48 Willys....Project 4Low

[FiveNdime]

Got a couple hours to work on it tonight so I thought I would post up what I did. Got the radiator from my bro so I washed it out real good then started mocking it in position to drill holes and bolt it up. He took the radiator and cut the tanks off and shortened it up then re-tiged the tanks on and tiged up some side flanges to bolt it up, Thanks Rich!! I had one small issue with the bracket that was fixed easily with a cuttoff wheel and a welder. I got it all mocked up clamped it and drilled the mounting holes. Bolted it in and tweaked it around so it was square. I had a brand new set of radiator hoses that were for the stock Jeep Commando motor that is in it and it just so happens that the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 radiator outlets were in almost the exact same spots!! Filled it up and no leaks so I will run it when I get it to that point to see if it has any leaks in the system. I then proceeded to work on the shock setup. Turns out its a bit of a pain in my you know what to fit a 36" shock under the hood of a lowered Jeep. Back is fine since I have all the room to go up. Front however I really dont want to drill a hole in the hood. What do you guys think? Should I stick them under the hood or pop them out? I have a couple shots of a steel tube to let you know how long they will be and how high they would sit standing straight up. Onto the pics!

Here is the tube steel which is how long the shock will be when attached standing up like this. If you read above, give me your idea lol.

 

[Neverdone]

That Chain "ART" is pretty neat!! [cl Cool build!

 

[FiveNdime]

Been working the Willys a couple hours here and there. Got the Tcase back from the shop and stuck it in. Mocked up my shifter sticks with a little cutting, bending and welding they fit and work well. Braced and welded some spots that were a little lacking in strength. Heater core is bad so that has to go into a shop for repair.

Here is a shot of the clutch linkage. I used a small rubber isolator to keep vibrations down on the pedal. In theory it should work and I will find out soon.

Here is a shot of the T-case with the drum E-brake attached. The hole with missing parts will soon be filled up with a Warn stick overdrive unit to get me that extra gear.

This is just a few shots of the bracing and welding I did. Plating on the upper leaf spring towers.

Also some bracing and welding on the front notch. A small piece under the notch and some stiches on the side.

 

[skull]

capped

l was watching a show on frame and chassis building, the guest was Art Morrision, the chassis guru. one thing he stated and l thought of your'e build is to cap the ends of the frames to keep out water and debris.

even of it don't add strength, it keeps the frame rusting from the inside out was his reason why he always does this.

just food for thought.

l like the build so far

Later

 

[FiveNdime]

Been trying to get things with the transfercase done. Got the twin sticks modified to fit the stock hole location. Measured for a driveline which will need some clearancing under the body to work. Still waiting the right gear for my overdrive setup to mate to my T-14 transmission. My puppy decided I was a good place to lay and fall asleep. Normally she is attacking my wrenches, hands, head, legs and so on with her teeth lol. Must have been a lazy night for her, so my wife snapped a photo of me and her. She's the perfect helper.

And the helper puppy.....Lily dog

 

[Hydrocarbon Rocket]

The dimestack welding looks great. I do it like that every now and then. My newest welder always leaves a small bubble in the center of the start stops. My older welder had a 2 stage trigger, or a messed up trigger. I could pull it just a little for gas flow then the rest for arc. I could keep the gas on in between arcs and the bubbles didn't appear. It probly used more gas that way but it didn't have to cycle the gas solenoid as often and it looked good. I just wonder how hard it is on the welder to start stop that many times? I am assuming that is how you are doing it? I won't even ask if its stronger than a solid bead as there is many opinions on that.

So are you making it so it will have a changeable ride height? As in rockcrawler to low rider.

It looks awesome so far and is definitely different. Keep up the good work!!!

 

[FiveNdime]

The dimestack welding looks great. I do it like that every now and then. My newest welder always leaves a small bubble in the center of the start stops. My older welder had a 2 stage trigger, or a messed up trigger. I could pull it just a little for gas flow then the rest for arc. I could keep the gas on in between arcs and the bubbles didn't appear. It probly used more gas that way but it didn't have to cycle the gas solenoid as often and it looked good. I just wonder how hard it is on the welder to start stop that many times? I am assuming that is how you are doing it? I won't even ask if its stronger than a solid bead as there is many opinions on that.

So are you making it so it will have a changeable ride height? As in rockcrawler to low rider.

It looks awesome so far and is definitely different. Keep up the good work!!!

I'm laying them slightly over each other one pull at a time. I have my opinions too on the strength as I have tested them compared to solid beads, but to each there own. I like the look much better since I dont plan on painting it. Ive had my Lincoln welder now for many years and never replaced a thing and it keeps on ticking so life wise on the machine should be just fine if ya have a quality setup. Just my experiences. I think I am going to keep it static since everyone and there mom seems to have bags now days. Not against them just see them too much so Im trying to go old school drop. I may however toss a set of air shocks on just to bring ride height up a couple inches for the road. If I do I will plan an on board air system pump that runs off the motor or just stick with a little electric pump for simplicity. Gonna get it on the road first to see how things go. Thanks for the compliments on my work, much appreciated!

 

[FiveNdime]

I have been doing some more work on it lately but not a whole lot. Im still waiting on my main gear for my t-case so I can get my overdrive in and get that all buttoned up. I have also taken out the tie rod that I bent up. I wasnt so happy with it and the strength was lacking so after my brother and I looked at it for a few we came up with a grand idea. I will leave it for later pics and writeups but lets just say its a tad different then what you normally see. I got my E-brake cable all installed and ready to use. I had a bunch of fab work to do but in all its basically a stock look with a bunch of non stock ideas.

My driveline is now cleared up for the small amount of uptravel it will have. I had to cut the perches off my axle and tip the pinion down a few more degrees in order to keep from doing major work on my crossmember. In the pictures the driveline is actually resting on top of the rear axle pinion so it will be about 2" lower then where it is.

The E-brake setup is near stock setup as best I could do. The crossmember had a small bracket on it that I used, then took a cable my dad had laying in his parts area and got that to fit up. On the ends of each cable was a pin-ball. I ended up welding a nut to each end of where it would sit to hold the cable in place. I wanted to make this setup fully removable and thats basically how it is. Nothing fancy but a bunch of time getting it to fit and work like stock. It performs like a dream and in time has plenty of adjustment.