Build 49 Willys buggy - bought not built but highly modified afterwards

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I cut the 3/16" AR450 skids on mine with the plasma table.... Set your table for a 50% lead in and oversize the hole diameter by 10% (ie: 1/2" hole = .55 cut). My button-head hardened socket screws drop right in.

And run a test hole. Or two.

I have wheeled my buggy quite a bit in the past few months, and the socket head screws are still in perfect shape...just removed for my t-case swap and only needed to clear the hex out to remove them.

IMO, four 1/2" bolts. My skid doesn't move.
 
Good info but I'm not as sophisticated. :cool: Cutoff wheel and carbide drill bits for me. Slow but effective.

I think the hiccup with the flat head screws and washers in the UHMW is that the plastic is soft enough to allow them to grab and bend.

Yup, 4 bolts per panel is all I plan.
 
Latest upgrade is not pic worthy. The OE builder had rolled both pinions up towards the transfer case for better driveshaft angle. 2 problems. First, the obvious driveshaft vibration issues. For anyone who doesn't understand this, here is an awesome video showing how important phasing and alignment is. GM did a whole bunch of training videos back in the day all at the laymen's level. I've had a growl in the driveline when decelerating since I bought it and I am hoping this solves the issue.



Second problem is rolling the front axle up without cutting and rotating the "C's" creates steering issues at speed. So, to solve the problem, I adjusted the lower links out by about 3/4" per joint, which resulted in a much better pinion angle.

My front driveshaft was getting pretty well worn so I had Tom Woods build me a new 1350 driveshaft with 3/16" wall. Nothing special there.......... The rear driveshaft is a different issue because it is so short. (the woes of having a long 203/205 transfer case package.) The yokes had been clearanced as much as possible already and when I rolled the pinion back down, there was no chance of using the 1350 yokes. So I ordered up 1410 yokes for the 205 and 14 bolt. Wow are they bigger! And of course the cross member for my rear seat rails was in the way which needed to be clearanced. I'm not proud of the hack job for this as access was really difficult. It will need to be cleaned up next time the seats and floor pans get removed for access. (or when the transfer case comes out)

My buddy Jess Oliver who races the 4517 car lives right around the corner and right now is KOH prep time. (I'm there most Sundays this time of year) Turns out he just put a new rear axle in and had a perfect condition 1410 with 2.5 x 1/4 wall driveshaft laying around that he can't use. All I had to do was cut and shorten, sleeve and I just saved almost $400. :) Even going 1410, at full droop the yoke still need some clearancing.
 
woody said:
Have you drilled AR before? I was told I couldn't afford enough bits to get one hole done....lol
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Yes. We deal with it daily here at work. Carbide drill bits do fine especially in a drill press. Slow rpm with lots of coolant. On the other hand, drilling it by hand with a variable speed drill tends to chip the carbide drills.
 
Added a post to my build with my skid attachment if it helps or give any extra ideas.
www.rockcrawler.com

Build - #SteerAndStuff Buggy

Well, panels will never look the same but this is the only picture I took early in the day. Everything worked good until half thru day got into small bind and steered into it and instantly started howling and never shut up rest of day. Need to check into that.
www.rockcrawler.com www.rockcrawler.com
 
MNorby said:
Added a post to my build with my skid attachment if it helps or give any extra ideas.
www.rockcrawler.com

Build - #SteerAndStuff Buggy

Well, panels will never look the same but this is the only picture I took early in the day. Everything worked good until half thru day got into small bind and steered into it and instantly started howling and never shut up rest of day. Need to check into that.
www.rockcrawler.com www.rockcrawler.com
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That's pretty clever. Not sure I feel the need to go to that much trouble but it will work for sure.
 
I’ve mentioned fit & finish a couple times. Dash & cowl panels by the OB. This pic also shows a couple panels on the tunnel skin. Note that the only way to the back of the gauges is to remove the tunnel skin. Which means removing the outer skin, seat and harness. Although it looks like the gauge panel is removable, it's not. It is actually riveted in place. So, the long access panel gets me to the gauges. The other square panel was where speakers were located. I'm not a "tunes" guy on the trail and for me, the sound system was something I would never use. Next time it comes apart, the panels and tunnel skin are going to be painted silver to lighten up the interior.

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Red switch is backup light in the light bar. USB outlet also has a digital volt meter.


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And side panels mating to flattie fenders. Notice the bead work on the leading edge. It has a similar bead where it mates to the tailgate.

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Skid plate is sorta on hold. I left the UHMW in the middle which will cover me for any snow wheeling. So an update on the graphic discussion and little functional upgrade. @MNorby offered up a set of graphics he wasn't going to use. After discussion with the wife (happy wife = happy life) we opted to give it a whirl. Thanks Matt!.

