Willys M38 Build

Took the body tub home to strip over Labour weekend.  Boring and filthy job - I came up looking like I'd been in a coal mine each day!  I'm really pleased with how it's coming up, strip the bed liner and first coats of paint with the heat gun then attack it with an abrasive strip disc back to bare steel.  Tight areas and corners can be slow going with sand paper.  The whole inside of the tub is pretty much done to the top of the firewall.  The outside is all done so just the underside to go.  Hope to knock it out this week.

I had a local engineer spline up and flange some axles against samples out of Dons '42 that is full floating already.  After a couple of teething issues (and the standard bit of assistance from Don) they're in and the whole drive train is now sealed.  In fact there's nothing really stopping us from going for a cruise in it apart from bleeding up the brakes. I hope to take the body tub home from the workshop to strip and prime it in the next couple of weeks.  The only other big job I can think of apart from panel and paint is the roll cage.  That'll be done before it goes green as I'm sure there will be some scratching involved while we sort that. Sort of coming around on to the home straight.  Exciting stuff!

Mounted the radiator to the grille by welding some extra strips onto the sides of the radiator shroud.  Filled the gearbox and transfer case and Don did a basic wire up and she fired and ran.  The accelerator pump wasn't working so Don pulled that and cleared a blockage and away it went.  Only negative was I missed a bolt when bolting the transfer to the box so spewed gear oil over the floor! Me discovering and fixing the gear oil leak. Looks more jeepy every day! Below are before and after pics of Dons Willys Pickup - polar opposites!

Still been plugging away at it - just not posting as I go.  Brake pipes and hoses have been plumbed, just need to pipe in a hydraulic brake light switch and the brake system is complete.  The throttle linkage is all done (thanks Don!) I have fitted a 12 volt GM style alternator with a minor mod to the adjuster bracket to fit  and also installed a gear reduction starter from a Toyota Land Cruiser that is recommended on a lot of US Jeep sites - all it need to fit was the bolt holes slotting a little.  The fuel pump to carb pipe is in but I still need to route the tank(s) to pump lines. I also finally tracked down a solution to my steering bell crank woes.  I am using a bell crank bracket off an M38A1 that was riveted to the square style cross member the same as what is in my chassis.  I have the round cross member and bracket too but that can go on the back burner as this is a much easier and still very tidy option. The other thing ...

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...

A few bits and pieces have been done since my last post.  Rebuilt and fitted a Holley 1904 carb (off a 60s falcon) with a few mods to the head and rocker cover required to squeeze it in.  Also replaced the oil filler/dipstick with a flat head one (shorter) so it didn't foul the carb. Stripped, cleaned, reassembled and fitted a vacuum advance distributor from a Mini.  Fitted another flywheel which is drilled to take the larger clutch option.  Fitted up the new clutch and bolted the engine to the gearbox and transfer.  The best part was dropping the power plant back into the frame yesterday.  It'll only be temporary so I can plumb pipes,  get the rear drive shaft shortened (Mahindra one is about 12 inches longer I think).  I also need to build a set of headers and an exhaust and sort all the body mounts properly.  The steering bell crank is something I'm still working on and will probably end up welding the bracket on to the current cross membe...

Pretty slack in posting lately though haven't done much either so not much to post about!  Cut off the rear cross member (not an original) yesterday and replaced with a heavy duty Wainui Willys Works model that Don had one the shelf.  It's a little longer, deeper and taller than a standard cross member so will protect the corners of the body a lot more than the standard one and also allow me to mount a swing out tyre and jerry can rack so I still have use of the tail gate.  Put in extra gussets too just for a bit more strength.  My welds on the bits you can see look pretty good.  The same can't be said for the ones on the inside but not too many people are going to see them anyway!