Fred Williams’ garage-find 1961 Willys Wagon has been sitting with bad brakes and a tired drivetrain ever since a prior engine swap (Episode 37)
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (rock music)
00:02 - This week on Dirt Every Day,
00:04 we're doing an LS swap out of a Jeep.
00:06 And we're putting this Willy's wagon on a Wrangler chassis.
00:10 - And we finally got a lift.
00:11 - We finally got a lift.
00:12 (rock music)
00:15 - Woo!
00:22 (engine revving)
00:25 (rock music)
00:36 - Here's the plan.
00:40 This 1961 Willy's wagon was in a garage for almost 40 years.
00:45 I drug it home in a previous episode
00:46 and we did an engine swap,
00:47 but we left the rest of the Jeep alone.
00:49 We didn't update the steering, the brakes,
00:51 the axles, transmission, any of that stuff.
00:53 I have a 1993 Jeep Wrangler YJ.
00:57 This has a four liter straight six manual transmission.
01:00 And honestly, it's mostly cosmetic damage.
01:03 The grill smashed, the hood, the windshield.
01:05 Basically, this Jeep is still in good shape
01:07 other than the body.
01:08 So I'm gonna take the body and throw it away.
01:10 And I'm gonna drag this thing inside,
01:12 cut it, stretch it,
01:13 and then drop this body on top of that frame.
01:16 When Dave gets here tomorrow,
01:17 then we will tear into the wagon
01:19 and we will have the two of them going together.
01:21 This is much easier than the big trucks.
01:26 You guys see what's new at the shop?
01:32 You see this?
01:33 This is a 15,000 pound BendPak lift.
01:36 I have a beautiful collection of jack stands
01:39 and they're all gonna just gather dust now
01:41 'cause I got this thing.
01:41 It's awesome.
01:42 So first thing we're gonna do is tear all this stuff off.
01:46 I've done a little bit of prep work.
01:48 I really wanna take this hood off
01:50 'cause it's bent and smashed up
01:52 and it's fell on my head about three times so far
01:54 and I got really upset.
01:55 So we're going to make sure the engine will turn over
01:59 and then pull the body off.
02:01 I put a mark on the crank here,
02:03 the crank pulley,
02:04 and I can turn it all the way around,
02:07 which is good.
02:09 That means our engine turns freely,
02:11 even though it's been sitting for three years,
02:14 it's not locked up.
02:15 I was really hoping that this frame was perfect,
02:18 but if you look right here,
02:21 hidden underneath the fender and this inner liner,
02:26 there's a nice big dent in the frame.
02:28 So we're gonna have to straighten the frame
02:32 in addition to stretching the frame.
02:33 Bummer.
02:38 All the body mounts are disconnected.
02:41 Cross your fingers.
02:42 (drill whirring)
02:45 What about back here?
02:50 Everything looks good.
02:51 Oh, you know what I didn't think about?
02:56 How high does this lift go?
02:57 (drill whirring)
03:01 Oh!
03:02 (grunts)
03:06 (drill whirring)
03:09 Ta-da!
03:14 All right, that's it for day one.
03:17 I think we did pretty good.
03:18 I got the body off.
03:19 I got the frame out here.
03:21 I'm hosing it down
03:22 so that I can pressure wash all this old grime off of it.
03:25 Other than finding this dent right here in the frame,
03:28 I'm pretty happy.
03:29 Dave will be here tomorrow.
03:30 He'll be able to help me out
03:31 and we'll get started on the wagon.
03:32 (upbeat music)
03:35 (grunts)
03:37 - It's a bad idea, Fred.
03:44 - It's a great idea, Dave.
03:46 - This is probably one of my favorite vehicles you own.
03:49 - It's gonna be even better.
03:50 - I hope so.
03:52 We're gonna get the body off of this frame,
03:54 roll this frame out.
03:55 - Correct.
03:56 - Get the other chassis rolled in here
03:58 and see how much cutting we have to do.
