1950 Willys Truck re-rebuild by 50wllystrk

12 minute(s) of a 620 minute read

Let's dive into the dual stabilizer situation if I may.

But first, let's focus on the last portion of the above statement.

" so much knowledge of proper mechanics". I certainly appreciate the compliment. Although, I do not hold my knowledge above anybody else.

Example, oldtime ironman had a good statement concerning metal and it's characteristics.

Midnightburn had some very good points on spring perches and started the caster camber subject.

We had a great video on spider gears and their function that was posted by another.

All in all, I am open to the idea of learning just as much as I am of teaching.

If I may copy and post again. " so much knowledge of proper mechanics".

Perhaps I am great at fooling everyone with my knowledge of proper mechanics since it is I who has been in control of the topics, I can choose only those of which I have knowledge in, which in the readers mind, if I have so much knowledge in these specific areas, I must have great knowledge in many more areas of vehicles.

Is it then that I have fooled the readers, or, is it simply that the readers have built an assumption on what has not been covered yet?

The future of this project will uncover more of my knowledge, of which I do not boast of, I always know there will be others who have more knowledge or perhaps experience is specific areas and functions of vehicles.

Of which now leads us to the beginning of the statement above.

"please stop running dual stabilizers"

My knowledge of them is limited, but my experience with them is huge.

I now step aside and give the thread to your knowledge of steeringstabilizers.

Ok, back to the fabrication, welding and grinding.

With a truck that is over 60 years old and in service for much of that time, there is gonna be strange wear spots along the way. I either have a choice to ignore the strange wear spots, or try to fill and repair.

The situation is tricky, and whaaaa, I can't use the 4 1/2" grinder. I needed the grinding disc to reach further than a 4 1/2" will reach, I needed the reach of a 7" grinder. oldtime_ironman, I'm reaching for the 7" air grinder, haven't used it for years.

If I ignore this worn spot and tighten the bolt and bracket up against the leaf spring, I will apply pressure perhaps the side of the spring instead of the bushing itself. Either way, it's best to take care of it now while I'm here.

I lightly touched the area with the grinder, then used a small rotary brrr to remove the left over rust residue. Then brought in the mig welder, filled and with the 7" grinder, got it back to like new condition.

Honestly, I just want to assemble, and start driving this thing, but with old age comes patience. One thing I've learned is if I'm planning on painting this truck someday, absolutly everything I get finished now when it comes to the driving reliability, is all the more I don't have to deal with after the painting is done. After painting, I don't want to assemble and disassemble drivetrain parts later.

The spring mounting bracket in need of filling.

The bracket after welding and grinding.

12-18-2011

Jeff88, ohhh patience is such a huge subject. We can talk and teach how things work, we can talk about installation, we can teach fabrication, but one thing that can't be taught is patience. It's huge.

This is a mental, personal struggle. It is for me the decision of the life of the project at hand. Today, the mindset is quick satisfaction, we want it yesterday attitude, and yes, I to am in this world, I to struggle with the patience issue at times.

When it comes to this truck project, since you've followed along for months now, you can see how getting into one issue I have uncovered another issue. At times this is very overwhelming considering I figured this would be a 2 or 3 month project.

Where a large project becomes overwhelming is when I step into the shop, and I start adding all the work yet to do before I can drive it again. Right there, I'm down for the count. The heart rate goes up, where do I go now, how do I keep a positive attitude?

For me the idea is to realize what I just thought, there is so much to do....

For me it was rusty frame, it was suspension, it was shock mounts, it was paint the rims, it was rebuilding the rear axle, it was figuring out how to make all the bushings fit the leaf springs, ect.

I have to catagorize the projects into sub-projects. The frame rust is not directly attached to the leaf springs, the rear end is not directly attached to the leaf springs. The idea is to put the frame as the only project in your mind. Push the other items aside, focus and conquer only the frame. Once you conquer the frame, celebrate big time. Go release energy somewhere else. Mine is to go for a exhausting atv ride til my muscles ache.

Now I feel an accomplishment, I will get a positive push from it and move to the next sub-catagory. I tire of grinding, welding, and fabricating so I moved to the axle rebuild. The change from fabrication to mechanicals is a great diversion once in a while.

