This is Rick's 62 Willys Pick-up

 If you're a Willys fan and you've never heard of Willys Tech I have a treat for you. These guys are not tried and true restoration fans, although we have a few of those too. Mostly they are a bunch of guys and gals that like Willys vehicles and are trying their best to keep them on the road, in whatever form necessary. You can see some of their postings above at Willys Tech FAQs for Pickups.

The Great Discovery

I didn't even know these vehicles existed, but I still knew what it was the first time I saw it. I was there to pick up my daughter's friend Frank. We were all going to a DC Talk concert. I'd never met Frank before, so I was interested in what type of person my daughter was choosing to be friends with. I lost all my concerns for who this guy was when we pulled up in front of his house. Parked out front was a 1962 Willys Pickup. How bad could Frank be if he had such a wonderful truck? It was beginning to show signs of wear and neglect and was primarily used to haul a 4 wheeler to the country and back. I didn't know much about Willys Pickups, but I could recognize the distinct Jeep front end. The vertical slats, round headlights, and dropped down narrow parking lights. It was a Jeep. Within the first two minutes of meeting Frank I asked him if he wanted to sell it. His response was quick and decisive, No way man. That was my Grandpas truck. He bought it brand new back in 62. I'll keep it forever. :-( I was crushed, but having owned my 1948 CJ2A since 1975 I understood the heirloom factor. I offered to work on it with him anytime he wanted for free. He was excited about my offer and told me about his plans to fix it up. All he needed now was a job so he could afford the parts.

The Convoluted Purchase

As it turned out, the job to buy parts seemed more than Frank was ready to commit to. He was nearly 16 and intended to drive it back and forth to school. His dad suggested they sell the truck and buy Frank something more practical. He agreed and set the date to sell me the truck as Dec 18 1997. It was now October and the selling price was $1,500. I skimped and saved to make sure I had enough money to buy it on that date. As the fates would have it Frank got his license on the 15th of Dec. By the 18th he had fallen in love with his truck and decided not to sell. He did promise to offer it to me first if he ever decided to sell it. I was totally despondent but I told him I understood. My wife was happy to spend the money I had been saving on our children for Christmas.

As many love affairs do, Frank's quickly turned cold. The truck had no heat or defrost, it would flood and die leaving him stranded. Most of the time the wipers didn't work, but worst of all, his friends didn't understand what a wonderful piece of history he had, so they made fun of it. I believe I heard the term Farmer Frank a time or two. I was in Enid OK in Mar of 1998 when I got a call from Frank, saying he had decided to sell the truck. I DIDN'T HAVE THE MONEY! He said he didn't mind and that he would wait, because he didn't want anyone to have the truck but me. He said I could pay him when I got the money and he let me take the truck home. A thought occurred to me about this time, I had agreed to buy the truck and I had never driven it. I was running on blind passion instead of thinking things through. My loving wife turned over her share of our income tax return and I bought the truck in May. It was mine!

The Description

It was a white on silver, 1962 Willys 4WD (4 Wheel Drive) Pickup. The original L-226 flat head, straight six had long expired and been replaced by a 1978 Chevy 350 crate motor with a four barrel Quadrajet. The 350 was connected to the T-90 three speed transmission via an Advance Adapters bell housing. Completing the package was a Warn Overdrive, a T-18 transfer-case and 4.27 ring and pinions.

The factory seats had been replaced with a transplanted set of, and now worn out, Corvair bucket seats. The rubber boots for the tierod ends were only being held on by a whisper. The cracked seals on the steering knuckles had been devoid oil and grease for years. The felt seals, that once directed air into the radiator, had surrendered to mother nature so completely that only a small circle of felt was left to bear witness to their existence. The windshield wipers and emergency brake had given up all hope of rescue. In short most accessories were kind of rough. Having said this, I must also admit that physically and mechanically the truck was sound, it only suffered from a few emotional difficulties. The engine had good compression and didn't leak too many fluids. The tranny, Overdrive, transfer-case, and axle assemblies were tight although leaky. The body sported a little surface but no rust holes and the frame was solid as a rock. Overall it was cherry.

Back to the Vacuum Powered Windshield Wipers

The vacuum windshield wipers had been replaced many years before with independent electric motors. I wanted to repair them first because I needed them operational so the truck could be inspected. If the toggle switch under the dash was held in just the right position, the wiper motor on the driver's side worked. The passenger side didn't work at all. Two fruitless weeks were spent looking for replacement arms and blades for these after-market motors. I could have ordered new ones from J.C. Whitney but I didn't want to push the money issue with my wife.

