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OT: Retro Wrangler/Willys Pickup (long)

Doesn't he just look right at home behind the wheel?

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My wife won't drive it, which is why Eric is the only other person who has... she's afraid of scratching it but more than that she also hates the attention you get when you drive it. She thinks it's strange how people come up to you to ask you questions about it wherever you park it. Eric suggested I print up a FAQ flyer for her to hand out :)

It was really great to meet Eric and "talk Jeeps" for a while over lunch. Really nice job on the postal suspension by the way. Next we'll have to get our two World Cabs together for a family photo (if yours ever comes out of the basement again) :)

Jeff
 
Excellent! :thumbsup:

Thanks again for the generous offer to drive it!
 
Today I pulled the soft top off to do some work on the hard top and I realized I've never posted photos of the completed truck without the top. So here are some. It was warm enough here to drive it around without the top, enjoyed that a lot. :)

Also took the truck for state inspection today, you may recall me writing that all of the changes to the truck did not invalidate the current inspection sticker. Hard to believe but true. Anyway, it was due for state inspection in November, so got that done today. Other than the incredulous looks from the guys doing the inspection, it was a non-event. Passed with no trouble.

Jeff

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jscherb said:
Hey Trust,
How much is there to do at Jeep Safari if you're not planning on doing the hard-core off-roading? I've been thinking about a long road trip in the truck in the spring, maybe Jeep Safari would be a good destination.
Jeff
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There are trails from mild to stupid there if you want to explore, on Thursday, and more so on Friday, there is a very large vendor display, actually some vendors are there all week but the major expo like show is Good Friday. Arches National Park is immediately outside town, Canyonlands is nearby, the La Sal Loop is a pretty drive, RW could do the Black Dragon Petroglyphs without issue, in short, there is plenty. The first year I went to safari I was in a stock 200k mile MJ with (unknown to me) no 4x4, still had fun.

If you decide to make the trek decide quickly and make your plans, February is probably to late for hotel or campground space, in fact January may be as well. Also, Please let me know if you do come and what stuff you might be interested in and I'll figure out some appropriate stuff and/or find seats for some of the trails if you don't want to take the RW on.
 
Why incredulous looks???

You should throw the door surrounds on there without the top to help support the upper part of the door. I always forget when I pull the hard top on the LJ that first time in the spring until I notice the top of the door vibrating over bumps in the road or go to put the soft top on.
 
bigwalton said:
Why incredulous looks???

You should throw the door surrounds on there without the top to help support the upper part of the door. I always forget when I pull the hard top on the LJ that first time in the spring until I notice the top of the door vibrating over bumps in the road or go to put the soft top on.
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Incredulous looks because they've never seen one before and they didn't believe I built it?

Yes, I had the surrounds on when I was driving it, but they were off by the time I realized I should take a few pictures.
 
trust said:
There are trails from mild to stupid there if you want to explore, on Thursday, and more so on Friday, there is a very large vendor display, actually some vendors are there all week but the major expo like show is Good Friday. Arches National Park is immediately outside town, Canyonlands is nearby, the La Sal Loop is a pretty drive, RW could do the Black Dragon Petroglyphs without issue, in short, there is plenty. The first year I went to safari I was in a stock 200k mile MJ with (unknown to me) no 4x4, still had fun.

If you decide to make the trek decide quickly and make your plans, February is probably to late for hotel or campground space, in fact January may be as well. Also, Please let me know if you do come and what stuff you might be interested in and I'll figure out some appropriate stuff and/or find seats for some of the trails if you don't want to take the RW on.
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Thanks... might be a scheduling problem, my kids are out of school from Good Friday on, so I'd probably have to be back by Saturday at the latest, and it's a three day drive back, meaning I could only stay until Wednesday morning. Timing might not work. :(
 
I promised Eric the next time I took one of the spares off, I would throw on a full size spare and post some pics.

The spare in this photo is a 30 x 9.50 - 15, the stock size for the Unlimited. It's still a little smaller than the tires I'm running, which are 265/70-16's (32").

30's fit fine on the spare carrier, it looks like it's hitting the fender in these photos but it isn't; there's about 1/2" clearance. I had to throw a spacer on the spare carrier to push out the mounting surface far enough to mount the deeper wheel, but overall it doesn't stick out too far. Maybe 2" past the fender.

An even larger spare could be mounted by moving the spare carrier up an inch on the side of the bed.

Overall it looks better than I thought it would.

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That's what I'm talking about!

If you look back at this picture, you'll notice that the matching spare pushes out past the fender and I don't think it looks bad at all:

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I think it looks way cool with the matching rim :thumbsup: But of course you knew I'd say that.
 
