Thread: 41 Willys Gasser project

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I'm making a note of all this piss taking Don revenge will be sweet !!!

Originally Posted by roadster32

I'm making a note of all this piss taking Don revenge will be sweet !!!

Don

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

Short video of doors working







I'm all excited this morning as my rear tyres turned up, they are 900 x 15 Mickey Thomson pie crusts, 32" tall, I think a bit of trimming is needed on the rear arches







Its just started pissing down again !!!

Steve, I was going to crack some joke about you going overboard on door lightning, but decided against it.


Slicks look great. Where did you find those? I like them better than my Firestones and I bet they hook up better too.

Don

Got them from Rick at Radir Wheels Don, they sell a few different sizes, have a look here Welcome to Radir Wheels!

Well i sort of wasted a few hours last night modifying a Beetle winding mechanism to work in the Willys drivers door, Got it all done and dusted and realised i had done the passenger side got to wait till monday now for some more to arrive

The beetle unit is really good and adaptable but needs modifying if the window travel is over 15" but its very easy to do, heres how i do it , It takes about 1.5-2hrs to do each side.

This is where i cut and extend, I use an old unit cut up for bits.









I slice the end off at the slot in the split tube








Then a piece is cut from an old unit for the extension









Everything is clamped to a piece of angle to keep it aligned, the surface needs to be ground clean for welding, Its not nice stuff to weld even when ground.








Here its welded and smoothed out, the joint needs to be smooth for the plastic runner to slide over it.








Next job was to move the winding gear, the rivets holding it together were drilled out and the gear housing split into 2 halves.









Then you just recut the slot that the gear sits in wherever else you need it. Cut with the cable removed.









Then reassemble, final tweaking can be done by carefully bending the tube the cable runs in.









A piece of plastic tube is slid over the end to keep the inner cable clean.







Heres the completed modified mechanism ready to bolt in.

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Steve, I was going to crack some joke about you going overboard on door lightning, but decided against it. Don

And I was gonna make some wise _ _ _ remark about gravity pullin' the door open on that angle but, after the wife slapped me upside the head.. it all makes perfect sense now! 8-)

Weathers been nice the last few evenings so managed to get the windows sorted, The winding mechanisms turned up on monday so that gave me the chance to make up a 3/16" ply window template and then i could install the winders.










The next morning the acrylic i ordered for my windows turned up, I ordered this from Trent plastics on saturday morning and it arrived tuesday am, excellent service i thought.

The ply was removed and used for the template, this acrylic is so easy to cut with a jigsaw, it onlys requires a light sanding to acheive a perfect edge, also drills real well and clean.

I went with 5mm (3/16") as the only other choice was 3mm which was too flexible. colour is orange.

For window channel i used the universal cloth covered stuff, it comes in a coil and is simple to bend to shape and is fairly rigid, this is held in place with polyeurathane adhesieve sealant once the doors are painted, at the moment its only held in place by the 2 aluminium sections i made up, they are bolted to the steel tube frame.










The window channel that holds the bottom of the window was a pair i had hanging around, havn't a clue what they are from but they could also be easily fabbed as they are just a U section with a couple of brackets welded on.








Cut out the acrylic window and bolted it into place with some small 5mm button head bolts & nylok nuts.












They are all dry fitted at the moment but wind up & down real nice and smooth, with a bit of use they should bed in nicely. heres a short video of them in operation.