Building a 61 Willy's Wagon Rockcrawler

Building a 61 Willy's Wagon Rockcrawler (Its done) (Added video of Hells Gate)

Greetings:

I just found this early Jeep site and I am hoping to tap into your knowledge of early Jeeps and Willy's as I begin a new project.

My platform is a 1961 Willy's wagon. Its in decent shape only missing one window and very little rust. somebody rattle canned the damned thing so its an ugly blue with sprayover contaminating the chrome stuff.

It is bone stock with a working Super Hurricane inline 6 flathead/t-90 tranny and I think a spicer 18 transfer case with a working PTO. The axles are stock and the front is closed knuckle. All of the drivetrain will be removed in favor of a chevy 350 v8 with TBI/sm465 tranny/atlas 4.3:1/dana 60 front with histeer and hydro assist and an ARB with 4.56's, 14B rear welded, gonna spring it over on waggy 7leafs.

I just drove the vehicle home last night and will be picking up the donor engine and tranny this weekend along with everything else I can scrounge off of the donor in regard to guages lines a/c etc.

my first act will be to box the frame and gusset where appropriate to handle the drivetrain. next will be new body mounts, then engine...

Gonna exo cage this thing, and while some may see this as ruining the lines of the rig, I see it as preserving the body for the future.

any comments, suggestions, or ideas on how to best proceed would be greatly appreciated

Cheers!

 

Welcome from Norwalk! Got any pics to share? We'd love to see them

 

Welcome from Tennessee. Nothing wrong with an exo cage as long as it is not too bulky. We have done several here and it is the best thing to do on a cab truck if you are not wanting to destroy the body.8) Sounds like you have some pretty good plans in the works.

 

Welcome from NJ. :uwop:

 

:iagree: :iagree:

 

images?

ok here it is as I picked it up yesterday

 

That thing looks like its in great shape! Any particular reason you are going to make a rock crawler out of it instead of something else?

 

I am going to build it into a rock crawler, because I live in Colorado and I enjoy the art of rock crawling. Building this thing with a v8 and one ton axles will also afford me the ability to drive it on highway at highway speeds with a lot better ride. yeah yeah 38" tires at highways speeds, i know, i am nuts.

Also I can make this thing pretty much bomber for under $10k while doing a restore would be a never ending moneypit.

Another reason is that utilizing this base vehicle for a rock crawler is not done very often. CJ's YJ's TJ's and even willys cj2-3-5's are all pretty common platforms in the non-buggy rock crawling realm.

 

Good point!

 

Awesome!!

A while back on Extreme 4x4 they showed a Wagon rockcrawler, the thing was SICK and it got a lot of comments. Definitely keep us posted!!

 

Another Trucks! victim. Keep us posted. If you do a lot of your own fab work lets see it.

 

Welcome from central Va. I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

$7-800 for hydroboost? why would it be so much? I am going with a new engine, and gonna redo the brakes anyways? shouldn't the stock stuff coming off of my donor truck be sufficient?

 

Sorry, I just think vehicles like that should be saved and restored. Especially if they're in good shape to start with. If it was a beat, rusted hulk and the drivetrain was shot, sure. JMHO. I'll be in the corner, wiping a tear.

 

:iagree:

 

Thanks Jerry! I'm glad I'm not the only one. I have NOTHING against rock crawling or building vehicles for that purpose, I just hate to see a cherry classic used for things like that.

I lost ALL respect for Boyd Coddington when he butchered that Model T, and I ain't too proud of Jesse James for some of the vehicles he's destroyed too. I realize it's the network calling the shots and paying the tab, but still....those guys should be professional enough to refuse to destroy classics, this ain't the 60's when that stuff was plentiful.