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59 Willys, circle the wagons!

61K views 155 replies 37 participants last post by  73FJ 
#1 · (Edited)
Howdy, this is the intro to my 59 Willys wagon thread. I will be doing a complete body off resto/refresh on this truck. I have never done a frame off before so this should be an adventure, I have however rebuilt my 73 FJ40 from almost the ground up in the last 3 yrs. I also have a 56 wagon that may or may not provide some parts for the 59. My plans are wide open right now as I tend to plan as I work, but I'm thinkin fuel injected SBC, maybe an NV 4500, x case, dunno yet, axles, not decided, SOA, maybe coil front, tube front fenders along the same lines as Firewiz has done on his truck, new Autometers, blah blah blah...well there you go. I should also say that this will probably take me the better part of the next 2 years as I aquire parts and such, unless I win the lottery :shaking:., so patience will be useful. Now I gotta find some pics
 
#130 ·
Thanks Dan, no thaw yet, it snowed again last night :mad3:, but the geese are home and that's always a good sign that spring is close, it has been a veeery long winter.
 
#131 ·
Awesome work you are doing here.

I wish I had your talent. I am about to undergo a frame-off myself. I recently bought a 60 wagon that someone had started a restore on. Then I bought a 59 wagon a week later for parts. Now I think I want to restore both....... The roof on my 59 is completely shot. I am thinking of doing a roof clip from another wagon I found in a junk yard.

I'm very interested in your rotisserie. I appreciate all the pictures you have posted as I was not sure how to make it so that I could use a rotisserie to make the work easier. Your ingenuity has certainly opened some thoughts in my mind as to how to proceed. Thanks and I'd love to see how it is doing now.
 
#135 ·
I wish I had your talent. I am about to undergo a frame-off myself. I recently bought a 60 wagon that someone had started a restore on. Then I bought a 59 wagon a week later for parts. Now I think I want to restore both....... The roof on my 59 is completely shot. I am thinking of doing a roof clip from another wagon I found in a junk yard.

I'm very interested in your rotisserie. I appreciate all the pictures you have posted as I was not sure how to make it so that I could use a rotisserie to make the work easier. Your ingenuity has certainly opened some thoughts in my mind as to how to proceed. Thanks and I'd love to see how it is doing now.
Thanks man!:beer:
 
#134 · (Edited)
well......not as quickly as I would like but I have done a bit lately. I fixed the door pockets where the door had blown open and welded up all the random holes in the roof. I also finally fit and tacked in the lower piece on the drivers side and cut out the same on the passenger side. I think my next move will be repairing an earlier repair I did to the roof gutter, been looking at it for a while now and hate it. And I decided on my tranny/trans case, an old school SM465-205 combo, should be cool behind my 6.0l. I was really leaning towards an auto but........an old truck like this has to have some old school gear whine and just wouldn't be right IMHO.
 

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#137 ·
Thanks man!!

Well I wanted to keep up the momo on my truck but work got in the way again....but I have pretty much got the passenger side panel ready for final install and I unbolted the hood hinges from the firewall and had a look at them and the pin was good but the hole is all wallowed out, so I think I will weld them shut and redrill them with a 5/16"bit and put a bolt through, then I will re-repair the roof gutter, and then do the dash or start on the tailgate, things are slowing down here due to the low price of oil so I should have lots of free time ahead.
 

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#140 ·
So I've been walking by my truck in the garage for a while now (years) and been hating the repair I did on the roof gutter, thinking on how to fix it, and time has been passing, I just realized I took the roof off in Sept 2010! I read a lot and watch a lot of hot rod stuff, as I'm sure a lot of you do, and I am blown away by a lot of the metal work being done. I have wanted to challenge myself and last week I decided to re make the entire roof gutter, and by Gawd it turned out pretty fuckin nice!
 

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#141 ·
The visor over the windshield was last and turned out almost perfect
 

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#142 ·
I had plans to make a new frame from scratch but I have ditched that idea and plan on using a 02 Chevy truck frame, and hang a Dana 60 on the front. I bought the truck for the 6.0l and planned on using a lot of it on the new frame. I recently decided why redo whats already done, just make the wagon body fit the frame, it saves transferring all the plumbing and wiring and assorted project killing stuff, plus Chevy already did the engineering........bit of a cop out? sure. I want to drive this truck and this will literally cut years off the build.
I also want to do the cage before the roof goes back on, I'm gonna try and put the gutter on tomorrow and see how it comes together. Pics to follow
 
#144 · (Edited)
I know what you're saying, as time passes and we see new things/ideas, we want to go back and change what we did in the past. I think it is fun to learn and improve along the way. Although, at some point we need to get them on the road... :laughing:

Excellent work on the sheet metal. :beer:

Things warming up yet? I was just up there, East coast anyway... north of Montreal, about a month ago, -41 degrees. WTF?! If you break down, you die. :mr-t: Damn, that's cold!:shaking:

Nothing wrong with dropping your bad a$$ body on that '02 Cheby.. (nothing wrong with being a half breed) ;D
...make it happen :D:D
 
#145 ·
Great to see you back in the saddle :p haven't skipped a beat

The driveline swap sounds good...have a similar truck. Keep tabs in the chevy section on the sas swaps. Something to watch for is folks in your climate have had lots of issues with brake lines. '00-'02 also run the a massive clutch fan which can be converted to a factory dual fan setup with a tune. Doing this and some other updates through Blackbear in a couple weeks. You can send them your pcm and or come to you if enough people in your area sign up.
 
#147 ·
I have never heard of a cold issue with brake lines, hmmmm, anythings possible I guess. I'll have to get the body roughed onto the frame and see if the mechanical will work out, and yes we've been talking about reflashing the computer since I won't be using the auto tranny, probably keep the air con tho, it gets hot here too! Do you know if anyone makes a air con unit that can go in the back so I don't have to try and stuff it under the dash?
 
#146 ·
Ha! Thanks Dan, I've been telling my dad that when its done we'll go fishing and have the coolest truck on the boat launch. You are 100% right, and putting it on a chevy frame will literally cut 5 years off this build, glad I thought of it.
Montreal eh? Ya -41c or F is cold, takes your breath away. Winter of 94 I worked on a pipeline crew on nightshift and we had about a week straight of cold clear nights, avg -51c, then one night it warmed up to approx -38c, and we were all saying how warm it was that night, didn't even need my extra mitts!
 
#148 · (Edited)
Here are some pics of my new roof gutter, factory fresh.....little fine tuning to fit but it turned out pretty good I think. At one point I think I had every C-clamp I own on there, and I have a lot....should have got a pic.
 

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#156 ·
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