04:01 - And the old Jeep body is sitting there
04:03 so we can pull the pedals out
04:05 and anything else we need off of that.
04:07 - Don't tell the viewers
04:08 that this already has a nice V8 in it.
04:10 - They already know.
04:11 They saw that episode.
04:12 It's okay.
04:13 That V8's gonna end up in something even cooler
04:15 down the road.
04:16 - It's 'cause gas is getting real expensive these days
04:18 and that little six cylinder,
04:21 probably a little more economical than this big V8.
04:24 - Dave, they've seen the episode
04:25 where we did the shootout between the V8
04:27 and the straight six and the V8.
04:29 - We can't get away with anything anymore.
04:31 - It's gonna be great.
04:32 This is gonna be great, Dave.
04:33 - All right, let's do it.
04:34 - We have an awesome lift that we can lift things with.
04:37 - Lift your spirits.
04:39 (laughing)
04:40 (upbeat music)
04:42 Fred, we're almost ready.
04:50 - I did a costume change
04:51 because I was soaking wet from pressure washing in the rain.
04:54 Engine is all unhooked.
04:55 - Steering columns are done.
04:56 All the wiring for the motor and computer is all piled
04:59 so that it should go with the motor.
05:02 - Go up a little and see if it.
05:03 (drilling)
05:06 - Let's roll this out and get our new chassis lined up.
05:14 - All right, so we'll get some steel
05:20 and put some outriggers from here to here.
05:22 And I'll put some 72 inch tall tires on here.
05:27 I'll head down to the swamps of Louisiana.
05:29 - We'll just put seats right here
05:31 and wear this thing like a hat.
05:33 - We're gonna disassemble a lot of these parts
05:34 that we're not gonna use.
05:36 The engine has a few parts that are broken.
05:38 I have to weld some nuts onto these broken off bolts
05:40 and back those out.
05:42 Dave is removing the rear track bar.
05:43 We have to straighten that little dent in the frame
05:45 and that's where we stretch the frame.
05:47 And then Dave will do all the cool stuff
05:48 like cutting and welding
05:49 'cause he's a really good fabricator.
05:51 (upbeat music)
05:54 (drilling)
05:56 - Too early for this.
06:02 Let's get back from the metal yard.
06:05 They cut everything in half.
06:06 We probably should have cut it in quarters.
06:09 - So Dave, what's your plan with this I-beam
06:12 underneath the frame here?
06:13 - So the trick here is to make sure
06:15 that we have an I-beam that's stronger than the frame.
06:18 Wrap some chains around it and use a bottle jack.
06:21 And we should, if it all works out right,
06:23 push the dent back out of that frame.
06:25 - Going good.
06:27 - Good.
06:28 - It seems to move more when you hit it with the hammer
06:30 than use the clamp.
06:31 We figured out that--
06:34 - Frame is diamond.
06:35 - Frame is not square.
06:37 So this is what we're gonna do.
06:38 We're hooking a chain to that end.
06:40 We're hooking the high lift jack to this end.
06:42 And as we jack this and we bring the jack up--
06:45 - It's gonna shorten that distance.
06:47 - It'll shorten that distance
06:48 and pull the frame back into alignment.
06:51 Buildin' a Jeep in your garage.
06:54 - Yeah, it'll go.
06:56 - So we're gonna do it every day.
06:59 Fred gets decapitated by a high lift jack and a chain
07:03 while Dave hides behind my brand new BendPak lift.
07:06 Thank you, BendPak, for helping us out.
07:08 We're professionals here.
07:10 Dude, this looks great.
07:13 - I know.
07:14 - This looks factory now.
07:15 - We did something.
07:16 - We're in the situation where it looks good
07:20 even if it isn't good.
07:21 - Yeah, that's fine.
07:22 - Which is like what every other car show does, right?
07:25 So the wheelbase on the wagon is 103 and a half.
07:29 And the wheelbase on the little Jeep is 93 and a half.
