41 Willys Gasser project

Finally got my blower drive completely sorted. I wanted a nostalgia idler pulley arm, the type that clamps around the snout, The original bracket type idler arm was real ugly, had a look around the net and was horrified at the prices :eek: upwards of $140 for a decent one !!! There were lots of thinner ones for cheap money but I wanted a minimum of 1 inch thick.
Luckily my mate Paul found some 1" aluminium plate at work so I decided to make my own, found a website with dimensions on it so marked out the plate and popped to my mates to use the Bridgeport mill.
Took about 3 hrs to make up but well worth the effort.



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Once home again I sparked up the polisher and gave it a good going over, luckily the aluminium plate was real good quality so it only took about 45 mins to get a nice shine on it.



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All I need now is a belt and that's another job struck off the list :D



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My electronic speedo turned up so finish wiring the dash could be ticked off the list too :D
I only had mechanical speedo kits in stock so had to wait for one to arrive.
The dash is easily removed by undoing 5 x 6mm button head bolts, the dash is wired through 3 x 6 way waterproof plugs & sockets so can be pulled out in a few minutes.



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Thought sure you'd make that arm out of stainless :rolleyes::LOL::LOL::LOL:

Steve, that dash panel looks amazing, can I ask please, what grade flake is that and is it the same you used on your '32 ? I was going to ask how you tighten the blower belt too but as I'm typing this the answer came to me so save you having to explain to this old fart how it works. hey it is 10.30am and I'm still have asleep so that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

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Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Steve, that dash panel looks amazing, can I ask please, what grade flake is that and is it the same you used on your '32 ? I was going to ask how you tighten the blower belt too but as I'm typing this the answer came to me so save you having to explain to this old fart how it works. hey it is 10.30am and I'm still have asleep so that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

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Yes Whip it's the same mini flake as my 32, belt is tensioned by moving the idler arm and tightening the pinch bolt.


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Originally Posted by cffisher

Thought sure you'd make that arm out of stainless :rolleyes::LOL::LOL::LOL:

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Too heavy Charlie

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With that polish job it almost looks like stainless.:cool:

Jack.

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Originally Posted by Jack F

With that polish job it almost looks like stainless.:cool:

Jack.

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Jack it was a real nice piece of aluminium, came out of the local Ejector seat testing plant :cool:

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This looks like an awesome build from the little it Ive seen! I havent gotten through all 89 pages just yet, I have to ask where did you or where are you going to purchase your headlight trim, glass, buckets and the rest of that good stuff at? I need a good recomendation, I myself am putting the finishing touches on my 41 Willys truck.

Upon further reading into the thread somewhere around the 50ish page mark you fit your trim up I see, that really does help finish it off. I totally agree that the Willys needs the trim pieces to finish it off. Looks like you dealt with Mike at Willys replacement parts? I talked to him earlier in the week, havent dealt with them yet but he seems to be a good guy. Theres not too many people around that sell these parts ive found.

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Originally Posted by 1923tbucket

This looks like an awesome build from the little it Ive seen! I havent gotten through all 89 pages just yet, I have to ask where did you or where are you going to purchase your headlight trim, glass, buckets and the rest of that good stuff at? I need a good recomendation, I myself am putting the finishing touches on my 41 Willys truck.

Upon further reading into the thread somewhere around the 50ish page mark you fit your trim up I see, that really does help finish it off. I totally agree that the Willys needs the trim pieces to finish it off. Looks like you dealt with Mike at Willys replacement parts? I talked to him earlier in the week, havent dealt with them yet but he seems to be a good guy. Theres not too many people around that sell these parts ive found.

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Hi,yes i got my Willys bits from Mike at Willys Replacement Parts, I'm happy with the general quality but i do have a gripe, the chrome on first inspection is good but i've had to have the rear lights rechromed already and it hasnt been on the road yet !!!
Its the same old problem of no copper has been used, also I noticed my door handles are going off slightly too, Not really impressed as these parts were definitely not cheap !!! :mad:


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Yea I hear that, 635 for the whole light assembly. That's somewhat concerning with the chrome for the price. I haven't found anyone else with the whole assembly yet with the h4 reflectors like I want.

Thanks for the response! Looks like your motor is going to be lots of fun!

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Originally Posted by 1923tbucket

Yea I hear that, 635 for the whole light assembly. That's somewhat concerning with the chrome for the price. I haven't found anyone else with the whole assembly yet with the h4 reflectors like I want.

