60's style Gasser Willys build

[langy]

Looking Good Langy !

Enjoyed reading that and seeing your pictures, thanks

Looking good can't wait to see more

Thanks guys, this one is not a show car, its just a user and abuser

 

[langy]

Finished the firewall frame now, just a bit of cleanup to do and blast & prime

 

[langy]

Finished the firewall now, I was going to buy a sheet of polished stainless and do it it one bit but it was $155 for a 2metre x 1 metre sheet, Ended up using offcuts i had laying around, just had enough to do it in 3 pieces, its bolted in with 5mm button head bolts at the moment but these will be replaced with rivets when i have time.

 

[langy]

Well seeing as i have no interest in a royal wedding i thought i would make good use of the long bank holiday weekend.

Cut the front floor panel from a sheet of 12mm ply and clearanced it for the autobox, Its only bolted in at the moment, will glass it fully very shortly.

Once i had the floor in place i could get the front body mounts into place.

Next i made some plates up that bolt to the front mounts at the A post sandwiching the floor, this where my front cage mounts.

Next i made the B post mounts from 4" x 2" box, these needed to be strong as my main cage hoop bolts in here, the box was tapered and capped off and square plate welded to each mount. They are tacked in place and will get fully welded when the body is lifted off. (the box section in the pics is the temperary mounts)

2 more plates were cut and drilled to bolt in at the B post again sandwiching the 12mm floor, this is where the main cage hoop bolts in.

Next i started putting in the steelwork to stiffen up the B post and to provide a mounting point for the lock striker.

This is where it started raining so i retired to the workshop to find something to do, I had a offcut of 3" stainless exhaust tubing so decided to make a weight bar for the rear, i spun up some capping plates for the ends and welded them in place, then i gave the tube a quick polish as it makes it easier to full polish after the brackets were welded on. The brackets fix where the original Willys bumper irons fit, I will cut the bumper irons cutouts in the rear fenders tomorrow and hopefully get it bolted in place.

All in all a good productive day !!! Now for a nice beer or 2

.

 

[langy]

Not such a productive day today mainly because its been bl00dy hot

I got the weight bar fitted and made a template for the trans tunnel and a few other boring bits. The trans tunnel could of been lower but i want to mount my shifter on it so i made it a bit higher.

 

[langy]

Weather been a bit on off today but managed to get a bit done amongst the interuptions.
Originally was using a Vega box but just not enough clearance on engine as its a bit lower in the frame than most, Alternative was to use a Land Rover box, these are very underated and easy to mount and work real nice.
The box is fitted with a built in column which was no use to me so i cut it off just above the top bearing, doing this means a oil seal has to be fitted on top of the top bearing, a 1.75" OD 3/4" ID seal presses straight in.
The iiner column was then cut down, the majority of it is tube but the bottom couple of inches is bar so 2 flats were ground on it and then it was fitted with a double D UJ.
I will bore a 2" hole in the side rail when the engine is next out as the hole has to have a sleeve welded in to the hole, also the mounting bolts need sleeves welding in also.

While having a tidy up i came across a pair of shocks i had bought at some time, they are new and had the right dimensions so i thought i would get them fitted today.

The shocks had a 2 bolt lower fixing so that was removed and i spun a couple of adaptors up on the lathe for the shock to mount on and also space them off the front axle slightly.

The top mount was made from 1/8" flat plate, a few holes were added so they are slightly less boring.

All welded and bolted in place.

 

[langy]

Spent yesterday evening making up some 60's style wheelie bars, I did a bit of searching around and got contacted by an old gas racer from the 60's who gave me the info i needed.
I started with a pair of 5" OD steel wheels with a rubber tyre that i found on ebay, then my mate Mark Bull donated a pair of 1956 International truck springs which i cut 3" behind the centre bolt.
Next i plasma cut a axle mounting bracket from 3/8" plate and used 56 Chevy truck U bolts to clamp it together.
I'm pretty pleased how they came out !!! Just hope i don't need them !!!

 

[langy]

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Picked up a nice big rad from a friend (thanks Adey), not sure what it was for cos its huge !!!

Anyway made up some mounting brackets and struts and got it fitted. It was an absolute pig to weld the brackets on as whoever made it tinned the sides with solder, even ground off it still spat & farted !!!