07:34 So if you do the math, this is a really easy one.
07:38 103 and a half minus 93 and a half is 10.
07:41 - Gonna stretch the frame 10 inches.
07:43 (upbeat music)
07:46 (drill whirring)
07:49 - That's a 20 inch piece of two inch
08:00 by three inch rectangular square tube.
08:02 We're gonna use this inside the frame rails.
08:04 This will help align everything
08:05 and then we'll plug weld it in place.
08:08 We're really finding a lot of calculation problems
08:11 because this frame was bent to start with.
08:14 But that's always the gamble you go with
08:16 when you're buying a wrecked vehicle.
08:18 And we're measuring things that have been abused,
08:20 off-road, wrecked, once, maybe twice.
08:22 We're just kind of doing the best we can with what we have.
08:26 We put a piece of two by three inside the frame rails.
08:28 We're capping it with pieces of two by four
08:31 that we're kind of cutting.
08:32 On the inside we'll do, it's called a fish plate,
08:35 and it will run all the way over the entire seam.
08:38 Only that plate will be able to tell you
08:41 that this was one time cut and stretched.
08:43 (upbeat music)
08:46 - Morning Dave.
08:47 - Morning Fred.
08:48 We got body mounts and fuel tank and--
08:53 - Firewall, wiring.
08:56 (machine whirring)
08:57 - This thing's gonna go up and down like 20 times today.
09:00 - But it fits, that's good.
09:04 So today's plan is body mounts.
09:07 We're gonna build an extension on the back
09:09 to hold the fuel tank.
09:10 Basically we wanna get the body attached to the frame
09:13 so we know where it's gonna live.
09:15 Then we can build the firewall
09:17 'cause we know that the frame to engine
09:18 and everything isn't gonna move around anymore.
09:21 (upbeat music)
09:23 - Body's on the frame, let's get it out of here.
09:29 - Actually, we should probably put it back on the lift
09:34 and take the body off to do the clutch.
09:36 - No.
09:37 - Let's go right back where we were.
09:39 - No more work.
09:42 (upbeat music)
09:45 - Hi Dave.
09:51 - Here it is.
09:52 - It looks a lot different.
09:54 - Yeah, you've been working on it.
09:55 - So we took three weeks off
09:57 from the Willy's Wagon project.
09:59 It looks a lot different because it has brand new axles.
10:02 I took the Dana 30 and 35 out
10:05 and I went down to Curry
10:06 and picked up a set of Dana 44 axles.
10:09 The rear has a Yukon Ziplocker and some 410s.
10:12 The front has a Yukon Grizzly Locker and some 410s.
10:16 We put a new clutch in, we put spark plugs in,
10:19 we put all new accessory parts on
10:21 and fixed all the stuff that was broken.
10:22 The frame is still a little bit bent
10:24 but we're not really too worried about that
10:25 'cause once we bolt the body to it
10:27 and drive it off road and basher it over some rocks
10:30 and ruts, it's gonna be just fine.
10:31 - Yeah.
10:32 My big project today is the firewall.
10:36 As you can see, there's a huge hole.
10:37 We got this, this is kind of like an old school
10:41 hot rod trick using a wheelbarrow tub for the firewall.
10:45 So this will end up getting grafted in
10:49 but it'll look cool when it's done
10:50 and it'll have some decent shape to it.
10:52 (drill whirring)
10:55 (drill whirring)
11:10 - All right.
11:12 Good day today.
11:13 We got most of this firewall in, which was a big deal
11:17 'cause it wasn't even finished
11:18 the last time this truck was built.
11:20 The fuel lines are almost done
11:22 on the frame side of this thing
11:23 and we got the shock mounts and spring perches done
11:27 on the rear axle.
11:27 So we're whittling away.
11:29 So this thing's gonna be good.
11:31 Good morning, Jeep.
11:35 - Morning, Dave.
11:36 It's not done yet.
11:39 It's not even close.
11:41 - It's gonna be done today.
