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Project Repair to Roll

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It's been a while since I worked on this kit. Ran it for a few years, made some changes and then ran it into a wall. Its a Wild Willy 2, purchased this century so it's new. Painted and ran with original grill.

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Then, decided I'd like a more traditional looking grill, so I made one. That's a piece of clear polycarbonate with a printed grill stuck on with 3M spray glue. Then dremeled.

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Not the tidiest bit of work, but it came out ok.

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Ta-da! The overall dimensions are about right.

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And it fits with a bit of filing.

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And I wanted some lights.

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The light buckets are hot glued on and the reflectors are twisted in place.

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A few more angles of the grill for those of you who might be curious.

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The black plastic behind the small holes are LED holders.

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With all protective covering off.

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And a close up of the back.

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First layer of paint.

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And paint's done.

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The torch bulb was not intended for use.

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I have left it on at this stage just to see how the lights would look. Of course, I could use the torch bulbs for a warmer look.

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Naturally, the new grill won't fit ... without some grinding.

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Better.

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From the back.

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Some more grinding to fit the light bucket holders.

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Done.

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Wait. This is done.

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I wanted to be able to drive at night, so scale realism took a back seat. I guess this would simulate non-existent halogens or xenon lamps. Resistor soldered on to run direct from Rx.

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What? Calculations? How do I know how many resistors to use? Just solder more if it keeps blowing. Spares are handy.

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And remember the obligatory wires and soldering stuff. Get decent solder wire with rosin core so that your soldering tips don't get corroded overnight. No, you don't need a flamethrower or a thousand watts to solder properly. I use a 40W Goot soldering iron.

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Remember to put on the heat shrink in the correct sequence as you solder. Or you'll get to enjoy de-soldering and re-soldering connections. The horizontal heat shrinked LED legs, that were cut off for the resistor, are re-used to keep the LEDs at the right depth within the reflector bucket.

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And, a connector is made to plug into the Rx unit for juice.

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Plug in. If you look really closely, you will see the Y splitters for the four LEDs.

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Check connections.

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And switch on!

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Lovely.

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Yay. And I ran this for a few years. Yes, I haven't spoken about the repairs yet. No, I won't be doing so anytime soon. It's taken me the better part of half a year to get my photos sorted out and logged back into Tamiyaclub. Yes, I have a mobile phone that is really convenient for posting messages. No, I haven't figured out how to copy photo URLs from my phone. Yes, the airbrushing took a while. I used an Aztek A470. It leaks once in a while but I've found it leaks less the more I use it. It's also helpful to use a baby toothbrush with a bit of denatured alcohol to brush the tip every now and then to take care of any paint build up on the needle; paint build up equals splatter. Like soldering, I picked up airbrushing by trial and error. Sometimes, I just have to try things. Yes, I would love to get a Silent compressor and Iwata airbrushes. Let me know if you want to send me the money to buy a set; I'll post photos of what I get. In the mean time, I'll keep on using the Aztek. Thank you for taking the time to view this post. I have a cold, my head is heavy, my nose is leaking, I can't really think straight and am becoming more incoherent.

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A little late but nice work on the grill, welcome back to the fold!

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this!

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Great little build thread and I am a big fan of your custom grill, really nice work.

If you have a smart phone get the tapatalk app. Allows you to post pics direct from your phone to this forum.

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Hi SteveU30 and Toykid, Thanks for the kind words. I really like your build/project posts too.

Well, my nose has stopped running so its time for an update. I found some photos of the driver from 2004. It's been a while ...

I decided on an alternate head so that I could take my time with the Wild Willy Helmet Head... it's still not done yet. Anyway, this was from a 1/6 $3 toy soldier figure. Would have bought a few more but I didn't know how the plastic would react to acrylic paint ... and by the time I tried some, I couldn't find the toys for sale anymore. Looking good.

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Neat haircut.

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I used Gunze Sangyo Aqueous Hobby Color because that's what I had at the time. Left over from a few more years earlier. Some enamels too.

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Making do isn't so bad.

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A Kodak moment.

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Sure, an Iwata airbrush would have been nice. But masking does the trick here.

The results are really quite decent. The blotches show my complete ignorance over dual action air brush use and control at this stage. The phrase, 'Spray and Pray' comes to mind. That and quality Tamiya mummifying masking tape.

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And done. With a little bit of Brylcreem.

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And in the cockpit.

