Willys Truck Ratrod

After doing all the adjusting I could on the hinges and forcing the top of the frame over, it was still hanging outwards at the top if the rest of the door was in line.



The front was the same although not as bad.



A wedge was cut into the frame where the bend was needed.



Pushed over and tacked. Then checked to see if it was enough. Remember it will pull a few millimetres more with the weld shrinkage, so allow for that to save stretching the weld afterwards



Welded up.



Looks a lot better now.



Front was also done.



Now this difference in width of the window frame needs to be dealt with. The frame had a slight taper to it so it shows up once the 5.5" was chopped out.



Can see it better from this angle.



Bottom was cut and then pulled in only to the point where it lined up with the top of the frame. Pulling it to meet the bottom of the upper half would leave a dip which will show up once the straight window surround is against it.



Top half cut and pulled out to meet the lower piece.



All finished up.



Now in my opinion the height difference between the windscreen and the door window is out of proportion to each other. It is why I sectioned the cab under the windscreen and chopped only the door window 2" to match it up. Unfortunately this only gets worse the bigger the chop if both windscreen and window is cut only such as here.



Same from the back view.



Now I had this idea to solve the problem another way many years ago before I sectioned mine the way I did. That is to raise the window sill instead. This mock up it is raised 50mm or 2" to match the height of the windscreen not including the flanges.



Rear view with 50mm-2" raised window sill.



This is 65mm-2.5" which matches the opening of the windscreen including the flanges.



65mm-2.5" raised window sill. The inside frame would have to be raised as well to match of course and would not have the extra ribs. Just a thought anyway.

Great job man! I love following this thread almost as much if not more than your other thread. Your other thread is like you are starting with a clean blank canvas; this one is trying to make a really dirty canvas, look clean. It feels a little more like what I'm going to be dealing with when I finally get to the body work on my truck.

I will say I see the disproportion you are talking about with the windows and it does look odd for sure. My concern with raising the door window seal is that I love to rest my arm there, it would be too high to comfortably do that at that height.

I'm sure you are already there, but the extra ribs look odd. Raising the window without the ribs would work, but as was already mentioned how does the driver rest his/her arm on the window?

Would wheel out the ribs but think it looks too 'high waisted' in the end. Only proper way to do it is to make the windscreen 2" deeper. Affects the dash which needs to be sectioned or lowered. Don't know if that will happen or not as not up to me.


Like on the other door, I also fixed the inner frame alignment more than had been done.



I had to cut through their tack and sharpened up the inside fold. The glass channel sits in this corner.



Needs a little more sharpening of the fold further down, but a lot better than it was before. Also had to do the same pulling out of the upper frame edge and pushing in the lower half to get a straight line on the edge.



This seam had broken away so needs to be fixed. Noticed the bottom doesn't line up any more either.



The guard needed to be knocked down to get it aligned at the bottom.



The whole seam this time was fully welded rather than just a few spot welds the factory had.



Dressed up.



The flapping about had caused yet another fatigue crack behind one already welded up. Was better to cut it away and make a new patch instead of just welding the crack.



Putting some compound curve in the patch by hammering over a steam pipe bend.



The flange width will be added below this line.



Starting to hammer over the flange.



All welded in. I also had to fix up a small crack on both sides where the inner guard meets the triangular piece under the bonnet. Always pays to go searching to see if the movement over time has caused any other damage.



Other seam also welded and old drill holes on both guards done also.

looks bad ass !!!

Originally the other place was going to weld these lengths of angle around the hole to stiffen it up. Would take some time in the shrinker stretcher to get them all to match perfectly. Then would have around 4 metres-13' of welding to fit them. Then grind, planish, sand, planish and run the strip disc over it and check for any distortion once again! Many many hours of work.



Thought I would check to see if the hole was an even distance all the way around like Christos had asked for. Not even close with even one side having over 15mm-9/16" difference from one end to the other!



So took the shortest length and made that the same all the way around marking every couple of inches. Radius corner template a lid from my zip ties.



Cut the long lengths with a 1mm cut off disc and did the corners with my jigsaw.



Pieces that needed to be cutout to make the distance even all the way around.