11:41 We're gonna put the rear brake lines
11:43 and the drive shafts in and make this thing run.
11:45 - And we're gonna try not to make the neighbors mad again.
11:48 - Yeah, they weren't happy with us staying
11:49 up until 1030 last night.
11:51 - 1130.
11:52 - Firewall looks awesome though.
11:53 - Thanks.
11:55 - When this Wrangler was in an accident,
11:56 it basically broke the air conditioning
11:58 and the alternator and all the mounts right here.
12:00 The cool thing is because Wranglers are pretty common,
12:03 you can get all of these parts.
12:04 The front end of the Jeep is ready to go.
12:08 All new plug wires, new motor mounts from Daystar.
12:12 We changed the oil.
12:13 We put a new clutch in it, put a new starter in it.
12:15 I plumbed all the fuel lines yesterday
12:17 with some stuff from Earl's.
12:18 We're using the stock wiring harness.
12:20 So today I'm gonna try and hook it up to a battery
12:22 and crank the thing over and see if we get power
12:25 to all the parts we need power to.
12:27 We just got drive shafts from Drive Line Express
12:29 up in Portland, Oregon.
12:31 The rear drive shaft is going to have a CV
12:36 because we did the slip yoke eliminator kit.
12:38 The technical term is a double cardan,
12:41 but I don't really care.
12:42 I still call it CV.
12:44 Those drive shaft guys know what you're talking about.
12:45 This is a 1310 CV and these drive shafts are beautiful.
12:50 This thing is gonna continue to be a problem, I'm sure.
12:56 That's the steering shaft.
12:57 This end goes to the steering box.
12:59 This end goes to the bottom of the column,
13:01 kind of at the firewall.
13:03 The new Jeep, they put the steering box
13:05 further forward on the frame.
13:07 So now I've got to go from this angle here
13:10 and get it to clear the motor mounts and all that.
13:13 That's gonna be one of the big problems
13:15 with adapting the old body to the new frame.
13:17 I have the battery hooked up to the engine
13:23 and the fuse block and the ECU is hooked up.
13:26 This is the firewall plug that goes inside the Jeep.
13:31 All the wiring in the Jeep is kind of a mess,
13:33 but in this plug there should be the terminals
13:36 that I need to jump and make the engine crank over.
13:40 So I'm looking through all of these wiring diagrams
13:44 and Chessie electrical books and Baxter's helping.
13:48 Check it out.
13:49 I got the steering column figured out.
13:53 So I was able to take the column that the Jeep had,
13:57 I shortened it and then I made a double D
13:59 out of the three quarters solid shaft.
14:02 And then I was able to chop up the Jeep Wrangler column
14:05 and grab this piece of one inch double D.
14:08 And then that is going to attach
14:11 to the stock Jeep Wrangler steering shaft,
14:13 which I was telling you about earlier.
14:15 So bam.
14:16 I've found in the manual that if they send power
14:19 to the yellow wire, it'll send power to the starter relay.
14:24 And the yellow wire is coming in the back of this right here.
14:28 (beeping)
14:30 (drilling)
14:32 Yes.
14:35 All right, so we made the fuel--
14:36 - I'm doing cool things too over here
14:38 if you guys want to come over here.
14:40 - So I traced the terminal on the bulkhead plug
14:43 to the power terminal on the ECU.
14:46 And I'm going to jump this to a power terminal
14:48 so you can hear that clicking,
14:50 which I think is turning on the fuel pump.
14:52 And then I know that this terminal over here
14:55 sends power to the starter solenoid.
14:57 (beeping)
14:59 (engine revving)
15:02 - Runs.
15:04 Yeah, it runs.
15:05 - Sounds good.
15:07 Practice works good.
15:08 Oh yeah.
15:15 - It actually runs.
15:19 Good morning, Fred.
15:22 - Morning, Dave.
15:24 Check out these wimpy tires.
15:26 These are the tires that came on the Wrangler,
15:28 the wrecked Wrangler that we used on the wagon buildup.
