Willys Wagon Build

[Bob Bogaard]

I just acquired a 56 willys wagon Az rust free. I also have a 76 Blazer doner vehicle that has a fresh crate motor and trans 3 thousand miles. I could take the willys body and put it on the blazer frame changing body mounts and getting 2" more wheelbase or just change the powertrain and suspension using the original frame. I would like any input etc. the willys does not have the original motor and I dont want to restore to original so I can take it to car shows or sit in the garage and stare at it. The willys is going offroading not rock crawling. Thanks for any advice anyone can supply or links to any build someone has done or good supplyer of body mount brackets etc.

[brownrc]

Sounds like what I'm doing to my Willys truck. I'm Planing on using the same frame and Chevy truck axles. I may be getting a Willys pannel wagon soon, if the guy decides to sell it. Post some pictures up.

[Gryphon]

Hmmm...guess it depends on what you want to do with it.

Dropping the body on the Blazer chassis will give you a stronger frame and probably be easier overall. Swapping everything to the Willys frame may look better and may be more appealing to a traditionalist (like me...).

Chassis swap will require some steering system fab/scrounging as well as body mounts. the rest should be fairly straight-forward. The usual issue with matching the new body to the donor chassis is getting the frame to line up and look right.