Certainly not original "Willys"

[snydercj7]

Thanks Mike. Alright enough horsing around, what you guys could not see.





Gunny said I could get on my face and push till he was tired... Or, get his Jeep under coated.



A little assembly.













Standing on its own!!!






And driving!
http://s140.photobucket.com/user/sny...3ca10.mp4.html


Still a long list of things to do as well as a couple bugs to work out. But today is a good day now that the Jeep is driving.

[Big Mike]

Angry-lookin' Gunny is a great pick for a driver, he looks great!

"Outta my way maggot, you drive like a pansie!!"

The chassis looks good too. Very nice execution so far...

[snydercj7]

Funny guy, Gunny says things like.... "You move slower then old people (blank)" Use your imagination.

Worked on some final bracing, grab handles, and a lightbar hoop.






Frame mounting plate in place with the nerf bar poser shot.


Pulled the 1/4" thick bumper and shaved 3/16" off the front then started building this. Total improvement of 3/8" to the approach angle. Ran out of tubing to finish the front hoop, nerf bar, and some rear corner protection for the lower body.


Ordered a new set of gears for the front end for overdrive and a couple new sets of springs to tune things up a bit. It kind of looks like this is going to be like any other Jeep and it will never be done, just into it's next stage of the build.

[snydercj7]

Just been pouring the progress on this project this winter. I never understood some of you guys on here building a rig, selling it, then starting the cycle all over again. One concern is building this rig might have been more fun then it will be to wheel it. Now I am worried that once this is finished I am going to need to build some thing else. VP's new Currie axles and an Axial Rubicon frame set might be a good start for another variation of a Jeep build.

Some of the lates work, 1/4" square rod should keep the rocks at bay.




I think they turned out alright, maybe put an extra brace to triangulate the part.


Ready for abuse!






Starting on the bumper, get the hoops fine tuned and brazed in place then make a bar across between the top of the hoops and it should be good.


An added bonus to add to todays update after Mr. postman brought this. Not even finished and already regearing an axle.

[BigSki]

Originally Posted by snydercj7

Just been pouring the progress on this project this winter. I never understood some of you guys on here building a rig, selling it, then starting the cycle all over again. One concern is building this rig might have been more fun then it will be to wheel it. Now I am worried that once this is finished I am going to need to build some thing else.

This has been the biggest draw to me for my large scale Jeep- it's easy to continue to make details for it, but driving it is so much different than driving a 1/10th scale rig. These handle more like the real thing because they weigh so much, I never get bored with driving my jeep.

[snydercj7]

We shall see today, going out for a test run this afternoon!

Yesterday I was able to knock out the inner fender well braces as well as triangulate the nerf bars before painting them.


Good lord.... All those tubes = lots of clean up before paint. But I think it looks pretty good.


Also got the front end regeared last night. Boy what a difference putting over drive in, glad I did it.

The Jeep is all together with the exception of needing to finish the bumpers. Just ordered Gunny a girl and a dog to keep him company so some harnesses are in order. I will see if I can get a decent enough video of the trial run for you guys.

[snydercj7]

What a good time! So took a few pics from todays adventures. An absolutely beautiful NY day.

For fun, the comparison between the 1/10th scale comp crawler/ the 1/6th scale Willy's/ & the 1/5th scale S.C.


1:1 vs 1/6th


Okay, on to the Jeep out in the real world.








Did really good besides busting off a couple of plastic body handles and the fender light. Also need to just run a long bolt off the factory style shock mounts like most every one else does as my custom ones keep coming loose. I am starting a vimeo account and loading a couple boring videos. Not into the full production some of you guys are sooooo good at and I really enjoy watching.

[snydercj7]

Sorry, no fancy hd video camera so you guys get to watch the video off my Nikon coolpix camera. Running 5300 mah 2s in the video, tossed in one of the 1300 mah 3s from my crawler and that really woke the Willys up.

[Fumbles]

Awesome build. Later this year I'm going to be starting a 1/6 Willy's build. Thanks for showing some good ideas to use on my build.
How do u like that motor in your rig? It looks like u have plenty of torque & most of all speed with that setup.

[snydercj7]

Thanks boss, have fun with your build. There is certainly lots of info on here with lots of great Willy's builds to learn from. I like the motor and speed control combo, but think I need to figure out more tuning for down hill crawling. There is a ton of torque and power with this set up and 115:1 crawl ratio. On 2s with a 34" inseam I am walking at a comfortable pace to keep up with it. With 3s I am at a trot keeping up with the Willy's. I really like 3s wheel speed and power. Need to see about another set of batteries instead of stealing the crawler & s.c. batteries.

