GF-01 Wild Willy?!

[Willy iine 18806]

Here is mine.  I'm a fan of the original M38 Willy, but I have this, a standard WW2 as well along with a another GF01 with the Landcruiser body and WW2 wheels and tires.  

The sidebars are just there for show.  

[BJoe76 571]

Finally opened the box and plan on getting getting the chassis done and running then the unassembled body mounted on it!

 

[Willy iine 18806]

Good luck with the build, BJoe76.   It's really the body that takes a bit of patience to put together.   

[BJoe76 571]

Finally picking up where I left off a couple months ago......😁

then got it to the point of where the wheels are on so far and about to start putting the posts on to I tan test fit the body!

 

[toyolien 4681]

Looks great. Looking forward to seeing the body on. Just about to embark on a similar build using a Comical Avante as a start.

[BJoe76 571]

2 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Good luck with the build, BJoe76.   It's really the body that takes a bit of patience to put together.   

I’m beginning to see that, going to have to do some test fitting and paint prep anyway, so might as well see how difficult it’ll be.

1 hour ago, toyolien said:

Looks great. Looking forward to seeing the body on. Just about to embark on a similar build using a Comical Avante as a start.

Here you go!  
Did discover that there is a portion of the body where the transmission and transfer case would  normally sit on a M38 and early CJ-5 and set as high as possible on the front posts and nearly as high on the rear to clear the Rx as how I mounted it, even found that mounting the antenna holder to the inside of the right rear body post mount lined the tube up perfectly with it’s hole in the body!

 

And with all but the servo save attached!

Need to grab dinner before I throw batteries into it.

[BJoe76 571]

Shot some video of it in the living room now too!

 

[J@mes 2326]

On 4/5/2021 at 12:27 AM, toyolien said:

Looks great. Looking forward to seeing the body on. Just about to embark on a similar build using a Comical Avante as a start.

(Cough) buildthread 

[BJoe76 571]

On 4/4/2021 at 6:27 PM, toyolien said:

Looks great. Looking forward to seeing the body on. Just about to embark on a similar build using a Comical Avante as a start.

 

5 minutes ago, J@mes said:

(Cough) buildthread 

This!😁

[toyolien 4681]

@J@mes @BJoe76 I wasn't going to do a build thread as I'm just struggling for time at the moment, and might not get to start it for a week or two. So, I was just going to build it. However, I guess I could do a build thread... just might take me longer to build. 

I built a Comical Grasshopper last year, that turned into a Wild Willy 2 and now I miss the Grasshopper. So, I've also got that to build. I seem to have a real liking for the Wheelies and enjoy driving them a lot!

[BJoe76 571]

@toyolien the GF-01 was pretty easy to build, at least, I did the 1st part in one evening and the rest Sunday night, once I had the chance.  I’m kinda expecting the body alone to take as much time as the rest did. Probably will need to figure out ways to paint all these hard bodies I have now as well, still have my Clod and Lunchbox bodies......even have a lexan body for my Stampede that needs some paint too, come to think of it!

[Willy iine 18806]

I've been restoring old M38 Willy bodies with all sorts of paint jobs and NOTHING beats painting a fresh NEW body.  It is just so much nicer and easier to control..  That said, the WW2 body I pictured above is a restored body.  It went through a major crash where the front was smashed, one of the fenders broke off, rear completely smashed off as well, even the center axle tunnel area was cracked.  But Tamiya cement and putty is my friend.

[BJoe76 571]

I was messing around with the WW2 body as well as Willy himself tonight, taped as much up as I could and put on the chassis. 
 

 

I do have a couple questions though,  

1st. Can I cut the support away from the hole in the center of the body and fill that in with styrene or something to lower the body some?

2nd. Are there any WW1 style grills being reproduced?  I’d love to get a proper Jeep M38 grill for it.

 

3rd. Has anybody ever made Willy a bobble head during assembly?

[Badcrumble 4204]

@BJoe76 

1, Yes. I've not done it though 

2. Yes. I got one from Shapeways for my WW restore ages ago. I've not had the courage to start my resto yet.

Something like this

https://www.shapeways.com/product/B367MAGAQ/tamiya-wild-willy-m38-grill-panel

3. Probably! Not quite bobbly...

 

[Shodog 1835]

So what’s the verdict on the body swap of this GF01?  I’m sitting on the fence on where to get a GF01 to do the same?

