1955 Willy's Pickup scratch built Class 3 for 2017

[dna4engr]

There are only 2 jeeps that really catch my eye. The Kaiser military truck and the old willys pickup and wagons. I've been struggling to decide what to build my new class 3 2.2 truck on and thanks to someone resurrecting the PJ Hale willys TTC build thread and reading through Warpigs willys build, my mind was made up.

I'll just be making the front clip and the rear of the cab. The rest of the rig will be tube work.

Nicely restored one I found for inspiration

Obviously no one makes a willys body so I'll be starting from scratch.

The chassis will be all 3/16" dom tubing brazed together. Where weight is on the rig is very important so I'm going to try and keep the chassis light since the body will be heavy.

Other parts.
- XR mod F/R axles with beef tubes and Burly tubes respectively. Od/Ud gears. 4ws
- Ax10 trans all steel gears and slipper elim
- HH brxl, castle bec, crawlmaster pro 16t
- SSD Ox winch with esc for control
- Savox 1230 servos F/R
-Traxxas big bores
- Airtronics MT4
- Pure Energy 4S lipo
- Cut and shut Trepadors
- Wheels TBD

Started on the body last night. Figured it wouldn't be too bad to make from scratch.

Put the first layer of body filler on the radiuses to smooth out. Need to let that dry and sand.

Most of the grill elements will be made from steel or Al.


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[WillWorkForAlumParts]

Awesome start, got the fixins for something cool here.

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[War Pig]

Sweet! You know I'll be watching. Great start and parts list!

 

[dna4engr]

Awesome start, got the fixins for something cool here.

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Thanks!

Sweet! You know I'll be watching. Great start and parts list!

Thanks! I have some big shoes to fill with similar rigs built by talented guys like yourself.


My tire strategy for this rig is something I've been toying around with for a year. Where we comp crawl, there are two things that are apparent. Narrower tires work very well, and 1.9 trepadors that are cut work very well.

I had a set of 1.9 r35 treps laying around. Just needed some sidewall donors...2.2 falkens from the yeti kit. Goal is for a 5,6" to 5.7" dia.

On to the pictures.

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[Ballistic17]

Another awesome build going on here. "thumbsup"

 

[dna4engr]

Another awesome build going on here. "thumbsup"

Thanks Lee!


Here is the finished tire on a trail ready rim I had around. Haven't shaved the sidewalls yet.

Ended up at right around 5.6". Still need to figure out the foam setup. Just got some randoms in there.

The fronts will have a tread cut that I got from CI that I really like.

Front and rear axles are buttoned up with all the stuff mentioned above and some 149rc worx servo/link mounts. Never mind the pit bulls on the rear axle.

Started on the chassis last night. Not a lot of progress. But it's a start.

A little trick I got from Sam Collins builds (sam63) is to use fab tabs to mount the skid. Light and don't require anything special to mount the skid.

Out of town this weekend so I'll get back to it Tuesday or so.


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[Artem]

Hi! Does such tires really perform well? I mean at all, after you glued them together in such a way?

 

[dna4engr]

Hi! Does such tires really perform well? I mean at all, after you glued them together in such a way?

Hi, yes the tires do perform well. The key is what tires you use to make the cut and shut tires and the glue. I use aka premium tire glue. It still allows the tire to be flexible.

I've made several cut and shut tires over time. Probably several hundred sets have been made by others. Both in the comp and scale crawling scene. Most top pro drivers use cut and shut tires made by different vendors or themselves.

I mentioned above why i did this. I wanted a narrower tire. Most 2.2 scale tires are really wide. I could have just narrowed a set but the 1.9 treps work so well (and the 2.2 don't) I wanted to try. Who knows if these will be on the truck all season. Performance will determine that.


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[Artem]

Please make a video after project is done, I'm really interested in how they crawl

 

[dna4engr]

Please make a video after project is done, I'm really interested in how they crawl

Ok will do !


I have made some progress on the body and getting the chassis laid out.

Several coats of body filler and sanding and more to go....

The body looks a little too tall on the initial setup

Decided to cut 1/2" out of the height on the fenders and recess the grill into frame rails. Looking to get less than 6" overall height at the roofline from the skid plate.

The brazing wire just there for reference on height. Lol

My hood detail for the profile started cracking so I peeled off what I could and remade the detail in 0.020" styrene.

Hopefully more work tonight and Friday.


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[dna4engr]

I got some time to get going with this Chassis. There's an indoor comp on Sunday I I wanted to have something to drive in 2:2 trail.

Front end taking shape.

Bumper, stronger and packaging the ssd Ox

Fender rails

A little oops having the body too close to the fabrication area. Luckily it'll be easy to replace the lower fender.

At approximate ride height

At full extension.

Basically a roller

Almost ready to crawl.

There's a lot of work left to do overall. But she may just be ready enough for Sunday's comp. plus I'll be able to find some weaknesses and get those resolved in the build.


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[dna4engr]

Got her pieced together to comp today. Can't be happier with performance. Front tires performed great and the rest of the truck was awesome.

Ended up in first and took home a nice pot of cash.

Got home and started fixing my mess up on the left fender.

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[War Pig]

Looks cool! Congrats on the win. Can't wait to see the interior and all the other finishing touches.

 

[boxcar 1]

Wow! Great build . Will be waiting for updates.

 

[youngDUMP]

Cool build. Good job on the body and chassis. Looks mean. I like a low rig. Subscribed for the rest of the journey


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[dna4engr]

Looks cool! Congrats on the win. Can't wait to see the interior and all the other finishing touches.

Thanks! My next thing to tackle is the rest of the exterior and then laying out the electronics and the interior.

Cool build. Good job on the body and chassis. Looks mean. I like a low rig. Subscribed for the rest of the journey


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Thanks man! I try to keep it relatively low but with some suspension travel down.

Wow! Great build . Will be waiting for updates.

Thank you!



As I said. On to the rest of the exterior.

The back of the cab was pretty easy.

Then the rear bed fenders. Really Simple base but wanted to get the look of the willys rear sheet metal.

Also whipped up a windshield quickly. Not sure yet how I'm going to attach it.

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[hillbillyrc]

Great progress, looks awesome

 

[I.D.10.T]

Duck tape. Attach the windshield with duck tape. The rest of the truck looks so dang nice. What's a little duck tape?

Great looking build!

 

[XSRCdesign]

this is fantastic. The tube-work looks legit! Also seems like it works as good as it looks too.

Do yourself a favor though, throw that green stuff away. Even the Bondo brand two part you can get in the tube at Autozone is easier to work with and holds up eleventy-billion times better than that stuff. your styrene work loos awesome, you owe yourself the pleasure of using some decent filler on there.

 

[CM9000]

x2 on bondo brand. just apply thin coats at a time. this is a pretty cool class 3. I might have to replicate the scorpion crawler for class 3. giving me some 2018 inspiration here!