Covering the overall build of my Willys M38 copy. The plan is to build a flat fender for general wheeling and holidaying around New Zealand.
New floor, side and step
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We folded up the basis of a new floor and new side panels. I cut out and Don showed me how to beat and fold up, then weld the replacement step. He made it look easy!
Been quietly plodding away on the Jeep still though haven't had the camera out there for a while so no posts. I've made up some roll cage mounts off of the chassis behind where the seats will mount and rebuilt the water pump with an omix kit. I've also fitted Toyota MR2 rear brake calipers and Suzuki Vitara rotors to the rear of the Jeep to make it 4 wheel disc braked and also the MR2 calipers provide a decent mechanical handbrake. Overall a pretty straight forward conversion with help from Don in designing the caliper brackets that bolt on to the stub axle flange. I've also had a crack at making the headers which has been a learning experience. I had to modify the front plate of the motor to fit my fuel pump in first so I had everything in that was going to be in the way. You can see in the picture below, the lower diaphragm (vacuum wipers) slots into the plate. Don had me draw up the flanges and get them laser cut at the same ti...
The plan of the blog is to cover the overall build of my Willys M38. For the purists, it's not a genuine M38. The body is I think an early repop as it has the M38 style removable dash, military light switch hole and left hand mounted handbrake. It doesn't have a cowl mounted battery box for the second battery and for ease of use it'll be wired 12 volt. The body I bought from photos on the web and luckily it was pretty much what it claimed to be - green and with lots of rust in the passenger side floor, under the tool box. The frame is a shortened and boxed Mahindra chassis running Dana 44's front and rear. It'll run the Mahindra F-134 with a holley carb (to squeeze under the early height hood) and we'll hang a Fairey overdrive off the back of the transfer case. I'm learning as I go on this build under the watchful eye of Don the Willys fanatic who seems to have every part in stock that you though you had or were about to order and wait for. ...
So the screen was completely stripped and the more paint and bar work removed the worse it looked. I first removed the centre cross brace and replaced it to keep things square. I removed and made new sections of lower frame as the old ones were rotten just above the forward bend for about 150-200mm. The section below the vent was removed right across at this stage too. We flattened out the old bottom section to get a basic shape for the new one and cut it out. Then dummied it on to see how well it fit. Don stepped in as master manipulator of metal and got some nice curves going on along the cowl edge. Two monkeys in a Jeep Nest was to hammer weld the bottom section and another couple of patches in. Don to the rescue again with his pretty welds - kind of important as I'll be able to see the backs of them every time we go out! Next a bit of a clean up where I'd tacked panels, drill the cross braces for the wiper motors and then ...
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