Willys Jeep Project

[Nick O.]

I thought you would all enjoy to see my Willys restoration. Last year I was working on a 3d model of a Willys MB for a vehicle simulator, and while searching for reference pictures I came across a few Craigslist ads. I couldn't believe how cheap it was to get into one, considering I was about to spend a few hundred on my r/c crawler for simple upgrades. So I figured it would be more fun to get a real 4x4. A genuine military Jeep is quite expensive and I didn't want to ruin one on the trail. On May 7th, 2014 I found a 1952 CJ3A for sale in Illinios, the price seemed decent and it looked good in pictures. He told me a guy was coming that Friday to buy it, so my grandpa and I pulled a 2am road trip on Thursday to go pick it up.

Upon arrival we found the clutch was destroyed, the body was more bondo than metal (not a straight line either), and the tranny needed rebuilt. We planned on going to Bundy Hill in a couple weeks so grandpa and myself got to work pulling the tranny out and had it rebuilt by a friend.

We stayed up til 2am once again to get it ready for the ride, it was miserable. But we made it!
First ride [Video]
Since that ride I've been bringing the Jeep back to life. It's been to Bundy Hill numerous times, and we even brought it to Haspin [Video]. Off the top of my head it's had: new carb, head gasket, 12V conversion, u-joints, winch... I found a huge lot of parts to begin my MB conversion. Non-dry rotted military tires, MB fenders/windshield/hood, reproduction seats, rear leafs, jerry cans, and I also sourced out a GPW grille.

Whenever I had free time I've been working on it the past 8 months. Usually it's a little here and there.

Now I've begun the big step into the restoration. I'm dying to get this road legal and looking halfway decent. Mechanically I need to change the intermediate shaft in the tcase, rear pinion seal, install the Warn overdrive, and have front disk brakes on the way. Drums suck in the mud. These will be the next step soon after I get my rear leafs put on. The stock U-style shackles are sketchy for off-road use so we're going to a custom made CJ5 type shackle. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the entire body is trashed from 60+ years of beatings. The previous owner welded in a new floorboard which is great, but the outer tub is banana shaped bondo with crumpled/rusted metal behind it. So, I had the acquired parts sandblasted and began the gruesome body work and painting process.

Next up was painting the chassis. I used a sanding wheel and went at the most visible parts of the frame: bumper and side-rails. With the pitted look gone it transformed. Then I hit the hubs that would be visible with the rims on.

That was the easy part. Dad taught me how to weld and I started making my own patch panels for the fenders and hood. After sandblast they came back pretty nasty. It was pretty difficult welding the panels in, even with the heat turned down I was blasting holes through the thinned metal. It's not the best work in the world, but it'll do just fine. Next I'll fill in the patches with bondo and smooth it out nicely. I've also been undenting the grille.

The whole section from the windshield forward will be the parts I've completely restored. For the tub, we know a guy who's going to wrap the outside in sheet metal and make it look appealing. His YJ looked like it drove off the showroom floor. Before then I'd like to have the mechanics all but finished so I can finish painting and swap my parts over, then register. Before I leave for college I'll send the engine to Keith, no more mosquito smoking feature I'll keep the thread updated as progress goes.

This old Jeep has taught me an immense amount of mechanical and repair knowledge. When it's done it'll be my proudest achievement

[Noel Woods]

Many years back, I bought the military version of the same Jeep, an M38A1 same vintage 1952. Between all the break-downs, jerry rigging, and conversion to 12v, that thing really helped the mechanical and welding skills.

The irony is, I sold the Jeep to get money to buy a real 6x6, it was an early model Max2.

Looking forward to your thread.

[wfo]

WOW, the willys are so fun i have a 50 that i trail ride in. i bought a dana 30 for up front and converted to disc, disc kit i got from herm the over drive guy. very well built kit.
the rear dana 44 was out of a 72 and a 1/2 cj 5 so i could still have the offset axle but a buildable axle. locker and 1 piece axles,
HAVE FUN BUILDING IT , I DID

[liflod]

Very nice to see a project like that. Doing the work yourself teaches you a bunch of great skills and also gives you some mechanical confidence.
Looking forward to see the finished product!

[hydromike]

Cool project Nick.... I was heavily steeped in the Jeep stuff before the ATV bug took a strong hold.


I had an '88 XJ that was a daily driver back and forth between school. It went through a couple upgrades an evolutionary steps (backwards, some say) until I finally decided to shoehorn in a late 70s J20 driveline. It ended up with a 360, dana 44 front, full floater dana 50 rear, twin sticked NP205 transfer case and Borg Warner T-18. I made a 3/4 elliptical front suspension for it and it eventually had about 10-12" lift to clear 36s. I never got around to shortening the diffs before I sold it, so it was a bit ugly going down the road. She'd really flex though. I made my own drag link for the steering that was at about a 30 degree angle from the pitman arm. When you'd be going down the road and you hit a bump, you'd learn to just let go of the wheel, and she'd track straight. If you tried to wrangle the ornery beast, it'd throw you in a ditch. Probably a lot like coming down from 45mph with a Baker Hill, I suppose.

