AK.xplorer
Observer
A buddy of mine had a simple request:
"Hey Michael, would you fly down to Juneau and drive a nice old fj-55 back to Anchorage for me?" "I'll pay for everything, even the ferry from Juneau to Haines".
Without asking for details, I said sure, having briefly reflected on my last "paid-for" trip in an HJ61 that was paid for all the way from Victoria Island back to Alaska, hiking four-diamond trails north of Whisler, meeting a beautiful St'át'imc woman at a tribal gathering in BC, that led to a three day detour full of adventure, and using his money to stay in palaces that had luxurious sit-down showers.
After flying to Juneau, what I found was an fj-55 so rusted out, it didn't have floor boards. Forum member blind cleric can vouche for this. There were all these huge spiders living inside the thing, with a bunch of spare parts and trash all piled to the roof. The breaks didn't work. The wipers didn't work. Every inch of the exhaust had holes in it. The tires were so old, they were all flat and the thing sunk down deep into the dirt from sitting so long, until the differentials were resting under the surface of the ground.
I bought some shtty tires from a tow truck driver, drained the rusty water out of the tank, pulled the carb and partially disassembled it, threw it in a bucket of sea foam overnight, topped off the oil. The tow truck driver helped me remove it from the ground, by lifting the bumpers with his articulating bed. The replacement tires were from the 1970's and were fairly weather cracked.
I jumped into a dumpster behind a construction site nearby and snagged a bunch of dry wall remnants. I crush-fit the drywall into the floor boards. The seats were very close to falling out of the vehicle, so there were some safety concerns.
I hose clamped pieces of licence plates on 8 different holes in the exauhst.
I duck taped cheap blue foam onto the front seat, which was so brittle, the foam turned to dust when you moved the cushion.
After installing the carb, I turned the key..........
I turned the key for a very long time while pumping the gas pedal. After about 2-3 minutes, that 2F was brought to life, it wasn't happy to be brought to life. After a five minute gradual idle under partial choke, the thing idled OK.
Surely this thing wouldn't be safe through Chilkat Pass in late October. After phoning the border before making the trip, I was informed that the winds in the pass were bad, and that the pass had freezing rain and snow for 36 hours. Prior to that conversation, I had just eaten four containers of pelmeni (russian dumplings) slathered in butter. After the conversation, I threw up the dumplings all over the engine compartment from stress, while I was adjusting timing.
more to follow.......
"Hey Michael, would you fly down to Juneau and drive a nice old fj-55 back to Anchorage for me?" "I'll pay for everything, even the ferry from Juneau to Haines".
Without asking for details, I said sure, having briefly reflected on my last "paid-for" trip in an HJ61 that was paid for all the way from Victoria Island back to Alaska, hiking four-diamond trails north of Whisler, meeting a beautiful St'át'imc woman at a tribal gathering in BC, that led to a three day detour full of adventure, and using his money to stay in palaces that had luxurious sit-down showers.
After flying to Juneau, what I found was an fj-55 so rusted out, it didn't have floor boards. Forum member blind cleric can vouche for this. There were all these huge spiders living inside the thing, with a bunch of spare parts and trash all piled to the roof. The breaks didn't work. The wipers didn't work. Every inch of the exhaust had holes in it. The tires were so old, they were all flat and the thing sunk down deep into the dirt from sitting so long, until the differentials were resting under the surface of the ground.
I bought some shtty tires from a tow truck driver, drained the rusty water out of the tank, pulled the carb and partially disassembled it, threw it in a bucket of sea foam overnight, topped off the oil. The tow truck driver helped me remove it from the ground, by lifting the bumpers with his articulating bed. The replacement tires were from the 1970's and were fairly weather cracked.
I jumped into a dumpster behind a construction site nearby and snagged a bunch of dry wall remnants. I crush-fit the drywall into the floor boards. The seats were very close to falling out of the vehicle, so there were some safety concerns.
I hose clamped pieces of licence plates on 8 different holes in the exauhst.
I duck taped cheap blue foam onto the front seat, which was so brittle, the foam turned to dust when you moved the cushion.
After installing the carb, I turned the key..........
I turned the key for a very long time while pumping the gas pedal. After about 2-3 minutes, that 2F was brought to life, it wasn't happy to be brought to life. After a five minute gradual idle under partial choke, the thing idled OK.
Surely this thing wouldn't be safe through Chilkat Pass in late October. After phoning the border before making the trip, I was informed that the winds in the pass were bad, and that the pass had freezing rain and snow for 36 hours. Prior to that conversation, I had just eaten four containers of pelmeni (russian dumplings) slathered in butter. After the conversation, I threw up the dumplings all over the engine compartment from stress, while I was adjusting timing.
more to follow.......
