![]() On the bodywork, I wanted to focus on the front of the car, to get the hood and the grill right. Of course, the wheels are too wide for this car and the interior also needed space, so it ended up a little bit wider than what the blueprint dictated, but I think it still looks good. Unfortunately, the Willys Jeep is quite a short car, which left the middle part really tight, just enough to squeeze all functions in. Bodywork To get the proportions right, I used a blueprint, and calculated from the size of the wheels. Getting the steering to the floating axle requires flexible parts, the steering at the front of the axle had to be reversed, plus I had to bypass the gearbox in the middle, so I ended up using all U-joints for the drivetrain and a double steering shaft. One more challenging part was the steering, as I wanted both a functional steering wheel and a HOG steering. Furthermore, there was very little space left under the hood for the working engine above the front axle, so I had to go even more miniature with it. The more difficult part was to place all 3 levers in the interior such that it is convenient to access. I managed to compact all this mechanics into the central part of the chassis. The hi/lo gear is similar to that of the Defender, and the RWD/4WD switch separates or joins the front and rear parts of the drivetrain, so no central differential is needed. ![]() Since this is an old car, I built it with a manual H-shaped gearbox instead of a sequential one. It seemed that there were just enough special parts for all those in the set. Furthermore, it's driven by an inline-4 engine. A main one for shifting gears, one for switching between hi/lo gear, and another for switching between RWD and 4WD. Gearbox and Drivetrain I researched the gearbox of the Willys Jeep a bit, and found out that it has 3 sticks. Interestingly, the suspension uses only one hard sprint (two was just too stiff), but the result is quite responsive and has good enough travel. One stud of suspension movement offered by the short springs close to the wheel does not seem much, but hey, real leaf-springs are not for extreme articulation either. Four A-arms per axle keep it from moving much both side-to-side and from rotating, and the springs add some more stabilization. I was wondering if it's possible to build an imitated leaf spring suspension on both axles using the 8 A-arms in the set. I just love the simple and elegant chassis structure of the real car. Sumary of features - Front and rear live axles with leaf spring suspension - 4 speed H-shaped manual gearbox - Hi / Lo gear selector - RWD / 4WD selector - Inline 4 cylinder engine - Functional steering wheel + HOG steering, Ackermann geometry - Openable hood with stander - Foldable windshield - Detachable roof - Jerry can and spare wheel Suspension The starting point was the suspension as those leaf springs are a definitive feature of the Willys Jeep. Sure, the wheels and the fenders are not a perfect match, but not too bad. It's live axle suspension with leaf springs proved to be a good challenge and the gearbox pieces could also be used in a meaningful but different way. That's why a Willys Jeep was a great candidate. The Defender has a great amount of suspension and transmission related parts, and I was wondering how I could build something that's an off-roader, but substantially different in it's functional parts. ![]() Custom sticker sheet can be bought from ForwartSticker: RC version of this model is available here: I know, turning a Land Rover into a Jeep is a questionable idea, but here's why I did it. This is an alternate build from the Land Rover Defender set. ![]()
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