Was talking to a fella yesterday here at my work sight. he came across like a snob. He makes more in a day then i do in a month easy. Anyway he saw me looking over some of my ford truck magazines for ordering parts. And he say's so you like working on old truck. I said ya. He tells me he has two older trucks sitting in a barn with a few john deere trackers. He went on to say how if
i got them out of the barn i could have them both. He was selling the property. was his wife family property. anyhow i drove out there this morning and found what looks like a 55 and 58 ford pickups sitting there. bodies are in great shape and cab is two. tires are flat and engines have not ran in a long time. And he handed me both titles signed over to me. And kind of barked at me to get them out of here as soon as possiable. As i said he lives a little high on the hog and is not the type that rides around in nothing less then $55,000+ cars.Other then not being bright enough to know what he had sitting there he just wanted the problem to go away. Anyhow my question do you think i should just pull both engines and start from scratch. or do you think if i do a complete tune up and replace all fluids and tires i might get them running ok.

 

I suggest doing the least expensive first to assess what these trucks needs are.

He can't be that bad to judge so badly, he gave you something.

Aside from him being caught up in the rat race,I don't see any problem

I could use the 58

 

I seen on the Spike TV show Trucks! last year that very situation. He took an old Powerwagon drained the crap out of the tank and put in fresh gas, rebuilt the carb, replaced the plugs, cap, rotor, wires, points, and checked the electrical connections. You have to make sure the engine will turn freely before you start any of that. He got it running no prob, but I think I would put them on a trailer and haul them home, if you don't have one you can rent one from a local U-Haul.

 

Get a trailer, Get them to your house THEN critique the two and figure out what to do. Personally I would drain/change the fluids pull the spark plugs and put some desiel in the cylinders let it sit a couple of days rotate the engine alittle add more desiel repeat till it turns nice, drain the oil again, clean the plugs, pull the coil wire crank replace the plugs, then put a gas line in a gas can replace the coil wire and start it! Then see if it needs the stem to stern treatment!
wanderer
wanderer

 

What about the old John Deeres? What were they? One tractor is probably worth more then then both pickups put together, and you probably wouldn't have to do anything to them to resell them. Where are they at?