Maggie Mae's Wagon

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Bigger Hammer
Jun 16, 2010
101
Clearville, PA
First Name
Maggie Mae
Willys Model
  1. Wagon
Willys Year:
  1. 1954
Some people call loving these old Willys "tradition", but I'm more apt to think that it's some sort of inherited trait. I'm a 4th generation Willys owner, 3 of my 4 sets of great grandparents owned a Willys, as did both of my grandfathers and my Dad: I'm pretty sure I don't stand a chance.

I've been turning wrenches since I was about 12. Dad drove truck until he became disabled in 2004. He's been restoring old tractors as he can and we struck a deal. I can have the garage if after I help him put the John Deere 440 Crawler back together. Right now it looks more like an exploded-view drawing than a dozer. Lately I've been doing a lot of asking myself just what I've gotten myself into.

It started in June 2010 with this:

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($400 - more than I should've paid given the frame, no motor, just a trans and tc.)

It was parked back in the woods behind a friend's back fields about 10 miles from my home and I pretty much fell in love when I saw it. So I did my research, found that I can get pretty much any part that I could possibly need, and decided that I wanted it. Once we got the bed off of it I found that it didn't have such a good frame under it, and the bed was pretty much shot. I was undeterred. I figured that I'd come up with a good original style bed and a decent frame sooner or later and I kept collecting parts.

It had no title so we took Dad's pickup (one of his recent projects) and drove about four hours and picked up half a truck. The previous owner had cut it off behind the cab, but it had a lot of good parts left, a spare set of fenders, a second set of doors, and a title. Dad welded a hitch on it to make it more manageable.

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($200)

We went about 60 miles north and picked up another parts truck. I don't think I've ever seen so much body putty on one vehicle. The previous owner had used bondo to fix the leaking gas tank and to reattach a crossmember to the frame. The floor was road signs, wire mesh, and more bondo, it gave out about my third trip into the cab. We had a little bit of trouble getting it home, it nearly broke in half on the trailer, and once we got it there we scrapped it out pretty much right away. It wasn't a total loss: I got a L6-226, transmission, transfer case, axles, and a nearly perfect steering wheel out of the deal. We also used a piece of the floor of the homemade bed to patch the bed that was on the first truck that I got (which dad turned into a wood cart).

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($100)

I lucked out with this craigslist find from a guy who was parting out a CJ about 3-1/2 hours west of where I live. There was no way I was passing it up, given what he was asking for it. (still not sure what the bell housing fits)

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($300 - I felt like i stole it)

Dad suggested getting a wagon to store parts in, since everything in the front would fit the pickup anyway, so this one came home. He didn't count on it being a turning point in my project. The more I worked at making it storage-worthy (someone had replaced the panels without reattaching them to the floor. It took 3 cans of great stuff to seal it up) the more I came to like the wagon. And since I was coming up with nothing in the bed department and the kits were way out of my budget, this wagon marked a turning point. It also came with another motor and a whole bunch of other parts.

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($100)

By this time, my extended family had all heard about my project and a cousin's boyfriend insisted that we come get the one parked on his farm. I don't know what I expected when Dad called me at work to tell me that he had went and picked up my gift but this wasn't it. The homemade spring hangers may make it look like it was riding level, but the floor is only a couple inches shy of the rear windows. There was a beer keg on a wooden rack in the back standing in for the fuel tank, and the lower panels had been replaced at least once, though I suspect twice, with flat sheet metal. But it had a double barrel manifold and the frame, which is currently holding up my spare axles, is going to hold my good body while I work on the frame and drive-train.

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(Free - even I'm not crazy enough to have paid for this mess)

After this came home, my project sort of stalled. I was down to needing a good body and frame, but I couldn't find anything. I even took a bit of a road trip, chasing craigslist ads and junkyards through several southern states (WV, KY, TN, AL, GA, SC, NC, VA, MD) and came up empty handed. I'd planned on taking a similar, though much longer road trip out west this spring to find my body. I'd all but given up, and then I found this one, on here, and it is every bit as good as it looks. No bondo at all. (Thank you again Marvin!!). We don't exactly live on a busy road, but the few people who went by when we were unloading it slowed down to gawk when we unloaded it from the trailer with the baylift jack and the John Deere 50. You'd think they'd be used to such things out of us by now.