Here is some the carnage from my lack of driving skill.








Not exactly the way I wanted the shocks mounted but I think it will hold up much better.


Just made up the harness for Gunny, need some buckles to hold the ends to the cage & make the passenger side once Gunny's girl arrives.

[chopperfkr]

I have been watching this from the beginning and just wanted to say what a great build. I have 2 in progress Willys and this has really inspired me! Thanks!

[Nish]

Originally Posted by snydercj7

Not exactly the way I wanted the shocks mounted but I think it will hold up much better.

you could another set of link mounts and have someone like DMG weld them to the chubs

[snydercj7]

Originally Posted by chopperfkr

I have been watching this from the beginning and just wanted to say what a great build. I have 2 in progress Willys and this has really inspired me! Thanks!

Thanks for the compliment

Originally Posted by Nish

you could another set of link mounts and have someone like DMG weld them to the chubs

Great idea! Thanks.


Was a little burned out from the push on getting this done so it has just been sitting since its first run. Still need to finish bumpers, but here is a little update.

From the beginning the wife wanted a girl passenger.


Cleaned the rear corners up a bit and thought I would try some spray on bed liner as corner guards.

[snydercj7]

A small update, lowered the Willy's by 3/8" and tweeked the shocks a tad in an effort to reduce the off camber tipping.

After much help from Mr. Al aka heyok I was straightened out on what kind of controller needed to work the light system I compiled for this build.

The VP light bars look really good & I like the one I have mounted on the cage. But I wanted rock lights and the cool factor wasn't helping me fit them in tight quarters. Crawler-dad leds fit the bill perfectly with the version 2 2" lights. Very bright and very happy with them. Every thing is finally all wired up and working from my controller as I wanted.

Over all under carriage with the newly added rock lights.


Close up of the front rock light mounted in the bumper.


Close up of the rock light for the rear tires.


A demo of the night life. Need to get this bad boy in the rocks for a night crawl.


Still need to finish the bumpers, maybe this week.

I really have to thank all the great venders out there that made this thing possible. VP, Dragon, RC4WD, heyok, crawler-dad led, Tekin, Castle, Axial to name a few and those of you out there that inspired me to build my own 6th scale Willys.

[Big Mike]

Holy Cow this is one of the all-time greats for sure. What an epic build...

[snydercj7]

Wow! I appreciate that Mike, wasn't sure if my build was really up to par due to very little response. Truely an honor to have some one actually consider this an "epic" build. Thanks again for the compliment, you made my day!

[snydercj7]

After doing some wheeling it would seem I cannot set up the original locker in the front axle correctly. Pulled it and put a HR spool up front, hopefully it works out. Last weekend while traversing a rocky ditch I blew out the main out the main shaft on the disruptor transmission where the e-clip holds it. A little disappointing, if I break another one it might be time to go with the tried and true Axial tranny. So much for that signature of mine.....

Some proof of the carnage.

[spookyseven]

This is a really nice ride, it makes me want to build a large scale also.

Were you having trouble keeping the other locker tight on the axle shafts? Replacing the set screws may help. Brand new set screws have a sharp cup on the face of them that digs into what you are tightening them against to help keep them from backing out. If a set screw is tightned and removed a few times the face becomes smooth and it's hard to keep them tight. Also clean the threads really well and I've had the best luck with blue loctite. Set screws come in different styles such as knurled but cup is the most common.

[BigSki]

Kind of impressive that you blew up the planetary transmission!

[snydercj7]

Originally Posted by spookyseven

This is a really nice ride, it makes me want to build a large scale also.

Were you having trouble keeping the other locker tight on the axle shafts? Replacing the set screws may help. Brand new set screws have a sharp cup on the face of them that digs into what you are tightening them against to help keep them from backing out. If a set screw is tightned and removed a few times the face becomes smooth and it's hard to keep them tight. Also clean the threads really well and I've had the best luck with blue loctite. Set screws come in different styles such as knurled but cup is the most common.

Thank you. Do it, large scale is a lot of fun.
The particular locker has a set screw that only half of the screw presses on the very end of the shorter shaft. Just made my life easier by replacing it and the old front locker will find a home in a rear axle soon.

Originally Posted by BigSki

Kind of impressive that you blew up the planetary transmission!

The not so impressive part about this..... The Jeep was cruising across a pretty mellow flat rock section when the shaft let go. Suppose the prior testing of popping the front end up on carpet to test the power and torque may have weakened the shaft.