Rango.....1942 Willys MB

[Metcalf]

Welding up circular holes sucks....

I got all the speed holes in one frame rail welded. That was much harder than I would have thought. Welding around in a circle is not easy at all! Overall they are decent and will hold together, but they are not what I would call pretty!

I took a picture or two of the engine compartment making some mental notes on stuff. Boy, there really isn't a lot of room. The engine was also installed a little offset at an angle by the previous owner. It always worked fine. I am going to shoot for 1.25" to the drivers side and go from there.

There is a little more room with the air cleaner than I thought, but not a ton. the air cleaner has a slight raise in the base that could go away with a little work. The air cleaner is about as small as I would want to run. The carb has a 1/2" thick adapter under it also that might be able to be redone?

That is a really bad view of the steering shaft joint at the column. It is VERY close to the drivers side exhaust manifold! With the new lower seating position the steering column angle needs to change (down at the steering wheel. I think lifting the motor will give enough room to work around. The column connection at the dash needs to be redone also. The steering box pull is also pretty dang close to the drivers side inner fender.

I will do a little more tomorrow. My search for some 1.75x1/8 flat bar is still ongoing....

 

[locrwln]

That frame turned out great. It has to be waaay stronger and straighter than the original even when it rolled of the assembly line. I'm sure the welding was tedious. Looking forward to the rest of the build.

Jack

 

[Metcalf]

Thank you. My original frame was just too tired to mess with. Once I decided I wanted to stretch the wheel base a touch and change to 'rear' springs at all four corners the old frame just wasn't worth working with.

At that point I started looking at new 'factory' style frames and aftermarket frames. Once I got the price tag on those I decided to build my own

 

[reece146]

There is a little more room with the air cleaner than I thought, but not a ton. the air cleaner has a slight raise in the base that could go away with a little work. The air cleaner is about as small as I would want to run. The carb has a 1/2" thick adapter under it also that might be able to be redone?

Me and a bud messed around with putting a SBC in a euro Ford Capri back in the early 80s. I remember there was a problem with the air cleaner height and he used a special low profile air cleaner that was recessed on the bottom side. They probably still make it. The make and vendor are long lost in the mists of time but google might be useful.

There's obvious restriction problems going that method but hey, if it works.

You could also use a small snorkel style intake like of a Cadillac Northstar powered car. IIRC these are popular with the Fiero swappers.

Personally, I'd use it as an opportunity to optimize - take a look at the whole intake system and see if you can futz a lower profile intake and carb/throttle body that fits the way you want. Hmm... LT1 intake is a really low profile... For someone with your skills it wouldn't be a big deal to get it to work on a Gen I SBC.

 

[Metcalf]

The induction problem does open up a can of worms for sure.....everything from engine swaps to new intake packages to fuel injection....

I basically want a non-electric 'simple' solution. I don't want the complexity of fuel injection.....the wiring, fuel tank requirements, etc. Its not that I don't think it could work much better, but this vehicle is more of a 'fix it with a leatherman' kind of thing.

I have a few ideas brewing

 

[reece146]

I wonder why the spacer was added? Was it to help flow or was it just something that got thrown on at some point. Run it without the spacer and see where that leads.

 

[Metcalf]

The 'spacer' is an adapter from the 2bbl Rochester stock manifold to the Holley 2bbl carb. I did that conversion a few years back when the Rochester just wouldn't run right anymore. The holley 2bbl is similar to the motorcraft ford stuff and I had always had good luck with those....

 

[jeepdreamer]

Side draft Webber and a snorkel?? just kidding! I'd run the moto-crap and maybe the lowest profile aluminum intake you can find. Preferably one that does away with an adapter all together. Looking good though... Keep wrenchin'!!

 

[SChandler]

K&N makes dropped air filter bases: http://www.summitracing.com/search/Department/Air-Fuel-Delivery/Brand/K-N/Part-Type/Air-Cleaner-Bottoms/Air-Cleaner-Fitment/Single-2-barrel-5-1-8-in-diameter/Base-Style/Dropped/?Ns=Rank|Asc. What diameter is the air filter you have now?

 

[Metcalf]

I welded up the speed holes in the 2nd frame rail after work tonight.

I think by the last hole I wasn't doing half bad booger welds....figures.

I'm happy to say that the rails stayed pretty dang straight during all the cutting, building, and welding....

Next I think I will be welding in the front bumper and rear crossmember ( behind the rear bumper ). Now I just need to think up a way to get the frame nice and square......

 

[Metcalf]

Tonight I jigged up the frame on the table.....

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out overall so far. I was able to get things pretty square.

The overall rail length is between 122.188 and 122.250 ( tape measure ). Both rails are within that range, and I cannot really detect much of a difference. I would say less than 1/16 difference between the two rails.