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With NVGs for the late night drives.

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With IR lens option.

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The driver is qualified for jets, helicopters and jeeps.

Dude, are you sure you put all the parts back on my jeep? And the right tires?

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I did miss out a major part earlier, the fuel can. With a whole load of blue construction foam on hand, I decided to try something a little different from the usual styrene fix.

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It was quite easy to cut a block to a bit larger than the fuel can, press it on the can to get an imprint and then file it to shape. Other than a blue blizzard, it's quite neat.

An exact fit was not part of the plan, nor is it necessary.

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As you can see, there's a bit protruding out.

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Simply file any excess back to level with the fuel can.

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Clearly, there are gaps everywhere.

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Which is why the next step is necessary.

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The light brown stuff is wood filler. Applied in thin layers to aid drying.

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Ta da!

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Ok, so that's not the filled side.

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Nor was that the filled side. But there's a hint here.

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And Ta Da! Again!

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From another angle.

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The finish is smooth. Really smooth. As in, it's not only smooth looking because of the incredibly low resolution of my digital camera ten years ago. And surprisingly durable. The line near the top is simply a continuation of the engraved line from the fuel can. Scored using a file and a straight wooden block. The brown vertical strip was from a piece of styrene, sanded lightly to blend with the fuel can strap. Oh, and I sanded down the fuel can molding seam lines somewhere along the line. Overall, it's decent enough for a runner. Given the amount of body roll and bumpy shocks, any detail less than one inch is not really noticeable during a normal drive. Driving this car really brightens up my day!

I should add that should you wish to follow this route, that there's a caveat to what I made above that I discovered after a few years of running. A few years because I don't usually take apart the body parts during the usual run and dust. More on this later.

By the way, I don't remember why I airbrushed the safety belts on the driver figure. If you want to go this route, I'd suggest sanding down the safety belt first as there a a few bumps and streaks here and there that will show through an airbrushed finish. Hold it against a bright reading lamp to show up the shadow.

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Hi mongoose1983, zomboided, and Wild Willy Speed Shop. Thanks for the kind words. I am sure you will be glad to know that it didn't hurt to remove the masking tape from my Willy.

I bought some extra Brat tires and wheels after a few years and thought it might be a good idea to put them on the jeep. It didn't look too bad from an angle. Before we go further, I ask you to excuse the rubber latex glove fingers and heat shrink that were used to ... erm ... protect the dampers and springs and servo compartment. As may be slightly apparent, I sometimes run the jeep off pavement and the occasional splatter of wet earth tends to go everywhere. The latex glove pieces lessens the amount of time I have to spend cleaning and rebuilding stuff. I also noticed that I seem to have lost a few bits and bobs by this time; namely, the windscreen and the dash cover.

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From the side though, the Brat tires look a bit ... awkward.

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I think this was the lowest I got it to go.

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Needed a change in plans. Noticed a chunk of silver grey plastic. Idea.

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Idea ... what if I used an M03 chassis?

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Didn't look too bad. Erm ... the pink bumper ... yeah ... that was from the time it was on the Coca-Cola mini.

Unfortunately, the chassis was a little bit on the long side. I could imagine the tires at the right height though.

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What to do? What to do? And please ignore the various connectors and adapters. The chassis was on life support.

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I need an M-03S chassis. S for 'Shortened'. Measure once, cut twice. That's it! I knew I should have been a carpenter. Born natural.

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Used a bit of epoxy.

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The epoxy was advertised to hold 2 tons...

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Looks slick.

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2 tons ... small surface area ... twitchy driving ... sloppy tie rods ...

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Ah well, better safe than sorry, what?

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Just a few slices of styrene and a bit more epoxy. My driving isn't that bad. This is ... um ... purely decorative...

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A close-up

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For some reason, this reminds me of a chicken carcass ... Anyway, I think the M-03S chassis is ready to be built up now.

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Not a very inspiring photo. Transplant in progress. But if you look above the slicks, you'll know this is an M-03S.

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Chuck all the drive and radio bits on, put on new shoes and RUN!

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Stop laughing and tidy up the wiring. And swap in a Dirt Tuned motor.

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I can't remember why, but I spaced out the wheels for a wider track. Might try bringing it in the next time. Needed brass tubes for spacers. Worked, but not the nicest stance.

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All the radio bits were shoved into the back. The Rx couldn't quite make it in.

