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MrBeast · 07-11-2010, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 62bam

Howdy Willys fan.............I AM ONE TOO! We pull our 62 bambi with a 1950 Willys 6 cly.
Jeepster.....We get a bunch of "thumbs up".....pics. are in our Profile on the left side of this screen...click on Images: 8

Man that is a sweet setup you have.

Ag&Au · 07-11-2010, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrBeast

Well looks like it is official, sunday if everything goes right I will be making a short road trip to pick up this ole tank.

.

That brings back memories.

When I was a kid (6 to be exact), my dad bought the first 4x4 Jeep wagon shipped to Washington state. It was a 49 and was the only color available that year (maroon with wood grain look painted panels). I can remember pulling our friends Jeep out of the sand on the ocean beach with it. We were able to go where he couldn't because of the wagon's longer wheel base.

In 56 he replaced it with a new two tone green one. We pulled our 56 15' Starfire TT with it. It was the vehicle I learned to drive in.

The family 57 Citroen DS19 was too good for me to drive.

I had some fun high school dates in the 56 Wagon.

After I was away in College he traded it in on a green 63 Wagoneer.

Regards,

Ken

MrBeast · 07-11-2010, 01:16 PM

Took some more pics, I think my girlfriend likes it.

It is pretty clean for being 59 years old.

It does have some cancer though...

It is turning out to be a pretty solid foundation though, I am pretty excited. I need to get in and get my shop cleaned up and oranized, once I do I will be able to get it in and get the body seperated from the frame and then get to cracking on getting the new frame designed, and getting all the cancer cut out.
I figure in a few weeks will get the parts ordered up to rebuild the NV4500 and to install the NP205 behind it. As well I am going to have to get the parts ordered to convert my front Dana 60 to a SRW setup and narrow it, then I need to follow suit with the rear. I am not going to worry about regearing them right now or getting the shafts cut down because they will both need to be regeared with 4.10's and I am putting an ARB in both seeing as how it is going to be a daily driver I want it to be as streetable as possible.
I am also going to need to get the input bearing on the 205 bored out to the TH400 diameter, and my NV4500 is a 2wd so I have to swap the output shaft.
For right now im going to install the 350 that I have out of the 90 burb I parted, Once the truck is built I will get the 327 built and installed.
I am also going to have to get a new bellhousing and slave cylinder setup so as that I can run the hydraulic clutch pedal. I think instead of trying to make a set of pedals out of something fit, I am just going to build a set from scratch.
I have a steering box out of a 94 1/2 ton I parted out, and I have the hydraboost out of a 79 I parted. As well I have the resivor and power steering pump for the remote mount power steering setup which is way nicer than trying to check the level on the motor.
Its all coming togeather pretty fast, im sure excited.

MrBeast · 07-11-2010, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w7ts

That brings back memories.

When I was a kid (6 to be exact), my dad bought the first 4x4 Jeep wagon shipped to Washington state. It was a 49 and was the only color available that year (maroon with wood grain look painted panels). I can remember pulling our friends Jeep out of the sand on the ocean beach with it. We were able to go where he couldn't because of the wagon's longer wheel base.

In 56 he replaced it with a new two tone green one. We pulled our 56 15' Starfire TT with it. It was the vehicle I learned to drive in.

The family 57 Citroen DS19 was too good for me to drive.

I had some fun high school dates in the 56 Wagon.

After I was away in College he traded it in on a green 63 Wagoneer.

Regards,

Ken

Ken sounds like some awesome memories to me.

MrBeast · 07-11-2010, 08:54 PM

I downloaded Autocad 2011 tonight and started practicing with it, here is a little sneek peak of what is to come.

Normally I just draw everything in a 3 view Orthographic, I am doing that again, but this time I am also going to be including a 3D rendering of the frame before I cut a single piece of steel.

I will have all the body mounts, and the new floor pan and firewall pieces included in this design as well. I am hoping that this will make it much faster to build everything.