One day while on a parts safari with a friend, I found an old Willys Wagon sitting in the back lot. The complete wiper system was intact and I bought it for only $20 (this guy's standard price for everything seemed to be $20). This was my first encounter with a cable operated wiper system. It has two sets of tension pulleys that serve to keep the cables tight. I spent the evening pulling the vacuum motor apart, cleaning out the mud daubers nest and reassembling. With some fresh oil it worked great. It only took about 45 minutes to install the complete system and get it adjusted. Subsequent reading in my newly purchased maintenance manual revealed a need to periodically grease the cables. I added two new blades from Napa and the wipers were ready for inspection. I have since found that if I remove the slide valve from the top of the vacuum motor every three months and put 10 drops of automatic transmission fluid in it, the wiper run much better, even in cold weather.

Homebuilt Defrost and Heating System

When the electric wiper motors were installed they were larger than the stock configuration. This increased size located them where the defrosts ducts were supposed to go, so the ducts were removed. An after-market, magnetic, stick-to-the-dash electric defroster had been installed. It served as both the defroster and heater for the truck. The heater control switch and cable assembly was broken and the original heater box was missing down to the blower motor box. I spent some time in junkyards looking for a replacement heater box but was unsuccessful (The wagon I had found used a center located heater instead of a right side located heater). I eventually settled on a heater box from a 71 DJ US Mail jeep. It wasn't a perfect fit but it would work. As is usually the case, three days after I bought the box I was back in the junkyard looking for a fuse box. I opened the door of a 1964 GMC Pickup and look at what I found. The heater box had been pulled and thrown on the floor. It was a perfect fit for my truck. It had a lever for diverting the air from floor to defrost or both. I had never thought to look in a GMC Pickup for the heater box. A fuse block yes, because the Willys never had one to begin with, a heater box no. Oh well, live and learn. At a later date I had to pull my heater core (story later) and found that the blower motor housing was welded (very sloppy stick welds) to the heater core box. This leads me to doubt that this assembly is original for my truck, but it works great and I'm not going to complain. Heater box installed; I still needed the ducting to my defroster vents. I checked every parts place in town and failed to find a supplier. Compounding the dilemma the vents coming out of the heater box were 2 +" round and the defrosts vents were 1 3/4" oval. I decided to make my own custom ducting. I removed the vents and heater box and connected them together with rolled up newspaper to form a mold. Using black (Any color will do but black looked more original) duct tape backwards (sticky side out), I wrapped the entire mold. Next I wrapped the mold with bailing wire at about +" intervals. Then I repeated the duct tape wrap sticky side down this time, sandwiching the wire between the two tapes. I carefully pressed the two pieces of tape together over the entire mold to ensure adhesion and then removed the vents and heater box and pulled the newspaper out of the duct. It worked perfectly and to the uninformed eye these flexible ducts look stock.

Defrost ducts wouldn't help much without a blower. I took the heater control switch and cable out for repairs. The cable was broken off at the back of the switch and the switch contacts read open all of the time. I disassembled the switch, cleaned and filed the contacts and reassembled it. I made a mistake in assembly and failed to ohms check the switch contacts to ground. When I installed the switch and turned the key on, the wire from the ignition switch to the heater switch smoked. Darn, back to the drawing board. When I took the switch apart again I found that I had put the insulator block in backwards. I turned it over and it worked great. I still needed to attach the cable for the vent control. I bought an after market choke cable and cut the handle off. Attaching the new cable and housing to the switch proved a challenge. The cable was fed into the end of the switch handle and crimped through a small hole. I heated the end of the handle over a gas flame until the cable became red hot. A quick tug and it came partially out. Repeating the procedure completed the job. Next I cut and ground two steel pins made to fit the cross drilled hole in the switch shaft, one at the top and one at the bottom. I inserted the new cable into the handle and heated it until red-hot at the hole. A sharp rap with a hammer on the two carefully crafted metal pins and the cable was flared. This crimp allows the cable to rotate inside the handle when the switch is turned. The switch is crimped onto the cable housing and that part of the switch was broken off. The cable housing was butted up to the switch and attached using a large aluminum cable stop. Not very pretty, but very effective. Now I have defrost and heat.

