One HOT Willy's Jeep

The old flat fender Willy's Jeep is a highly revered classic. The Matchbox model is truly beautiful. But what I wanted to do was make my Willy's ready to tackle the terrain and eat boulders for breakfast. Originally I set about fabricating a roll cage from brass rod, meticulously filing and soldering away. At first things were going well and I was making steady progress. But then I pushed my luck and poof! It all went to hell. In the days that followed I wrestled with the idea a approaching the cage again, but the something new presented itself.

I was looking at my spare parts and I found a roll-cage I had left over from a recently sacrificed HW FJ40. With a few snips from my nippers I was delighted to find that the roll-cage was a perfect fit in my old Jeep. Awesome!

Next I need to fit some bigger cleats under the fenders. At first I was worried that this would take some heavy cutting and axle fabrication. But once again I was pleasantly surprised. With only six small cuts to the chassis and a bit of the old sanding wheel on the ends of the rear fenders I was able to fit some monstrous MBX wheels.

The end result was fantastic. This truck looks like it was meant to be this way. It looks like it could have shipped straight from the factory! And the best part of all? It was easy as pie.