I am also looking at a new printer that takes 17x22" sheets of paper, thus I will be able to print out full scale templates making fabrication much faster.

MrBeast · 07-16-2010, 02:01 PM

A little Teaser

BTW, the tank is 44 gallons useable.

MrBeast · 07-16-2010, 08:04 PM

Getting a little further

MrBeast · 07-19-2010, 10:52 PM

Well today I didnt get any work done on the Willys, though I did make a few decisions for sure.
1. I am going to run YJ Old Man Emu springs that are set up for a "heavy" load rating.
I am doing this because it will keep things simple with the suspension, they are readily avalable and if the worst happened while im out literally 10,000 miles from the house on the alaska trip, it is going to be a lot easier to get it fixed if I can simply have the parts UPS'ed over to where im at instead of needing to find a fab shop capable of repairing a 1 off suspension system.
2. to keep things simple im going to use all 4" box tube for the frame. I had thought about making the main frame 5" in the center, but it would add a ton of work, and thus would have increased the possibility of a bad outcome so im going with the original theme of the Willys, KISS or Keep It Simple Stupid!
As far as progress today goes, I built a couple of tables.

The first one is about half way done, I built it out of 2" box tube, and added a table top I already had around, I need to add a shelf half way down that will be good for storing stuff and using as a foot rest when im sitting at the table. I have one more top that is identical so I will be building one more eventually.
The big table though is pretty cool, it is my new welding table. the base of the table is 97x49 and it will have a 5x10x.5" piece of plate for a table top.
Going to be totally awesome having a big stout welding table to build the Willys frame on, as well there are many more projects that will require the use of the table, so im sure it is always going to have something on it.
Right now im on a big kick trying to get my shop organized and cleaned up, I have yet to be able to do so since I moved in 4 months ago, everything just got kind of set in there. So now im trying to get it all organized so I can work in there with out having to hunt for the tools I need.
I wont have the table top until next week for the welding table so I wont be able to really make any headway on the Willys until then. Allthough hopefully by this weekend I will have it inside and I can start on the tear down.

MrBeast · 01-29-2011, 08:47 PM

Been a while since I started the thread, havent really been able to get anything done until last night. Been really busy with work, and I moved into a new much larger shop about 4 weeks ago, so I have been trying to get all of my stuff unpacked and organized.
So last night I got the Willys rolled into the new shop and started tearing into it.

Most of the bolts in the front end came out with ease...

And my Girlfriend even came out and helped.

(yeah she gets a little excited)
Scared the crap out of her too when we pulled the body mount bolts, She wasnt expecting me to hit it with the impact.
The bolts in the bottom of the fender that go into the rockers were another story, the previous owner instead of fixing the rust decided that smearing over it with about half a gallon of bondo was the thing to do.
So out came the blue wrench...

By the time I had the rusted out bolts off and the fender loose, this is what the floor looked like.

Before too long though I had the front clip off and was able to start sizing up what it will take to get the engine and tranny out today.

That is going to be todays project.
As well I have a few decisions to make. I know I am going to narrow the Dana 60 front axle that I have.

I may use the Dana 60 rear pictured with the front (and you can see the 99 model NV4500 I am going to use)
Or I have a 77 model 14 Bolt,

MrBeast · 01-29-2011, 08:48 PM

10 picture limit :mad3:
Or I have a 14 bolt out of a GMT400

Or I have a Dana 70

One of which will get narrowed and stuffed under the rear.
Originally I had planned on running a 327, however I have a TBI 350 out of a 90 suburban that runs like a top, so I am going to clean it up and paint it and run it with the TBI since I have the computer and all I will need to get is the Painless wiring harness.

There is a lot to be done, but at this point the project should start to move very quickly. I am really looking forward to diving in.

MrBeast · 01-29-2011, 08:48 PM

Today I got after it and got the motor pulled.

Took about 2 hours, the transmission cross member was so beat up it wasnt even funny, I wound up torching the bolts off of it, I am certian some one has had this willys down a trail or 50.
Kena says "isnt that tiny little motor cute!"