Thanks for the response! Looks like your motor is going to be lots of fun!

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Just to let you know the chrome on the headlights looks much better quality and is holding up fine.

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Good deal, thanks again! Ill be keeping tabs here.

Hi Steve what you make till so far it is f......king beautiful ;almost 2 years ago I bought an new hood from you for mine Willys 41 áfter many changes like rebuild the motor Ford 460 and the the C-6 trans an roll gage inside (not like gasser style) I finally changed also the color of my Willys from red to matt Blue and on the doors pin-up style nose art and small pin stripes it was ready for me I thought but after 2 race weekends in Holland I decided that I should changes the front and after seeing all the pictures of yours Willys I also decide to go for the Gasser style it will give me more "problems"but it will be solved
I hope to hear and see from your engine some roaring noises
have to find out how I can send some pictures or smaal picture next to title

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Originally Posted by Willys41

Hi Steve what you make till so far it is f......king beautiful ;almost 2 years ago I bought an new hood from you for mine Willys 41 áfter many changes like rebuild the motor Ford 460 and the the C-6 trans an roll gage inside (not like gasser style) I finally changed also the color of my Willys from red to matt Blue and on the doors pin-up style nose art and small pin stripes it was ready for me I thought but after 2 race weekends in Holland I decided that I should changes the front and after seeing all the pictures of yours Willys I also decide to go for the Gasser style it will give me more "problems"but it will be solved
I hope to hear and see from your engine some roaring noises
have to find out how I can send some pictures or smaal picture next to title

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Yes I remember your friends picking it up, Changing to a Gasser style sounds good, look forward to seeing some pics.

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Not much of an update i'm afraid but the weather has been proper *poo*e recently, I had been planning to cut some wooden bows out of 12mm ply to hang a headliner from, also wanted to put some 12mm ply around door openings, Will wait for it to get better weather me thinks :yes:

However i've been busy modifying my block ready for boring for the +30 probe blower pistons, the block has now gone to the machine shop and next bit of progress will be assembling it.
A job i don't want to do for a good while is the polishing of the crank, It took forever but was worth doing.



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I've been waiting for Santa to bring the various engine bits and he didn't let me down :D, luckily he had a large sack as he bought me Roller rockers, stainless timing cover, K1 H beam conrods and custom made Probe blower pistons, Roller cam and roller lifters.



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Happy new year to you all


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Boy your Santa "Had" deep pockets Looks like your on the way

Well the weather has been a little kinder today so carried on knocking jobs off the list :D
I needed to sort out something for Steve Hudson to tack the headliner too so before I did anything I stuck a piece of ply to the inside of the roof to mount the dome light on, to keep the wiring tidy and out of the way some small pieces of stainless tubing was stuck to the roof and around the door rame for the wiring to pass through.



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Next up I needed a finisher to go under my steering wheel hub, noting too fancy just something tapered, had a rummage through my aluminium stock and found a piece of aluminium round bar just big enough, a short while on the lathe and it was done, a quick polish and it was slid in place. I will polish the purple anodising off later.



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Next up I started cutting the wood for around the inner door frame, I used 3/8" plywood and screwed it into place as some of the edges have curves, I will glass up the holes and repaint once its all hard & dry.
I bonded it in place with GRP bonding paste after keying the fibreglass



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Got both sides done but then it got dark so the roof struts will have to wait till next week :(


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Nice work Steve, the little bits and pieces sure do eat up a lot of time in the course of a build, don't they?

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Nice work Steve, the little bits and pieces sure do eat up a lot of time in the course of a build, don't they?

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Absolutely right Dave, you think your nearly done and along come the little pesky jobs !!!


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Any chance of an update, Steve? I'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms having not seen your fantastic fabrication skills lately. :(;)

I was about to post the same thing! Inquiring minds want to know!!

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Originally Posted by rspears

Any chance of an update, Steve? I'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms having not seen your fantastic fabrication skills lately. :(;)

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Hi Roger been busy prepping the motor but its still pretty cold here :(, you have to remember this has been built outside and i'm not gonna freeze my nuts off putting the motor in :eek: plus I now have a strained muscle in my back to cope with because i bought a nice 3/4 size mill, it was an absolute bitch to lift into the shop :LOL:


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Sounds like a beast of a machine! I'd love to have a mill in my shop some day!

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Originally Posted by roadster32

Hi Roger been busy prepping the motor but its still pretty cold here :(, you have to remember this has been built outside and i'm not gonna freeze my nuts off putting the motor in :eek: plus I now have a strained muscle in my back to cope with because i bought a nice 3/4 size mill, it was an absolute bitch to lift into the shop :LOL:.

