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OT: Retro Wrangler/Willys Pickup (long)

Better get Macco

When I was looking for a place to get the Scrambler painted it took me 3 months to find a good quality place. I was shot down by one Macco. and the other wanted 2 and a half months. But I finally found an awesome shop. Good luck in your hunt.
 
Challenger said:
When I was looking for a place to get the Scrambler painted it took me 3 months to find a good quality place. I was shot down by one Macco. and the other wanted 2 and a half months. But I finally found an awesome shop. Good luck in your hunt.
Click to expand...

The other nice thing about this shop is that they let me work on the truck in their shop. So today I got there at 8am and I did most of the assembly, while Jamie did the final buffing and undercoating, and helped me lift and position things. After all this time working on the truck solo, it was nice to have help for a change, and really nice that I could work on it in their shop.

Jeff
 
THE TRUCK IS DONE!!!

Well, phase 1 is done. Phase 2, the metal hardtop, will start in a few weeks.

I took a couple of quick photos but don't have time to post them now - got to go for a family dinner out somewhere right now. I'll post photos tomorrow. Sorry!!!

Jeff
 
My wife and I just got back from dinner at a local sports bar; we drove the now completed Retro Wrangler. When we came out of the restaurant, some guy was snapping pictures of the truck :)

Anyway... here's a few shots taken right after I finished assembling the truck this afternoon.

The only thing I haven't done is install the fillers in the roll at the top edge of the bed. Will try to get to them Sunday.

What do you think - do you like it? I LOVE IT!!!!!!
Jeff

RetroWrangler1-1.jpg


RetroWrangler2-1.jpg


RetroWrangler3-1.jpg


RetroWrangler4-1.jpg


RetroWrangler5-1.jpg
 
WOW, what an accomplishment. Are you going to take this out in the snow and salt this winter? I would have to think twice tobring myself to do it with all that hard work, energy and money you have put into it. What the next's project?
 
drscanman said:
WOW, what an accomplishment. Are you going to take this out in the snow and salt this winter? I would have to think twice tobring myself to do it with all that hard work, energy and money you have put into it. What the next's project?
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Thank you very much. :-) Yes, I built it to be a daily driver, year round in upstate NY snow and salt. I'll visit the car wash frequently during the winter.

Next project is phase two of this build - a full metal pickup cab hardtop.

Jeff
 
Wow, just wow. That's SO much cooler than the model... you thought about kill switches/interlocks/alarms? Seriously, that thing's going to draw so much attention I'd be a little worried about the wrong kind of attention after all that work. It's just SO COOL!

jscherb said:
Yes, I built it to be a daily driver, year round in upstate NY snow and salt.
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:eek:
:huh:
:eek:
:huh:
:eek:

Really??? I can't stand that I have to drive my Rubicon in the crap all winter!!! One winter and it's already rusting. :banghead:

Do you have the spare LJ rim to throw on the spare holder? I'm just dying to know what it looks like with a full-size spare. ;)

Awesome work Jeff. Just incredible!
 
BRAVO! (standing now and applauding) BRAVO! Encore, encore

Very nice Jeff, very nice indeed, you need to get it out in front of the public, and more importantly, in front of jeep corporate! Bring it to jeep safari next spring andsimply park it next to the jeep corral.
 
WOW!









WOW!









WOW!

As you can tell, I'm speechless. That is a work of art, a thing of beauty, and without a doubt one of the coolest Jeep trucks EVER! Proportions look perfect, and the fit and finish look perfect too. You can be very proud of yourself for creating such a masterpiece!:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:
 
Thanks guys. Really couldn't have (and wouldn't have) done it without all your support. Can't tell you how much that has meant to me.

bigwalton said:
Wow, just wow. That's SO much cooler than the model... you thought about kill switches/interlocks/alarms? Seriously, that thing's going to draw so much attention I'd be a little worried about the wrong kind of attention after all that work. It's just SO COOL!
Click to expand...

Never thought much about security. I guess I should consider it now.

bigwalton said:
Do you have the spare LJ rim to throw on the spare holder? I'm just dying to know what it looks like with a full-size spare. ;)
Click to expand...

I'll see what I can do. I do have the stock LJ spare still. I'll have to throw a wheel spacer on the spare carrier to support the greater backspace of the LJ wheel over the skinny spare but I can do that. I'll do it next time I take one of the spares off, whenever that happens to be. Might not be soon.

