1956 Willys Wagon - Upgrades
August 2010: Time to address the Wagon's over heating issue. It's doing o.k. driving around town lately, but as far as running trails at a slow speed on a hot day, the radiator I have is just not up to the task. Step 1, make more room for a bigger radiator. I couldn't go any taller because of the power steering box, but by cutting out some fender well indents I can fit a radiator that's 6" wider than what I had.
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| The old metal and the patch job | This should do the trick (28"x17") | Need to make a bracket to hold the top |
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September 2009: Two more major obstacles are left before the Wagon is ready to hit the trails. First, it has an old school B&M tranny shifter on it that aside from being really low and uncomfortable to reach, it only goes into drive. The cable linkage has never worked proberly and it doesn't allow me to shift into gears 1,2, or 3. Not a big deal on the street, but on the trail it's imperative that I be able to set it in first gear and have it stay in first gear. The solution, although not a cheap solution, was to get a new 23" Lokar shifter and dash mounted indicator light. The parts were not terribly expensive, but I had to pay a shop to install it for me, which I hated doing. I just didn't think I'd be able to get everything hooked up and adjusted correctly, so I farmed it out. I really like the "truck" feel of the high shifter. It reminds me of a '74 F-150 I used to have.
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Second, is the brakes. I've never been happy with the manual brakes, even after doing the dual master cylinder upgrade and adding disc brakes to both axles. With the V8 and the auto tranny, the thing just wants to GO. I have to really get on the pedal to stop and holding the pedal with that much force at stop lights is a real pain. The solution for this one is a swinging pedal and locating a power brake booster on the firewall.
I added an 1/8" thick metal plate to the firewall for more support. It will be bolted in a few places as well as welded in place at the top and bottom. Yeah, I know, the wiring is a mess; it's on my to do list. I'll be moving some of the fuse blocks to inside the cab on the firewall at some point so that will help clean things up. 10/20/09: Brakes seem to be working well except for needing a minor adjustment to the pedal location. The Wagon has an overheating issue (at least when it's 100 + degrees outside) so that will need some attention.
May 2009 Update: Yeah, finally back on the road! Garage time has been hard to come by lately. The power steering is working great and makes for a much more comfortable ride. The brake upgrade hit a few snags, but what else is new. There's lots of little odds and ends to take care of before I take it off roading anywhere, but it's fine for driving around town. I ditched the slotted mags in favor of some Chevy truck ralley wheels. I have the chrome rings for them, but I haven't decided wether I'm going to use them or not. The rings have some dents and curb rash so I might just leave them off.
Current to do list:
- Rear tow attachment point and hitch receiver (below the stock bumper) Done; May 2009
- Front tow attachment point (through the stock bumper??)
- Gas tank skid plate Done; May 2009
- Transfer case skid plate
- Painting the interior
- Latch locations for the kid's car seats
- Toggle switches and gauges
- Stereo
- Refurbishing the heater assembly and controls
- Collecting parts for an on board air set up. A 2.5 gallon tank is already installed.
- Water pump has a small leak - it never ends! Fixed; May 2009
- Clean up wiring
Okay, it had been a couple of years since I had actually put the Wagon in four wheel drive, but it had been working fine before all the mods. When I engaged the transfer case I got a loud clunk, clunk, clunk when I started moving forward. Same thing going in reverse. Same thing in low range. So I'm thinking something is definately screwed up with the transfer case. I get ready to pull it out, expecting a full rebuild and I noticed that the u-joint is making contact with the cross member.
It was apparently just barely clearing the cross member all this time, but when I added a couple of inches of lift, it changed the angle enough to allow contact.
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The Resto-Mod has begun! (July, 2008)
I'm currently working on swapping out the anemic stock axles and drum brakes for a '77 Wagoneer axle in front and and '93 Isuzu Rodeo axle for the rear. Both Dana 44s with disc brakes!
I'm also adding a dual master cylinder and I'm in the middle of converting the scary Ross steering to Saginaw power steering.
Yes, the garage is a mess right now.
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I had to relocate the alternator to make room for the new power steering pump. A three groove crankshaft pulley was needed to get the belts lined up. Snaking the steering shaft through there next to the frame rail is going to be a fun one!
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Still, I can't complain. The Isuzu is a Dana 44 with disc brakes and a limited slip differential! Not bad for $180 and an hour of my time pulling it at the local junkyard. I got the e-brake cables with it as well. I'll have to rig them up to my e-brake pedal somehow, but that's nothing new when it comes to upgrades on the old Wagon.
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