Wild Willy's big brother

[SpeedyDad]

I just recently finished my 1.5 Wild Willys crawler

Build thread: Wild Willy goes crawling



I figured it was time to do something a little bigger. I started with this



Stripped it down



This one piece cowl, hood, and grill thing just won't do


so.....


The grill cut out and smoothed.


The grill is the focal point of any Jeep and as I looked at this one, it just didn't look right. Then I looked at a real Willys MB grill and realized this grill only had 8 slots and an MB grill has 9. Plus the spacing was all wrong and the slots also went too high on the grill. So, I cut it apart and took some material out from besides the lights on the inside to make room for another slot.


Then, I reglued it at the bottom to maintain alignment and cut the top of the slots to lower them


Then glued it all back together and added a top filler strip


Here's the final product. I cut the above glued grill and added another slat and slot.


Here it is mocked up in the body. I still have to do the lights.


I also built a new radiator shroud to match the extra slots


This will be a slow project. Updates might not come that often so be patient. I will be adding detail to the stock body and that takes time.

This Jeep does not have a chassis under it. The wheels just have a metal axle that attaches directly to the body. So, the chassis will be hand-built from Delrin.

Driveline plans will probably be using an AX10 driveline with the tranny mounted under the hood sending power through an RC4wd tcase. The is unless I find some money for some of those cool scal RC4wd axles.

[DonsATV]

Nice start and awesome work on the grill!!! I'll keep an eye on this one.

[tanner]

Real nice man, keep up the good work

[vonclod]

cool, look forward to seeing more..the 1.9 is pretty sweet too

[calikingcrawler]

Awesome build. Same body I am using. Are you planning on using the soft top? If not, I know I guy (ME) who wants one. I am really gunna have to get my chassis knocked out beginning of this week so you dont pas me up to bad.

[SpeedyDad]

I'm not sure on the top yet. I need to figure out a way to mount it without taking away from the scale appearance.

My frame won't be ready for a bit. I haven't even ordered the Delrin yet

[calikingcrawler]

oooooo Delrin. Good idea. I made mine out of 3/8 square tubing

[SpeedyDad]

I'm waiting for the first coat of paint on the grill to dry so I decided to add a lip to the body tub like the real ones



I was also going to start filling all the holes in the body but found out that the styrene rod I bought was too small. Oh well, another trip to the hobby store was planned anyways. My Tenax bottle is getting pretty low.

[SpeedyDad]

Originally Posted by calikingcrawler

oooooo Delrin. Good idea. I made mine out of 3/8 square tubing

Yeah, I want to try to keep the weight down and Delrin is so easy to work with.

[calikingcrawler]

Originally Posted by SpeedyDad

Yeah, I want to try to keep the weight down and Delrin is so easy to work with.

How thick are you going to use?
and are you going to cut it out of a sheet?

[SpeedyDad]

Originally Posted by calikingcrawler

How thick are you going to use?
and are you going to cut it out of a sheet?

Probably do 3/8" thick all around. Yes, cut out of sheet.

[calikingcrawler]

are you planning on running it sprung or droop?

[SpeedyDad]

Originally Posted by calikingcrawler

are you planning on running it sprung or droop?

Sprung probably

[calikingcrawler]

can't wait to see it come together.

[SpeedyDad]

Got the grill painted. Still working on the lights



I didn't like the very ugly unscale side shovel/axe slots



So I filled the bottom one which is supposed to be square



And added styrene to create a V slot for the upper



Added filler and sanded it all down

[SpeedyDad]

Anyone know where i can find a scale drawing of a Jeep MB chassis?

[SpeedyDad]

Time for another mountain to climb. The transmission tunnel in this Jeep is completely wrong so I cut it out to be replaced with a more scale version



Well, then the fake fuel tank bothered me too so I decided I want to make a better version of that too (the mountain grows). So, instead of just cutting it out and patching the hole, I cut out the whole floor for replacement.



Some .080 styrene gets me this



Test fitting the new floor with more scale tunnel. You can also see where I cut the corners of the rear wheel tubs for a more scale look.



You can see that the floor does not reach the current firewall. That is because the firewall is all wrong too. It is in the wrong location and doesn't go all the way up the cowl. It will be cut out and replaced with a better looking one in the proper place. Does it ever stop?

Now, I have a quandry. I want this to be pretty true to scale but the fuel tank on the real MB hangs down below the body. The modeler part of me says thats how it should be but the crawler part of me knows it will probably catch on rocks and probably get damaged. I'm leaning towards the crawler side of me.

I also started working on some detail parts. New side grab handle in rough form.



Edit: I decided on the smaller fuel tank that doesn't hang down. While most of the Jeep will be scale, it will be more of a retro-mod Jeep. It'll have the AX-10 suspension (not leaves), a cage, and tire carrier so what's one scale detail fudged for better crawling?

[CUSTOMHILUX]

I like it

[SpeedyDad]

Built the new firewall. The floor still isn't glued in yet.



Here it is with the cowl temporarily fitted just to see what it looks like



Also fabbed the gastank for under the drivers seat. Just have to fill and sand the seam.

[F-150Highlift]

Very nice work so far, will keep an eye on this one.