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I had rotated (extended the lower links) my pinions down to get a better alignment between t-case outputs and pinions. Also switched the rear driveshaft from 1350 to 1410 to get better clearances in yokes. Much better. Extending the lower links resulted in marginal at best rod end thread engagement. So I decided to order up a set of Branik aluminum 2.25 links.

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And while at it, why not get a little engraving so we can expense them as a business marketing tool? :)

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So with the SX's back on for winter wheeling, I'm hoping to get some snow wheeling in next weekend.
 
So far things are not so good happenings. While en route, our RV fridge caught on fire. Short version - no one can believe we saved it from burning to the ground. Local RV dealer replaced the fridge. On to Sand Hollow with the buggy. A couple mild sunset runs before the rest of the guys get here. Trans starts to whine and we diagnose it's the torque converter. A 6 hour round trip run to Las Vegas gets us a new converter. It took 3 hours to get the trans out and when we pulled the converter, the front pump/spline is toast. I have a line on replacement parts so we will put it back together tomorrow and hope for the best. Sad day................. :(

I'm sure "someone" has a pic to post.
 
whiterhino said:
So far things are not so good happenings. While en route, our RV fridge caught on fire. Short version - no one can believe we saved it from burning to the ground. Local RV dealer replaced the fridge. On to Sand Hollow with the buggy. A couple mild sunset runs before the rest of the guys get here. Trans starts to whine and we diagnose it's the torque converter. A 6 hour round trip run to Las Vegas gets us a new converter. It took 3 hours to get the trans out and when we pulled the converter, the front pump/spline is toast. I have a line on replacement parts so we will put it back together tomorrow and hope for the best. Sad day................. :(

I'm sure "someone" has a pic to post.
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Sorry for your troubles, I hope you get it all worked out and some good times on the trails!!
 
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We turned the corner yesterday. @woody sourced a front pump from a friend and I made the hour round trip to pick it up. Tyler was a super cool dude and even though he knew I was desperate, he wouldn't take any money for the part. People paying forward are always awesome! While I was driving, the gang got the trans pulled and and popped the pan. YUK! It was more full of crud that I have ever seen. I was pretty doubtful and depressed. But, got it cleaned up and swapped the front pump and after about 4 hours had it ready to fire up. A test on the hoist was positive as we cycled all the gears. Let it run for about 10 minutes and then drained it again. Very little debris in the filter and pan so that was a good sign! Of course, nothing like using $27/ gallon synthetic oil to flush and refill. LOL Buttoned it up and took it for a test run up the road. Shifted great and seemed good to go!

We got out for an evening run up Triple 7's and the rig performed well. I am now optimistic that it will finish out the week.

I can't say enough about Woody and the other local guys who made this happen. It's kind of a given that my group would sacrifice the time to help out as we kinda have a "leave no man behind" motto. But no way can I take them for granted, they put in the work. And for Woody to offer up his shop, and Don (the pilot who I don't even know his last name) and Woody to reach out to friends looking for parts for me, and the response from the people who had parts (Justin and Tyler) and Logan who offered us his trans jack to use is very humbling on this Easter weekend. I feel very blessed to know so many people who are truly gracious and generous.

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Back home from a month on the road. We wheeled 5 days in Sand Hollow on a variety of 7-9 rated trails with a few side obstacles added in. I wanted to run a couple 10's but never had the chance. The guys always stick me in front to lead and without a spotter who knows the lines I was challenged to work things out on my own. The car worked great and I never (well, never say never) had an issue that I couldn't figure out.

After leaving SH we moved further north and took a stop at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park to explore. Wow, those dunes are cool! Far different than the sugar sand that we have in Michigan. Through all of that the trans worked fine.

Woody ran Chain Reaction with us and spotted me on a couple side obstacles that I would have normally taken a pass on. That was cool and fun!

Once again I can't thank Woody enough for the help and support. The week would have been a bust without you!
 
pennsylvaniaboy said:
Sooooo update on the new paint? It was cool to meet you at AOAA and see you and your crew run balderdash
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Huh. You should have introduced yourself. I would have said hey. Your group was a ton of fun and we enjoyed the peanut gallery. Lol

I’ve never been a fan of the color since I bought it. I had a white YJ for years (hence the screen name). So I went with white again. Wife likes bright green and we just did a new logo for the driving school so we decided to pimp ourselves.

Honest question - did you like it?
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Just checking in. No real updates other than I replaced the stock 14 bolt axle shafts with Yukon shafts after breaking one at AOAA. For my age and budget, there are no major changes or upgrades on the horizon. I'm pretty satisfied with the overall performance and it's a well rounded rig. We have lots of dirt hills and washouts locally and it does really well in that terrain. I just picked up a new set of 43sx stickies. The old ones are from 2013 and are pretty worn and I figure if I wait, 2 years from now I'll be retired with 2 sets of worn out tires. Wow are prices going up. My buddy is a dealer and I got the last set before they are going up another $90 each.
 

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