Sorry for the long write up, but this is a subject that causes many projects to never get finished. If anyone else has ideas to get through long term projects I'd like to hear them.

12-26-2011

Hi all, let's get back to business here.

Huge statement here, I shall paste. thomask wrote.

"50wllystrk is becoming a mentor to many here with his patient and humble way."

Thank you thomask, there is alot in the above sentence, I will do my best to explain.

"Humble" is the key word. Basically the opposite meaning of "pride". Pride has it's benifits when managed correctly.

Yes, I do have pride as I finish a project and I sit back and reflect on what I've created. To create something means that something had to give into my will. I have pride in my ability to create, and I enjoy the support from others who show their respect of what has been created. But I/we must never let this pride override our ability to be humble.

We all crave wisdom, wisdom is like water, we want it to flow in, but we don't always know when or how to operate the valves. Pride is the valve that stops wisdom from flowing in. We need to learn how to shut off the pride valve and open the humble valve so we can be ready when wisdom is ready to flow.

Just something to think about.

Next.....

94yjstocklook wrote,"hope your having a merry christmas". Thank you for the blessing.

I'm gonna cover this as fast as I can.

Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. To tell you thr truth, I went 45 years without a clue of what it meant. My fault maybe, I totally ignored the whole idea of the Jesus thing. With santa, happy holidays, gifts, giving, spending money, snowman, ect. ect. The whole thing is covered by glitter.

God knocked on my heart 5 years ago, I answered. As you can tell I'm not some religious robot, that's not what God wants. He simply wants a relationship with you. That's why we celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ.

Ok, real quick... 10 commandments, we've all heard of them. They had a large part of bringing brought God's wrath upon mankind. They were to bring mankind to thier knees by realizing that they could not live perfect according to God's Holiness, a "humbling" if you may. Instead, mankind tried to live up to God's holiness and this only created "pride" in trying to live up to the expectations of the 10 commandments.

Do you see how the first part of this post is fitting with this second part, "pride" and "humble". You two posted the perfect posts and the right time.

Basically, the very first commandment, "have no gods before Me" is the first one broken by every person, boom, your hell bound, done deal. It reads "if one commadment is broken the penalty is the same as if you have broken all the commandments".

Here is why we acknowledge the birth of Christ. He is our redeemer, through His birth, life, beatings, and death and ressuretion we can escape the final judgement and wrath that awaits us. He has paid the price for our failures.

He has brought Grace to the forefront. Grace is a gift that is the unmerrited favor of God. You don't work, or pay for it, it requires a heart felt belief that you have fallen short of God's Holiness and you need a savior, and His name is Jesus Christ. We the believers basically get to take part of Jesus Christ perfection to escape the punishment due to us.

I could go on, but hopefully this will be start a thought wave, and from this thoughtwave don't be surprised if your heart suddenly has a need to be fulfilled, a need that only the Holy Spirit can fulfill.

Almighty then, errr I mean, Alrighty then, let's do some fabrication.

My truck is so far from an ordinary Willys. What I mean is.... it's been so butchered over the years that seldom can I just order Willys truck parts and install. I usually have to modify parts to fit.

Case in point... Body mounts. There was an original cross frame that was cut off before I got the truck. This cross brace had a support that the front nose mounted to. I had to make my own supports to hold up the nose.

With all the changes I've made over the last couple months I need to raise the nose about 3/4 " to get the bed and cab to align better. I already have a 1" rubber bushing between the nose and the support, I don't want more rubber. My plan is to remove a section of the monting tabs I made years ago and weld the leftover pieces back together. Now I can still use 1" rubber bushings and still get the lift I want.

There are two support tabs, I've got one original here and one that I cut the center out of. Since I removed about 3/4" inch out of the center, the left over two pieces don't exactly match anymore. I simply raised the nose to where I wanted it, put the rubber bushing in place and bolted it's tab in place. Then bolted the other part of the tab to the frame and with the mig welder, stretched 2 beads across the gap. This way, when I finish welding the pieces back together, I don't have to quess or bend or shape or drill, it's a perfect fit for distance and height.

This pic shows the space that had to be filled. Remember.... liquid
metal.

Sure I could have started with a new piece and drilled and bent to shape. But in the end, I'm sure you can see I saved time, and got the same result.

The round flat washer welded in place will be covered in the next post.