Scratchbuilt 33' Willy's (mostly)

[Codi]

Hi,

I just posted for the first time under WIP my Twin turbo Henry J and thought I'd share my finished 33' Willys. It was an AMT kit (1/25th scale) and I attempted to scratchbuild as much as possible on the car. My goal was to do a modern interpertation of a hot rod I'd like to own. Boss 429 with a Barry Grant "badman" carb coverted to EFI. The trans is a T-56. Independent front suspension with shocks mounted inboard and IRS done up "Jag" style. The chassis was my first attempt at soldering anything. I was pleased and it was fun to work with the metal. I modified the body substantially. Removed the rear fenders, opened the trunk while removing the spare tire detent. The trunk hinges are MAS units. The entire interior, floor, trunk, trans tunnel, firewall, radiator and supports,exhaust, driveshaft, (I know I'm forgetting some items here) are all in real aluminum. The The brakes are DM and have brakebleeders too. The master cylinder and pro-valve are scratchbuilt. The grille is a DM PEtch 34' Ford. The wheels are Micro nitro with parts box knock-offs and ProTech valve stems. The windshield frame is pounded / shaped aluminum rod and the roof panel insert is scratch from aluminum. Can you tell I like aluminum? It took 2 weeks to get the entire throttle linkage fabbed and has return springs etc. I enlarged the fuel tank and made the battery box of drilled/fabbed aluminum. The entire car is wired for brakes, water, electric, fuel and oil. The dipstick works and the starter / solenoid are properly wired. The firing order is correct & the block has replicated freeze plug along with an engine ground strap. The motor mounts are modified PE pieces from the parts bin. The steering rack passes through the frame (it can be done, I researched 1:1 cars). The halibrand rear and Jag IRS comprise more than 300+ bits and pieces alone as I stopped counting once I got to 300. The rear hub carriers were fabbed from solid aluminum stock and drilled to accept the threaded nuts/bolts. There are pics of the before / after on my FOTKI page. Each RB Motion shock (6) was modified to be a threaded collar adjustable piece. The steering is poseable. This is my 2nd completed car since I took the hobby up after a 40 year sabbatical. I really wanted to stretch myself on this build. It took me 1000+ hours over a year and a half to build with a LOT of trial and error in the construction. I did all the construction by hand (I just got a mill but didn't get to use it on this car) with my trusty dremel & jewelers drill press. Comments are always welcome and thanks to all of the builders that frequent this forum as I've learned a lot since returning to the hobby from all of you.

You can find many more pics of this build at this Fotki link: http://public.fotki.com/Steppenwolf56/my-first-album/

[peter31a]

Wow! That is gorgeous! What a great piece of engineering and model building. Kudos!

[peekay]

Truly spectacular! If I hadn't recognized the tyres I'd have sworn this was 1.12th or bigger. Fantastic!

[Dyno Davo]

Simply stunning. The scale engineering is a sight to behold.

[wayne swayze]

Wow! That is gorgeous! What a great piece of engineering and model building. Kudos!

X2!!

[weasel]

hmmm, a Willys with no fenders... I may or may not 'borrow' yer idea...lol

[donb]

WOW! WOW! and WOW!

[southpier]

only two, huh?

slacker.

[Jordan 191]

That's art!

[my80malibu]

Beautiful The Framework is spectacular, the entire car is amazing too.

[fractalign]

That is awesome, definitely one of the nicest build I have seen !

[Codi]

Whoa, I'm very happy to see you guys like my build, especially the fact that you can see and appreciate the engineering that went into it. Your comments have made that 18 months of building all worthwhile. At somepoint I'll get to NNL East or the Sept. Showdown in Eastern Pa. to show some of my builds. Hopefully I will get to meet some of you at show in the future. Again, my sincerest thanks!

[Jade043]

Man that's a work of art! Awesome build

[Metalmad]

Stunning Build !

[carcrazy19]

HOLY BLEEP!!! This is just amazing, the fab work, detail, and paint its all just brilliant. GREAT JOB. I hope that I can learn to build like that some day.

[DeeCee]

Man that's a work of art! Awesome build

I second that, INCREDIBLE work.

[unclescott58]

Nice work. Great detail.

Scott

[my80malibu]

Whoa, I'm very happy to see you guys like my build, especially the fact that you can see and appreciate the engineering that went into it. Your comments have made that 18 months of building all worthwhile. At somepoint I'll get to NNL East or the Sept. Showdown in Eastern Pa. to show some of my builds. Hopefully I will get to meet some of you at show in the future. Again, my sincerest thanks!

Until then you could post more, Pictures of the other Cars You have built. We are Not shy We will look at them.

Edited August 18, 2014 by my80malibu

[blunc]

that is a beautifully engineered and executed build. You should consider taking it to the GSLMCC.

Can you post more close detail shots of the motor please?

I have only one "rivet" to suggest on future builds, I figure a few builders will roll their eyes at this but there are a few that won't...

Admittedly this is a mechanical "real world" issue but since it looks like you're going for real world detail here is the issue I noticed:

"universal joint timing", it's making sure the universal joints on both ends of a rotating shaft are properly aligned. in real world application failure to do this will cause vibration, wobble and u-joint failure.

Edited August 18, 2014 by blunc

[Art Laski]

You killed it! Masterful work. It really is beautiful,

Art

[10thumbs]

Tim, your model is just amazing and I personally have never seen anything like it.

If you don't mind, i have a couple of questions;

1. Where did you get the material for the frame? Hobby Shop, or from a 1:1 workplace? Electric or flame soldered?

2. Front suspension, I've seen nice coil over shocks on websites, but I haven't found any A arms or anything that compares to what you show here. Did you fabricate all of the pieces?

Thanks for showing us this masterpiece! I will keep this as my A-Number One reference.

Michael

[slusher]

Amazing model and work

[Codi]

Hi Mike, Thanks for your positive comments AND your note on the driveshaft. I missed that one and will note it on future builds. I've posted some more pics from my Fotki account. I have over 300 pics of the car in various stages of construction. Please visit and let me know what you think.. I did pick some added photos for you to check out. There is one of my "handcrafted" aluminum rear hub carriers. Just my trusty dremel & files. Cheers,Tim

[58 Impala]

Wow, amazing work. I've accumulated some brass and soldering equipment wanting to jump into brass fabrication. Your work is very inspiring. What size tube did you use for the framerails? Also,what type solder do you prefer to use?

[Codi]

I'd like to reply to the following:

Gilbert...thanks for your comments and I'll post some pics of my 66' Mustang Fastback that is under glass later this week. It was my first build after 40 years away from building and it was a tough build in so many ways as I had so much to learn again.

Michael:

a. The brass/aluminum were purchased at Kranzels Hobby Shop in Lemoyne, Pa. and also my local hardware store. Hard to find sizes/materials were purchased from Caboose Hobbies.

b. I use tix silver solder and an American Beauty resistance soldering setup. It's great for the tiny / hard to solder areas.

c. The a arms were fabbed from brass tube and the "rocker arms" were fabbed from some misc. MAS photoetch pieces.

Tom: Tix solder and the main framerails are tapered 3/16th" brass rectangular tube which I had to shape and then fill in with solder at the ends of framerails. The drilled support rails are the same. Various sizes were used to do crossmembers etc. The front shock / rocker towers are 3/16th SOLID brass that were shaped by hand and then drilled / cut to accept the PE rockers.

Hope this helps. Tim