Rango.....1942 Willys MB

[mutt550]

Any more idea's and I may be in real trouble, but thanks for the offer. I'll take some pics as I go and will try to do a thread. Main thing I'm gonna get figured out fairly soon is the rear end/gear ratio. The 22r and t90 combo don't like the 36" irocs in high range with the current 4.56's.

So until the regear I'll just finish up some odds and ends. She needs some shock mounts. I have a few other things to finish up that my ocd nature has spotted.

Keep up the good work!! Maybe next spring/summer I can bring the ol girl out yourway and we can ride some trails.

I love it out west!!! Would love to move to Utah in few years when my son is out of college. But that's another story.

 

[Metcalf]

Any more idea's and I may be in real trouble, but thanks for the offer. I'll take some pics as I go and will try to do a thread. Main thing I'm gonna get figured out fairly soon is the rear end/gear ratio. The 22r and t90 combo don't like the 36" irocs in high range with the current 4.56's.

So until the regear I'll just finish up some odds and ends. She needs some shock mounts. I have a few other things to finish up that my ocd nature has spotted.

Keep up the good work!! Maybe next spring/summer I can bring the ol girl out yourway and we can ride some trails.

I love it out west!!! Would love to move to Utah in few years when my son is out of college. But that's another story.

Any idea how they mated a T90 to a toyota engine?

I'm always up for trails....or will be by then Moab is only about 3 hours away for me....I feel SOOOO lucky!

 

[mutt550]

Not sure but will give it some investigation this weekend. All else fails I can call the prior owner, I kept his number in case I come up against something I can't figure out. He build most of the Jeep with off the shelf parts. Just not off the Willys shelf. The disc brakes are all GM stuff. He did some pretty cool stuff using the off the shelf low budget stuff.

The 22r weighs 150pds less than the original 4 cyl and I like the light weight. He was getting ready to do a V6 swap when I bought it. Thats how I ended up with the bellhousing mated to another T90 set up for GM. I didn't want the V6 so he dropped the price down some. I guessed if I was gonna swap out the 22r I was going V8.

But I think I'm just gonna change the rearend out and regear to 5.38s for now. I kinda like the 22r in it for now. Very light and will not tear anything up.

But who knows I may wake up some morning and put the V8 in it.

 

[Metcalf]

I'd keep the 22R for a bit. I would just try and gear it lower and lighten everything up as much as you can. The Dana 60 rear is probably WAY overkill, how about a full float D44 that would match the front? You could do 5.89s pretty easy with D44's front and back. Get a thread going, neat project for sure.

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

I saw this on Pirate last night. Nice job. The fish plates you made for the frame are awesome. Have you sent out the file to anyone yet? I wonder how much the frames differ between the MB and a 3B?

Compliments on the Highline as well.

 

[merlin44]

Awesome build. I, too have an MB that I have planned for years to do a resto mod kind of thing. Had a '57 283 when my dad bought it. I was ten. Drove it a lot of years, and a lot of other MB's, GPW's, Dodge WC Power Wagons and such have come and gone. But that '45 Willys is still in the garage waiting to be put back together.
Seeing yours reminds me that I should build what I have. If I wait for perfection, I'll never get there. Thanks for that inspiration.

When I get to it, I'll post some pics.

By the way. I got a cart caliper and rotor off of Ebay. The caliper looks just like those 89 dollar ones, not the spot caliper, but almost full size, but this was cheap. Should fab up ok, with my T-18/Dana 18. I like the old Danas. So simple to work on.

Later,
Billy

 

[reece146]

I wonder how much the frames differ between the MB and a 3B?

IIRC the 3B and CJ5 more or less share the same frame (i.e. moderately different from the earlier flatties).

 

[Metcalf]

AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!

I got my rear end kicked working on the rear wheel tub!

Cutting out the front section went pretty good. I just used a small cut off wheel on a cordless Dremel for a start point for the jig saw. The front section came out pretty nice. It did take a bit to drill out the spot welds and get everything separated cleanly. I left the top part long so I can trim it to length later once everything else is pushed around.

This is my new little spot weld cutter. This thing is worth is weight in gold! I wish I would have gotten the smaller diameter, but I didn't know how bad the spot welds on the tub where going to be. This is a 3/8" version. A 1/4" version or 5/16" version would have made for less work later.