Huge difference in size between the old hurricaine 4 and the 350.
Once the motor was out I wasted no time and took a bunch of measurements, then I whacked the front of the frame off.

Looks kind of funny with no front end doesnt it.
It did not stay that way long though, I took some blue machinsts dye and sprayed the frame up with it, marked it out and cut it clean.

Then I got a piece cut for the drivers side, I made it 6" longer than the stock willys frame to allow me to run the front axle further forward, and to install longer springs.

Then I installed the passenger side, I was very careful to keep everything square and level.

I checked it numerous times along the way too, which is good because when I set the tack on the inside of the frame on the passenger side, it pulled in about 3/16 of an inch.
By the time I was done I had the new front frame mocked up and tacked in place.

The way the frame rails are setup they will be 3/4" lower than the factory frame was in the front. The reason for doing this is it allowed me space under the grill so I can run the power steering lines under it because the new steering box will be mounted towards the front of the frame, not in the original Willys location. I am using the steering box out of a 94 Chevy 4x4.
Finally had to roll the tires up next to it, thes are a 285/75 R16, roughly 32.5" in diameter.

I am thinking I will wind up running a 33" tire, possibly a 35, but if I go with a 35 I will have to seriously modify the rear wheel well to make it work.
The other consideration is I want to keep my tires fairly skinny, the Willys will be used more on trails than anything else when off road, I am looking for what will bite and get traction.
The ride height will probably wind up about 4" taller than what is pictured. I dont want to go too crazy tall because it is going to be driven a lot, and in the future id like to get a set of Mattracks which will add a substancial ammount of lift.

slowmover · 03-12-2011, 07:31 PM

Can't believe I missed this thread until today. Subscribed.

MrBeast · 05-15-2013, 04:15 PM

I was just going to throw an update on this because I know some of you were following it, I was in a really bad car accident in July of 11, I wound up getting hurt really bad, broke my back and had to shut down both of my businesses, I wound up giving the Willy's to a friend of mine, he wound up selling it.

Was kind of a sad end to what was a really fun project.

goshawks00 · 05-15-2013, 04:53 PM

Here's my 51 Willys that would have pulled our Flying Cloud, but a guy in Oregon wanted it more than me.... now instead of the Willys it will be a 51 Ford Woodie , if I ever get it done....

SteveSueMac · 05-15-2013, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrBeast

I was just going to throw an update on this because I know some of you were following it, I was in a really bad car accident in July of 11, I wound up getting hurt really bad, broke my back and had to shut down both of my businesses, I wound up giving the Willy's to a friend of mine, he wound up selling it.

Was kind of a sad end to what was a really fun project.

I wasn't here when you started this thread - I hope you're ok now??

ROBERTSUNRUS · 05-15-2013, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrBeast

I was just going to throw an update on this because I know some of you were following it,

I was in a really bad car accident in July of 11, I wound up getting hurt really bad, broke my back and had to shut down both of my businesses,

I wound up giving the Willy's to a friend of mine, he wound up selling it.

Was kind of a sad end to what was a really fun project.

Hi, I was wondering what happened to you and this project. Hope you will get healed up as much as possible and take care of your self. Your health comes before the Willys.

MrBeast · 05-16-2013, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goshawks00

Here's my 51 Willys that would have pulled our Flying Cloud, but a guy in Oregon wanted it more than me.... now instead of the Willys it will be a 51 Ford Woodie , if I ever get it done....

That is a nice Willys

MrBeast · 05-16-2013, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

I wasn't here when you started this thread - I hope you're ok now??

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, I was wondering what happened to you and this project. Hope you will get healed up as much as possible and take care of your self. Your health comes before the Willys.

Thanks guys, I am doing a lot better now. Eventually I am going to get another Willy's just a matter of time. Right now I have a CJ7 that I have been rebuilding, it is almost done, it won't pull an air stream, but it is going to be a good rig none the less.