starting another 1/6th Willys
 

I've been enjoying my Orange Jeep to no end, it performs well and it's a blast to drive around. I haven't updated the build thread in a while because there's been nothing to update, I'm just at the stage where all I have to do is basic maintenance. I really wanted to try a leaf spring chassis so out came the other Jeep I had stashed away. I set out to build a steel 'C' channel chassis based directly on the dimensions of the stock plastic chassis, then attempt to build my own leaf springs.

The chassis was pretty easy, it was my first one but I think it turned out ok. I watched a bunch of vids on you-tube on the manufacturing processes of leaf spring building and decided to attempt it myself. I made 2 arch jigs as the front and rear springs are different lengths. I'm not too happy with the way they turned out, I might attempt another set to see if I can get them to look better. The leaf springs aren't easy to build, at least not for me. I know nothing about it so there's a huge learning curve (along with another burn scar on my forearm!)

Here's a few pics of where I'm at right now. I'm modifying the body to be more scale correct for a CJ-2A/3A body tub. I'll post up pics later of the body work so far. It won't be 100% scale 'correct', I beat on these Jeeps too hard to make a perfect scale version of it!


overall stance
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2008.jpg

rear section of the frame, there's a bit more work to do.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2001.jpg

front section of the frame, there's still more work to do. this was just a quick mock up to see if it's even worth continuing moving forward.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2002.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2003.jpg

The leafs will be under the axles ( as of right now). With so much steel going into the build, it's gonna be heavy and need some serious power. I'm thinking about using a 14V DeWalt drill motor w/ this one.

Those leafs look good! You're off to another good start, what other drivetrain parts are you thinking of using with that drill motor?

I'm not 100% sure right now, I've thought about using the DeWalt 3 speed gear box as well as a home made reduction box. The t-case will definitely be another Disruptor, I haven't had a single issue w/ the one in the orange Jeep. Axles will be some more AXR-10 hybrids, they are nice and bullet proof. I'm experimenting w/ some Wraith axle shaft u-joints to be made to work on the driveshafts, those things are super tough and they look great.

Sweet! Love these big builds....especially with leafs involved.

looks great
put some detail in the shackles ...on a heavy rig like this they can really work.

I didn't get much work done this weekend, my F250 was living up to it's name ( Found On Road Dead) so it got most of the attention this weekend.

I had to make an alignment jig to keep the spring mounts centered on the frame rail and parallel, this little contraption worked out well.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...llys2004-1.jpg

This is the frame jig that keeps everything aligned while brazing.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...llys2001-1.jpg

I added the rear frame brace that the 1:1 Willys Jeeps had.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...willys2011.jpg

A close up of my ugly leaf springs! I made the bushings out of Delrin.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...willys2006.jpg

Here are the front springs in place, I need to make the shackles next. I'll use 3/8's square bar stock for them like I did on the trailer for the orange Jeep.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...willys2005.jpg

Here's a small update. I basically have no funds to work with or to buy raw material right now so I'm scavaging whatever I can find in my 'tiny bits' tray of scrap materials.

I got the chassis to sit on it's own, I just have the mock up axles zip tied on for the moment just so I could get measurements that I needed for spring mount positions.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...llys2009-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...llys2010-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2018.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2015.jpg

I like the stance so far, it just looks 'right' to me. The leaf springs have a decent amount of flex in them, I hope I don't loose too much of it when I re-temper them.

Here's some of the 1/6th scale seats from Norm at TEAM3SIX, they are absolutely incredible! I asked him if he had some 'neutral' trim color in stock that wasn't on his color list, he went out and got some of this grey color for me. I think it looks fantastic, it should be in his basic offerings of trim color combinations!
Thanks again Norm !"thumbsup"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2017.jpg

Here's the motor/planetary gear box that I'm thinking about using.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2016.jpg

That's all for right now. I'm trying to make it move under it's own power before the end of the year, wish me luck!

Nice, is the 5 point harness from Team3six also?

Yes, the harness comes with the seats. It's a really nicely assembled and detailed component.

Here's a small update, I made an attempt at tempering the spring material. I think it turned out pretty well, the springs turned the correct color and they 'feel' right. After I sand blasted them clean I used the BBQ gas grill set at 500* to temper the springs. It was pretty cool to watch them turn from a raw steel color to the dark blue color, it took about 45 minutes for the tempering to happen. I quenched them in a brine solution as noted in the Machinerys Handbook, so only time will tell how well the will work.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2020.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2019.jpg

I'm basically out of funds right now so there isn't a whole left that I can do to the drivetrain so I'll go back to some styrene work on the body, stay tuned for updates!

Not sure what all you have done to make your own springs.
Or should I say what you made them from. If you have needed to temper them, I guess you started with plain old metal?

If you have an old lawnmower or chainsaw laying around.... Open up the recoil starting rope section and use the recoil spring in there to chop up and make your springs from. You can fab many sets from just one recoil spring.

The lawn mower recoil spring is a type of spring steel called 'Blue tempered spring steel'. it's basically what I used. I got my 'raw material' from Home Depot in the form of a 25' electricians fish-tape tool for $10. I looked at it like I got 25' of raw material on a nice dispenser for $10. :mrgreen:

The steel is already in the 'Blue tempered' state so in order to form it I had to put it an annealed state while forming it to the shape that I wanted. I had built a forming jig that had the arc that I wanted for the leaf springs. Once I had everything formed, I had to put the spring back into a tempered state or else the springs would lose their arch very quickly and they would bend very easily. Now that I have them back into a tempered state the will hold their shape for a long time and not bend very easily but thy will have the correct 'spring' in them.

small update time- I spent a few hours this week on body work, specifically filling in some holes in the floor boards, fabricating the transmission tunnel and the start of that cool little storage compartment under the passenger seat.

