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OT: Retro Wrangler/Willys Pickup (long)

jscherb said:
This morning I got the body work on the hardtop to about 90 percent. Just a couple more hours of final perfecting of a few details and it will be ready to go to paint.

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Its funny--I have patience for sooo many things---when it comes to that type of body work--I am more likely to say screw it and throw it into the weeds..
Nice work :cool:
 
crash said:
Its funny--I have patience for sooo many things---when it comes to that type of body work--I am more likely to say screw it and throw it into the weeds..
Nice work :cool:
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Thanks. I try to pace myself. I set a reasonable goal that can be achieved in maybe 3 hours for the day's work session, and I stop and declare success when I've achieved that goal. Then I set a new goal for the next day and start again fresh.

If I went at it without intermediate goals and breaks until the thing was done I'd be sure to compromise on quality because I'd get tired of working on it.

That's why I got it to 90% the other day and stopped for the day. If I worked longer that day, I probably would have stopped short of my ultimate quality goal saying it was "good enough", but rather than keep working when I was tired I stopped. I look at it this way - if someone made me a gift of a top like this that was 90% ready, I'd certainly have the patience to do the next 5%. Since all the rest of the work I've done on this top is in the past, starting a new day for the last 5% is just like that gift. :)

Maybe all of that sounds goofy, but it is how I manage my own patience and frustration to achive the level of quality I'm after, especially when I've got to do tasks that I don't particularly enjoy, like sanding body filler.
 
Here's a little project from this morning, part of getting it from 90% to 95%... over the course of the years the drip rail had gotten damaged a little and removing the damage created a 3/32" dip in the top edge at one point, (photo 1, I've used my straightedge and a yellow card so you can see the problem). I had left this to the end because it wasn't until yesterday that I decided on a good way to repair it. This really needed to be fixed, it would definitely be noticeable in final paint.

I'm preparing to plug weld a narrow strip of 20-ga. steel to the back of the drip rail to establish a new upper edge. I've drilled holes in the drip rail for the plug welds (photos 1 and 2) and I've used Cleco clamps to hold the strip in place for welding (photo 2).

In photo 3 I'm welding, clamping a piece of copper sheet behind the repair piece so the welding doesn't don't blow through the thin repair strip. I move the copper for each hole.

The fourth photo shows the welds done, and in the fifth photo the welds are ground flush. In the fifth photo you can see I'll need to do a tiny bit of filler work to fill between the top of the damaged drip rail and the new backer piece, it's a little hard to see in this photo.

The last photo, also bit hard to see, it is filled and rough sanded. When this is finished and painted, and the drip rail has been refilled with drip rail putty, you won't be able to tell it was repaired.

All that's left to do before it goes to the body shop is a final close inspection of the entire top and smoothing of any imperfections I find in the body work, also some seam sealer on some of the inside joints where I've welded panels together. I'll get all that done Monday morning. Probably will drop it off at the body shop Tuesday for final prep and painting.

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I spent another two hours this morning getting the bodywork as perfect as I could, and doing some seam sealer on the interior panel joints, so the parts are now ready to body shop tomorrow. They'll get them from 95% to 100% and then paint them. Here I'm giving them a final wash to get all the dust off...

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Parts have been delivered to the body shop for finishing and painting. They really liked the upper door jambs, wanted to know if I made them from scratch :)

They said their first step will be to do a layer of epoxy hi-build primer over all the parts, then they'd do their finish body work on top of that, they don't think the parts will need too much finish work.

Today I also wired a new satellite antenna extension cable in the truck so I can either use the stock antenna on the roll bar with the soft top or my new antenna outside the cab for the hardtop. All of the other wiring for the hardtop is in the truck, done and tested: CHMSL, bed light and overhead console; the hardtop will just plug right in when it's done.

All I've got left to do is paint a few parts black - the headliner channels and the satellite antenna mount, and do a little restoration/clean-up on the rear window. That's it, other than waiting for the body shop to finish. When they're done it'll be a pretty quick assembly and install job.

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twmattox said:
Ok, so what is Phase III???
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After driving it for quite a few miles now, I'm extremely happy with it, it really is pretty much perfect for me, so there's really nothing I want to do to it that could qualify for a "phase 3". But there are two things I did to my Scrambler that I miss on this one:

- Leather upholstery. These dark gray/black fabric LJ seats show every but of dust and dirt and never really look nice. I reupholstered a set of YJ seats in leather for my Scrambler, and four years later they still look great. So I may be doing some reupholstering soon. Photo of the YJ seats in the CJ8 below.

- You might thing this one is silly - an electric lock on the bed box. I use the bed box (the "trunk") all the time, and I always forget to lock it. I was always doing the same thing with my World Cab rear door - forgetting to lock it, so I put an electric lock actuator in the rear door, controlled by a switch under the dash. I have a spare actuator from when I did that project, so I'm thinking of installing it in the bed box.


