1960 Sedan Delivery

[Dirt Dobber]

Hi all,
Happy to be the new owner of a willys since summer. Mine is a delivery or parkway conversion since one of the PO's cut side windows in. It has a 283 engine and original powertrain other than that. The transmission, transfer case and shifters have just been gone through and rebuilt. It is at the local hot rod shop now for interior bead blasting, paint and body repair. Then linex the front floor and install vintage air. Making it tolerable during hot and cold months and quiet enough to hear the radio or have a conversation without screaming. The rear axle is very loud right now so that's another priority. Plenty to do!

[gmwillys]

Welcome! We look forward to seeing your progress.

[Dirt Dobber]

Thanks for the welcome. So do any of you have a good idea for a headliner in a sedan delivery? I talked to Paul at Willys America who swears the only headliner for a delivery is over the front seat back to the b pillars. Nothing was provided for upholstering the sides or headliner inside the back of a sedan delivery. What do y'all think about that?

[gmwillys]

Being that you have a parkway conversion, you should be able to use the full headliner kit. I'm not real well versed on sedan deliveries, but I can't imagine that they would use a different type of roof configuration, compared to a standard wagon. As a side note, I would look into installing a product like Dynomat to reduce noise and insulate the roof.

[Dirt Dobber]

Since I've already bought the sedan delivery headliner (Willys America) that only covers the front I'll start with that and figure out what to finish the back with next. Right now it's getting bead blasting and grey/gold interior paint.

[Dirt Dobber]

I had my front and rear axle differential gears counted and they match the tooth count tags 4.27. Now to check everything on the rear that could be making noise and put taller 16" tires to get 55 mph. Maybe I can do without the overdrive. What do y'all think?

[gmwillys]

The 4.27 gears are far and away better than the 5.38 that were in the 134 c.I. four cylinders. With the sixteen inch tires, the gears, and the 327 sbc, you can maintain 55, but the engine will be turning over two grand. My wagon has 4.27 gears, (if I remember correctly) and 55 was very obtainable, but the 350 sbc was wound tight at 2,400 rpm. Not great for fuel mileage.

[Dirt Dobber]

Thanks gm, we'll see. After we get the rear axle noises under control I might still want an overdrive.

[gmwillys]

No problem. Thank you for the interest. Noise, (whine) isn't that uncommon with these differentials. Some are noisier than others, but being installed in a sedan delivery, the open cavern of the rear of the wagon amplifies the noise. A few quick things to look at to determine if there is a problem. While you have the differential cover off, it would be a good idea to check the ring and pinion for proper wear. The easiest way to check that the pinion is wearing properly on the ring gear is to apply a grease pencil/marker mark on a series of teeth on the ring gear. Turn the ring gear until the pinion travels through the mark made with the grease marker. If the pinion does not ride within the center of the ring gear. The pattern should be centered, and even across the mark. If the pinion is not centered, then you will need to dig a bit deeper. The next step would be to check to see if there is any slop between the pinion and ring. Rock the pinion from side to side, and see how much turn that you have before the ring turns. If there is more than a few degrees of rotation before the ring turns, then the preload will need to be looked at. Bearings, (pinion, ring, axle) would need to be checked next. Bearing noise would be different than ring gear noise, with the ring gear would be a howl or whine noise. The bearings would be a more high pitched noise.

On my 46 CJ2A, I was doing some brake maintenance, and while I was pulling the wheel, I saw the drive shaft moving up and down every time I turned the wheel. The pinion bearings were toast, allowing the pinion to ride up or down within the bore every time the ring gear turned. Now, I didn't have any unusual vibration while driving, nor any other odd feeling. There was not any unusual noises either, although being an open Heep, the noise isn't contained within a structure of a cab.

[LarrBeard]

When we got the '48 2WD to the point that it was presentable, I drove it for most of a summer without any carpet. Originally it would have had a felt/fiber pad and a rubber mat on the floor. The rubber mat for that model isn't available (even from KWAS), so I had decided that I would splurge and put a nice carpet in it, even though that was not an original feature.

It was very noisy - like riding around in an oil drum that someone was sanding from the outside. Adding the carpet really cut down on the high frequency noise, in fact when I pulled up to the first stop sign I thought it had died and I checked the oil gauge to make sure it was still turning over.

You get a lot of noise fron the fire wall and floorboards.

[Dirt Dobber]

Good advice gm, I'm happy to be in the middle of this. So many new things to get into.
I'm thinking about linex for the front floor but to keep the wood slat/painted floor what about some underbody coating? Then possibly linex the ceiling before the headliner goes in. Hushmat or dynamat the sides and rear doors before the panels go in.
LarrBeard your truck is just right. Really like the colors. I have a '49 F1 pickup that is similar in appearance.

[gmwillys]

The great thing about linex is that it will act as a sound deadener also. It can be sprayed to the underside of body. This will allow for you to keep the original appearance to the interior. Just ensure that you remove any screws that protrude to the outside, (if you ever want to remove the screw again). I would compare the costs between the hush mat / dynamat to the cost of using linex on the ceiling and side walls. Since you are already in the interior paint process, maybe the body shop will cut you a deal to spray in the linex. The linex can be tinted to compliment the color of the exterior.

[LarrBeard]

I had the bottom of the '48 undersprayed with a liner (black) and we tinted a liner to match the body color for the bed. (Truck bed is metal - and we were able to patch the original). The liner covered the welds where we patched rust on spot welded places.

The color of the '48 is the original color, Tunisian Red. We found a sample of the original paint under a headlight bucket mounting bracket and the wives agreed that Tunisian Red matched the original. Guys can't figure out colors ....

As Ira said - we don't match sock colors - we don't even match socks.

[gmwillys]

My current wife has me pick out the color matches, she tells me what the color is exactly. I can't determine oranges from reds, so she keeps me in check there. If she had her way, everything in the house would be hugger orange, or a shade of it in each room.