I cut two sections of aluminum box tubing scrap from work. These where to fit between the spring hanger mounts to help keep the frame from racking and give me a place to start. This seemed to work really well. As I tightened the all-thread that ran through the middle the frame skidded across the table to square itself up.

I took my first series of measurements at this point. The main thing I was worried about was a good diagonal measurement from rail corner to rail corner. This is the longest measurement and should be see the biggest adjustments as things move around. With just the spring hanger spreaders the frame measured at....

124 3/4-, 124 7/8 ( difference of just over 1/8" )

Next I clamped the 4 corners to the table and started tapping things with the dead blow. Its a little difficult to know where to hit and how hard. You have to have the clamps tight enough they hold but loose enough you can move then with a wack from the dead blow. I left one rail alone, clamped very tight. I only moved the opposite rail. After a lot of head scratching and a few mistakes I got better numbers.

124 3/4+, 124 7/8-

I would say the difference is less than 1/8 for sure, probably 1/16 or so. At that point its REALLY hard to tell with a table measure. Even the tension in the tape seems to give 1/16 or so over such a long span.

I'm pretty sure this is as good as its going to get. The true test will be after its welded. Anything to look out for? Anything anyone would do different?

The width of the rails at the ends seems to be consistant and about 1/8 to 1/16 difference front to back. I clamped in the rear bumper crossmember and used the rear bumper to provide a plane for clamping the tubing Don't worry, that isn't where the rear bumper goes. I'm not sure of the vertical position of the bumper so I am going to wait to weld it on till after the body is in place. I need something to hold the rear of the frame in place though so I decided to add another 2x4 crossmember behind the rear bumper. I will be running a military-ish pintle hitch in the rear so I need a little extra support for sure......

I still need to do something to clamp/jig the front bumper but I am almost out of clamps....dang it. You can never have too many of those things!

Any words of advise before I start welding it?????.....

 

[reece146]

The difference of 1/16 - 1/8" is probably less than when the original frame came from the factory.

I'm far from much of a welder but...

Make sure you don't rush when you start welding. Tack a bit and let it completely cool before continuing. Don't heat soak the pieces. Even when it is tacked don't go to town with the welder. Lay a half inch weld or two at each station and let it cool before continuing.

You knew that already though.

It's going to be time consuming and lots of standing around and waiting.

 

[jeepdreamer]

I feel your pain. When I plated the frame of my 67 commando to hold up to the AMC 360 I added 3/16ths plate! Both inside as well as top and bottom!!!!!! But as bad as welding a little at a time (not to mention overhead, yuk!) the worst part for me was cutting all the plates out using nothing but my angle grinder and a ton of cut off wheels! I bet I spent half the cost of a plasma cutter in wheels! LOL!
Since your making your own frame I'm curious what your gonna do for body mounts? Maybe you could raise them to provide a little more tire clearance without having to go with a body lift?

 

[Metcalf]

I feel your pain. When I plated the frame of my 67 commando to hold up to the AMC 360 I added 3/16ths plate! Both inside as well as top and bottom!!!!!! But as bad as welding a little at a time (not to mention overhead, yuk!) the worst part for me was cutting all the plates out using nothing but my angle grinder and a ton of cut off wheels! I bet I spent half the cost of a plasma cutter in wheels! LOL!
Since your making your own frame I'm curious what your gonna do for body mounts? Maybe you could raise them to provide a little more tire clearance without having to go with a body lift?

I am going to make some simple body mounts out of some angle cut sections of the same 2x4 box tubing as the frame.

It would be very easy to raise the mounts to provide a body lift. I am not going to do this however.

I want to keep this little guy as low as practical. I'm basically building what my friends and I call a 'pancake'. Everything that hangs down below the frame goes up above the bottom of the frame rail then add a nice smooth flat belly pan. Keep the suspension lift to a minimum while trying to preserve at least a few inches of uptravel. The wheelbase gets mildly stretched to get the tires in a better position and a little more wheelbase usually always helps. The body gets modified for much larger tires with the very low suspension. Also, keep the seat height down to minimum to make the vehicle 'feel' even lower and more stable.

The difficult part is making all that stuff fit in such a small package!

 

[Metcalf]

Hey look a frame!

I welded the front bumper and rear crossmember in after tapping on the frame with a hammer for a few more minutes. Overall I am very happy with how square it came out! So far with welding it is still between 1/16 and 1/8 on square over 124+ inches.

After I welded on the front bumper I flipped the frame upright. Its still light enough that I can move it and flip in on the table. According to the computer is is suppose to be approx 160lbs whatever welding I have done so far. The finished frame should be about 250lbs or less I think.

Next I started mocking up the rear bumper.....

I don't know the final position and I still have some finish work and hole drilling to do on the rear bumper....but its nice and easy to hold into place like this!

I have a few more things I can do on the frame, but its basically time to pull the tub off the old chassis!

Stay tuned!