12-04-2010 09:18 AM #1

roadster32
CHR Member

Join Date

Apr 2009

Location

watford

Car Year, Make, Model: 26T Coupe, 32 Roadster, 41 Willys Coupe

Posts

2,363

41 Willys Gasser project

I hope this of some interest. It will be a 60's style Gasser

Due to the high cost of Willys replacement parts I will be using a mesh grill which will save me a bundle and i will fabricate expensive items like the door handles etc myself.

I recently finally got my first body out of my 1941 Willys moulds, Its taken 2 years to finally be able to produce a first class body, the moulds were taken off an american body but that wasn't completely right so a lot of work has gone into the mould to correct what was wrong.

The doors and trunklid are made as seperate panels as its much easier to hinge and latch the inner skin and add the window winder mechanisms and then bond the out skin in place when all is done

Here's the first body out

I needed to have a rolling body and frame for display at next years shows so this was just the excuse i needed to start putting something together

Parts list so far is

GRP 41 Willys bodyshell
1948-58 FX3 Taxi chassis
Cadillac 500ci engine/TH400 auto
9" Ford axle
4.5" original Ansen slot mags (front) 5 x 4.75" pattern
8.5" original Ansen slot mags (rear) 5 x 4.75" pattern

I will be starting with an 1948-1958 Austin FX3 Taxi chassis, its pretty much perfect except for one small mod to the wheelbase which currently is 110" and will be shortened to 102" by sectioning the frame in the centre, I went with the FX3 frame as it came up at the right time and the right price, is already boxed, and is actually quite old looking and quite pleasing to the eye, It will also save me a lot of time

The chassis is currently being media blasted and i hope to get it back in a few days when i will get it on the chassis table and check for squareness.

Heres a couple of small pics

I will be using the front I beam axle and springs but not the steering box as this will be LHD , A Land Rover RHD box looks like it will do the job nicely or maybe Vega cross steering.
The rear axle is not being used either so will be using a narrowed 9". The Taxi axle actually looked like a Westminster axle although i can't be sure.

The front beam is forged and doesn't look unlike the original Willys axle to honest, Its quite a nice looking thing with just a few lumps and bumps that can be ground off. I will also be drilling it.
The front semi elliptics should cope with the added weight of the V8 Cadillac 500 i'm using as its a little further back than the 2.5 oil burner, If its a problem its easy to add leaves or get the springs uprated.

Frontend width appears to be ideal at 57-59" measured from centre of tyre to centre of the other tyre, this one is 58.5", this puts the tyre on my 4.5" Ansens in the centre of the crown of the front fender.

I'm gonna deal with the front axle first, This is a near perfect width at 50" between the kingpins, The stock rod operated brake obviously had to go along with the spindles, the spindles could be modified to accept other brakes/hubs but i found with a simple mod and spacer 37-41 early Ford spindles will fit a treat and allow the fitting of either 40 Ford or F100 drum brakes or if you wish a 11" GM brake kit.

The main mod is with the kingpins, on the FX3 axle the kingpins measure 0.875" the Early ford measure 0.811", The mod will be to drill out the axle boss to 1" and then ream to accept a sleeve to take it down to the ford kingpin size.

There is also a difference in the axle boss thickness, The FX3 is 2.152" whereas the Ford spindles are 2.914", A spacer approx .250" will take up the extra space and if fitted below the axle boss will give a little extra lift to the frontend

The kingpin angle is the same on both so we got pretty lucky there

.

Last edited by roadster32; 03-20-2011 at 09:51 AM.

ManMadeLegends likes this.

Its aweful lonesome in the saddle since my horse died.

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