I just spent last night working on my 1954 Willys CJ-3B, a vehicle that has “been settin'” (as rural wrenchers like to say) for probably close to six years. As I’ve resurrected many, many cars that sat for decades, I knew exactly what to look for. Here’s generally what I see wrong on a car that has sat for a long time.
My CJ-3B was a steal; at $5,900, it cost about half of what it’d be worth if it actually ran and drove. And while that sounds like a big if, the truth is that reviving an old flatfender Jeep is fairly trivial, if time-consuming, stuff.
Last night was almost like a Greatest Hits album from The Broken Cars band that has been my life, in that I was dealing with a lot of the same stuff that I’ve dealt with on my previous projects. I figured I’d go through them with you, just for fun.
The general theme is: If a car sits, then new fluids and rubber it gets.
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The Fuel System
Arguably job #1 for a car that has been sitting is the fuel system, and it’s something I have had issues with on 100% of cars that have sat for more than five years. If a vehicle has sat for under 10 years, and the fuel tank isn’t full, I have historically had some good luck diluting the bad gas (gas’ shelf life is generally considered about 6 months, though with STA-BIL fuel stabilizer it goes up to about two years) with five gallons of fresh fuel, and just running that. But your mileage may vary, and the safe bet is to just drain the tank.
That’s what I did last night.
If your tank is metal, there’s a decent chance the fuel tank is now rusted out, especially if the tank wasn’t full of gas, and instead had lots of moisture-filled air inside. That was the case with my CJ-3B; its fuel tank is junk.
And it’s not just the fuel tank. The whole fuel system, from tank to carburetor, is compromised. I’m going to have to replace the fuel lines, the fuel pump (which is filled with rust, see below – it’s a bit hard to see, but there are a bunch of rust flakes at the base), and I’ll definitely have to rebuild that Carter YF carburetor.
The Oily Bits
Beyond just the fuel system, there’s a nonzero chance that a car that has sat for years has lost a bit of oil. Rubber seals can dry out and crack when they aren’t lubricated by actively sloshing oil, allowing oil to drip to the ground. My Willys’ transfer case is completely covered in gear oil, telling me two things: The bad news is that it has a leak. The good news is that at least I know there’s some fluid in it.
Needless to say, I need to make sure my transmission, transfer case, PTO, and axles are all filled with clean, uncontaminated (moisture can often get into gearboxes that have sat around) oil so that when I drive the Jeep I’m not frying the bearings and gears.
The Brake System
Another fluid you really, really should worry about is the brake fluid. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten to a long-neglected car, stepped on the brake pedal, and the pedal either 1. dropped to the floor or 2. was as hard as a rock, as is the case with my Willys.
The former means that the brake fluid has drained out somewhere, likely through a bad wheel cylinder, perhaps the master cylinder itself (shown above with the hex-lid) leaked, or maybe one of your brake lines rusted through. The latter, as in my case, means my master cylinder is actually seized — again, likely due to rust.
In any case, the entire brake system is going to need to be “gone through,” as we wrenchers like to say.
Coolant
I’ve actually had decent luck with cooling systems holding for years and years. Maybe it’s the fact that the cooling system is sealed or the fact that coolant is specially designed to mitigate rust. In any case, if the previous owner used decent-quality 50/50 ethylene-glycol coolant, and the rubber radiator hoses haven’t been chewed through by varmints, maybe the cooling system isn’t completely toast.
But it probably is, so check on it, especially those hoses. Speaking of…
The Rubber (And Plastic)
Rubber, especially when exposed to sunlight, breaks down, and this can be a huge problem in a car. It means your seals can fail (see oil spillage reference above), it probably means your tires are toast, it may mean your rubber coolant and vacuum hoses underhood are toast, and on and on.
As for plastics, there’s a good chance your wiring insulation has been compromised and your interior plastics have cracked.
What About Electrical Bits? Rust?
Fluids and rubbers are the big-ticket items to deal with when a car has sat, though depending upon where the car is, rust could be your bigger issue. If moisture gets trapped under the car, there’s a chance the frame or floorboards are done for, and if water somehow got into the car? That’s another issue — you’ll likely have to deal with not just rusty floors, but also mold and possibly animal droppings.
As for electrical bits, the battery is almost certainly toast, though as long as the wiring is in decent shape, you might be OK with the rest of it. You may have to sand the points, along with a few other contacts that might have glazed over time, but my experience is that electrical systems are — unless disturbed by a rodent — fairly robust.
My CJ-3B’s electrical system seems mostly fine. I have some lights that aren’t functioning but my ignition switch works, and the engine cranks over just fine. It actually seems to make decent compression, and the insides of the cylinders look great; I’m fairly hopeful that this thing will run and drive beautifully.
Well, once I’ve swapped the whole fuel system, restored the brake system, filled all the gearboxes, replaced the tires, and thoroughly gone over the cooling system and electrical bits, then it should run and drive beautifully. All this just because the car sat.
[Note: It’s worth mentioning that I did pour automatic transmission fluid into the cylinders to free up the piston rings. When an engine sits, and lubrication on the cylinder walls dries up, having some light oil in there to keep those rings from “biting” is important. -DT]
The author is David.
The answer is going to be ‘rust’ isn’t it?