PLEASE HELP! Willys pickup bed assembly issues!

DSK_willys

Gear Grinder
Sep 14, 2017
20
Chicago
First Name
Ricky
Willys Model
  1. Pickup
Willys Year:
  1. 1948
So my boss bought a completely torn apart willys pickup project for us to build. Long story short, I have a new bed kit, but I've never seen one in person. So I'm trying to figure out this puzzle but don't know 100% how it should look when it is complete. The Walck's 4WD instructions are good, but for someone who doesn't have an old bed to reference, there just isn't enough information to make me feel like I have it right. And most pictures I see have the bed skirts on, hiding some details from me that I would like to see. So I'm gonna do my best to address all my confusion in this first post, but I'm sure I'll think of other things later.

Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time out of their day to help me with my first build!!!

So first of all, the kit comes with 10 rubber mounting pads, a quantity Mr. Walck assured me was correct. But my forwardmost facing crossmember appears to need some sort of spacer. There's a little more than a 1/4" of gap between the top of the crossmember and the bed floor. (See photos) I used some washers approximately the same thickness as the rubber pads to see if 2 more pads would remedy the situation, but there's at least a 1/4" of gap, whereas the rest of the bed floor sits nice n tight along the top of the other crossmembers.

Secondly, there are a couple of pieces that weld onto the rear crossmember that I would like to confirm the orientation of. I'll post a picture of the blueprint and my idea of how it should look on what I have put together of the bed.

Thirdly, just out of curiosity, where did you tack weld your beds together prior to removing it from the frame, turning it over, and welding the rest?

I'd love to be able to see one of these put together already in person, I feel like I'm going into this blind. We're located in Wheeling, IL if anyone lives nearby and wants to let me check their truck out and let me take photos!
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Welcome to the forum.

David's AKA Mathman's personal Willys truck website is nothing short of phenomenal: http://www.jeep-trucks.com These three folders might be a good place to start:

http://www.jeep-trucks.com/assets/images/BedAssembly/

http://www.jeep-trucks.com/assets/images/BedMounts/

http://www.jeep-trucks.com/assets/images/BedSkirts/

Cheers from San Francisco,


Scramboleer AKA Dan
Thank you so much! From what I just checked out real quick on lunch it looks like it should answer many (maybe even all) of my questions !

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You're welcome, but all the credit goes to David (Mathman). It's his truck, website, and hard work.

Keep asking questions. There is excellent expertise, experience, and pictures here on the forum.

Cheers!
 
And another link on my site: http://www.jeep-trucks.com/index.php?page=guide&group=body&part=bed&action=assembly

That has a bit more of the narrative for when I put it together.

This is still one of my favorite pictures of the assembly ;)

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I'm still baffled as to why I have such a big gap on the front bed mounts, whereas the rest of the bed sits tight on the bed mounts and crossmembers. (Notice I used washers to mimic an additional pair of rubber mounting pads and still have a massive gap)
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Something looks wrong on the orientation of that bracket - I'll try to remember to look at mine this evening and see how it looks.
 
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No the bracket orientation is correct as shown on my 51 truck.....IMG_20171005_205311354.jpg......as you can see the P.O welded a tapered wedge under the bracket for what reason i dont know ...i also measured the bracket height ...it comes out to 4 1/4 inchs tall might want to measure yours as it is known that a lot of Willys reproduction parts are known to not always be exactly accurate. Hell its just flat bar stock be Damned if you could not just make your own mounts at right height.
heck my bed does not even have the rubber spacers under it it is sitting directly on the frame .....IMG_20171005_205408145.jpg...so what i would do ....is to take out the rubber spacer block and then put it together and see what difference that makes?
you bought a new bed kit from Walcks for around $3600? if you would have asked where to get a replacment bed ...would have told you to go to Mar-K Beds and bought one of those kits for less then half Walcks price ....say $1200 or so? see Willys never made their own beds Willys instead used the beds off the 41 chevy pickups and since Willys and Chevy share the same distance between the frame rails...make its a very popular option for conversion of engines / trannys axles body all of it.
so what i would do is put the bed together without the spacers and set it on the frame and see what that looks like and then go from there as to where spacers or rubber mounts need to go in at. let us know what you come up with.


Larry
 
I agree haha that's why I'm asking about it. Any idea what's going on here? It doesn't make sense

I did check mine and, like Larry said, the orientation is correct. I do have a rubber pad where you have the washer stack. Despite what Walck says, I have 12 pads on mine - had the same conversation with him claiming it was only 10. I bought a couple of extra pads to cover all of the mounting points.
 
No the bracket orientation is correct as shown on my 51 truck.....View attachment 39810......as you can see the P.O welded a tapered wedge under the bracket for what reason i dont know ...i also measured the bracket height ...it comes out to 4 1/4 inchs tall might want to measure yours as it is known that a lot of Willys reproduction parts are known to not always be exactly accurate. Hell its just flat bar stock be Damned if you could not just make your own mounts at right height.
heck my bed does not even have the rubber spacers under it it is sitting directly on the frame .....View attachment 39811...so what i would do ....is to take out the rubber spacer block and then put it together and see what difference that makes?
you bought a new bed kit from Walcks for around $3600? if you would have asked where to get a replacment bed ...would have told you to go to Mar-K Beds and bought one of those kits for less then half Walcks price ....say $1200 or so? see Willys never made their own beds Willys instead used the beds off the 41 chevy pickups and since Willys and Chevy share the same distance between the frame rails...make its a very popular option for conversion of engines / trannys axles body all of it.
so what i would do is put the bed together without the spacers and set it on the frame and see what that looks like and then go from there as to where spacers or rubber mounts need to go in at. let us know what you come up with.


Larry
Wow! Thanks for the detailed input! We didn't buy the bed kit ourselves... we bought someone's unfinished project that came with a walcks bed kit.

I don't think removing the rubber pads will do the trick in this case, unless there was only pads in the 2 front mounts that I'm having trouble with. I believe this to be true because if removing all the rubber mounting pads would close the gap, my makeshift spacer that's the thickness of those pads, should've closed the gap.

But based off what you're telling me, it looks like I need to make a mount/bracket/spacer to make this work. We are a tool and die shop, we should be able to come up with something. I just didn't know I needed to do that before I got your input.

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I ended up milling a 0.54" thick spacer with a 1/2" hole in the center on the Bridgeport, and gave it a coat of textured black rustoleum to protect it.

I'd really like to know why I had to do this, but if it remains a mystery forever, so be it. At least there's no more gap and the test fit is done so I can take it apart and start welding.

Thanks again to everyone who took time out of your day to help me!
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I ended up milling a 0.54" thick spacer with a 1/2" hole in the center on the Bridgeport, and gave it a coat of textured black rustoleum to protect it.

I'd really like to know why I had to do this, but if it remains a mystery forever, so be it. At least there's no more gap and the test fit is done so I can take it apart and start welding.

Thanks again to everyone who took time out of your day to help me!
783a20278a5e820070bc3b4b46d3af4f.jpg
53853f686d9ceb200ca64f4a1414e32e.jpg


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Why don't you have one of the rubber pads installed at this location? Kit should include the ones for there. Mine did
 
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