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[langy]

Been playing with hinges for the trunklid and suddenly thought "I don't need these, they are just extra weight" So i decided to put all the removable panels on pins.
First job was to make up the tabs for mounting the pins on, i used the offcuts from the old firewall and beefed them up with 3 extra layers of matt & resin, nice and thick.
These were held to the trunk gutter with 2 small screws for each corner after 3 layers of matt were applied, then a piece of wood was clamped to them to keep them in line. then any gaps were filled with chopped matt and resin.

Next i needed pins, I could of bought some but i realy wanted stainless so i used 10mm stainless bolts and cut the heads off them and shaped the ends by spinning them in a drill and shaping with a soft disc in an angle grinder. I then drilled the holes for the clips and then gave them a quick polish.

All 4 fitted to the shell

The round plates were holesaw offcuts from my 26T project, I'm glad i didn't throw them away now. 3mm Mounting hoes were drilled and countersunk machine screws used with nylok nuts underneath, stainless R clips came from Ebay.

 

[langy]

Well the rain has gone for a while and the sun is shining again so managed to get a few things done.

After a bit of tooing and froing i think i have the hood just right.

Made a template of the trans tunnel and then bent it up in a bit of aluminium sheet that was kicking around, I made a steel mounting flange that is screwed and glued to the floor and the tunnel screws to that with small countersunk machine screws.

Managed to get the floor glassed into place as its a job done thats been bugging me. First i flipped the body upside down and trimmed off the lower sill return to 3/4" wide (this makes it easier to get the body on & off)

Then the areas that needed keying were marked with a felt tip pen as its difficult to see where you have been with the white. Used and angle grinder and finger sander to key it.

Next the floor panel was bolted back into place with 3 layers of mat & resin in between the flanges, then a further 3 layers were added at the top & bottom of the joints, Then 1 layer was applied to the underside of the floor.

Once the resin had hardened the body was put back on the frame and matting cut to shape for the inside.

As per the underneath everything was glassed in.

 

[langy]

Well in between the showers i managed to get the rear floor glassed in, I used a sheet of Bendy ply for this as the rear chassis kickup has an S shape in it and i wanted the floor to follow the shape, Bendy ply is made with the plys running the same way and this allows it to take very small radius's, you can order it to be bendy along the 8' x 4' length or sideways across.

First the shape was cut into the sheet and then the chassis was drilled and tapped 8mm, this was then bolted down with penny washers to keep it all flat.

Next the perimeter was glassed in and 1 layer put over the complete panel.

The ply only comes 8' x 4' and the body isover 4' so it was done in sections, here the rear section is in position but not glassed in as i ran out of resin

While it was ******* down i decided to make the various bits to fix the transmission cooler and 16" electric fan to the radiator, the fan brackets are made from 20mm x 5mm stainless bar, the trans cooler brackets are 16mm x 5mm stainless.

 

[langy]

Got the last piece of floor glassed in last night, just need to flip body over and glass in underneath and its done.

My 58 Fairlane grille arrived so i picked it up from Paul hobby (thanks Paul) and like any good hotrodder i had to get it fitted
This was the grille they used back in the 60's and i was dead pleased to get one.

Back in the day they cut a larger grille opening to allow more air to the radiator so first thing to do was to open up the grille hole.

Most of the grille got cut off as the Fairlane is a much bigger car, the grille is held to the front panel with some ground down coachbolts, the heads were ground down and given a polish.
holes were drilled and filed square for the bolts to register in.

 

[langy]

After a bit of looking at old gasser pics i decided i wanted to run 2" OD as my main cage just like they did in the 60's, I don't have a former for 2" but my good mate Gary Leyton has, Gary is a very talented race car chassis builder and a one of the good guys in our hobby so he loaded up his Hilmor and formers and popped over to my workshop.
The cage main hoop is 2" x 1/8" wall CDS and the rest is 1.625" x 1/8" wall

It had been dry all day and as soon as work started it started pi$$ing down and never stopped, Gary said we should just carry on so we did.

First job was to make a template of the main hoop with a sheet of cheap sterling board.

Once the template was made the main hoop was bent to the template. I wanted the main hoop in 2 halves as i intend to chrome the cage and the complete hoop is too big for the chrome bath so a slip joint was put in the centre of the main hoop.

Once we had the main hoop finished we moved onto the rear facing legs, This is where it all went wrong as when we looked at the 1.625" tube it was all supplied wrongly as the wall was 1/4" so this will have to be returned and get the correct size, thats hotrodding i guess, very very annoying though !!!

