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1949 Willys Wagon Build

322K views 756 replies 88 participants last post by  CJ3BL 
#1 · (Edited)


The Willys Jeep Station Wagon was introduced in 1946 as just the 463 model, powered by the L-134 Go-Devil flathead four cylinder. The 663 model, powered by the L-148 Lightning straight six, was brought in for 1948. Four-wheel drive became an option in 1949. This wagon is a 4x463 SW one of 4472 produced in that year.

Originally owned a 1955 wagon in high school and updated the stock 226 t-90 and dana18 with warn OD to a chevy 283 T400 with the AA kit for the dana 18. I have 25+ years experience around Willys projects and in no way am I an expert but I do have opinions.

Since then my project ebbed and flowed into what you will see in the following threads. As you all can probably relate to the hang time a full frame up restoration can take, this one is no exception.

My intentions for the build are one low COG and two keep it a sleeper as much as possible. Not a purist by any stretch, I just love clean factory lines and strived to keep them intact. There are also many subtle upgrades to the body to address water and air entering as these wagons constantly leaked exhaust fumes into the cabin and were musty smelling. I always dreaded getting in my wagon in the cold early morning because it took 20 minutes to defog the windows. This was due to all the gaps in the hinges, uneven body panels, cowl vent, sliding window and poorly designed weatherstripping.

I decided to mix and match my 1949 and early 50's bodies to get the best of both worlds of sleeper/function. I prefer the early 50's grill/fenders and the last year of the round wheel well 1949. The project utilized two bodies to create 1 in order to fit the 404's and 37' ~ 40" treads. I started by cutting the body in half and widening 10" and stretching the doors 4".

Functionally I'm running an old school 383 stroker, Accel DFI, Hogans sheetmetal manifold, H1 4L80E 242AMG, and 404 axles. More on this later.

There are many lessons I have learned working in this industry and there is a wealth of knowledge on this site and I salute my fellow craftsmen, journeymen and shop owners for their visual and mechanical contributions.


God Bless America!
 
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#138 · (Edited)
Thanks plym49. Likewise can't wait till completion...but will settle on the chassis for the time being. Ordered 2 Fox 2.5 x 8" coil over shocks with 18 " 600lbs eibach springs and 50/90 compression/rebound for a starting point. 24" ext and 16" collapsed. Kings needed to much lead time due to the special ordering black anodizing. The reservoir from Fox has the advantage of more oil capacity and greater surface area for cooling. The ribs also provide extra strength. The reservoir lines are made from Aeroquip High Pressure Hose and Steel reusable fittings. The hose is -10 and pressure rated to 1750 psi with 6 layers. All Fox shocks utilize o-ring sealed steel JIC fittings. One drawback of this heavy duty hose is it is less flexible.
 
#139 · (Edited)
Cantilever Mock up

2:1 ratio set up to accept a 2.5" X 8" travel coilover. Unlike the Offroad EVO kit we decided to run the shocks towards the front so the gas tank doesn't interfere with the axle at full stuff or limits my carbon footprint.















The cross member that sits behind the compartments under the front seats needed to be removed because it limited the shock travel. Will be fabricating an additional custom crossmember that sits behind the existing tranny that the four link attaches to. The red dot past the hole left over from the crossmember is where roughly one of the mounting points of the shock will be.





 
#143 ·
Thanks Larryboy! That means a heck of a lot. Forgive me for being a little biased towards my project...and for all the incredible builds on pirate I'll agree with one caveat...My favorite "street legal" build.

:beer:
 
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#147 · (Edited)
Getting things orientated. It's going to be tight where the head of the shock mounts as the upper link shares the same area. The link center 1.5" higher and 1" farther forward. It's nestled as close to the shock as possible with just enough room to get the shock bolt out. Once the shock is out, the link bolt can be then removed. There will be a common wall between the two.



 
#154 ·
Looking good my friend, but linking the rear is the easy end of the truck :)

Packaging my front 3-link has taken me MONTHS.

On a serious note, I hope you are going to laminate all those brackets to beef them up? Looks like 1/8" material almost everywhere (maybe 3/16") and that's nowhere near strong enough for real life driving unless you never plan on leaving the pavement.

The old 4Mogger build thread is a good reference. His truck was built very pretty with similar material thickness. On the very first trip out, the mounts twisted and tore off the truck at the axle. In my axle build thread in this forum there are some carnage shots from one of the members showing a 1/2" upper mount ripped to shreds... Admittedly, he also appeared to have limited vertical link separation, and was running a 3-link. The loading gets awfully high on those components, so if you haven't already you should plug the link positions into the 4-link calculator and see how high your link loads actually are.

My 6G numbers seemed to be in the 60,000psi range.... You gotta take numbers like that seriously when you build the mounts.


-G
 
#155 ·
On a serious note, I hope you are going to laminate all those brackets to beef them up? Looks like 1/8" material almost everywhere (maybe 3/16") and that's nowhere near strong enough for real life driving unless you never plan on leaving the pavement.


-G

I agree, I'm building a 3-link front end right now, 3/8" for my link mounts and it's just a straight axle without a pumpkin.

Mog axles with the extra leverage are super hard on things. Don't they have .500 wall housings?
 
#156 ·
Some of the material in the cross member is .100"

Thanks for your concern with the link mount strength issue. However... and this is just my opinion... I believe a well designed and tig welded .190" chromoly capture plate is less prone to failure than a poorly designed, poorly welded, 3/8" or even 1" thick mount made from barn steel hot plate.
 
#160 ·
Assuming you anneal it at a minimum you'll be about equal with my cold rolled and mig welded mounts.

If you're not fully welded yet I'd make that bitchin' cross member bolt to the frame so you can give the cross member a proper PWHT.

Opinion never trumps fact and a Mog axle will twist stuff like a pretzel.


Ok, I'm not gonna say anymore about it.

On with the awesome build!!!


:beer:
 
#162 ·
I'm scratching my head on that too. I could see where you could make a stencil of the verticle plates and lay it on the top sheet and make incisions so the tigs could penetrate down to the verticle plates.
 
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