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($1200 - body, frame, rear axle, fenders, seats, a spare upper tailgate and a few other odds and ends - a lil bit of an "ouch" but far less than I'd have paid in gas to drive out west, find one, and drag it home)

As far as what I'm hoping to do with it, in most ways I'm a purist. L6-226. T-90. T-18. Overdrive. The fastest/best set of rears that I've got. I am going to convert to 12 volt, trade the canister oil filter for a spin on, put in an electric ignition and electric wiper motor, and get rid of the oil bath air filter. I'm going to be going with Stewart Warner gauges for a custom gauge and switch panel. I'll probably gain 3”-4” via a set of custom springs because I'd like to be able to get away with 31” tires. I'm planning on a set of 15”x8” American Racing Outlaw II's, unless I can find a 10-hole wheel with the right offset without the 'riveted' look.

So now I'm more-or-less ready to get started. I just have to honor my part of the deal that involves getting Dad's crawler out of the garage. I'm hoping to be able to start on this by early fall, so there won't be any updates for a while.
 
Thanks for reminding me how much I don't miss living in the salt belt. I gave up ever finding a good body when I lived out there. Looks like you found a solid looking one though, and you scored a overdrive as well.

EDIT That looks like a small block ford adaptor bellhousing.
 
Great selection of parts to get some runners out of. Looking forward to updates when you get started on the project.
 
Wow.....

That is a story of how you have saved as much as you can from as many as you can. It's great.
I love it.
Can honestly say that if I had brought the keg gas tank wagon home I would have been sleeping in it, after being kicked outta the house.

My wife now has an appreciation of what I brought home after looking at that picture alone. :D

Keep it up and keep us posted.

Eric
 
Maggie Mae-

I think you have done more before "getting started" than most of us have after... :D

Can't wait to see your wagon come together from your various donors... :thumbupleft:

Pete
 
Hey Maggie May

I love that you are making progress on your projects. If you decide to dump one of those old cabs let me know. Looks like you live out in the middle of nowhere, thats a great place to build Willys stuff. If you lived in the 'burbs they would freakin about all the old stuff layin around. I myself love to see that kinda stuff. Kinda makes my heart skip a beat or tow. Keep diggin on them.

MikeC
 
Welcome and thank you for your post....I thought I was Willy Sick, but you take the cake...I look forwar in seeing your progress....I love pictures...
 
Maggie Mae. Not to rub it in but I went for a drive 2-3 weekends ago around the southern Nevada area and ran into AT LEAST 10 Willys Pickups and wagons. :D You can see a couple of them in pic's on my build page "Sparky '56 re-power". Love what your doing there by saving these great vehicles from extinction. Keep us posted on your progress.

Steve
 
Great selection of parts you got going there. You tracked down more trucks than I have been able to find up until recently. Good luck with it and can't wait to see some more progress.
 
I'm so glad to see all of the progress you've made thus far Maggie Mae. It may not seem like a lot because it's parts gathering, but it seems you've got damn near everything you'll need as far as major items and a great score on the near perfect body. I noted you want to raise the suspension in regards to running 31" tires. I'm putting a picture in here of my wagon, before it put it back to stock. It sported Rancho 2.5" lift springs (buck boards are more like it) and 33" tires. I figured you could take a look at the stance and see just how far you wanted to go up with yours. Anyhow, I hope it helps a bit. Have fun with it. That crawler sounds like a good time as well.
Steve
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Mothballs and a little Nostalgia


Last Saturday we put my Wagon in Pap's barn. She'll be back out once I can have my space the garage.
(BTW: The tractor is a another piece of Dad's handywork.)

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Though they're not the best pictures, I thought I'd throw in a couple shots of Dad's Wagon. He sold it about 25 years ago to some guy in Delaware. If it's still rolling around out there somewhere, we'd love to hear about it!! It was fairly original under the hood: L6-226/T90/T-18 but it was supported by a set of house trailer springs and he put a flat dash, a smaller steering wheel, and aftermarket seats in it, so stock it was not. (He's trying to talk me into the same sort of seats that he had instead of the originals, but I'm not sold on the idea. I'll probably run the ones that came with my wagon for for a while before I get them recovered and if I find that I don't really like them, I'll grudgingly take his advice)

I couldn't begin to recount half the stories that Dad tells about times spent in this thing. Those stories, though not all repeatable, are probably a pretty big part of the reason that I ended up wanting one.

