So here you are looking at the rear suspension setup
on the Grand Cherokee upside down. I am wanting to reuse these brackets on the
Willys. All the suspension mounts are made with HSLC, (High Strength Low
Carbon), steel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-streng
More spot welds to drill out! This reinforcement plate on the outside of the frame supports, from left to right, the swaybar, coil and shock mounts. Remembering that it is still upside down. The next picture also shows another bracket which is duplicated on the other side as well and is what the panhard rod frame bolts into.
As I cannot attach to the inner guard of the Willys due to having a separate frame, the two mounts will be braced across the engine bay to each other instead. So I cut off what was not needed but left an extra inch out from the coil over bolt area. To improve its appearance, the pressed up part that goes over the shock pin was blended into the flared edge which I continued all the way around to increase stiffness. The flare was rather difficult as the HSLC steel has a 50% greater yield strength and requires 40% more force to form it. Even harder on the sections that were double thickness.
Well I finally got another Willys that I was after. Had to go interstate to get it and slept overnight where pictured above on the way back. This one was registered in NSW as a 1948 Willys Pickup and has the small rear window that I really wanted for a more hotrod look.
Can see the difference between the two rear windows with them side by side here. So I stripped this frame down to the bare rails and will use these as the bases of my build as it is in better condition than the other frame. It also means it will be registered as a 1948 Willys too, as here in Australia it takes the identity of the frame and not the body. My body will be made up of a mixture of both as will use the middle of the 48 with the 58 grated onto each side making it 7" wider over all in the process.
[BACK][1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][NEXT]
[Index]