I got some 13mm-1/2" bar stock and cut down to the depth I wanted to tip the flange. Just used a 1mm cutoff disc and taped where I wanted to stop, 14mm-9/16".



Makes a good way to scribe a bending line to follow later too.



Slide the bar all the way in and bend down bit by bit. Actually found you could hold the same angle down and just knock the bar along and it would bend it down as you went along. Tape gives a good visual to make sure you are all the way in.



Corners are done the same way.



Once a couple of times around I switched to using my flanging pliers to speed things up along the straighter lengths. Bar was still used in the corners and kept at the same level of bend.



Probably took 6-7 times bending a little more getting the 90* bend.



As you see it now only the bar and the flanging pliers have been used.



Was pretty close already but some fine tuning to even any highs or lows. With this dolly behind the flange, I hammered on dolly, stretching the metal, near the bend if I wanted to raise it. Hammered on dolly only at the bottom of the flange if I wanted to lower it some.



One nice and stiff roof panel ready for an insert later on that will be removeable.



The insert can bolt through the newly made flanges with T type rubber seal in between.

Wow, great interest there and glad it might be useful.


Just the folding part took around 1 hour. A lot faster than if it was welded as even the pros quote 1 hour per foot for prep, weld, planish and finish off.



Doing the last few things I was asked to be done. Cutting down the window surrounds. Taking 5.5" out of the height and have to add to the length across the top.



Fortunately the profile is pretty much the same all the way around so can use what came off the sides to fill the gap left at the top.



Window surround, or garnish, done on the passenger door.



Easier to keep things straight and level by clamping down on the bench and checking along the edge of it for straightness. Use a steel ruler as well.



Here now you can see why leaving that difference in door width at the join would not have worked. It would have shown up terribly!



Windscreen pieces needed doing as well. One side done and the other still to go.



Last of the fabrication work done.



Doesn't look much different than when it arrived here less than 2 weeks ago! But is a hell of a lot more structurally sound and complete.

I think this is the first time I've felt compelled to disagree with anything you've said. From what I can see in your pictures, the truck looks a HELL of a lot better than it did when you started. Now lets hope the owner keeps going and finishes it up right. I do like the stencil on the door though. It wouldn't be too difficult to have one made up to match.

On a personal note. I used one of your techniques on my Wagon today. The rolled over bead along the bottom of the body was pulled straight and wrinkled. So I made up a bar like you did for the roof to help straighten things up. My finish work does not compare with yours, but the rolled lip is MUCH better than it was. Thank you very much.

That is excellent that you got to use something from the thread so soon. Glad it worked for you.

What I meant for not looking much different was from that angle and distance the same as the very first shot. From 10' away bit hard to see everything that was done.

Many thanks John.



The owner thought the front needed lowering more to fill the front guards. I suggested less rubber rake so mocked up one of the rear wheels on the front. Raised the front 3" the same as it would be fitted with the the 6" taller tyre and think it looks good. Maybe even slightly smaller tyre would work.



Pushing it out past my cab and now mine looks huge by comparison!



Well mine is 9" wider and 7" longer than his.



Out in the sun waiting for the pickup.



Looking mean!


It was picked up a few hours ago by a very pleased owner so my cab is back in its place ready to be worked on again.

Gojeep said:

Many thanks John.

The owner thought the front needed lowering more to fill the front guards. I suggested less rubber rake so mocked up one of the rear wheels on the front. Raised the front 3" the same as it would be fitted with the the 6" taller tyre and think it looks good. Maybe even slightly smaller tyre would work.

Pushing it out past my cab and now mine looks huge by comparison!

Well mine is 9" wider and 7" longer than his.

Out in the sun waiting for the pickup.

Looking mean!


It was picked up a few hours ago by a very pleased owner so my cab is back in its place ready to be worked on again.

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Great job. I too have used a few of your technic's and have learned from you on "moving metal". A big thank you for sharing and letting us look over your shoulder to learn something new.

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hotrod28a said:

Great job. I too have used a few of your technic's and have learned from you on "moving metal". A big thank you for sharing and letting us look over your shoulder to learn something new.

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That is great to hear Rick.