But I am starting to think about whether I should do another "big project" of the same or larger magnitude as the Retro Wrangler. Last night's fantasy thought was restoring a Willys Wagon body on a modern frame, perhaps a TJ frame, or maybe an S-10. My really wild project idea is to go to India, buy a Mahindra Marshall (photo below), strip it and ship only the body back here to build a sort of retro-Dakar on a Wrangler chassis - remember the Wrangler-based 4-door Dakar concept Jeep did a while back?

But I really don't know what I want to do for a next project, or even if I want to do one. The Retro Wrangler project idea was hatched when Eric offered me the CJ-10 hardtop he had, so I'm open to suggestions... (or offers of interesting stuff I could customize into my next project :)

YJSEATS.JPG


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I know what the next phase is: ladder/utility rack :evil:

After that the next big project should be a TJ with that -7 World Cab..... oh, wait ;)

I've seen a couple crew cab Jeep pickups done using old Wagoneers/J-trucks that I REALLY liked. Maybe you could make the Retro Wrangler a bigger brother and do it the other way, make an old vehicle look like it was built today. :thumbsup:
 
bigwalton said:
I know what the next phase is: ladder/utility rack :evil:

After that the next big project should be a TJ with that -7 World Cab..... oh, wait ;)

I've seen a couple crew cab Jeep pickups done using old Wagoneers/J-trucks that I REALLY liked. Maybe you could make the Retro Wrangler a bigger brother and do it the other way, make an old vehicle look like it was built today. :thumbsup:
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Yeah, I started tweaking the Willys ladder rack to work on the truck but got distracted by something else and never got back to it. I'll probably do it when the warm weather comes, it is just tall enough that I can't lift it high enough inside my garage to get the stakes in the stake pockets.

Hey all the -7 WC parts still exist and are unmolested, except the roof panel. I've sold all of the parts except the rear barn door to someone who plans to reconstruct a complete hardtop for an -8 out of them. I hope he starts a thread on that project!

I've seen the "crew cab" FSJ's too, they do look pretty cool. The factory should have built them. I'm just not into FSJ's enough to make project out of one.
 
I would vote for the Mahindra Marshall, but a Wagon would be cool too.

Maybe you could turn a Wagon into a four door like this and save yourself the trip to India.
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jscherb said:
My really wild project idea is to go to India, buy a Mahindra Marshall (photo below), strip it and ship only the body back...
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I'm heading there at the end of next month, I think. Dinner?
 
I've always wanted a Willys wagon. Perfect base project was for sale here recently, had to pass on it... killed me. Kate even liked it :banghead:
 
mssldn said:
I would vote for the Mahindra Marshall, but a Wagon would be cool too.

Maybe you could turn a Wagon into a four door like this and save yourself the trip to India.
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But I really like visiting India! Been there dozens of times in the course of my last job. Lots of good friends there. My wife is very down on travel to India right now, too much terrorism going on - there's more than you hear on the news, smaller stuff that doesn't get reported here, I hear from my friends. So I'd have a hard time convincing her I should go there to get a Mahindra right now, I guess that project idea will have to wait a while.

There is a Willys wagon in the Pick N Pull right now, maybe I'll make some measurements to fuel my imagination.
 
I think the Full Size Jeeps (older Cherokees, Wagonneers, J-Trucks) are incredibly cool and can be easily modified into something neat. Also, I love the underplayed Jeep brother...the AMC Eagle. Used lots of Jeep parts and has a pretty cool stance. The SX/4 would be a cool build too.

On a side note, I was just being a ornery when I was asking about Phase III...I had just hopped out of my Scrambler and the rusted windshield frame, non functional wipers, and recent ice storm must have bunched up my underwear. You make me soo soooo jealous...
 
jscherb said:
There is a Willys wagon in the Pick N Pull right now, maybe I'll make some measurements to fuel my imagination.
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Go for it, I think we all enjoy your well thought out ideas and drawings.
 
mssldn said:
Go for it, I think we all enjoy your well thought out ideas and drawings.
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This isn't well thought out... but the Willys does have the same WB as the LJ - 104.5". The firewall on the LJ is further back, so you'd have to modify the Willys firewall. If you didn't care about keeping it all Jeep, you could do it on a shortened S-10 frame a lot more cheaply because you could buy an older S-10, and probably without modifying the firewall, due to the S-10's shorter V-6...

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bigwalton said:
I've always wanted a Willys wagon. Perfect base project was for sale here recently, had to pass on it... killed me. Kate even liked it :banghead:
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Eric, I can solve your problem... buy the Willys, put it on a trailer, tow it to my house with the LJ, and we'll put 'em together...
 
jscherb said:
Eric, I can solve your problem... buy the Willys, put it on a trailer, tow it to my house with the LJ, and we'll put 'em together...
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Now that is just not fair :eek: :(

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I'd love that! I'll get right on it :banghead:

That would be so great... could we make it happen in a long weekend?
 
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