[Andyman]

Thats great Nick , as you probably know I love 4x4s of all kinds older the better.

Have fun and keep the updates coming

[locolouie]

looking good Nick, seemed to run ok at Haspin hope you get it done before you leave for school

[Outlaw1]

Great work Nick. I had a '43 Military jeep and my neighbor had a '4? ford Military Jeep. We had fun restoring them. Sold mine to a guy that wanted it much worse than I...and he paid dearly for it. I also had a '70's Jago Jeep (British Co. made it out of fiberglass and plywood, most plywood) with a Ford Cortina four banger in it when I was stationed in England back in the 80's. It was a real screamer. We drove it from S/E England to as far north in Scotland as land would go. What a rush! and totally scenic. It wouldn't qualify for stateside shipping, so I sold it over there. Bummed me out!

[Nubs]

A fella learns a lot doin' projects like that, Will pay off big down the road as far as applying this lesson to everything else ya run across in life.


Nice to see the Good work

[phabib]

Great project. I used to have a Willys pickup that I did a lot of the same stuff you're doing to. When I got mine it had a Studebaker 289 V8 in it, and the gears had gone out the side of the transfer case. I put a Chevy 250 straight 6 in it, rebuilt the transmission/transfer, replaced brakes, put in a PTO powered winch, and repaired the interior. I wound up giving it to some people who were returning home to Guatemala after the civil war. They needed something that would let them drive all the way there and then be a work truck on the farm after that. Its been 20+ years since I've last seen it but in my mind its still working for them.

[Noel Woods]

Since its going all apart, how about one of those Ford Commercial motors from the Mudd Ox line, NP 205 T/C, IRS front and rear, New venture 5 speed, ARB lockers, 4 wheel steer, exo-cage, etc.

[Nick O.]

Thanks everyone! It seems like everyone has a Willys Jeep story, just like VW Beetles. I'm not going crazy with modifications because that's alot of money and work and money

Alot has happened since my post. I'll list them out:
1. HD shackles for off-road use, the originals were designed pretty sketchy. We hammered some bushings into the frame where the old threads would have went. Then dad and I cut some pieces of steel to make a modern-style shackle with bolts going through plates on both sides. This way the leafs can't slide out when I'm flexing.


2. Installed new rear leafs (no gangsta more lean!) and all new shocks. It took a porta power and dual mallets to get the leafs on; I'll add that to the list of things I never want to do again in my life. It rides like a caddy now! My teeth don't shatter anymore, even sitting on the gas tank!


3. Stripped the body down to get new sheet metal wrap. I finally got to hacksaw that crusty roll bar off, remove old fenders, hood, tailgate, and chop off all chunks of metal sticking out.
4. The state of Indiana declared this road legal!


5. Took the Jeep to the sheet metal guy, filled in the pitted rust on my hood while I waited.


6. Jeep came back in a week in a half. He used aluminum to wrap the outer edges of my body. It was beyond repair for patch panels and not enough bondo in the world, nothing would have made it look this great. He covered the rear section for the military style. I'm extremely happy with how nice this turned out, better than anything I ever expected was possible. This looks so beautiful now, it went from a 75 footer to a 5. My goal is to have the main tub primed up by the end of the weekend; I just need to finish some fabrication and sanding. Painting it green is the itch I haven't been able to scratch for a year

[Andyman]

Coming along nicely Nick

[Don]

Nice work, Nick. I've always loved the old Willys: One of the best no-nonsense, let's-just-get-there-no-matter-what vehicles.

[Nick O.]

Nice work, Nick. I've always loved the old Willys: One of the best no-nonsense, let's-just-get-there-no-matter-what vehicles.

That's right! I can't believe how steep of a hill this thing can climb. Once at Bundy Hill all I could see was the sky, it was terrifying.

I've been working til 2 am more than I'd wish to get this thing on the road. With the new metal over the body, I had to get the rest of the tub up to par. I wanted to make everything look the best possible, even if that meant spending quite a bit of time on the little spots like between the gauges. Once again, it was all worth it!

I used a rust remover disk to get rid of all the nastiness.


Used this awesome grease gun trick to protect the gauges!


With the new metal siding, there were tabs on the top that held it on. I used bondo to fill in between the tabs and make the body look like one full piece.


Priiiiimmmmeerrr!!!!