starting another 1/6th Willys

[mjderstine]

this build is great. love all the jigs. i remember making jigs for everything growing up in ym dads wood shop. you couldnt do anything without making a jig of some sort.

couple questions, and if you cant answer them no worries

first, can you give some more detail into how you made the shackels? i am in dyer need of some beefier ones on my bobbed duece and would love to copy your design if you dont mind.

did you just search youtube for vids on how to make leafs? mine are made from some pallet strapping, a buddy of mine on here, BartBender made them for me.

[BigSki]

Originally Posted by mjderstine

this build is great. love all the jigs. i remember making jigs for everything growing up in ym dads wood shop. you couldnt do anything without making a jig of some sort.

couple questions, and if you cant answer them no worries

first, can you give some more detail into how you made the shackels? i am in dyer need of some beefier ones on my bobbed duece and would love to copy your design if you dont mind.

did you just search youtube for vids on how to make leafs? mine are made from some pallet strapping, a buddy of mine on here, BartBender made them for me.

I used to work in a tooling dept for an aerospace company, so jigs are a way of life!

The shackles were just a piece of solid square bar stock that I shaped by drilling holes to remove a lot of material with minimal effort and a flat file. They look horrible to me but they were never meant to be permanent, just a means to help locate the leaf springs. I'll make better shackles sometime soon, something more realistic looking.

The leaf springs were a total education for me, I had a buddy sent me a You Tube link showing how a small shop hand formed custom leaf springs, then I saw a few vids of fully automated factories cranking out 100's of springs a day. The techniques were similar, just one was set up for mass production. I adapted the techniques to fit on to my workbench. I made a couple of radius jigs () to help me shape the front and rear springs. I used an electricians 'fish tape' tool for my raw material, it's a high carbon steel which has good spring properties.

I had made a few bad springs during the learning curve but all in all it was kind of fun to hand make some leaf springs. I wasn't able to take any pics, both hands were very busy dealing with glowing hot springs and a torch flame.

[mjderstine]

awesome, thanks for the help back man. really appreciate it.

so, i will be looking forward to you more scale shackles as well.

checked out some how to vids online. looks hot, dangerous, and sweaty.

[BigSki]

Originally Posted by mjderstine

awesome, thanks for the help back man. really appreciate it.

so, i will be looking forward to you more scale shackles as well.

checked out some how to vids online. looks hot, dangerous, and sweaty.

I agree, I have no desire to build "real" leaf springs but the smaller ones aren't nearly as bad because the raw material is so thin so it doesn't store the energy the same way that the full size springs do but the danger is still there- I have a fresh scar on my left forearm to prove it! I bumped into one of the forming jigs as I was removing a spring, although it wasn't glowing red hot it was still hot enough to melt a bit of skin.

[BigSki]

Here's a small update, I attempted to make some 'Willys' lettering on the tailgate. I think it turned out decent. I'll do the hood the same way.

[BigSki]

I got the hood lettering done, a bit of clean up and it should look ok.

[OllllO Fanatic]

WOW that looks awesome you have a great rig going here. Putting mine to shame I like it. Keep up the good work.

[Big Mike]

Originally Posted by BigSki

I got the hood lettering done, a bit of clean up and it should look ok.

Aww man you gotta be kiddin' me!!

That looks incredible dude!! It'll look 1000% better painted too, stuff like that always does.

Some stunning detail work goin' into this body...

[Cordwood]

X2, it does look really good. Nice work

[ZoSo]

BigSki your a sick man
love the detail

[BigSki]

Here's a small update, I haven't been very motivated to do any work on this project lately. The body work is done and it's in primer now. I was going to paint it red and use Alclad to "chrome" the windshield frame but the more I thought about it the more I decided that i didn't like that color combo, so right now there is no definite color for the body.





I ordered a motor/GRU from www.robotmarketsupply.com, it showd up last week. It's a 550 motor w/ a single stage planetary GRU, the output is about 380 RPM at 12V. I'll be running a 3s LiPo so my RPM's will be a bit less, after a few calculations I determined that I need a 1:1.5 (overdrive) ratio in a T-case to keep the wheel speed at a walking pace. The closest one that I can find is the .75:1 Disruptor t-case, which works out to 1:1.3 so it might have to work or else I'll have to build a t-case, which is still something that I might do.

Here's the motor compared to a few *drill motor transmissions that I modified to have a output shaft.


Here is the motor setting about where it needs to go in the chassis.

[BigSki]

ZoSo- thanks for the props on the reflectors on your store's website.

[mjderstine]

hows this build coming along man? get a motor mount done yet/?

[BigSki]

Originally Posted by mjderstine

hows this build coming along man? get a motor mount done yet/?

The last pics were as far as I've gotten. I haven't had much motivation lately, I needed a break so I've been messing around with the CC-01 Pajero and having a lot of fun just running something as opposed to being stuck at the work bench non-stop.

I'm trying to figure out a color for the body so once I get that figured out I can at least get some color on it.

[Big Mike]

Originally Posted by BigSki

Holy Crap that is absolutely stunning. Damn that body looks so much better than "stock"...

[Big Mike]

"A BIGSKI PRODUCT FROM RCCRAWLER.COM"

Well deserved props there.

More than one person has done a doubletake looking at my Jeep and asked "the reflectors are real??"

Lots more stuff in RCP's G.I. Joe Willys section now! Sweet!

[reddevildemo]

Congrats on both, the Rig and the reflectors.....I love the ones you sent me on mine.

I have another Willys in the planning stages now.....something completely different !!

Oh, waiting patiently on a color update too.

[BigSki]

Originally Posted by Big Mike

"A BIGSKI PRODUCT FROM RCCRAWLER.COM"

Well deserved props there.

More than one person has done a doubletake looking at my Jeep and asked "the reflectors are real??"

Lots more stuff in RCP's G.I. Joe Willys section now! Sweet!

Thanks! Are you going to that scale event next weekend? I have the Orange jeep running again, I just know it won't go through 75% of the "terrain" that has been shown in the pics so I'm not sure if it's worth the 2 hour drive. It would be fun to run around with your Jeep if you are taking it.

Originally Posted by reddevildemo

Congrats on both, the Rig and the reflectors.....I love the ones you sent me on mine.

I have another Willys in the planning stages now.....something completely different !!

Oh, waiting patiently on a color update too.

I spent 2 hours looking at Tamiya and Testors enamel paints yesterday, nothing catches my eye. The only hobby shop that sold Floquil railroad colors is completely out of the enamels, they claim that they have been trying for a year to get restocked and the only thing that showed up was regular old testors paint ( the tiny square bottles) Apparently Testors owns Floquil now and they have stopped production of the Floquil enamel products, they are pushing the water based paints which just don't work all.

[BigSki]

I was spending too much time thinking about a color, so I just took the body with me to a hobby shop and made a decision to find a color. This color sorta looked ok, so I just went for it. Now that it's on the body and dried, I'm not too excited about it but for now it's just gonna have to do. It's just going to get the dog snot pounded out of it anyway!





I used a Tamiya enamel spray can in their 'aircraft' colors, it's called Navy intermediate blue. Semi- gloss so it will photograph very well in the sun light. I'm thinking I can paint the windshield frame white to break up the monochromatic look.

[Tommy R]

I really like that color! Looks like it could've been an original offering from the '50s.