[BJoe76 571]

23 hours ago, Shodog said:

So what’s the verdict on the body swap of this GF01?  I’m sitting on the fence on where to get a GF01 to do the same?

I say go for it!

[Grumpy pants 4485]

4 hours ago, BJoe76 said:

I say go for it!

I’ll second that 👍

[Willy iine 18806]

I think the fitment is perfectly fine as well.  I mean I did post a picture earlier of what mine looks like.   No major modifications to chassis or body.  

[toyolien 4681]

I'm just building up a Comical Avante, and tried a Wild Willy body on it to see how it fits. You can use the mounts that are spare in the kit. It lines up great, but there are two issues that I wasn't keen on. Firstly, unless you cut a lot out of the floor of the body, it will sit about 10-15mm higher than on a WR-02 chassis. Not a big deal, but for me it didn't look quite right. Secondly, I wasn't happy with the placement of the rear body mounts. They sit right on the ends of the chassis supports, and it would only take a bad landing to brake the chassis mounts off. You could fix this issue by either adding a second support for the rear of the body, or by modifying the rear mounts to accept the chassis rails supplied in the kit. I guess if it were for a shelf queen or light runner it would be ok. Here's a few pics.

This is the rear body mount:

And here's how it looks on. This is with the 'L' shaped support cut off the bottom:

 

Hope this helps a little. This Willy body is destined for a Brushless WR-02 chassis in the near future!

 

[BJoe76 571]

I ended up doing more work on my WW this weekend.  Trimmed off and smoothed out that wall on the bottom of the body that was next to the giant hole in the floor then got the body in primer.

The wall I mentioned.

 

after the removal

 

the plug made from .060” Evergreen sheet styrene.

then CA into place

I also fitted a modded set of WR-02 frame rails out of the MB Tr kit after a few mods then still have the rails from the WR-02 doner kit I got the body and other pieces out of, just in case something happens to the mounts on the chassis.

Here it is with the body mounted a touch lower than I originally had it, which looks better, especially with those faux rails there now too.

Finally, it’s in primer now too😁

 

BTW, anybody know what color plastic in under the chrome on the wheels?  If they’re molded in black, I think them in black would better than the chrome, especially since I’m planning on using a matte clear over the Jeep Moss Green Pearl I bought to use.

[Aerobert 2147]

51 minutes ago, BJoe76 said:

BTW, anybody know what color plastic in under the chrome on the wheels?

Normally those chromed wheels are in some kind of white colour. "Natural" nylon I guess. You can put off a tire and see if there is some non-chromed spot. And if not you can scratch a bit at an invisible place which is normally covered by the tire.

[BJoe76 571]

Sorry I haven’t updated lately, been having issues with Photobucket lately so I’m just going to post links from my IG acct instead. It’s now in color, haven’t shot pics of it in the matte clear yet, but I’ve decided to apply that directly to the chrome to knock that down to more of a natural finish.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPefnmzjoIk/?utm_medium=copy_link
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPgbZ8DDRII/?utm_medium=copy_link
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPgl3CoDxAL/?utm_medium=copy_link
 

 

[toyolien 4681]

Looks great in that colour.

[BJoe76 571]

3 minutes ago, toyolien said:

Looks great in that colour.

Thanks, I had a local auto body supply shop called Resto Paint mix the paint for me, it’s Jeep Moss Green Metallic.  I used to own a 1998 XJ Cherokee Limited in that color that I unfortunately had to scrap just before Illinois shut down due to the Pandemic. The rust was worse then than when I was under it last in 2018 plus it started leaking into the cabin and found it had been used as a nest at one point, so I figured by then is wasn’t just a safety hazard, but now a health one too and figured that was for the best.

 

Here’s how it looked when I bought it back in ‘03

 

Then my E-Revo (brushed, eventually to get a Titan 775), I used factory Mopar spray touch up from the dealer, but I was afraid that would melt the ABS as well as any styrene  I put it on, but it does stick to lexan fantastically.

 

[BJoe76 571]

Couple new pics!

kinda wish the light was better though.