The rear part of the tub basically kicked my rear end. LOTS of spot welds, including two or three the I had a very hard time finding. I was able to cut the entire thing out in one piece. I didn't cut out the tool box but only removed the spot welds on the sides. This let me rebend the seam on the bottom of the tool box to fit the new tub height and give the tire a little more clearance. The bottom of the tool box is now basically a single angle and 'flat' on the bottom. Its also still big enough to use for some storage, though it is smaller than stock.

Now that everything is moved up I need to fill in all the holes! I need to cut a strip of material for the vertical side and tack weld in the panel flanges again. There will also be 2-3 other small panels on the rear and front that need to go in. Cleaning all the metal up for a decent tack weld is going to be the hard part I think......ick!

On the one hand, it's a cool modification that I hadn't seen done yet. On the other hand....WHAT WAS I THINKING! talk about a lot of work and a total pain in the rear. It will be nice when its all back together and I am sure it will stump a few people....but dang......

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

IIRC the 3B and CJ5 more or less share the same frame (i.e. moderately different from the earlier flatties).

Interesting. Thank you.

 

[jeepdreamer]

spot weld cutters

I found this little guy at harbor freight. For about 6 bucks it does a pretty good job of cutting out spot welds.

 

[Metcalf]

I found this little guy at harbor freight. For about 6 bucks it does a pretty good job of cutting out spot welds.

I thought about getting one of those, but I am really happy I found the one I did. It works flat amazing. All you have to do is center punch the spot weld and go. I will probably pick up a smaller version for my tool box.

 

[mutt550]

Yeah the D 60 is over kill but I have two of them located, both owned by friends which equals cheap. With the 22r I would never break anything that is for sure. Never thought about a full float D 44. Did they come in something with 8 lugs or is this gonna be a build it type rearend?

If it didn't already have the 8 lug set up I would lean towards a d44/9". Guess we'll see what spring brings.

Oh by the way the 22r is joined to the T90 with some sort of plate adapter. Not sure if if it is home brew or store bought. Most everthing is home brew so he may had it machined locally.

As I mess with it more and more I like the lil 22r. Very light, fits good and even looks good under the hood and tough.

Still loving your work!!! Keep it up!!

 

[Metcalf]

Yeah the D 60 is over kill but I have two of them located, both owned by friends which equals cheap. With the 22r I would never break anything that is for sure. Never thought about a full float D 44. Did they come in something with 8 lugs or is this gonna be a build it type rearend?

If it didn't already have the 8 lug set up I would lean towards a d44/9". Guess we'll see what spring brings.

Oh by the way the 22r is joined to the T90 with some sort of plate adapter. Not sure if if it is home brew or store bought. Most everthing is home brew so he may had it machined locally.

As I mess with it more and more I like the lil 22r. Very light, fits good and even looks good under the hood and tough.

Still loving your work!!! Keep it up!!

The D44 8-lug rear would be custom. But could be fairly easy depending on what you started with and what width you needed. I could make my factory D44 rear 8-lug with 3/4 ton GM D44 outer parts fairly easy since they still use the 6-lug spindle.

I think the 22r would make a really decent flat fender motor if you kept the weight down. The key is going to be weight, its not like toyota's are that light, but if you keep the flat fender light you will be more happy with it.

You can adapt an SM420 or SM465 to the 22R with a simple plate adapter also. Its nice that everything is together already, but the T90 is only a fair transmission at best really. You can do the 3.34 1st gear conversion pretty easy for a touch lower gearing.

 

[Metcalf]

I got some cool new gadgets in the mail. Again....how did I live without these!

They are a small sheetmetal but weld clamp. They space the panel .040 apart and pull the edges of the panel up flush. SOOOOOOOO HANDY!

I used them to do this. Its almost like cheating....

Then I did the front section after I cut it down. I ended up with a odd gap on the top edge, but not wide enough that I couldn't weld it. It was like I was trying to pull the panel in three directions at once.

This is how its sitting now. I still need to make the three small patch panels but overall it came together pretty decent so far. Those little clamps make it feel like you have about ten hands!

So why go to all this trouble? Well a 36" tire will now fit in the rear tub no problem. There is about 2-3" over the 'tire' at this point. I have plenty of room to trim the outside arch also. I need to come up with a good shape for the wheel arch. Getting the toolbox out of the way really helped! It's still fair sized also. I should be able to store a decent amount of kit in there in the end.....

 

[locrwln]

Wow. :sombrero:

Jack