Rebuilding the Emergency Brakes

This was the final piece I needed to get the truck inspected. The cable had maintained its stock routing and when the 350 engine was installed the cable was left rubbing the exhaust manifold. This burned the casing off of the cable housing and allowed water inside to rust the cable. It would still move some but not much. I removed the cable and found a place in town that promised to make me a new cable 12" shorter to correct the routing problem. When I went back two days later they said they were sorry but they couldn't get the parts to do the job. They were able to clean up my old cable and cut it down. They had to braze a collar around the end of the cable housing to match the mounting bracket. It fit and operated perfectly. I also removed the bell crank assembly for cleaning and lubrication. When the ends fell off the assembly I thought I had broken it, but after I removed the bat guano (I know it really wasn't but it sounds good) I was able to determine that they were supposed to come off that way. I still think this assembly needs a grease fitting installed so I might add one later. With everything back together the emergency brake can stall the truck if you try to start out in any gear but reverse with it on and it will lock up the back tires at 30MPH.

All right! It passed inspection the first time. The guy at the inspection station was a little intimidated by the four different gearshift levers but once I explained their operation he was OK. He did fill out my inspection sheet with the name Willie's. Oh well, you can't have everything.

Self Opening Doors

Lock Me Up

While I had things apart I decided to have a go at the passenger door lock. I took the assembly to a friend of mine that happens to be great at picking locks. He picked the lock and removed the cylinder. I took the lock cylinder to a locksmith and had a key made for it. My buddy Keith put the cylinder back in and now I can lock my truck. Unfortunately I don't have a lock cylinder in the driver's side door handle. I bought two of these handles hoping I could put one good one together but alas no luck.

Where Did My Interior Go?

I really don't know how this happened, but I was out looking at the truck and the next thing I know I had the seats out, the carpet ripped out, and the entire dash stripped. It just happened. It wasn't planned; it was just that one thing lead to another and wham there I was staring at a stripped interior.

Preventing the Flintstones Syndrome

As it turned out the stripping of my interior was a good thing. The carpets that were glued onto the floor boards where holding water. There was only one small hole rusted through, but the complete right floor pan was heavily pitted. I sanded the floorboards down treated them with a rust preventative and then sprayed them with a rock guard and six coats of flat black enamel. I left the carpet out, until I can get all of the water leaks fixed. I might not ever put it back. I've grown accustomed to it this way.

Fire-Engine-Red Dash

Steering Column Woes

Removing the steering column was necessary to get to the floorboard on the driver's side. Along with the new engine had come a steering modification. I believe it to be a Saginaw system but I'm not sure. When I removed the column, its ball bearings went everywhere. Many years before, the bottom bearing retraining clip had failed to hold the bearings in and the chewed up pieces looked pretty sad. Since I had no idea what type of vehicle this column came from I was in a pickle. How do you locate a bearing for it? After about a week of unsuccessful searching I came to a conclusion. I was not going to find this bearing. I examined the top bearing assembly and realized these bearing could be rebuilt if I could just find the right size ball bearings to replace the old missing ones. I finally found them at a bicycle shop for a total of $1.40. With this hurdle taken care of the rest of the installation was easy. My only problem is that I replaced the broken flat C clip with a C clip with ears. I didn't think about it at the time but now every time I turn the wheel I hear a click-click-click as the ears catch on the steering wheel spring. I will have to go back in and fix this one-day.

Sealing the Brake and Clutch Pedals

Since I had the steering column out, this was an excellent time to seal the clutch and brake pedals. I removed the two plates that surround the pedal arms. These plates would make wonderful templates for the seals. I wasn't sure what to make the seals out of, but I eventually decided to make them out of rubber. I went to a local tire store and they gave me an old semi truck, inner tub that was beyond repair. I laid the templates on top of the inner tub and cut out the new seals using a pair of scissors and a set of gasket punches. It as a little difficult keeping everything in line while the seals were bolted it but with a little perseverance I succeeded. I decided it would be prudent to keep the seals and pedal arms lubricated so the seals wouldn't tear.

Air and Ventilation Controls Ooops

My early ignorance of Willys Trucks revealed its ugly face when it came to the heat and vent controls. There was a bracket at the bottom center of the dash that had three holes in it. Only one of these was used by a heater control and the others where occupied by the old defunct electric wiper motor switches that had been replaced by the later defunct toggle switch. This bracket made it difficult to reach the top mounted vent door lever. I removed the bracket and installed the heater switch where the old choke cable had been. Later that I found out that this bracket was factory. One cable switch controlled defrost/floor heat, one controlled heat on/off, and the other controlled the blower and front vent. I will work to correct my earlier mistake by reinstalling these parts when money permits.