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Steve,
Good to know you're alive & kicking, even if not the "high kick" due to a strain in the back! Those are a true pain to deal with, and unfortunately only time heals. We'll look forward to an update when you have something to share.
Cheers!

A few people asked for more recent pics so as the sun returned today i took a few.


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Very, very cool! Thanks for the new pic's.

Ditto, One Hot lookin little Shrimp! Look Out Bubbas, Bubba Gump is gonna smoke a few shrimps on the pavement!:LOL::D:3dSMILE::cool::cool::cool::cool:

Steve, the car is looking great! Well Done!!!
I am a bit concerned that you might get a bit of rear wheel rub. It looks as if the rear springs are getting a bit of sag?
We are all waiting to hear that beast rumble.
Thank you for your great post.
Scott

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Originally Posted by ScooterCO

Steve, the car is looking great! Well Done!!!
I am a bit concerned that you might get a bit of rear wheel rub. It looks as if the rear springs are getting a bit of sag?
We are all waiting to hear that beast rumble.
Thank you for your great post.
Scott

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Yes Scott I have new springs to go on, just too cold at the moment to fit them.

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Had an hour to spare this evening so thought I would deal with the windshield wipers, I've had the motor and wheelboxes in for age's but needed to sort the arms & blades.
Seeing as I had used a Mini setup I picked up some stainless arms & blades.
Obviously these were made for RHD and were too long so first job was to shorten the arm and bend for LHD



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Next the blade had to be shortened slightly.



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Once everything was welded I put them on the car for a try out.



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That is cool but I like Rain-X :LOL::LOL::LOL:

Nice work! I didn't have any wiper arms on my 40 for a couple years, and I was really surprised how well the rain-x actually worked! My wipers never worked that great, so I may not put the crappy elec conv set up back on it. :LOL:

Well Charlie, according to my Brother who lives in the North of England, their summer is counted in hours not days or like most countries, months so although Rain-x is good and helps, but one needs wipers for sure in England . ;)

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Originally Posted by cffisher

That is cool but I like Rain-X :LOL::LOL::LOL:

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Unfortunately our road laws are far more stringent than yours Charlie, I could never get away with running no wipers, would be points on my license and a fine, we have to have washers too along with handbrake, our cars go through a stringent Ministry of Transport test every year and everything gets checked, brakes are checked on a electronic rolling brake meter, a blown bulb and your off the road till its fixed :(

You guys in the states have it really easy when it comes to building Hotrods :cool:

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Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Well Charlie, according to my Brother who lives in the North of England, their summer is counted in hours not days or like most countries, months so although Rain-x is good and helps, but one needs wipers for sure in England . ;)

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Ain't that the truth Whip :(

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Fun detail stuff too,love the build.

That car is looking really nice! Question for ya though, when you cut in your headlights how were you sure that your light bucket was in there perfectly straight. The template is great but I dont want the thing to be slightly tilted at all. I guess with some good measuring it will work out.

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Originally Posted by 1923tbucket

That car is looking really nice! Question for ya though, when you cut in your headlights how were you sure that your light bucket was in there perfectly straight. The template is great but I dont want the thing to be slightly tilted at all. I guess with some good measuring it will work out.

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I just set the template up with a plumb bob, the holes give you a small amount of adjustment.

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We were blessed with some sunshine today so knocked off a bit earlier as I needed to get some of my interior sorted as my mate steve will be ready to do the headliner soon.
Made up some rear quarter panels in 3mm ply, had to make these in 2 pieces to get around the cage bits, doesn't matter as i'm covering everything in black carpet anyway, nice and cheap and looks tidy.
I had a few rolls of adhesieve backed acoustic foam on the shelf so decided to put that in, I have 2 thicknesses 3/8" & 1/4", I used to use this for silencing mobile generators, its excellent stuff, nice thing about it is its a dense foam so carpet can be glued to it, it also goes over wiring etc and leaves a perfectly smooth surface, its also extremely sticky and once stuck down it stays there, you can't make no mistakes applying it for sure.

Got the carpet on the rear firewall and 1/4 panels but run out of time, Hopefully get the rest covered in carpet tomorrow evening.



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Lookin' good Steve! Getting closer to the time you get to go out and test hammer the beast????

PS--Be grateful for the sunshine, 5" of snow here today!:LOL::LOL::LOL: