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'41 Willys Pickup Gasser circa late '60s - Finished


gasser59

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The StraightLine Modelers group is doing a community project of gassers and I wanted to join in on this so here's my build. I picked up a cab body from a SLM member and am using the bed and some of the components from the AMT '40 Willys coupe and pickup kit. As you can see, the bed is taped together for the moment and I'm currently working on the working scratch built straight axle. This will help determine ride height. The picture shows the truck a bit too high at the moment. May need to either re-arch the front leafs or make new ones.

 

Thanks for following along and comments welcome.

 

MockUp1.jpg

 

WorkingSteering1.jpg

Edited by gasser59
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drop the rear for sure the front is close - to get the front correct the center of your engin crank (or bottom pully- harmonic balncer)cant be no higher than 24 mm (or 2 foot in real life) any higher and its a street freek or not track legal.

hope this helps you some.

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drop the rear for sure the front is close - to get the front correct the center of your engin crank (or bottom pully- harmonic balncer)cant be no higher than 24 mm (or 2 foot in real life) any higher and its a street freek or not track legal.

hope this helps you some.

Great info! I always wondered what the difference was. Thanks very much.

The Willys looks like a great project. Looking forward to seeing more.

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Been continuing working on the straight axle and its mostly done. Thought I would share with you how I do this with photos and a brief description.

Below is the rough cut of the steering knuckle cut from 3/16" square aluminum tubing as well as the axle cut from 3/32" OD round tubing with the T in place. The T has had a piece of wire insulation inserted to take up some of the slack once the metal pin is installed at the end.

Knuckle1.jpg

This next pic shows the knuckle cleaned up, rounded off and the holes drilled out for the spindle and the pin. at this point, I've glued in the pin for the spindle tubing. I use X-Acto handles with the two cross slots in the head to hold my drill bits and drill these holes by hand.

Knuckle2.jpg

Up next is the 1/16" aluminum tubing has been added over the metal pin for the spindle.

Knuckle3.jpg

Next, I need to add the steering arm to the knuckle. Again, I use piano wire that has been shaved on the edge of my cut-off wheel on my Dremel Stylus. It also has a slight bend in it that faces away from the knuckle.

Arm1.jpg

Here's the steering arm glued in place with the rod end in place. In this case, I used plastic ends from the parts box, I think they're from a sprint car kit. This plastic piece was drilled out for the steering arm to fit into.

Arm2.jpg

Finally, here's the knuckle in place with a temporary pin holding it in place. Before attaching the knuckles, I used a polishing cloth to shine up the aluminum to resemble chrome. Final piece to make is to make the tie rod that connects the two knuckles together.

Arm3.jpg

Stay tuned and thanks for following along.

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After work, I was able to fabricate the tie rod from stainless stell tubing from RB Motion and another piece of 0.015 diameter piano wire that's bent at the ends to go into the steering arms. The hole in the steering arms were filled with another piece of wire insulation but much thinner. This should allow the wire ends to pivot without coming out.

RadiusRod1.jpg

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A bit more progress over the last couple of days. Front axle is done, the chassis is painted and the Cragars and some of the engine components have gotten a shot of Alclad. I changed all of the tires and am happy with these. The pie crusts were too short for the ride height. Still deciding on an injection system. May go with the Enderle as shown here but it seems a bit out of scale. Its sitting upside down for the picture.

IMG_7312.jpg

As always, comments welcome and thanks for following along.

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After work, I was able to fabricate the tie rod from stainless stell tubing from RB Motion and another piece of 0.015 diameter piano wire that's bent at the ends to go into the steering arms. The hole in the steering arms were filled with another piece of wire insulation but much thinner. This should allow the wire ends to pivot without coming out.

RadiusRod1.jpg

Great Job with the moving parts very nice ingenuity you got going on... Ok, so I have to ask, and maybe this is obvious for others. Me being captain obvious, I just have to ask. LOL :) you bought SS rod from RB motion, why didnt you purchase the Rod Ends and some scale hardware and washers? This way the turning functionality would be butter smooth and not catch when it rotates due to the bent wire.

Edited by eviltwincustoms
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  • Dave Ambrose changed the title to Willys Pickhttp://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/52262-willys-pickup-circa-late-60s-finally-some-paint-pics-1226/up circa late '60s - Finally Some Paint Pics 12/26

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