1956 Willys Wagon - Body Work
August, 2010
I'm finally starting in on some repairs to the tailgate. The hinge screws holding the tailgate to the body were frozen and had to be drilled out. There's massive bondo fill at the lower tailgate and the splash pan (body below the hinge). I bought it in that condition, but it's been getting noticably worse, lifting and cracking.
I had a beat up old Willys CJ tailgate laying around so I decided to splice the Willys script into the Wagon tailgate. I cut notches at the vertical ribs and filled them. It's ready to weld in place which will require a series of tack welds spread out over distance and time to hopefully avoid warping. Before that I want to do some type of rust conversion to the inside of the tailgate. From what I can tell this area is left as bare metal from the factory, so the entire surface is rusty.
Patch panels are on order from Walcks 4 Wheel Drive. I'm not going to cut out the hinge or any other metal until those arrive and I can take measurements from the replacement parts.
The taillights on the Wagon are small to start with and the stock single light socket is just not enough to throw a bright brake light and/or turn signal, especially with today's fast moving traffic and absent minded drivers.
I welded on two new 1156 bulb sockets that will allow all of the functions (marker, brake and turn) to have their own bright setting. A cheap mod.
The previous owner's solution to that problem was to drill holes in the tailgate and mount some CJ style taillights. Thanks! I suck at body work - wish me luck.
I initially tried to use the original socket mounting bracket, but I ended up making new ones from some strap metal so I could position the bulbs closer to the center of the lens. It will all be hidden. It doesn't have to be pretty.