Thread: 41 Willys Gasser project

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Great design and then you go and build it. I have to admit that watching your projects come together I wonder why some car manufacturer hasn't brought you in to fix a few problems most cars built today have.

Thanks Rick.

Short video of doors working







I'm all excited this morning as my rear tyres turned up, they are 900 x 15 Mickey Thomson pie crusts, 32" tall, I think a bit of trimming is needed on the rear arches







Its just started pissing down again !!!

Steve, I was going to crack some joke about you going overboard on door lightning, but decided against it.


Slicks look great. Where did you find those? I like them better than my Firestones and I bet they hook up better too.

Don

Got them from Rick at Radir Wheels Don, they sell a few different sizes, have a look here Welcome to Radir Wheels!

Well i sort of wasted a few hours last night modifying a Beetle winding mechanism to work in the Willys drivers door, Got it all done and dusted and realised i had done the passenger side got to wait till monday now for some more to arrive

The beetle unit is really good and adaptable but needs modifying if the window travel is over 15" but its very easy to do, heres how i do it , It takes about 1.5-2hrs to do each side.

This is where i cut and extend, I use an old unit cut up for bits.









I slice the end off at the slot in the split tube








Then a piece is cut from an old unit for the extension









Everything is clamped to a piece of angle to keep it aligned, the surface needs to be ground clean for welding, Its not nice stuff to weld even when ground.








Here its welded and smoothed out, the joint needs to be smooth for the plastic runner to slide over it.








Next job was to move the winding gear, the rivets holding it together were drilled out and the gear housing split into 2 halves.









Then you just recut the slot that the gear sits in wherever else you need it. Cut with the cable removed.









Then reassemble, final tweaking can be done by carefully bending the tube the cable runs in.









A piece of plastic tube is slid over the end to keep the inner cable clean.







Heres the completed modified mechanism ready to bolt in.

I did that on my 38 Chevy but used power for up and down. I'd forgotten about that NICE job

Cheers Charlie, they work real nice, didn't want power windows in a retro car, there is something nice about winding the window up or am I just weird !!!

Thanks for the mods tip. This is the stuff that makes this such a great thread to follow.

Originally Posted by roadster32

Cheers Charlie, they work real nice, didn't want power windows in a retro car, there is something nice about winding the window up or am I just weird !!!

The way we work on these things may be we'er all a little weird

:lol::lol::lol:

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Steve, I was going to crack some joke about you going overboard on door lightning, but decided against it. Don

And I was gonna make some wise _ _ _ remark about gravity pullin' the door open on that angle but, after the wife slapped me upside the head.. it all makes perfect sense now! 8-)

Weathers been nice the last few evenings so managed to get the windows sorted, The winding mechanisms turned up on monday so that gave me the chance to make up a 3/16" ply window template and then i could install the winders.










The next morning the acrylic i ordered for my windows turned up, I ordered this from Trent plastics on saturday morning and it arrived tuesday am, excellent service i thought.

The ply was removed and used for the template, this acrylic is so easy to cut with a jigsaw, it onlys requires a light sanding to acheive a perfect edge, also drills real well and clean.

I went with 5mm (3/16") as the only other choice was 3mm which was too flexible. colour is orange.

For window channel i used the universal cloth covered stuff, it comes in a coil and is simple to bend to shape and is fairly rigid, this is held in place with polyeurathane adhesieve sealant once the doors are painted, at the moment its only held in place by the 2 aluminium sections i made up, they are bolted to the steel tube frame.










The window channel that holds the bottom of the window was a pair i had hanging around, havn't a clue what they are from but they could also be easily fabbed as they are just a U section with a couple of brackets welded on.








Cut out the acrylic window and bolted it into place with some small 5mm button head bolts & nylok nuts.












They are all dry fitted at the moment but wind up & down real nice and smooth, with a bit of use they should bed in nicely. heres a short video of them in operation.

It must be nice having a good looking model within arm's length. Those roll up and down nicely. Orange is perfect gasser color for the windows. Are you going to do the windscreen and back glass also in orange?

Don

You old charmer Don
Yes back windows also orange but not the screen, It has to be clear here to be legal, They are pretty hot on it too.