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Old 10-05-2014, 08:08 PM
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Gojeep Gojeep is offline
MetalShaper of the Month March 2015, March 2020,, June 2022,Aug 2023
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Eastern Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 2,986
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I was lucky enough that someone gave me a photo of their hotrod with red steelies on at a similar angle to mine, I was able to crop the wheels out and add them to my 32" trailer tyres. Think it looks pretty good.
Now as I am going to widen the whole cab 7" to match the width of the rear and cover the new front end, I want to stretch the cab length ways also to keep the proportions and get more leg room. So this is at stock length.


This shot shows the cab lengthened 3.5", or half the 7" I am widening the cab.
The bed is shortened 3.5" to keep the overall length the same.


Here I have stretched the cab 5.5" which is the same percentage as the cab will be widened, (13.5%). I took the cab length to be from rear of cab to the base of the windscreen.
The bed has been shortened 5.5" as well in front of the rear guard leaving the wheelbase the same as stock.


Got the coilover and upper wishbone mounts off and will use them on the Willys frame once it gets spread to the same outer width as the Grand. Also got the mounts out from inside the frame for the front of the sub frame. Was a pain as lots of spot welds and stitch welding on the outside.


Decided to remove the rear quarters as hoping to be able to sell them to the Jeep wrecker as nothing wrong with them.
Driver side off.


Passenger side quarter panel off too.


One 1/4 panel. Hopefully can sell it off one day.


Got the firewall on this side mostly unpicked.


The damaged side on the right will be harder to remove as all squashed together. Will need quite a bit of straightening before I can use it, but will be much easier once the kick panel area is gone.


Not much progress to show worth posting about but still forging ahead between other things that get in the way of the project like normal. I made a quick rotisserie out of two Aldi engine stands that cost me less than $100 for both of them. Can't buy the casters for that let alone the thick plate the pivot is on and other steel used in the stands etc.


Lifting up what is left so I can attached it to some raised engine stands I made up to make this next job easier and safer.


Stands are higher than needed for this part of the job but I will use them also for rotating the Willys cab as well.
Had to use the old Pythagoras rule for working out length of the hypotenuse, so I can know how high the pivot point needs to be. Squared the height of the cab, then added the squared width and then square rooted the result. A2+B2=C2 Halved the answer to get where the pivot point should sit and still be able to do a full rotation without hitting the floor. Just as well I paid some attention at school as never know when you may need that knowledge.
Decent sized rails underneath with over 300 spot welds holding just the forward section of the floor I need on. Door sills were very robust as well and a double section. Much drilling to go and then can start drilling out all the suspension brackets and coil and panhard mounts etc too!


As I will be using the firewall and floor, I had to repair the damage from the Harley that hit the side at 100 mph according to police estimates.
Thought it would be easier while still up on the rotisserie for a good working height. Also much easier to flip it up either way depending on which side I am working on.
The ruler gives you an idea how much it needs to be straightened.


This crease is pretty sharp. This photo shows how much the force moved it. You are looking at the firewall upside down and this is where it goes from vertical to curving into the floor section.


Looking a lot straighter now. Need to work the upper section some more but will do that later once off the frame as some buckling still under that section.


Still busy drilling out all the spot welds to remove the floor from the uni-body frame


I have ground the drill bit into what called a pilot point. These only work once a pilot hole has been drilled first. Then the centre part of the drill sits in this to locate the bit and then the cutting edges are almost flat to give a very shallow cut. The angle is less than what shows on this angle of shot.


You can see that all the drill holes on the lower part of the picture is what is left after only drilling the large hole through the top layer of the spot welded metal only. Much easier to just weld the small pilot hole up then the whole spot weld size.


But as you can see there is an awful lot of them to be done!


Finally after 400 odd spot welds drilled out, the floor and firewall is separated from the uni-frame.
Quite substantial as 4" deep and further reinforced with another hat section inside of that as well.
Good to see how well all the galvanized steel is coated through and through. Was even between each layer of steel also.