I like looks of the matching rim MUCH better than the black-out tire cover on a donut spare, but 2 thoughts:

What's the clearance between the spare and the cab? Looks close in the pics.

In the pics and from what I've seen, the old trucks only had one spare, on the driver's side. Why two spares on yours?

By the way, if I haven't said it already, I'll join the chorus. AMAZING WORK!!:bow:
 
OK guys, don't go ganging up on me now. I don't have any plans to change to full-size spares, I only did this photo to satisfy Eric's curiosity.

There is a tiny bit of clearance between the spare and the cab, but perhaps a slightly thicker spacer to move the tire out would be better. Maybe another 1/2" or so.

I've seen a few old Willys with two spares; I'm sure they never came from the factory that way, but I just decided to do it anyway. I was wavering between mounting the second spare on the passenger side or mounting a jerry can there. I can always mount a jerry can on the same mounting holes if I get tired of the second spare.

I'm starting to work again on the hardtop parts so I can finalize my plans there; spent some time mocking up the CJ-10 and CJ-7 World Cab parts and measuring this morning. Maybe some photos soon.
 
I like the look of the full sized spare also!
 
jscherb said:
Thanks... might be a scheduling problem, my kids are out of school from Good Friday on, so I'd probably have to be back by Saturday at the latest, and it's a three day drive back, meaning I could only stay until Wednesday morning. Timing might not work. :(
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That's to bad unless you could take them out of school a few days early and bring them along and head back Sunday or Monday or just let them know that you want some alone time and you'lll be home Monday/Tuesday-ish for the balance of their break. It would be a shame to leave early enough to get back by Saturday though unless you just want the Jeep corporate folks and the magazine guys to see the RW. Leaving WEdnesday you'd miss alot of the festivities and half the people would miss seeing you.

Safari has always been tied to Easter and is likely to remain so for the next few years despite some grumblings of moving to a specific set of dates to avoid the occasional early Easter and winter weather.

I am not an event fan, I generally avoid them like the plague, but I do make Safari, although I generally avoid the weekday safari trails, for a couple of reasons, 1) to visit old friends I don't see any other time, 2) to see the vendor show, and 3) the Big Saturday parade out of town, everyone needs to see that once in their life.
 
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I am with you on the smaller spare... I prefer that look over the full size. To me the full size just seems too beefy and detracts from the overall look...
 
jscherb said:
I've seen a few old Willys with two spares; I'm sure they never came from the factory that way, but I just decided to do it anyway. I was wavering between mounting the second spare on the passenger side or mounting a jerry can there. I can always mount a jerry can on the same mounting holes if I get tired of the second spare.
Click to expand...

Coincidentally, there's a Willys on eBay right now with spare carriers on both sides (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Will...ryZ6470QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem), but they don't look factory. (A hint could be the supporting bars of the spare carrier are made from rebar :) ).

It also has a jerry can on the bedside. I've toyed with putting on one mine, either in place of the second spare as I mentioned, or in the same location as on this Willys, but since it would really only be "for looks", I can't bring myself to do it :)
 
Phase 2 started - World Cab hardtop construction

Today I started phase 2, which is all about fabricating a full metal hardtop out of CJ-7 and CJ-10 World Cab sheet metal.

The first photo below simulates what the shape of the finished product will be. I stuck the components on the truck and used Paint Shop Pro to "cut" the top panel from it's CJ-7 length down to the size I need. I haven't cut the actual sheet metal yet, will do that within the next few days.

The rear and side walls are from a CJ-10 World Cab; I've lengthened the sides to fit the longer Brute cab closeout. I did this some months ago, that's all documented earlier in the thread.

Today I worked on the first challenge: mating the CJ-7 roof panel to the TJ windshield - they have different profiles, different gaskets and different methods of attaching, as I'm sure you all know. My solution is shown in the other two photos below.

It might be a little hard to see, but what I've done is mounted a Bestop Sunrider soft top header inside the CJ-7 roof panel. On the front there are four sheet metal tabs that slip into the slot in the header where the soft top fabric would normally go. The back of the header is supported by a piece of sheet metal that used to form part of the mounting of the top to the CJ-7 windshield. I've moved it and reshaped it a bit for this application. Nothing is permanently attached yet; I'll probably do that tomorrow with a combination of welding and body panel adhesive.

I've got a little more tweaking and cleanup to do, but it works very well already. It latches securely to the windshield, and it appears that it forms a nice weathertight seal.

The final photo below shows the work in progress pickup World Cab in front of my CJ-8 World Cab. :)

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