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As far as what I'm getting into between now and the time that she comes back out of the barn:

Mostly: a lot of shopping. I want to have as many of my ducks in a row as I can before I get started. I've got a few more old junkyards and a couple old dealerships that are rumored to have NOS parts to check out, possibly a trip to Walcks and maybe even one to Summit Racing in Ohio if I get really bored and restless some rainy day. I'm also hoping that I can go to Gaumer's Chassis Engineering in Chambersburg sometime over the summer and get my springs made.

I'd like to say that I'm not going to go dragging any more parts vehicles home, but I know me well enough to not make any promises! Besides, there's a salvagable early Pickup less than 5 miles from the house and a decrepit Wagon less than 30 miles away that's just rotting into the ground behind a barn.

I'm also hoping to get the pieces that I've already got sorted out a little better and start getting rid of the things that I know I won't be using.

I'll be making the trip to Lansford in June. Might just be going to look around or I might have some parts to try and get rid of while I'm there.


-

Good luck to all with your own projects.
Mines on hold til probably August or September.
 
Great start! cann't wait to see what comes!

Even that free body has some usefull bits half of us on here would trade our hind teeth for trying to fab out those rigges in the pannels is a pain much easier to steal a peice off something like that!

Of course I'd have a hay day and rat rod any of the realy bad ones, but as my wife says, as she shakes her head at me, "Your not right!". ;)
 
#7 !

Pretty sure I don't know how to behave myself.

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($200, about 15-20 miles from the house)

Decent front clip, very good hood, nearly perfect script bumper, good tailgate stop bars, good tire chains in the toolbox. It also had almost enough junk aluminum sheet metal in it to pay for it with a trip to recycling. I'm going to be parting with the 2wd transmission and such.

So this is what I'm getting into today after we get back from looking at an M38 that Dad's interested in. Hope everyone else is having as good of a weekend as I am!
 
Save the Wagons....I like it and like the "Green" John Deere.
 
Maggie Mae, you are definitely having too much fun. :D
Keep in mind, if you're thinking of using those fenders from the 2WD, you will end up cutting out the inner fender wells, to clear the shock area. Been there, done that. :)
Steve
 
aquawilly54 said:
Keep in mind, if you're thinking of using those fenders from the 2WD, you will end up cutting out the inner fender wells, to clear the shock area. Been there, done that. :)
Steve


Probably won't be using them on the wagon, but dad's kicking around the idea of putting a pickup together (and generally driving me crazy) so thanks for the heads up, didn't realize they were different.

I'm still puzzling over why the toolbox under the seats of my good wagon body doesn't go the whole way through like the rest of them do. We thought it was a wd thing til this one came home. It really has us scratching our heads.
 
Yeh, I've noticed the difference on a few myself over the years. I've never really checked in to it, but I'm sure it has something to do with 2WD vs 4X4, or maybe T-90 top loader trans vs T-90 side shift. Of course, it's just speculation.
Steve
 
Long time, no post.

No time to read anyone else's either.

Life throws some nasty curves.. and some pretty good ones too.

The bad -
Lost my full time Job in August 2011.
No good income since = no new parts.
Dad's still got the garage tied up.
Back in school full time = no time to play with Willys anyway.

The good -
Because of employment situation, financial aid is paying for school and then some.
Met a great guy about a month before I lost my job.
Instead of running like a lot would when that happened, he stuck around.
Moved in with him back in July 2012.
Though he's not a Jeeper I get to move my project in as soon as he moves his out (he's converting a 69 Chevy pickup from 2wd to 4wd).

Just logged on to copy a few pictures of mine that I can't find on my hard drive for a speech I'm giving on Jeep history tomorrow night. (I think I might almost like this class)

Hope everyone else here is well and is managing to keep the greasy side down. :thumbup:
 
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