shows 4+ years of mouse nests, choke cherries, and other crap that was blown out of the exhaust pipe today:

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If you've got that much mouse mayhem in the cruiser, chances are extremely high that you've got a city of nests built up under the headliner. Not sure what you could do about that though.
 
@Output Shaft, yeah......I think it's likely, too. The liner in the hood is eaten away and clearly has been nested in. Will have to pull almost everything out, I bet. But, that'll give me a clean slate, chance to throw some dyna-mat in, and put it back together. I have no illusions that this'll be a rough work / chore truck!
 
Had some time to make some progress on the 60 this weekend. Pulled out the rear carpet, sorted some spare parts that came with it, and did a bit of cleaning.

Seems like I need to replace the fuel pump, and then hopefully it'll start moving around on it's own.

Panels underneath the rear carpets and bench seat looked to be a good shape.

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Got some help from my younger brother today. He drove my FJ-40, and we used some logging chain to help pull the "new" FJ-60 out of my barn and into a more open space for cleaning and work. Some light pressure washing and cleaning should get the exterior into a more sanitary condition, and I'm hoping to get a new fuel pump in this week. I've got a busted foot right now, so progress is slow....

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Made a little more progress this weekend. Took a pressure washer to the outside to clean off 4+ years of lichen, moss, mold, decaying leaves, and who knows what else. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Also spent a bunch of hours vacuuming out the inside. Took off as many access panels as I could find, and was met with nasty mouse nests at every turn. So far only a couple of wires look chewed up.

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Looking good! I've actually always enjoyed the full interior tear out and clean up on an unkept old rig. Pulling out all the seats and carpets and panels isn't easy but it makes cleaning up so much better. After you reinstall everything and it's all clean and the whole car smells like Simple Green it's a very satisfying feeling.

I've never had to deal with a lot of mice nests though. Definitely check and recheck all of your wiring. It would be a shame to get a fire or something in it after all that work.
 
Planning to rip the headliner out this weekend, take the seats all the way out, scrub, then start checking wiring. It'll take a little while, but hopefully be worth it. Trying to figure out a suitable alternative to installing a new headliner: thinking something like dynamat, then marine carpet over that. Going to play around with options.
 
Im looking forward to your ideas. I have my headliner down right now and I just need to get everything cleaned up before I start worrying about it.
Thinking the Dynamat route.
 
Ha, yeah. Just randomly happens that both are blue. The 40 is destined for a repaint in it's original lighter blue color, but that's a few years out.
 

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