Thread: 41 Willys Gasser project

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I wish the could clone me Don, then i could get more done !!!

The Willys has to be a rolling advert by March as our biggest swapmeet of the year is on, I've never traded at any shows before as i like my weekends to myself but this year i have a good mate thats offered to man the stall for me for free !!! to good an offer to pass up

This project may be slow as i need to finish up my 26T before i can get serious with the Willys.

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

This is going to be GOOD!! As you have seen from the interest Dave's 57 gasser has generated, everyone loves gassers..........and I am right at the top of the list. This thread and Dave's gasser thread will be the first things I will be looking for when I log on.

But there MUST be more than one Steve in England..........no one man can have this many projects going at one time and be running a business building cars too. Have they perfected cloning over there?

Don

Got the chassis back blasted and took it to my mates workshop who stores my chassis jig for me (its to huge for my shop), The bugger had a half built frame on it so will have to wait

Seeing as i was somewhat stumped on the frame i decided to sort the various bits out on the front axle, The shock mount holes are tapered 3 degrees.








I turned up some tapered bungs with 1/2" holes to suit the shocks i have already.








These are pressed into the tapered holes and are really tight so don't need anything else.











There are some eared brackets cast in the axle for some sort of jacking system so were not needed, I will keep the upper ear as i may fit an anti roll bar and they are just in the right place.









Next i dealt with the kingpin size difference, The existing holes were bored out to 1" and a sleeve spun in the lathe with a 1" OD and 13/16" ID, These were then linished to be a press fit into the axle and then the holes was reamed to 0.815.












While the pillar drill was warm i decided to drill a few lightening holes in the axle, First i had to make a simple jig to hold the axle as the I beam sides are different widths so the axle won't lay flat on the table.








The jig was clamped to the table and a steel block wedge was put under the other side to keep it steady.

All had gone well with drilling the holes until i got up to the 1/2" drill, then the steel became incredibly hard and was taking the edge of the drills in seconds, after sharpening the bits several times i resorted to using carbide drills and these chewed through it much better, I don't know why it suddenly got so hard, anyone know ???

The holes were taken out to 3/4"

Hey Mate, no stealing parts from the 26 for this project.........put those backing plates back!!!!! Looks like you've already removed a lot of the extras from the axle and it's starting to look very nice.

This is going to be a very good, informative thread. Thanks for doing it.

Don

Don its surprising how much its like the Willys axle, Even the same width but more robust !!!

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Hey Mate, no stealing parts from the 26 for this project.........put those backing plates back!!!!! Looks like you've already removed a lot of the extras from the axle and it's starting to look very nice.

This is going to be a very good, informative thread. Thanks for doing it.

Don

Just to let you know that i'm still on this project but have been real busy so not had time for my own stuff, On the upside although i didn't get the rolling frame done for the swapmeet i did take the body, got some really positive comments on the quality and took 2 deposits for bodies, we are now in profit just

Found a few spare hours yesterday so welded the various chassis bits back together as the original owner had cut it into several pieces to make it easier to store I've kept the original front crossmember as its a nice looking piece, someone had been at it with a gas axe so there were a few holes to repair.
Once the frame was back together i noticed the front fixed shackle brackets were missing so had to make a pair, made them a little longer to get some lift on the front, I'm reusing the front shackles as they are nice pieces.

The FX3 was originally 112" wheelbase so 10" of the frame has been removed to bring it down to 102"











Here's the frame so far, It needed a lot of welding as the cuts wern't that neat, strong now though. Next job is to fit rear crossmember.
I'm going to get the front axle and rear axle in and then hopefully the engine.











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