After having my Willys body for a couple of months I thought I'd better introduce it to the HAMB. I'm unsure about the origins of the body. Some of the quality isn't good and I bought it from a guy who'd kept it in his garden for 10 years. Being as his garden was in the North of England it would have sustained less damage if he'd kept it in a paddy field.... Nonetheless, it's a Willys (shape) so that's OK by me. I'd love a steel one but that would mean having to live in it, so glass it is. The chassis is made from 3" x 1.5" box section steel, and is actually made from two old box section chassis. One that came with the body and one that I had already. Here's the first pic after a couple of days' work. The outriggers and rear kick-up have been added by now, and you can see the ladder bar mounts which are at exactly 50% of the wheelbase: Then started to add the roll-cage. Rear hoop & supports: Drop in engine and trans. Engine is a +.060" 460 Ford backed by a full manual C6, and you can also see the front springs & mounts. Engine is on motor-plate, and trans is sitting on a drop-out crossmember. All of the fabrication is done by me: These members were added for seat/floor supports: Door bars were then added to the cage. The bars tie-in the front & rear chassis kick-ups and are low enough for the housebeast to get in & out without compromising her Front axle is a 40's Studebaker 'I' beam, narrowed 6" and with alloy (aftermarket) ford hubs: Steering is achieved with an early Chevy Nova steering box and Chevy/Studebaker links: Bulkhead and trans tunnel were made from 1" x 1" and again tie up the front and rear parts of the chassis to give a strong 'spine' which adds a massive amount of stiffness. You can also see in the photos the propshaft cut and reinforcements: Seats are mounted using captive welded threads in the chassis, and each seat has 6 bolts holding it down. The rear chassis to the lower rear body is also done, as is the flip-front hinge & mount (pics later). The above represents about two months' worth of work (to October 2012). It's being built proper Hot Rod style on an absolute shoe-string with loads of parts being bought through the 'Bay of plenty' and through the UK Hot Rod forums. Enjoy!
Watch out Langy - there's a new kid in town! Nice 1 Will-Y-Is - where there's a Will there's a way. Watching with interest....
Hahaha very funny Guido I'm only slightly older at 59 Looking good Will-Y-is, That body looks like its out of the Pro Car mould to me, good luck with your project.
geesh im younger than both of you and say im to tired to work on my truck , ? my excuses list just got shorter , nice willys builds
Ah yes, the Big Block Ford. Always been a Ford man, and since building the blown 557 in my last ride: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6TPGoo9dSs the 385 series was always going to be the power for the Willys. It's a +0.060" seasoned block which will get these bits squeezed into it at some point: All of these parts have just done either dyno time, or in the case of the flat-top pistons just assembly time so were a deal cheaper than they should have been. All bought through the 'bay! Rods are 'football' rods, Cam is a good hydraulic grind. Carb is an 850dp. Heads are ported CJ heads. Trans is a reverse pattern manual C6. Rear axle is.........pending at the moment as there are a choice of 2, but will probably end up being the huge Dana that's sitting in the 'shop at the moment waiting for the Strange axles to be made to fit. No guesses to power output at the moment, but 'adequate' sounds about right!
Flippin Brakes Flip front hinge. This was made using a length of 1" x 1" box, a couple of bits of cut-down 2mm angle, a couple of lengths of 0.75" x 0.75" box welded to the chassis and two heim-joints (bought from a swap meet for less than $2 each!) There will be more reinforcement as soon as I've sussed out radiator mounts which will share the same space. Brake master cylinder and pedal was fun. The pedal is made from a (very) modified SN95 Mustang pedal pirated from a wrecked car. This sits on the Mustang tube and nylon bushes, but narrowed to suit (as the standard one is about 6" wide). The adjustable pushrod and clevis came from the same Chevy Nova as the steering box & bits. The chassis brackets. Main master cylinder mount is from 1/4" angle iron, suitably drilled & shaped. Pedal pivot left-hand bracket is a cut-down piece of 1.5" box. Right-hand bracket is a 1" x 1" box that has a steel bush welded through it to support the cross-bolt. The holes in the left-hand side of the master cylinder bracket are for hoses & brake pipes. Master cylinder is a new Ford dual-circuit item, bought from an autojumble for about $14. The reservoir will not be there when it's finished. The reservoir(s) will be mounted on the bulkhead with hoses feeding the master cylinder: Works well and (I think) looks good as most of this trash will be hidden below the floor!
Gas pedal was found in the same broken Mustang as the brake pedal, but hasn't been modified (yet!!!) It will bolt to this bracket which has captive threads and will be attached to the dash hoop of the cage (when I can afford more rollcage material.......) Made from a bit of chassis section, so possibly overkill on strength but at least it isn't going to bend: Top is angled as the pedal was originally bolted to an angled section of the Mustang bulk head, and it needs this 'twist' for the cable to run straight.