Anyway this is what i have so far, the slip joint is in the last pic.
Its a bolt in cage so mounting plates were made in 1/4" plate.

 

[langy]

Not much done i'm afraid as still waiting for the correct 1/8" wall tube to arrive but i got the main hoop mounting plates welded on and its all bolted down.

While i was there i made some tabs to attach the B post steelwork to the cage, It certainly stiffens it all up !!!

I was a bit stuck for things to do as my replacement tube still hasn't turned up but found an offcut of 1.625" CDS just long enough for the bar that my seats mount off. It needs to be removable so i used some 1.625" triangular flanges and welded on some 2" stubs that are welded to the main hoop, as this is going to be chromed the ends of the tube and the flanges have to be pre polished as its difficult to get in to the corners once welded. The flanges are welded from the inside to keep it all looking neat and tidy.

Once the tube was notched to suit the hoop it was tacked into place, I wanted the Empi seats to be removable so i spun up some 3/4" stubs that the 1" seat frame would slide on to and drilled and welded the stubs into the cross tube.

 

[langy]

Some of the CDS turned up which was correct size 1" x 1/8" wall so could get the seat baes made up and fitted.
First job was to put some 90 degree bends in to form the hoop, thought about doing this in one piece but virtually impossible to get it spot on to slide onto the stubs so made it 2 pieces and used some 3/4" x 1/8" wall as a sleeve, this was rosette weled into the two halves and then the joint finish welded.

Now i had the perimeter sorted i cut some 1.5" x 1/8" to size to bridge across and keep the tubes constant and also provide somewhere the seats could bolt to.

I jumped in the seat to check the strength and it seemed fine but Gary had said earlier that he thought it could do with an extra strut just incase, I was dead against putting a strut in as i wanted it completely clear under the seats, anyways after a bit of applied thought we decided to put in a less obvious strut that would strengthen but not look unsightly.
The tube is again 1" x 1/8" wall and has a slight bend in it to tuck it up sort of out of sight. I spun up a couple of bungs in the lathe and found two 10mm low quality rose joints in my box that fitted the bill nicely.
A couple of brackets were knocked up that will bolt into the chassis through the floor and after welding the strut in it was done.

 

[langy]

Well i decided to take the afternoon off to get the cage finished, all done except for the finish welding which will be done on the bench.
Right from the start i wanted to install a diagonal bar just like they had in the old days.

 

[langy]

Managed to get my seat belt bars in at the weekend, its mounted by flanges either end and a slip joint at the bottom, turned up the inserts for the seat belt mounting bolts, will put them in when my belts get here.

My best mate Brizey popped over on saturday and we got talking about fuel tanks and placement, It turned out the Brian still had the tank from the 46 Ford pickup he broke to build his roadster 30 years ago !!!
A quick measurement check and it looked like it was made for it, The mounting flange was even at the same angle as my floor !!!

I picked it up from Brian monday morning and installed it monday night. its in amazing condition for 65 years old, the inside is like new !!! Thanks Brian.

First job was to cut a hole for the tank to drop into.

The sender was a large 6 hole jobbie so i spun up a simple adaptor in the lathe from a bit of scrap aluminium.

Well in between the showers that wern't supposed to happen I had a pretty good day
Got the seat belt mounts in, I've only got a 4 point harness on the drivers seat but some in on the passenger side just incase.
Had to get longer eye bolts as the standard length wern't long enough.

Thought it was time to get the steering column sorted so had a rummage through the scrap bin and came up with some 1.75" x 16swg stainless tube and a piece of 3/4" x 1/8" steel tube, and a lump of Nylatron bar, perfect ingrediants for a steering column.

I'm using a stainless Double D U joint so first thing was to make up a bung and weld into the tube. The bung is a piece of 3/4" bar that was roughly ground to have flats on each side then finished with a hand file to ensure a nice snug fit in the DD joint.

Next the bushes were turned up from the nylatron bar and bush holders turned, these are welded into the ends of the 1.75" tube for the bushes to press into.

I had a quick release hub for the steering wheel end so the hex insert was turned to be a nice press fit into the inner tube then welded and rosette welded in the sides.

Viola !!! 1 steering column made for peanuts.

Topped it off with a 15" Grant wheel.

