'33 Willys Van Gasser.

This is the other build from the same cbp as the Austin Gasser.



This kit has some major fit issues and poor tooling, but it can be sorted. The nose in particular is pretty bad.





Got the nose almost sorted



A little bit of filler and should be done.


Some more filler here, I assume they have something to do with the coupe as nothing in this kit corresponds with those 3 divets.



Reinforced the inside of the firewall



Basic engine assembled, need to make the engine mounts wider as it drops straight through the frame.



That's just the start, the saga will continue.
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Plenty of masking tape to see how it all fits together.



Will need some filler pieces to fill those gaps.

1 mm square rod to make a more secure engine location

Also added some styrene to the ends of the engine mounts to eliminate any sideways movement.

Made the diff mounts on the springs wider for a stronger adhesion.



Stripped the chrome as the parting lines need a lot of clean up



First mock up, here you can see the rear tyre is almost touching the front of the arch. The other side is centered.



After lots of care full measuring of everything, it was found that the diff mount is slightly further forward than the other side. I trimmed some of the rear spring mount and some scrap styrene to the front mount, and using a off center AMT slick it all sits were I want it too.


Decided to change the wheels


Hood fit is not the best


Tilted the center mount (it was vertical) so the drive line matches up better, and added some styrene to the dive shaft to eliminate the gap at the center mount


It best to not be over enthusiastic when removing a twist in the chassis


That's it for now.

That's nice work blending in the headlights John.

Not sure I like the rear steelies though. Makes it look like a Jalopy IMO.

So now that I have the basic configuration and fit problems sorted, I started to play with ideas.
Which engine to choose?


Could not decide which V8, so I went for a resin flat head Plymouth i6. That should make it a bit more unique.




And steelies all round.


Made some noise makers out of 1.5mm solder





While scrounging through junk pile boxes I found these. Large one is AMT '57 Ford, Small One is AMT '64 Mercury Marauder.


Small one fits like it was always meant to be there




Now to create all the pipe work, and find or scratch up a Magneto.


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As there is no scoop on this engine I filled the bonnet hole, using one of Ed Fluck's resin pieces as a guide.





Started to work out the logistics of getting all those little pieces in the interior bucket when it dawned on me that this is a van, so removed the back wall behind the seats.





Completed engine









In its new home







Started on filling gaps.







This shows how much twist the chassis has, yet all 4 wheels are one the ground.


Spreading the bonnet to fit the body better, just need to get some heat to it.



Remade all the door hinges







Ed Fluck (forums sig - krassandbernie) mentioned above gave me the idea to redo the door hinges on these old AMT kits.
This was my first attempt at doing them, and my '40 Ford Sedan Delivery was the 2nd.

Here is the link to his '40 Coupe gasser build that shows how he did them (pics 111 to 113).
Mine were done slightly differently, but the overall effect is the same.

http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/1/ed_fluck/nostalgia_drag_racing/39-ford-/page4.html


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Re primed the body






The hinges look better now with some colour. Have also got the bonnet to fit better.


Completed the chassis.








Started painting the interior.




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Skid wrote:That's nice work blending in the headlights John.

Not sure I like the rear steelies though. Makes it look like a Jalopy IMO.

Didn't know I'd changed my name Al.

Late '50s to mid '60s Gassers ran all sorts of wheels and in any combination.

Check out the Gassers section on this site.
http://wwww.georgeklass.net/index.html

WARNING THOUSANDS OF IMAGES - NOT RECOMMEMDED IF YOUR INTERNET IS SLOW..

Didn't know I'd changed my name Al. wrote:

Whoops!

Sorry Steve!

Nice work all around.
Altho I'm a fan of HUGE engines with lots of attitude, That flathead Ply. looks great !!

This is a great subject and you are doing a good job on it. The fit of the hood to the body as always been an issue with this kit. You solved it very well, Love the flathead Six.

Thanks guys.

Clay, I like monster engines as well, but I wanted to differentiate this build from all the box stock Willys builds I've seen. I'm thinking the Cammer out of the Willys might end up in a "T".


Buck, I'll post some pics of the changes I made to get it to fit better later.

Thanks Steve.

This is my modified tilt nose set up.

There is a 1mm difference in the front frame rails length which is the main reason for the poor fit, and the chassis rails also have a twist to them which is hard to remove without breakages. I found that out the hard way. The angle of the trailing edge of the nose and the leading edge of the body is slightly different from side to side, resulting in another gap.

The first thing I done was to remove the tilt pins from the chassis and put some 1mm square rod at the ends.


Then I glued some rod into the pivot holes in the nose


Then I trimmed the left side rod to compensate for the twist in the chassis rails to get the nose sitting square with the body. Then I worked on the nose to cowl fit with  till it looked acceptable. So now the nose no longer tilts but sits on the chassis with a better fit.


Hope this is helpful to some one that wants to have a go at one of these AMT Willys. The same applies to the '33 Coupe  as well.


I also got enough of a break in the weather to prime the Willys, Austin & the '40 Ford bodies.




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Neat job Steve. Thanks for showing how you did it!

Yup .. little tips like this help out ...thanks.

Nice smooth primer job, looks flawless from here

Super solution on the front end probs.  Luv the six up front.  Only weakness is the one-piece look to the supercharger-to-carbs piping.  I'd add some sort of demarcation, like hose clamps or scored spots to look like separate sections.  Different shade of silver, too, would make it look more multi-piece.

Excellent idea, Thanks for the tip. Looking good.

Thanks guys.

Interior is finished.









A coat of white primer.




It will probably be yellow.
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harron68 wrote:Only weakness is the one-piece look to the supercharger-to-carbs piping.  I'd add some sort of demarcation, like hose clamps or scored spots to look like separate sections.  Different shade of silver, too, would make it look more multi-piece.

I had wondered about that, me knowing where the joints are doesn't help anyone else either. I used 3 different shades of Aluminium which is very visible to the eye, but my camera is a bit dumb at distinguishing the differences. I'll give a black wash at the joints a go and see if that helps.

Cool  work so far.  I admire the patience you have for "getting things right."  Bad alignment and warpage are real probs sometimes.  Thanx!

It's looking good Steve. Interior is spartan as it should be.

Looks perfect, good subject and good work.

Finally got colour on this. Tamiya TS34 Camel Yellow decanted and sprayed through the air brush.



Getting closer.


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Now that's a proper colour.