For the big patch panels on the floor I decided to bust out the Weller P.I.G. welder to make the repair panels super tough.;-)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2027.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2026.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2025.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2022.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2024.jpg

On the metal fab side, I made a few plates to box in the frame by the front spring mount area, there was a lot of cutting and bending to get the frame shape that I wanted so I want to be sure it won't come apart on me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2029.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Willys2028.jpg

That's it for right now, maybe I'll get a bit more done over the weekend. Thanks for looking!

That is the important factor for a spring, the right steel. Spring steel or tool steel has enough carbon content to harden when cooled quickly. You've also obviously figured out the opposite - cool the steel slowly and it will end up "dead soft" or annealed is the proper term.

Those springs look fine for a fisrt try. The cool thing about a build this heavy is you might end up adding more springs as the weight increases. The more you can stack up (within reason) the better it will look.

Lots of well thought out jigging going on here. Time consuming but sooooo worth it. Looks like there will be no dog-tracking or any other funny stuff going on when you drive it.

Now that is a damned good idea. That looks hella strong... "thumbsup"

Subscribed - this is looking real good so far...

Thanks Big Mike. I wanted this chassis to be extra rugged, I want to take chips out of the rocks when I hit them with this jeep! I've decided to re-make the springs, the first ones aren't too bad but I've been tinkering w/ my process on some scraps and I think I really it nailed down, it's all in the tempering process. The dark blue color rolls around pretty quickly once the springs start turning different colors.

The springs are thin material, so the heat transfer happens very fast. You might try your conventional kitchen oven instead of the grill, it might give you a little more control over the temperature. I used to temper knife blades in the kitchen oven all the time. Try to hit a good deep brown, right before they start to turn blue. Get to a deep, bright blue and beyond into gray, you gotta start over. Too hot.

Damn, those seats look fantastic. I wanted to hit Norm up for a pair when I was building the blue Jeep but it just wasn't in the budget. I could always add a pair later if he keeps making them.

I've been enjoying the blue Jeep as well. So much more realism with a vehicle this size, it bounces and body-rolls like a 1:1 vehicle would. I have broken and repaired 2 weak braze joints in the axles where the Silv didn't penetrate well, now they're all buttoned up. Now I'm popping plastic Axial yokes if I push it too hard. Time for some MIP's...

The MIP is a good shaft to use between the tranny and T-case, but I think that the 'Pede shafts work great for these Jeeps. The shafts are easy to find, inexpensive, indestructible and they look good on the Jeeps.
I've been playing w/ the idea of using the U-joint from XR-10 front axle shafts in an actual drive shaft for my next Jeep, I think the u-joints are strong enough and they would look good.

I've been messing with silicon RTV molds to make new headlights for the large scale jeep along w/ some other projects I have cooking on a back burner.

This is the first set that came out of the test mold. The clear casting acrylic does a decent job of drying clear and picking up small detail, so once I get some funding I'll buy a harder durometer silicon and make a better casting mold.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...dlights005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...dlights006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...dlights009.jpg

The last pic sorta shows up how well the lense focuses the light source, I had to use the 'anti-red eye' filter on the digicam, my other attempts at a pic just look like a fuzzy white sun glaring at you!

Re: starting another 1/6th Willys
 

A few more updates on the body. I've been fighting ( and losing) a nasty flu-ish cold over the past week so I haven't done much of anything. There was always something on the body tub that never looked 'right' to me, but I couldn't put my finger on it until Sunday when I was helping a buddy lift up a CJ-2A body tub onto a chassis. The interior surface of the tub has a channel that runs around the perimeter on the top of the body, it's about *1.5" deep at most but it's what gives the body the look of depth when you see the inside surface. I tried to find something in styrene that had a channel that was about the correct size but stuck out, so I used some solid stock to build up a small detail along the top part of the body tub, I think this is the detail it was missing.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...odymods002.jpg

The next detail change I wasn't sure if I wanted to do was the shape of the leading edge of the rear wheel wells, but after laying out the shape difference between the MB and a flat fender CJ series on the plastic model the difference was so great , I had to do it. :)

Here is a build up on the leading edge, the triangle shaped pieces are .080 thick and will get covered with .080 to blend in with the original green plastic, then everything will get a .020 veneer to cover everything up and make it look purty!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...odymods001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...odymods004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...odymods005.jpg

you can notice where I had to cut out the wedge shape at the top of the fender where the sides and top surface all come together, this is what the main visual difference is one the 1:1 Jeeps, but as I researched it it became apparent that there were many changes between the MB and CJ body tubs. Just think, all of this extra work just because I wanted to have a correct appearing triangle wedge on the wheel wells. I'll never learn to leave things alone.....

Re: starting another 1/6th Willys
 

update- I had the fender wells re-skinned but it didn't look right to me, I was in the process of posting pics when the hard drive took a crap on me last week so the pics were lost along with a lot of other data that I can't replace, I'm still pissed about it.

I got the fender wells finished last week and I couldn't stand the way they turned out, I had to do something about it so after looking at a ton of images on the interwebz I came up with a plan to make the fender wells look like the ones on the flat fender CJ series. I used some artistic license to just make it look right instead of trying to make a perfect scale model, here's the results of a few hours of work. I first tore off the skins and then the internal supports, I reshaped the internal ribs and 'welded' them back into place then re-skinned them. You can see the outline of the 'triangle' shape that started all of this mess, once I cut it and glue in the triangle cap it will look like it's supposed to.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...4-2485_IMG.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...4-2487_IMG.jpg

I have a bit more work to do to the body including a faux tailgate then I can spray it some primer then get back to the chassis for a while.