Low Budget Willys Crawler

Started doing a little body work/paint prep while I wait for parts to show up on CL.

The fenders have cut, reshaped and welded back together. And as you can see, whoever welded this looks like they did it with a potato. IMG_0890.jpgIMG_0891.jpgIMG_0892.jpgIMG_0893.jpg
After going over these I found a lot of thin areas, rust and bondo. I don’t think I’ll save these and I will run with no fenders or with tube fenders.


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Badass project man! Those welds look rough though, looks like somebody gave me tequila and let me near your jeep with a welder. (don't ask me how i know what that looks like)
 
Sold the wheels for the Willys to a guy that drove 2 hours and met up with me at 5 am before I went to work. More money to add to the parts pot. I also have a lead on a Dana 60. IMG_1020.jpg


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This past week I’ve been working on painting the Willys. As you’ve seen from the fenders, the body also has some character. I wasn’t a fan of the red so I decided to give it a little change up.
IMG_0864.jpg
I wanted to go with a patina/old farm truck theme. I chose to go with blue as a tribute to my grandfather’s old blue 1970 F100 that he drove every day. This whole paint job was an experiment and it was very fun to do.

IMG_1021.jpg Got everything sanded. IMG_1024.jpg Grabbed some International Harvester paint I had and rolled it on. I didn’t need to hit it with red again but I wanted to roll the paint on to give it some texture. IMG_1026.jpgIMG_1028.jpgIMG_1029.jpgIMG_1031.jpg
Next I hit the body with some brown for an added color. If I was going for more of a rust look I probably would have mixed a brown and red to try and achieve that. IMG_1034.jpgIMG_1035.jpg
After that, it was the blue. IMG_1037.jpgIMG_1036.jpgIMG_1050.jpg Next I lightly dusted them with white to give them a chalky look. IMG_1038.jpg The final part was wet sanding. You can’t really mess this up. Just sand until you get the look you desire. I really like the look of the red coming through. Plus there was some really good texture in the paint. IMG_1042.jpgIMG_1045.jpgIMG_1047.jpgIMG_1053.jpgIMG_1054.jpgIMG_1067.jpgIMG_1068.jpg
This paint job is not for everyone but I like how it turned out and it was fun. I can always add more character later.


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BABOOZLE said:
This past week I’ve been working on painting the Willys. As you’ve seen from the fenders, the body also has some character. I wasn’t a fan of the red so I decided to give it a little change up.
View attachment 302374
I wanted to go with a patina/old farm truck theme. I chose to go with blue as a tribute to my grandfather’s old blue 1970 F100 that he drove every day. This whole paint job was an experiment and it was very fun to do.

View attachment 302375 Got everything sanded. View attachment 302377 Grabbed some International Harvester paint I had and rolled it on. I didn’t need to hit it with red again but I wanted to roll the paint on to give it some texture. View attachment 302378View attachment 302379View attachment 302380View attachment 302381
Next I hit the body with some brown for an added color. If I was going for more of a rust look I probably would have mixed a brown and red to try and achieve that. View attachment 302382View attachment 302383
After that, it was the blue. View attachment 302384View attachment 302385View attachment 302386 Next I lightly dusted them with white to give them a chalky look. View attachment 302387 The final part was wet sanding. You can’t really mess this up. Just sand until you get the look you desire. I really like the look of the red coming through. Plus there was some really good texture in the paint. View attachment 302388View attachment 302389View attachment 302390View attachment 302391View attachment 302392View attachment 302393View attachment 302394
This paint job is not for everyone but I like how it turned out and it was fun. I can always add more character later.


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Click to expand...

Cool project. Did you apply the brown and blue by spray gun or by roller and brush? All the sanding was be hand?
 