A few bits of tape to hold in place while i settled on a comfortable position.

 

[langy]

It was raining here last evening so i had an evening on the lathe sorting my fuel filler and column drop.
I found a lump of 2.5" stainless round bar in the scrap bin so managed to get both bits out of a chunk of it.

Started with this

And produced these

I had an old motorbike flip cap laying around so gave it a repolish and made a flange from a bit of sheet stainless, put it together and got this

Made up a couple of tapped spigots and welded them to the boss for the column support, The bolts that hold the rose joints in place also hold the collar in place on the column, they have points which engage in small holes in the column outer.

Fitted the filler cap and it had stopped raining so made up the filler tube from some stainless bend offcuts, nothing wasted here.

I made up a light gauge framework that bolts to the firewall to mount the dash and column mount, this allowed me to get my column mount finished.
Left it out overnight and it rained so started rusting in just a few hours No problem as it will get blasted and powder coated.

The dash needs trimming as its well oversize but it looks promising. it needs a little blending and fettling on the ends as its not a 41 dash.

 

[langy]

I bit the bullet last night and decided to go with the 3.3/8" Quad gauges. The 5" were far too big.

Also drilled some holes for warning lights, I've had these lights for about 25 years after i took them out of a scrap airplane, they are all stainless construction and real nice, haven't used them as they are a bit bigger than normal ones, I think they look ok in this dash though.

Someone asked about using glass fibre (can't remember who) so heres how i sorted the dash ends, I'm no master laminator but this is how i do it and nothing has fallen off any of my cars yet.
The dash isn't quite right at the ends and we didn't have one to mould from so we borrowed another glass dash and moulded from that but its not quite right at the ends, I think maybe its a 39 dash but not sure.

I had previously made the framework to bolt the dash too at the bottom. The discrepancy is with the ends, It don't look to bad in the pic but the end is actually about 3/4" shy of lining up with the body line.

First job was to cut a piece out and get it into the correct position, Next i cut a filler spreader into strips and screwed them in place to hold it altogether.

Next some body filler was mixed up with extra hardener to make it go off quicker, this was spread on quickly and once hard (about 1 minute) would hold it all in place for glassing the rear up.

Once on the bench the surface was given a good key with a grinder and the edges feathered to a knife edge, you need to remove all the semi shiny coating on the old glass.
Then some resin was mixed and small strips of mat stipled with resin, you just need it wetted not dripping as to much resin will weaken the joint.
The strips were applied in 3 layers and allowed to dry.

Once the rear was cured the dash was flipped over and the same done to the front but only 2 layers this time. The curve inaccurancy was cured by adding chopped mat & resin until level with the body line.
Then its all sanded to give a key for a skim of body filler.

 

[langy]

I had a pm from someone asking for my address as they had something that would look nice on my Willys
Anyway a box turned up with a Moon half sweep tach in it so i just wanted to say a huge thankyou to this guy, he wouldn't accept payment either but said i could help him out at a later date.

Anyway i got it fitted, It was a column mount but i didn't want to look down so i modified the mount to bolt to the top of the dash where i can see it easily.

Well the sun has returned so i thought i would crack on with the doors.

A few people questioned why i made the firewall so strong, this installment should make it easier to understand.
I've not seen a Willys that doesn't have doors that drop when opened so the plan was to make the A post strong with no flex.

First job was to make up some supports for the door hinges, as the firewall was set back there was no room for a steel tube up the A post so they are tied into the firewall.

The framework was drilled and rivnuts inserted to take a plate.

Then a piece of tube was welded between the plate and the hinge strengthner.

Once the hinges were installed holes were drilled in the doors and bolted to the hinges with a spreader plate, the spreader plate would give me something to weld the light gauge framework to.
The main frame is 3/4" x 16 swg thick tube, the rest is 5/8" x 16swg, this is really quite light but nice and strong.

While the frame was being welded in the lock was put into place and plates made up to mount it off. Also the B post striker plate was made up and welded into place, this is tied into the B post steelwork which in turn is tied into the cage main hoop, Its all very strong !!!

It seems every Willys i see the door when fully opened hits the fender, I cheated slightly with the hinges and angled them a couple of degrees, you can't notice it when you look but when the door opens it now swings it slightly up and away from the fender.

I now have a fairly even gap around the inner skin.

Next job is the window channels and winding mechanism