Will be leaving the floor stiffener in place as it is the rear mount for the seats and seat belts.
I did quite well on drilling out all the spot welds too with one or two one breaking right through the floor panel that I wanted left undrilled apart from the pilot hole. There was a few others when a bracket had to be removed from the top side as well so had to be drilled from both sides, but not bad going when you have to stop the drill bit each time only 1.2mm short of drilling through. Learnt a trick right near the end of tapping in a cold chisel into the joint and then you would here a crack just as the spot weld broke from the floor. Of coarse only discovered this with less than a dozen to go!


Not sure if I can keep where the cowl juts out or not. It was for the air intake for the heater and A/C and where the wiper motor and linkages sit. Not useful for either as they are needed under the cowl in the Willys and not the bonnet where this sits in the Grand.


Still undecided on how to best use the rear suspension mounts. At the width it sits, the rails with upper and lower control arm and coil mounts would nearly fit between the Willys chassis whole. So could leave them mounted to the rails and weld this to the inside of the Willys chassis.
I will keep this section as one piece until I know how to use it best. Want to use the mounts either way and they are made from HSLC ( High Strength Low Carbon ) steel and is 30-40% stronger than normal steel and has a higher corrosion resistance as well.


Finally after 400 odd spot welds drilled out, the floor and firewall is separated from the uni-frame.
Quite substantial as 4" deep and further reinforced with another hat section inside of that as well.
Good to see how well all the galvanized steel is coated through and through. Was even between each layer of steel also.


Will be leaving the floor stiffener in place as it is the rear mount for the seats and seat belts.
I did quite well on drilling out all the spot welds too with one or two one breaking right through the floor panel that I wanted left undrilled apart from the pilot hole. There was a few others when a bracket had to be removed from the top side as well so had to be drilled from both sides, but not bad going when you have to stop the drill bit each time only 1.2mm short of drilling through. Learnt a trick right near the end of tapping in a cold chisel into the joint and then you would here a crack just as the spot weld broke from the floor. Of coarse only discovered this with less than a dozen to go!


Not sure if I can keep where the cowl juts out or not. It was for the air intake for the heater and A/C and where the wiper motor and linkages sit. Not useful for either as they are needed under the cowl in the Willys and not the bonnet where this sits in the Grand.


Still undecided on how to best use the rear suspension mounts. At the width it sits, the rails with upper and lower control arm and coil mounts would nearly fit between the Willys chassis whole. So could leave them mounted to the rails and weld this to the inside of the Willys chassis.
I will keep this section as one piece until I know how to use it best. Want to use the mounts either way and they are made from HSLC ( High Strength Low Carbon ) steel and is 30-40% stronger than normal steel and has a higher corrosion resistance as well.


Well that is the last of the Grand Cherokee cut up and carried out of the workshop.
Next phase will be bringing the Willys back in and doing lots of comparative measurements to workout how best marry the two!


The poor little shed is busting at the seams! Managed to fit nearly the whole Grand in there apart the rear quarters, roof and rear floor plus the front sub assembly. Cant wait to start taking things back out of there as means I am actually putting things back together or sold some parts I don't need.


Been a while since there has been a clear floor.


Willys going into the workshop. This is why I made my benches fold down easily. Tight, but it fits.


Hard to believe that that engine will one day sit in the Willys.


Ready to be set at the height where I will take the measurements I need before pulling it apart.

Got the fun of trying to think of every thing needed before strip down begins. Takes a lot of time with nothing to see for it, but essential all the same.


I was able to have the radiator nearly 3" closer than what it was in the Grand. Will still leave me enough room to change a belt. I was careful when removing the drivetrain to keep it at the angle it will remain at once installed. The radiator has also been set to the finished angle to get a better idea of working room behind it.


Another problem I ran into was that because I have to move the axle, steering and suspension etc forward 6" to centre the wheels under the front guards, the oil filter will end up on top of the steering rack. Not a problem for a LHD, but it is for me. But it looks like I can just remove the whole angled filter mount and spin the filter directly onto the block instead and have it vertical.


If I want to mount the Grands firewall in the stock Willys location, I will have to come up with a different power steering and hydraulic fan cooler. Would save loosing interior space, even if it is only a 1.5", but am extending the cab anyway around 6" so not that much of a concern. If I do move the firewall back that far though, I can use the Grands stock aluminium rear drive shaft.
Also moving it back will give me a bit more depth in the dash in front of the windscreen to mount my instruments that in the Grand sat in a leather clad pod into the top of the dash. Will also compare door opening to firewall depths between the two vehicles. The other thing is the cowl vent might end up partially over the firewall so has to be checked as well.
Fun and games.