15:30 Our show has a new sponsor, Tire Rack,
15:32 and Tire Rack wanted us to kind of talk
15:34 to you guys about tires,
15:35 take a minute and talk to you about tires.
15:37 And this is one thing that you'll probably never see
15:39 on Dirt Every Day, these type of wimpy all-terrain tires.
15:42 Now these are the tires that used to be
15:43 on the Willys wagon.
15:45 This is a 31-10-50-15.
15:47 It's on a steel wheel, kind of a rusty old wheel.
15:50 Now these tires are great, except they're not very big.
15:53 And at Dirt Every Day, we don't like wimpy tires.
15:54 We like big tires.
15:56 Like these.
15:59 These are 255-85 R16s.
16:02 They're on a steel wheel that we had powder coated,
16:04 kind of an almond color.
16:06 33 inches tall, 9 1/2 inches wide.
16:09 It's on a narrow steel wheel.
16:11 Tire Rack sells all types of different wheels.
16:14 They sell all types of different tires.
16:16 You can order your tires mounted, balanced,
16:18 ready to bolt onto your vehicle by going to tirerack.com.
16:21 They also comes with lug nuts.
16:23 You can get lots of cool tires and wheels
16:25 from tirerack.com.
16:26 We need to be driving this Jeep in the next 24 hours.
16:34 We should be ready to put it underneath the Jeep.
16:37 The only thing we're waiting on is exhaust.
16:39 We may have to install the exhaust underneath the Jeep.
16:43 We need to hook up the brakes.
16:44 We need to get the radiator hoses.
16:46 We need to get the air intake.
16:48 We have a lot of things to do that need to be done
16:50 with the car together.
16:51 So let's put the car together.
16:55 Dave's going to do the exhaust.
16:57 We got a kit from DynaMax.
16:58 We got a few odds and ends.
17:00 He's going to hang the exhaust in here
17:02 after his years of exhaust tube bending.
17:05 We are missing a few things.
17:06 So we went down to the muffler shop,
17:08 had some tubes bent and some extra pipe and some hangers.
17:10 So I'm going to chop, chop, cut, weld,
17:14 and get it all in here tonight.
17:16 Then we can take it back down, finish wiring, finish plumbing,
17:20 fire it up, and drive it around.
17:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]
17:24 And we're just taking things off the list left and right.
17:36 I'm going to mount the fuse box.
17:37 We still got to get this front bumper to go back on.
17:40 This thing has to go somewhere.
17:42 That's only if we want to know how much it's overheating.
17:45 We got to mount, do a little bit of wiring under the dash.
17:47 Dave's fixing the pedals.
17:49 I'm going to mount the fuse box.
17:51 Under the engine bay.
17:52 And the engine bay is just about complete.
17:55 I'm going to bolt this on.
17:58 I'm going to tack those, weld those
18:00 to the back of the bumper, slide this on.
18:03 Give a nice fat tack so it doesn't fall off.
18:06 You're a fat tack.
18:08 We just finished with-- I bent the brake and clutch pedals
18:11 so they don't hit the floor.
18:12 We mounted the map sensor, flipped the battery around,
18:15 got the battery cables in place.
18:17 All that's left to do is install these Omex
18:19 ATA 16-inch steel wheels, which we had powder coated,
18:22 and then bleed some fluids out of the clutch and brakes.
18:25 Making oil pressure.
18:33 Is it low?
18:34 It's not low yet.
18:35 Sounds like it's grinding rocks in there.
18:43 That's not desirable.
18:43 [ENGINE REVVING]
18:47 It doesn't sound quite as mad as it did a minute ago.
18:54 Sounds better.
18:55 The 57-year-old heater core doesn't
18:58 seem to be leaking anymore.
18:59 That's good.
19:00 Let me check backwards.
19:09 [ENGINE REVVING]
19:13 Brake lights.
19:17 No.
19:17 Grounds.
