TOPIC:

Hello all,

It's been a while since my last resto... As i already told you before, i've been really busy doing other things like moving into our new house, having a second baby (well she's 5 month old now ) and really busy with work.
Honestly speaking i still have lot's to do in the house, but seeing all the projects laying around in my new workplace, that is still not ready yet, i thought it was time to start one. I think this resto project will take a bit longer to finish but i just needed to start working on it.

I got this Wild Willy SWB chassis on the local bid platform for a fair price. It's on overall good condition, the only thing that might need special attention are the rims ! I'm still thinking if i'm going to repair them as Jonny did in the past on his Willy's Wheeler resto thread (thanks Jonny for the great idea) but i'm not sure if doing that on the big lathe we have at work will end in a satisfiying result... The other solution is to find new rims...easy to say but hard to find and it might be really expensive in case some show up for sale.

This is how it looked like when it arrived :





The box suffered a bit through the years










The chassis was really dusty and the front bulkhead is broken

The resistors aren't the right ones (at least i think so) but fortunately it has the black resistor plate






Note the poor soldering skills of the previous owner

Ok, time to start working on the body and remove all the parts and put them in a breakfluid bath for a while.
First step is to remove all the decals, this was quite painful step but i managed to find an original decal sheet that should be arriving next week





Wild Willy ready for his bath


The result after a few hours in breakfluid


After a few more hours, and a good cleaning with a brush

Some parts still need a bit of attention in order to remove all the remain paint.







The radiator was glued with a lot's of glue...i had to force a little bit to remove it from the front grille. This operation was quite delicate because i didn't wanted to damage the front grille !



As you can see, Willy's helmet didn't came up as good as i was expecting. It seems that the previous owner painted it with a paint that resists to breakfluid...The only solution is to sand it.


The body came up really good, and the breakfluid removed almost all the paint. There are just a few spots i have to sand to remove the remaining bits.

Now i just need to start sanding the body and the other parts.

In the meantime, i started to dismantle the chassis for a good clean.


Some rusty parts


The USJ is a really good shape with no free play

Dissasembling the gearbox








Fortunately the MSC stay is still there

All the parts cleaned up


SWB MSC cover




Note the poor rims state...it looks like they suffered a bit







This is it for now....more will follow soon
Thank you for looking

Manotas

That's a pretty sound looking SWB, nice to have a box too

Shame about the bulkhead though

Is it also missing the roll cage? The WW2 sprue might be the only reasonable priced option, but remember the front loop is different ...

Manotas wrote:

... the only thing that might need special attention are the rims ! I'm still thinking if i'm going to repair them as Jonny did in the past on his Willy's Wheeler resto thread (thanks Jonny for the great idea) but i'm not sure if doing that on the big lathe we have at work will end in a satisfiying result... The other solution is to find new rims...easy to say but hard to find and it might be really expensive in case some show up for sale.

...

I'm pretty sure it was eddrick who 1st demonstrated the "stick a plate of styrene on & carve back" method of wheel rim repair here ... also on a Willy IIRC

Your rims don't look too bad, a "lathe free" alternative would be to wet sand the remains of the outermost lip right off - it really isn't that noticeable once you look at the car as a whole ... you might also get brave & try gluing on really small strips of styrene to replace that lip.

Manotas wrote:

The resistors aren't the right ones (at least i think so) but fortunately it has the black resistor plate ...

I had it in my head that the SWB resistor plate should be white & the LWB should be black (based on the two LWBs I've had + my recent Wheeler, which is basically an LWB chassis all had black plates, but the one SWB I've got has a white one).

Looking further into it (the 1983 Guide Book shows what I think is a prototype SWB as it appears to have brass rear shock collars & black/blued bodypost & rear springs - this has a black plate; the 1984 to 1987 Catalogues show a camouflage painted LWB with a black plate), unless anyone knows better I think the conclusion must be that ALL Willys should have black plate, and a white one must be a replacement.



Your resistors are definitely wrong BTW

good deal Manu top

Hi Jonny,

Thanks for all the tips !

I will definetely try to repair those rims with small bits of styrene.

Fortunately i still have a LWB WW, it was supposed to be sold but i never listed it, so i'm going to take the bulkhead from it.
The roll cage including the 2 lights are there, they're just not on the pictures, but here



Regarding the resistor plate i always thought the black ones where used exclusively in SWB and white ones in LWB...and i was proud having a black one on this one ha ha ha.

I just had a look at my other WW which is a LWB version that was only build, i bought it like that and it has a white resistor plate. I'm 100% sure that this one has never seen a battery pack...

Here's the pic of my LWB:



And unfortunately you can't distinguish the colours in the manual

Manu I want your lwb please

stingray-63 wrote:

Manu I want your lwb please

Hmmm wich one ? The one on the picture showing the white resistor stay will not be sold

On the other hand i have another LWB that might be for sale once i finish my SWB resto...But keep in mind that the Bulkhead, front bumper and bumper stay will be used for my resto !