Got a few hours spare to at least do some clean up in the back.


Been spending a lot of time before that working out exactly what needed to be done to fit the suspension and drivetrain into the Willys frame.
I don't want this sitting jacked up in the air as want good road handling, but it wont be sitting on the ground either as not the theme I am going for. It must remain perfectly practical for interstate drives etc.
My limiting factor was the underside of the front guards. I can only drop the body over the suspension until the upper front wishbone, at full compression, does not hit the underside of the front guards. To get the whole Grands sub frame to sit under the frame to get that height, I have to step up the height of the front of the chassis by 2" while leaving the chassis under cab unchanged.


Who says I don't ever get the floor dirty! Was a good bucket full to clean this up.


So now have the floor and its cross members out and the fuel tank.
In the rear the frame will be kicked up 4" and will be running level with the top of the old cross members that supported the floor. I intend to drop the floor cross members in between the frame rails to keep it low in the stock position and so there is no big step up when you open the tailgate.
The 4" rise will mean I can install the rear suspension at the same relative height as it was installed stock in the Grand compared to the front. This keeps the roll centres front and rear at the same height as when installed in the Grand. All suspension points, including upper coil mounts, will be made to be at the same height as well so will be running stock control arm and panhard angles.
Any further ride height adjustments will be fine turned with different coils front and rear.


Bed is cut up and gone. Just got to workout how to remove the 8" channel that has been used as a rear bumper, and even bent, along with 3/4" plate for a hitch point.


Got the monstrosity of a rear bumper made from 8" channel cut off.


Got the front panels all off and didn't even break a single bolt! Spraying them with WD40 once a month for the last year must have paid off.


Door just came out easily too. Was ready shocked as these only have Phillips head screws holding them on which are prone to stripping.


Cabs all cleaned out and ready to be lifted off.


Woo hoo, time to lift off the cab. Rolled the chassis and cab under my carport in front of the workshop where I still have this winch setup. It is a boat trailer winch that is though bolted to the centre carport post. The cable then runs over a pipe that it bolted between two rafters. The lifting frame was when many years ago I had a roof top tent that I made this setup for so I could simply park under it and remove or install it by myself. Just left the camper pack sitting up in the air the rest of the time.


We have lift off. Was very easy and fuss free and my wife even did all the winching by herself.


Back down on a old shopping trolley base ready to go for a ride.


Got some strange looks as we had to go up the footpath.


And around the corner to the front of the house.


Will sit in the garage where the camper trailer normally lives until I am ready to work on it.


Chassis is now ready for the big strip down. Heard it can be quite hard removing all the frame rivets and there are plenty of those holding every bracket and cross member in. Hoping grinding the head off and then using an air chisel with a punch bit will work. Got some rose welds to try and remove as well without damaging the cross member inside the rail.


Had a bit if think of the best way to remove these big rosette or plug welds which hold the front cross member in. I didn't want a big hole left in the front cross member after wards as well as might be reusing it.


So thought I would use the same drill bit I ground up to take out the spot welds, as it drills flat rather than a chamfered hole, and stop before going into the cross member. You can see one done now and the next one ready with the pilot holes drilled.


Didn't need to drill the center hole in the end so didn't drill that when doing the other side. It easily broke free when I drove a cold chisel in a bit.


What a MESS! Who would think a frame could hold so much dirt. Seeing this Willys came off a potato farm until it was sold off when he was done for cultivating drugs, it is not surprising! Maybe I should keep the soil and water it to see what come up!
There is just so much more to remove than just the cross members to get down the bare rails.


This angle gives you a bit of idea how much kick up the frame has at each end. I will be increasing that by another 2" front and 4" rear.
Now I must be off to clean the workshop.
__________________
Marcus
aka. Gojeep
Victoria, Australia
http://willyshotrod.com

Invention is a combination of brains and materials.
The more brains you use, the less materials you need.

Last edited by Gojeep; 03-07-2020 at 07:03 AM.
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