I was looking at you set-up and in the first couple pics I swear I thought that the pedals were on the passenger side of the car! lololol Then I realized you used the word paddy to describe a field in your first post! It then clicked for me that you were from the UK lololol Great build so far. I will be following your progress man! J
Thanks for all of the great comments. We were going to build the car 'proper' left-hand drive but a couple of things made me change my mind - more on that later....... In the mean-time, More Steering Steering box pitman arm has been extended by around 1.5" and re-angled. This is for two reasons: 1. It gives a better, less acute angle on the steering cross-link and 2. It makes the steering quicker (5 turns lock-to-lock was a bit...erm...un performance-like). It's only the lowest part and 45 degree angle that's not original Nova. This has been 'step' cut so the welds are not just butt-welds. They run over one part, along the side 1" and then under.
Doors & Hinges As previously mentioned, some of the moulding for the panels is less than ideal. I want to fit proper wind-up windows, so figured I'd need returns around the window-frames to attach seals & felts. Unfortunately there were none so I came up (after a lot of head-scratching with this idea: Apply expanding foam: Cut & shape: Lay on two layers of Fibreglass tissue and voila! TBH they are not 100% perfect, but at least they are a good starting point and now there is something to work with! Hinges were another problem. I've never seen a 'real' Willys Coupe door hinge, but I have seen photo's so (like all politicians) I consider I'm now an authority. Started with door hinges from a Morris Minor (you'll probably need to look it up, but suffice to say I've worked on them in the past and remember that the doors weigh a ton, so supporting a small glass-fibre door shouldn't be a problem): Cut some lumps off: Welded some lumps on, drilled some holes and made the shape a bit better: Added the 'classic' Willys hinge shroud: Before & After: Quite pleased with the way they look. Once they are in body colour I'm sure no-one will notice they're not that right!
Hinges on a glass willys are a pain in the arse !!! I was gonna use repro willys ones on mine until I saw the price !!! . . . Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
I used budget hinges from Speedway Trevor, The are the same style but not as deep as a Willys hinge, Work well though. They have them in stainless too,
Some of the Early Ford pickup hinges look very similar to Willys hinges guys! I think around 37 ish is about right! They are wider than the smaller 32 style hinges. Let me try and find a pic. Great adaptation by the way! (Or should that say Hotrodding!)
As some parts have started to arrive for the rear axle, I thought I'd better take a good look at the ladder bars. These were bought from Ebay quite cheap, so no arguments there, but the rear mount bush tubes were very wide: And I had no suitable bushes for them. I wanted to put something good (like Poly-Bushes) but having checked the available budget ($0.00) that wasn't a goer. Check the scrap pile....... In the scrap pile were a pair of BMR LCA's from a 2005 Mustang which had been damaged due to a drifting 'incident' (......) but still had the good, low mileage bushes in them. I hatched a cunning plan, shortened the LCA's and turned down the rear tube (wider than the front on a S197 'Tang), then welded the bits back together the correct spacing for the mount plates that I have: Then cut the original rear tubes from the ladder bars and welded in the old LCA's. Modded the bushes & centre tubes accordingly and: It was only when I'd removed the old rear tubes and compared them that I found that the mount angles were different, and the bolt spacings were different too, so double-whammy because now the two bars are exactly the same Also managed to get the engine bars and motor plate support bars/plates made and welded in: the engine bars and motor-plate bars are exactly symmetrical, it's the non-symmetrical motor plate (ebay!) that gives the impression that the sides aren't the same.
Front shocks. Top mounts were made from 3/16" steel plate and tie into the motor plate tubes. Bottom mounts are slightly modified Mustang SN95 rear axle shock mounts which just happen to fit the existing holes in the Studebaker axle perfectly. Shocks are Mustang S197 rears, again modified slightly, and these will lose their shrouds and get 'prettied up' before final fit. All of this stuff was lying around the workshop, so total cost was a big, fat '0' TDA? You betcha!
Rear Axle: Bought this big old Dana from good-old fleabay. Only cost £25 (about $35) as it had been cut out of the donor vehicle.... But internally it's in good condition with an excellent 4.10 gearset, and as I was going to narrow it anyway, it seemed like a good idea. Plan is to use Strange shafts (ebay again, $70ish) with ford 9" ends (bought from a UK hot rod forum) and use a modified 9" mini spool (anyone got one they don't want?). There is a bit of a difference between the diameters of the 9" axle tube and the Dana axle tube so I turned up these: which are an interference fit both in the ends and the axle tube. Trimmed down axle, welded on ends and ladder bar mounts and ended up with this: and in place: In this pic you can see the box section added in to support the fuel tank: This is the third tank I've bought for the car, the first was too small, the second was the wrong shape, but the third was just right! Just call me Goldilocks........ And this: Is exactly why I wanted a Willys!
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