19:18 Yeah.
19:19 Roof rack.
19:20 Not getting done.
19:22 ECU wiring.
19:23 I don't know.
19:23 You did it.
19:25 Peel out.
19:26 Not yet.
19:27 Let's do that first.
19:28 Job one.
19:29 Get it in the Jeep.
19:30 Excuse me.
19:35 I'm coming in to ride with you.
19:36 [MUSIC PLAYING]
19:39 See how tight she's going to turn.
19:49 Just drift it around this corner.
19:50 It turns tight enough.
19:54 Yeah.
19:56 How's the brakes work?
19:58 Brake check.
19:59 Braking.
20:00 Stop right here.
20:01 I want to drive.
20:06 I like that no matter where we go,
20:07 we've got our wheelbarrow with us.
20:10 Here we go.
20:12 We're in second gear.
20:15 So many gears to choose from.
20:18 What do you need so many for?
20:20 The old Jeep only had three.
20:22 We did more work on this thing in the last week and a half
20:25 than I have done on my old Ford truck in seven years.
20:30 So what did we build this for?
20:33 Why did we build this?
20:35 We can now drive it on the street
20:36 and stop and turn much easier than before.
20:39 It's got bigger tires, so I think
20:41 it'll be fun for some four-wheeling.
20:43 It's got good-- it's got great parts in it.
20:46 Yeah.
20:47 I wouldn't say it's like a super rock crawler, but it could be.
20:51 But we just smashed up this nice body, so I shouldn't do that.
20:54 You know what this would be great for?
20:55 It'd be going to the beach.
20:57 I like it.
20:58 [MUSIC PLAYING]
21:03 [ENGINE REVVING]
21:06 Good job, Fred.
21:22 Good job, Dave.
21:24 Four-wheel engage.
21:25 Good job, good job, good job, good job, good job.
21:30 This is the perfect place for a Willys wagon.
21:33 You come out here, you find a nice place to go fishing,
21:36 you set up your lawn chairs and your Coleman cooler.
21:40 Nice, smooth camp spot like this.
21:43 Try this little rock canyon over here on the right out.
21:46 On that side?
21:47 Over there.
21:48 She turns nice and tight.
21:49 Yeah.
21:51 Yeah, it's getting rad.
21:53 It's doing a little pull-up things.
21:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]
21:58 [ENGINE REVVING]
22:01 There's a good crossing right there.
22:07 Is that a beaver?
22:09 Yeah.
22:10 This is why we can't have anything nice,
22:14 is four-wheeling's fun.
22:17 There it is.
22:21 This is soft.
22:22 Woo!
22:23 [LAUGHTER]
22:25 We're actually four-wheeling now.
22:27 [LAUGHTER]
22:29 It looks like the tires are working good,
22:31 even though there's street pressure.
22:34 They're like flexing around and stuff.
22:37 That front locker is the way to go.
22:39 I know.
22:41 I think we did good, Dave.
22:42 We did.
22:43 This thing works rad.
22:44 We built something out of two nothings.
22:47 There will be some old, curious types
22:50 that will be upset that you put modern Jeep
22:53 parts under your old Jeep body.
22:55 But they also won't be able to keep up with you
22:58 on the freeway.
22:59 Well, and the other thing is that those guys probably
23:02 don't have the internet.
23:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:07 Well--
23:17 We did it.
23:18 We did it.
23:18 All right.
23:22 Cool Jeep.
23:23 We did it, Dave.
23:25 We made a really cool Jeep out of two broken old Jeeps.
23:28 Good work.
23:30 That's it for Dirt Every Day.
23:31 We built this really cool wagon, and we're
23:33 going to go have a good time out in the dirt.
23:35 See you guys next time.
23:36 All right.
23:36 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:40 This would have come in handy when we built that Cadillac
23:47 with two motors.
23:48 I think we should make it this tall.
23:51 I think we should keep going.
23:52 I think we should make it this tall.
23:55 (dramatic music)