Projects Oh no not another Willys Gasser build, this time a Willys shop truck

looking forward to following the shop truck build

 

Does this mean the therapy is working?

I enjoyed your other build(s), and got a lot of really good ideas for my projects. And a sense of how the pros build cars.

I look forward to to this build, should be fun!

 

Well the first part of the jigsaw puzzle is made As the front is already rolling it made sense to get the rear to do the same and it makes it easier to move, so last few evenings have been spent making a pair of ladder bars, on gasser cars I like the square tube type so thats what I made up, material is 1" x 1/8" wall square tube, the threaded ends are 1" solid square bar. Clevis joints are stainless 5/8" UNF thread with 3/8" hole, front mounts are stainless urethane joints 5/8" UNF thread 1/2" hole. The bars are 47" long.

First job was to plasma cut some axle brackets out of 3/8" plate.








Next the square bar was set in a 4 jaw on the lathe to turn a round end so it could be held for drilling and tapping, then 6 ends made up.











Next the tube was cut to the required length and the threaded ends welded into the ends, holes were drilled in the ends of the tube and the ends were also plug welded into place.










The square bar has sharper corners than the tube so everything was ground smooth to match up.









Everything was then finish welded and I gave them a couple of coats of Rust-oleum brown primer, this primer is great stuff and dries fast and gives a nice finish, I searched everywhere in the UK for it but couldn't find it so became a dealer for it and now stock it, its way better than any aerosol primer i've used from here.

I really like the colour, Hmmm








Next job is to fit the brackets to the rear axle and get it all mounted.

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I had great intentions of getting so much done today but alas only a very small portion got done
Anyway some progress is better than none I guess First job was to make up some axle brackets to mount the spring, I copied the dimensions off a Speedway bracket but changed the shape to suit what I wanted.
I made a plywood template (which I keep) and the trusty plasma was sparked up and 2 shapes were cut out of 3/8" plate steel, the plasma leaves a slight ragged edge on 3/8" but that was soon cleaned up with a flap disc in an angle grinder, a piece of tube to take the shackle bushes was welded on and a few lightening holes were put in for aesthetics and thats as far as i got







A quick squirt of rust-oleum to stop them flash rusting





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Well played with the Austin chassis. Really looks the part. Might even be SVA proof?

 

Great to see some update!
I've been waiting inpatiently for updates. :-D Can you tell!

I got a lot of questions on that rustoleum.
It's nonexistent in Denmark wink wink.
Does I behave like shopprimer? You can aply big thick coats, that hides and preserves quiet well. But needs paint to last.
How does is go with others paint types afterwards? And is it oily/oilbased, like rustoleum paint?

If this is tread hi-jacking, please PM me an answer when you hot the time.

Do you plan on running it nose high gasser style, or more wide in the rear/skinney in the front.
And a more farmers cut-and-try-style on it, like Smokey (Yunick) would put it.

 

Great start, Steve - looking forward to following along on the build ....

If you get a chance, could you send me Brian's and Duncan's email addresses? I lost everything as they were on my work computer and everything got deleted before I even finished my last day! Thanks, mate!

On second thought, PM me - you might not have my new home email address .... I'll PM you with it

 

Love the ladder bars. Just like the coupe I will be watching this build.

 

Thanks, its an obvious choice when you see it.

 

It seems to be very good, I got put onto it from Kiwi kev as he has it on his cars, I'm using it to keep parts from flash rusting, it seems to go on nice and drys quickly. I couldn't get the brown in England either so thought I would import some.

It won't be mega high as I intend to tow my coupe with it, but it won't be low either, something like this

 

I will get it done for you Tom, happy xmas to you all.

 

Thanks Stu, hope you like it.

 

Beautiful work as always.

 

Yes, very tidy work Steve! And so far I'm not seeing anything less quality than the coupe!

 

Does anyone know where I can get the stake bed pockets for a Willys pickup ?
Also anyone know how wide the bed is in the inside ?

 

Steve,
Went out this morning and dug the snow out of the old bed. The measurements are 46 1/4" x 72"
We are suppose to have a little warm weather the nest 2 days and hope that the snow will melt so i can get some good pics for you. They are calling for more snow on Thur. If you need anything else before then just give me a yell.
Ken,

 

Hey thanks Ken, thats very helpful info, I was guessing at 48" but it didn't seem to work out right.

Thanks Steve

 

Sent you a PM on stake pockets but as part of the general public information service www.mack-products.com do stake bed pockets for Chevy beds. I would like to learn if anybody has any definitive info on whether the FACTORY Willys bed on the 1937-1942 trucks is the same as the equivalent year Chevy truck bed. The Willys Model 77 bed is not the same....

 

I just had a look at a few pics Guido and they look very similar, I've been told they are the same, It would be good to know if anyone can confirm this ?

 

Had it confirmed today that the Chevy pockets are 99% the same as the Willys pockets.

 

Last few evenings have been checking dimensions of the 16 frame and making up a rear spring crossmember. Hopefully get it tacked into the frame saturday morning.
For those that are interested the Crossmember is 3" x 1.5" x 1/8" box section, the spring clamp plates are 1/4" BMS, they were cut out with a plasma and sanded to shape.









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The rearend is ready to put in place so decided to sort out the front F100 hubs as they are old Ford 5.5" x 5 and my wheels are Jag/Chevy, redrilled the stud pattern to 4.75" x 5 with a 14.4mm drill and then reamed out for the stud lead to 15.3mm, thought I would clean up the hubs in the lathe as its quicker, just a few very light cuts to clean up but I was surprised how far out of bonk the faces were, they are all spot on now.














I really like the look of the old lever arm shocks and they work fine so will keep them and adapt the linkages, the arms however were pretty ugly things (not as ugly as Tiki Des but pretty awful) so they received a bit of attention from Mr cutting disc & Mr flap wheel, look a lot sleeker now the rubber bushes were shot so turned up some new poly bushes on the lathe.








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I'll keep saying it: Great work Steve!

 

Yours is looking a bit special Eric, thanks.

Hope you and your family have a great Xmas and new year.

 

Got a few hours in last night and managed to modify the 37-41 spindles to accept the F100 front drums, they need 2 small mods the first being a bit of grinding to clear the back of the wheel cylinders, I will let the pics do the talking.













The 2nd modification is to allow the bearings to fit, on the early ford spindle there is a large radius fillet where the bearing sits, this needs reducing in a lathe so the bearing can sit flush.










The spindle is chucked in the lathe and a revolving centre inserted in the machined centre on the back, then the radius is reduced to a small rad.












Assembled










All the parts I don't need at the moment will now go for media blasting and black powder coat.

Hopefully tomorrow I will drill the axle and adapt the spindles, looks pretty straight forward but we will see

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subscribed....im just glad to get in on the ground floor of this one insted of waiting till 80+ pages in.

 

Subbed
Looking forward to this!

 

Merry Christmas Steve! looking forward to your latest creation, looks good so far!

 

Yeah I always seem to do that too, seems easy to miss good threads the way the Hamb works these days, everything goes off the first page so fast !!!

 

Cheers, appreciate it.