Randyzzz said:
As you can tell, I'm speechless. That is a work of art, a thing of beauty, and without a doubt one of the coolest Jeep trucks EVER! Proportions look perfect, and the fit and finish look perfect too. You can be very proud of yourself for creating such a masterpiece!:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:
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I am proud, but I never thought you'd be speechless! You're always the one with good ideas and suggestions - thanks so much for your help through the build Randy. The tailgate should have your name on it for coming up with the cable idea - Jamie (who has a 46 Chev) thought that mechanism was really cool.

trust said:
You need to get it out in front of the public, and more importantly, in front of jeep corporate! Bring it to jeep safari next spring and simply park it next to the jeep corral.
Click to expand...

What's Jeep Safari? It would be fun to show it off a litte :-)

There's a Jeep show in Pennsylvania today at Jeff Daniels Jeeps, I would love to take it there but I can't because we're taking my daughter to a college interview. Can't even drive it on the trip today because we'll need more than two seats for the trip. Should have built a crew cab pickup?.... Not!

Jeff
 
bigwalton said:
Really??? I can't stand that I have to drive my Rubicon in the crap all winter!!! One winter and it's already rusting. :banghead:
Click to expand...

Not to hijack; but, I have heard great things about Rust Check. Basically a Ziebart type company but the product is considerably thinner (like transmission fluid). It only costs $150 for the first application and $50 every other year for a re-application (at least around here). According to the shop, they even have a warranty...not that I will rely on it. It is what I plan on using for my Scrambler after the tub swap...I figure any protection is worth investigating.
 
Looks incredible. Forgive me, but the only thing that looks out of place (to me) are the steps. Any thoughts to getting an old set of steps from a Willys?
 
Nice Job!

A truely spectacular piece of work!

I haven't been here much lately, & just noticed the thread & the finished (phase 1) product.

(gonna have to read the thread in depth to see how/where you got the truck bed, or whether it was fabricated.)

The end result is awesome!

Copper
 
twmattox said:
Looks incredible. Forgive me, but the only thing that looks out of place (to me) are the steps. Any thoughts to getting an old set of steps from a Willys?
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Thanks. The old Willys pickups didn't have steps. The front fender did have an extension that went to the front of the door (not unlike TJ flare extensions), but you wouldn't step on them.

Right now my wife and kids used the steps to get in so I guess they're on there for a while.

Jeff
 
wow!

That is really a beautiful jeep. You did a great job.

And thanks for all the posting throughout the build. It has been a pleasure watching this come together.
 
jscherb said:
Thanks. The old Willys pickups didn't have steps. The front fender did have an extension that went to the front of the door (not unlike TJ flare extensions), but you wouldn't step on them.

Right now my wife and kids used the steps to get in so I guess they're on there for a while.

Jeff
Click to expand...

Sorry, I was thinking of the Flat-fender CJ Willys.

http://www.jeepdoc.com/catalog/partframe.asp?id=3063

Looks old fashioned and may "blend" better. Something about how thhe TJ steps flares up at the end... Maybe it is just me...Like I said, it looks incredible!!!
 
SurfnCJ8 said:
And thanks for all the posting throughout the build. It has been a pleasure watching this come together.
Click to expand...

Yeah, huge ditto on that... great build thread!
 
bigwalton said:
Yeah, huge ditto on that... great build thread!
Click to expand...

Now I can think about what to do with all the photos, drawings and other content I've developed in the course of the project. Too bad jRations went away, if they were still around I would do a multi-part build article series for them and I'm sure they would publish it.

I could try to write something for JP, but they only seem to be interested in off-road content, big lifts, big tires, etc, so probably they wouldn't publish it.

Maybe an article or series for some other magazine, I wonder who might be interested. The truck doesn't really fit in any category - the various 4WD magazines are mostly off-road oriented; the "street truck" magazines seem mostly interested in big diesels or low riders; the Classic Truck types would find this too new... not sure this is in a category that would fit in any of the magazines. Any ideas?

Maybe I could get a publisher interested in a Build Book with tons of how to on design and fab. Make it a little more general than just the Retro Wrangler, cover all the sheet metal and other fab and build stuff I've learned along the way. I wonder if I could find a publisher for that idea?

Or maybe just forget it.
 
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