Finally back to work on the Willys. Doesn’t have a name yet. I’m open to ideas. I’ve been searching for a cheap 60 for a couple months with no luck. So to get this project moving I decided to just run a 44 up front for the time being. The issue with the cheap 44 I bought for mock up is that it has drums. Didn’t want to spend the money to convert or go through the hassle of doing it so I found another GM 44 that is 8 lug, disc brakes, 4.10s and a broken stub shaft for $100. IMG_1662.jpg
The broken shaft was caused by the gears being welded together. I don’t plan on running it like this forever but I may keep it for a little bit since I have selectable hubs. Klungly gave me an extra carrier which I will have in the future. IMG_1665.jpgIMG_1666.jpgIMG_1667.jpg


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Since I have the extra 44 I was hoping that I could use the axle shafts to replace the broken ones. The inner axles are the same length but the stub shafts are different lengths. Looks like I will need to buy one. IMG_1668.jpgIMG_1669.jpg
The war zone. IMG_1670.jpg
One thing the old axle was good for is that it has flat top knuckles. Which means I can covert the steering to a high crossover type steering. IMG_1671.jpg More to follow on that.


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Alright, finally getting back to this project. None of the donor parts from the older D44 worked with the newer one. Axle shafts are different and the flat top knuckle doesn’t work with disc brakes. So I bought some new 4340 shafts from ECGS and knuckle setup for crossover steering. IMG_2954.jpg

I think I will go with 4.56 gears and a Detroit in the rear. The front will remain open until I can buy a selectable locker up front. A little progress.


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BABOOZLE said:
This past week I’ve been working on painting the Willys. As you’ve seen from the fenders, the body also has some character. I wasn’t a fan of the red so I decided to give it a little change up.
View attachment 302374
I wanted to go with a patina/old farm truck theme. I chose to go with blue as a tribute to my grandfather’s old blue 1970 F100 that he drove every day. This whole paint job was an experiment and it was very fun to do.

View attachment 302375 Got everything sanded. View attachment 302377 Grabbed some International Harvester paint I had and rolled it on. I didn’t need to hit it with red again but I wanted to roll the paint on to give it some texture. View attachment 302378View attachment 302379View attachment 302380View attachment 302381
Next I hit the body with some brown for an added color. If I was going for more of a rust look I probably would have mixed a brown and red to try and achieve that. View attachment 302382View attachment 302383
After that, it was the blue. View attachment 302384View attachment 302385View attachment 302386 Next I lightly dusted them with white to give them a chalky look. View attachment 302387 The final part was wet sanding. You can’t really mess this up. Just sand until you get the look you desire. I really like the look of the red coming through. Plus there was some really good texture in the paint. View attachment 302388View attachment 302389View attachment 302390View attachment 302391View attachment 302392View attachment 302393View attachment 302394
This paint job is not for everyone but I like how it turned out and it was fun. I can always add more character later.


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Just saw this. The paint turned out awesome.
 
WJCO said:
Awesome project. Can't wait to see it done.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

catahoula said:
Just saw this. The paint turned out awesome.
Click to expand...

Thank you. It was a risk. I’ll do some more sanding once it get it put together.

GTJeeper said:
Great looking build so far! The paint looks sweet, are you hoping to have this up and running for ejs 2019?

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Thanks! I wish it would be ready but my work schedule will most likely get in the way.



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Update. Bought another chromoly shaft to complete the D44. Also replaced the bearings, calipers and rotors. IMG_3193.jpg
Also finally got the Willys on all four tires. IMG_3267.jpg
Got some metal from klungly and finished boxing the frame. IMG_3432.jpgIMG_3434.jpgIMG_3498.jpg
Got a one ton tie rod kit from East Coast Gear Supply and welded that up as well. IMG_3395.jpg
IMG_3396.jpg
IMG_3425.jpg
IMG_3500.jpg



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I finally put the cab on and as I expected I won’t be able to get it out of the garage unless I flatten the tires. It is a monster. Plus the put some ratchet straps on the rear and brought down the rear on the frame until the springs were almost flat. There’s still a pretty big rake to it so I might do a spring under in the rear which will fix the rake and I won’t have to worry about axle wrap as much. IMG_3501.jpgIMG_3504.jpgIMG_3510.jpg


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BABOOZLE said:
I finally put the cab on and as I expected I won’t be able to get it out of the garage unless I flatten the tires. It is a monster. Plus the put some ratchet straps on the rear and brought down the rear on the frame until the springs were almost flat. There’s still a pretty big rake to it so I might do a spring under in the rear which will fix the rake and I won’t have to worry about axle wrap as much. View attachment 315237View attachment 315238View attachment 315239


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That’s going to look so good when it’s complete [emoji106]
 
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