Building a 61 Willy's Wagon Rockcrawler

I am just wondering what kinda drug you take, or what it is that you eat, that keeps you so busy on that thing. I needs me some of whatever it is.R) R)



It's really shapin up now, and fast. Nice work.

 

heh heh...its called being a teacher and having summers off...that and I go back to workk in 2 weeks and i need to get as much done as possible prior to going back...

 

X2!! Something radioactive in that Colorado drinking water? R)

My wife said something to the effect of "Oh My!" The first picture was just what I was thinking of - flipped into some kind of box.

Seems like all my projects get stuck in the "Dude - your parts didn't ship!" zone. Been trying to get some exhaust elbows out of PA for my boat for 10 days now....

 

Yep, I guess having more than two days a week off during the year would probably help speed things up a little bit. Knowing me though, I would wait 'til the last couple of days before I had to go back to work to start getting things done. I work best under pressure.

 

Was that Carnage? :stout:

 

Billings canyon, just outside of grand junction....

 

well i spent all afternoon putting things back on the engine, then figuring out how to make it fit. i had to cut some of the inside of the front cross member to get the engine to fit properly. the sm465 sits nicely.










I got some figuring to do regarding the radiator...

 

Looks good. You got 2 weeks, can you fly out to my house and get some progress done on my Jeep?

 

Man that's looking Great...

 

motor mounts are made and installed. the engine now sits in the frame all by itself!!

ahh its the little victories....

 

I don't know man, by now you should have already gotten it running and driving. Sounds like yer slackin to me.






Just kiddin, but you're almost there with it.

 

this thing is coming along great........that motor was a great motor, atleast from my experiance. I had a 95 chev ext cab 2wd with the 5.7l vortec in it...wanna to talk about fast. i had 295's (tires) in the rear and with just alittle bit of work under the hood (ie: chip, cold air, bigger, exhaust, a couple other goodies) it would outrun most stock 5.0 stangs and stock camaros at the strip

 

yeah its kinda scary considering I am used to the good old 2.5L 4 banger

 

Today is kind of another milestone day. I spent the morning working on getting the electric fan (more on this in a bit) and the radiator to fit.

I am using a 3 speed taurus puller fan which is being mounted within the grill IN FRONT of the radiator. It is pretty much the only place I can install a fan, so hopefully the puller will work as a pusher in front of the radiator

The radiator was mounted with mounts i fabbed up. It seems to be pretty stable. I am gonna add some rubber in between the mounts and the radiator to act as shock absorbing material.













I need some lunch....

 

3 speed fan? Are all the taurus fans 3 speed? if so that might be useful

 

some taurus fans are 2 speed, this one is a three speed....now I gotta figure out the wiring...yuk

 

I know it's a pain to backtrack, but I'd really reconsider moving the Taurus fan from in front of the radiator. Most guys (myself included) skin the grille to gain some extra room to mount the radiator forward. I've done it a few ways, but the easiest is to use a spot weld remover tool (funky drill bit thing) to remove the entire factory shroud/radiator mount from the grille shell, then buzz out the headlight buckets. I usually run Hella 500s in place of the factory sealed beams because they're a lot thinner. You can fab up a quick headlight mount after the radiator is in. That way you'll be able to squeak your raidator forward a few inches and mount your fan as a puller, as it was designed for. I'm gonna predict overheating issues for you on the trail if you try to rockcrawl with it like that. Just my $.02.

 

dummy, i thought about exactly what you suggested. It seemed like a pita, soo i am gonna try it this way. If I start having overheating issues I can always backtrack and redo the grill/radiator/fan mounting...

thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. keep em coming!!!!

 

Man you work fast! I have been working on my Jeep for a year and I am not as far along as you. Nice progress. Keep us posted.