I had a pm from someone asking for my address as they had something that would look nice on my Willys Anyway a box turned up with a Moon half sweep tach in it so i just wanted to say a huge thankyou to this guy, he wouldn't accept payment either but said i could help him out at a later date. Anyway i got it fitted, It was a column mount but i didn't want to look down so i modified the mount to bolt to the top of the dash where i can see it easily.
Wow, that's really cool. That tach will be more special to you as the gift it was rather than bought. That's cool that someone appreciates your work so much. (I do too, but you ain't getting my tach)
I was knocked out by the generosity shown by this guy, He contacted me by email last night and said he had it sitting on the shelf not doing anything and thought it would look cool in the Willys so donated it.
Yeah I was thinking about going but I have come to the conclusion that i gotta quit blowing my money at shows and finally get my own car built Still waiting on that top secret graffic
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
Really nice to see the detail of the inner workings. Very nice work. I didn't realize this thing will have functioning windows... I'll be paying close attention to that if you dont mind, I've got to takle that job on my car sooner or later. Yes I do live in the UK, east of Bristol, Somerset to be exact. Moved here a few months ago, building Caterham cars, various different chassis, roll cages and such.
Unless you have check straps fitted as supplied by the factory and readily available - just messin with ya Langy....
Yes mate its gonna have wind ups, this is a street/strip motor, We in England just don't get enough use out of a strip only car so it was always going to be street driven as well. What are you building ???
Hey Guido how ya doing ???, Can you let me know whereabouts the check straps were fitted, Might as well try and get it right.
A short video of the 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
Those latches seem to shut really nice. Are you running a gasket of any kind around the door to keep tension on it? Well it's been an on going project and the car has traveled around the world more than I've done anything to it but it's a 1930 Buick tudor sedan. 322 Nailhead with a 4 speed is what I've got for it now, that might change to a 401 in the future though. The 322 is all kinds of siezed up, so it's up in the air weather or not that engine is even worth scrap price. I'm working on getting the thing to the UK at the moment, so I can finally do something with it haha
Yeah probably use a Soft Seal kit. Project sounds cool, I love Nailheads, Got a 401 with dual 4 barrels myself, just waiting for the right project to come along.
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 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.
Thanks mate, I love em too! Terrible design haha but they're cool. You wouldn't want to part with the dual quads and sell the engine would ya? On a serious note... Would you know of a reliable transport company that could deliver my car and tool box and a few other bits?
Um, Langy - there's a little oblong hole in the door jamb which has a little curved flat metal thingy with a rubber grommet and a little round plate with a slot which slides over the arm on one end and is secured with a machine screw and nut through the hole in the tab on the door....
Thanks Guido, they are pretty easy to do, the arm looks like most other cars that use that type. Thanks dude.
<HR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d1d1e1; COLOR: #d1d1e1" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message --> 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.
The Jalopy Journal