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The brass tubes are extending the mounting posts for the front. If its worth doing, its worth doing weirdly.

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Cool. The M03 is such better starting point than the ORV. I shortened a TL01 chassis's a few years back and got the wheelbase down to 170mm to fit the WW2 body. Had to loose the battery position so now it sits on top. Ansmann 96mm Kong wheels & tyres looked pretty good on it.

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Chuck all the drive and radio bits on, put on new shoes and RUN!

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I was wondering... have you finished this Jeep?

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"Finished" seems so ... final... I have progressed on this jeep.  A few times.   But, I am getting ahead of myself.   The chassis ran fine. Quite speedy.  Just like an M03, in fact; an amazing coincidence.    Tossed on a WW2 tub to check wheel well alignment.   Seems about right.   Excuse the weathering... that's real mud. 

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And then, there was the sudden stop ...

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In an attempt to keep up with technology, I dusted off my mouse and desktop computer and fired up the Gimp.

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Suitably impressed by my technical prowess, I printed out a copy and transferred it to a thin sheet of  styrene.   

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Sort of. I know it looks bad. But, we shouldn't judge a book by its cover and all that.

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So, after drilling some marker holes, we have the starting point for transferring the lines to styrene. 

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Bear with me.  It will get worse before it gets better...

 

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I know it looks warped. Honestly, I don't recall that clearly, but I think it was just the curvature of the earth and the gravitational pull of the moon that bent the light reflecting off the styrene.

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Or perhaps it was the grid lines on the cutting mat that's causing an illusion of unstraight lines? In any case, some holes were added for lightness.

 

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I feel a little unbalanced ...  Wait! It's not me.  It's the grille!

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The nice thing about styrene is that you can always melt or glue some back after taking off a bit too much.

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Holey Willy! That's a lot of holes!

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The grille is asymmetrical at the marker lights to simulate the bump for the battery holder in the original engine compartment. Or some such reason.   You may also notice that there are nine slots per the original Willys MB grille.

Score from hole to hole and we have added more lightness with a few gentle prods.   And some filing to round out the holes.

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A smidgen more lightness added to clearance for light buckets.

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A quick test fit to check clearance.   Seems about right.   Also visible are dents to the original Wild Willy 2 hood.

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Integrated mounts for the light buckets done.

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If you review the first post above, you will notice the first grille used the black mounts from the torch light.   Couldn't use the black mounts here due to the additional 3 slots in the grille.   The styrene plates on top and sides of the grille are to simulate the radiator shroud in the engine bay.

Front view

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Under the bonnet.   Bit cosy, what?

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The jerrycan appears somewhat distressed ... Added to the repair list.

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Side supports for the marker lights.

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Contemplating cooling.

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It does fit ... but ...

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Use the back side of the velcro. Stick the other side on a piece of styrene.

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Add a couple of tabs to the radiator shroud.

 

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And then to the styrene plate thats backing the velcro strip.

 

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Drill a couple of through holes. Then secure using 1mm screws.   This allows separation for paint.

 

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Because ... I wanted to see what it'd look like before paint. :) 

 

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Ok. Looks about right.

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Marker lights.

 

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A few more bits of styrene and its starting to look the part.

 

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Next step, paint.

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So, I broke apart my airbrush for another round of clean and repair.

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A bit crusty, I know...

 

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But, it works!

 

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And, yes, good enough for a three tone camouflage scheme.

 

And here it is, secured to the jeep.

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Once upon a time, in a place far far away, a thin non-woven pressed material comprising milled plant or textile fibers was produced for the purpose of capturing ideas.   This fragile material was the predecessor of the modern fabrication tool known as iPAD, also known as the incredible Paper Assisted Design.   A sample of which is shown below.

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Despite taking advantage of modern cellulose based materials with an affinity for Paper, the use of this tool continues to require copious amounts of dark liquids to ensure sufficient mental clarity for safe operation.

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Quite a while back, the dash cover decided to go walkabout. And hasn't returned since. 

Slight diversion. A quick job to seal up a gaping big hole that should accommodate the rubber on/off switch cover on the original Wild Willy M38.   Which is strange because the body post hole in the center of the hood no longer exists.   But drilling a body post hole is easier than cutting out a square I guess?   Anyway, front towards the hood.   The patch is from a styrene sheet.

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I also took the opportunity to trim off the center body offset plate to allow the tub to sit lower.

Flush fit.

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Painted.

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