Pro Street Willys

[Rick]

While building mounting brackets for the rack and pinion and putting a load on the front of the chassis, I discovered a weakness in the front cross member. So, before proceeding further, I've boxed the crossmember with sheet styrene . Now I can mount the steering rack brackets, shape everything and finish it with some smear.

[Rick]

The front cross member is fully boxed. Its now stronger and I think it looks better. Now I can fab some brackets for the rack and pinion.

[Rick]

I found some time to work on the Willys today. After boxing in the kit front cross member and test fitting the rack and pinion, I found that it still wasn't right. As a result, I've added an additional piece to the cross member so that the R&P can be mounted in the correct rear steer position.

Everything test fits just fine so now I can go ahead and finish shape the cross member and R&P brackets.

[whodaky]

The build is looking good Rick. Always good to see the bodies and parts that guys have produced being incorporate into a model.
Looking forward to seeing future progress of this model
Geoff aka whodaky

[Rick]

Thanks Geoff. Coming from you, thats a real compliment.

Its taken a lot of work, but I now have the front crossmember finished. All I need to do now is scratch two stylish mounting tabs for the rack. The crossmember looks a bit bulky, but once the radiator is attached, it won't look so ugly.

[Don Garrett]

Ain't work Rick.......it's therapy.
Now that you're back at the bench, take a deep breath, grab one of those designer coffee things, clear your head & strut your stuff.

[Rick]

I managed to get some time in on the Willys today.

In the 1:1 world, you don't just drop a violent blown Hemi backed by a Lenco into a hot rod useing motor mounts and a trans mount. So, as in a 1:1 car, I've fabricated front and rear motor plates. The front plate will be bolted to the engine block and to some custom mounts on the front down tubes connected to the roll cage and chassis. The rear plate is also attached to the block and will be secured to the firewall and to a hoop attached to the cage.

[Rick]

I've also finished the front crossmember and roughed in mounting tabs for the rack and pinion steering. The tabs need a bit of finishing but at least this part of the build is done.

[Rick]

I keep getting private enquiries about the body and chassis for this project. For the record, the body is done in fibreglass and its manufactured by Madd Fabricator. The chassis is a catalog item manufactured by TDR . Its not specific to the body but is a good platform from which to work. It can be found at tdrcatalog.com.

Please, direct all enquiries to MF and TDR .