Radio Installation

Glove Box Made From Scratch

The factory cardboard glove box was replaced many years before with an aluminum one. It was crooked, ugly and too big. Every time the truck hit a bump, the box would bang on the inside wall of the cab. I decided to fabricate my own box using black felt glued to cardboard. It turned out pretty good. Later when I went to the Pomona Swap Meet, I ran into a vender that sold all different sizes of glove boxes made from original materials. Sadly, I didn't remember what size I needed and I didn't get a name an address for him. The current box works good but I'd like to have a better one.

Denim Shifter Boots

As many of you that have Warn Overdrives know these things were not factory and as far as I know there isn't an after market shifter boot available for these four shifters. I went to the junkyard and easily found a shifter boot ring to fit the tranny shifter but for the other three I had a challenge. I eventually made a second ring (actually it was more rectangular shaped) from stainless that started at the side of the tranny shifter ring then dropped down, came forward, then back up and over to the front side of the tranny ring. For both the tranny ring and the second ring, I made duplicate rings from stainless to sandwich the shifter boots between. I made four separate shifter boots from black denim. Each boot had four triangular sides forming a pyramid. Once I had the four boots I sewed them all together into one long boot assembly. I sandwiched the boots between the rings and then mounted the assembly to the tranny cover plate. The tranny cover plate had been installed and removed so many times that the holes in the sheet metal were stripped out. I drilled the holes out larger and installed nut plates under them to make installation and removal easier. The whole assembly was bolted into the truck using stainless steel hex head bolts. I have had several people say they thought it looked factory. But some of you guys could never be fooled.

S-10 Bench Seat

Custom Door Panels

The previous owner had seen fit the reupholster the door panels with a silver vinyl. I had some oak and ash scraps left lying around and decided to make new door panels from them. I cut the pieces down, stager glued them together and plained them down to 3/16". They made a great butcher block effect but I was afraid to put them in until the weather cooled. I also have made a set of matching kick panels to cover the left and right kick panels.

Nasty Dana 25 Front Axle Assembly

Steering Hub Lube?

The 90-weight gear oil does not stay in the steering hubs. I have a constant leak from both sides. It takes about 2 months to leak it all out but it leaves a nasty mess on the driveway. It also makes the inside of the tires look gross. The maintenance manual calls for a universal joint lubricant no 1 for summer use and universal joint lubricant no 0 for winter use in these hubs. I have contacted everyone I can find and nobody has ever heard of this stuff. I have been thinking about replacing the oil with grease but for now I will just keep looking.

Steering Box Changed

When I had the axles removed I found I could turn my steering all the way both directions to engage the steering stops. Once I installed the axles the steering fell about 8 degrees short. I will have to look into this more later.

Repainting the Rear Frame

I did it again. I don't know how it happened but there I was looking at my truck with the bed removed. The rear frame rails looked very solid with only minor surface rust to contend with. I sand blasted the rust off the rear frame, primered, painted and then under coated it. It looks wonderful from the cab back. I felt I needed to do this to protect it from rust for the next two years. When I move back to NC I will do a complete frame off reconstruction. In the mean time I want to get some cheap paint on this thing to protect it. I have noticed that every time I remove a body panel I find that it has numerous stress cracks. I think this is due to the bad springs and bushings so I want to correct this soon.

U-Shaped Tailgate

The tailgate has a visible bow in it from having heavy items sitting on it while in the down position. I considered many different options to have it straightened. I would probably leave it alone but it is bent to point that it rubs on the tailgate supports that are welded to the rear frame. This rubs the paint off the tailgate. My current plan is to make a set of wooden wedges to brace on the tailgate supports and then lower the gate. I believe this with bend it back into place.

Bad Front Tire Wear

Fan Shroud

Although the PermaCool fan fit my truck fine as a pusher, I'm not sure there would be enough room for it on pre 1953 trucks because of the flat grill.

Alien Parts

In June I discovered two Willys Pickups for sale in Asheville NC. I had no way to go get them so I had to leave them there. Eventually the guy (Alienxxxx) that was trying to sell the trucks gave up and sent them to the junkyard. Before they went he asked me if I wanted any parts from them. This is what I got.

2 outside door handles
2 door latches
2 door post
1 hook ornament
4 headlight trim rings (I've already given two away)
1 sun visor
1 horn button
1 front drive shaft
2 front parking lights
1 complete vacuum wiper system

I didn't get the rear drive shaft because both trucks had Timken axles instead of the Spicer 53 that my truck has. The two outside door handles proved to be too far-gone (He told me this in advance) but the rest of the stuff looks pretty good. I paid $75 for the parts and $17 shipping and handling.