# Mellow Yellow



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Had a hankering for a truck a last week. 

From my bag of yellow culls that Nuther Dave scored for me at the Beers show I picked a mangled Willys...typically chainsawed by Harry High School, she was a suitable victim.

The trunk was bucked off a 1/4" below the rear windows. A line was sawed just off the door seam all the way up into the roof. After a "flic of the Bic" the roof was quickly folded to form a proper truck cab. The meatloaf pan hood scoop was killed and filled as were the rather prominent and ever present shrunken hood nostrils. Then the reshaped roof was bonded and set aside.

Then I stalled out bad! Had a scrap woody tail section in mind but it just didnt trip my trigger. Just too obvious for my tastes. The whole mess was pushed aside in disgust. 

After sleeping on it for a few days, something came to me in a dream. In Pic-1 you can see the aftermath of a 2:00am session. Ford J rear fenders were step sectioned to repair the damaged Willys rockeres and create bedsides.

The tail gate section is a Camaro trunk stood on it's leading edge (photoed upside down in Pic-2, LOL). Screw post was removed and saved. With some minor filing and cuts the doohickey bracket that Aurora used to hang the rear bumper becomes both the Willys rear post upper support bracket and future tonneau support bracket. Pic-3, The whole mess was bonded up on a chassis to help keep things jigged and straight.

The rear fender dilemma was next on the list. The stamped "C" fender just wasnt gonna cut it. From the cull pile a helpless Chappy was chosen to give up it's front fenders for the cause. It occured to me that the sweeping front line of the Chappy fender would make a great trailing line for a rear Willys fender. They were cut out leaving a workable 1/8" band at top horizontal edge. The Chappy fenders will be installed reverse on the Willy's truck. 

Pic-4, The rearward facing side of the front Chappy fender was left long to leave material. That extra material is snifed off and rolled inward 90 degrees to create the leading edge of the truck fender. A little hand filing to ensure proper fit was required.

Pic-5, After bonding the fender chunks together, they were floated and filled.
Worked out surprisingly well and it wont take much effort to finish them up. The Willys has such a beautifully styled front fender it only seems fittng that the rears compliment the lines. 

The front wells were hacked as well. Donor fills will be provided by whats left of the "J" car. Her front fenders are about right to graft into the Willys damaged forward wells. I'll pick this one up again next week as she's hasnt really set up and is kinda wiggly....just walk away! LOL.

Thanks for looking :wave:


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## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

Very inventive indeed. Love the Mako fender bulge idea.


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

Bill, you are insane. I can't beleive how creative and skilled you are. (and I'm not kissing up cuz I sent you a car to repair, lol)


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## win43 (Aug 28, 2006)

"........................." (speechless) :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

wow Bill... truly impressive! I can't wait to this baby when it's done.


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## SplitPoster (May 16, 2006)

darn, that is awesome work, just seeing what to "harvest" to make it all come together is something. If somebody was smart, you'd have a job doing prototypes from the Shelton skunkworks..... :thumbsup:


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Thanx for all the kind words guys. In retrospect I 'spose I coulda just dialed 1-800-RRR; and for a few bux had the finished goods plopped in my mailbox.
Not much of a challenge though.  



SplitPoster said:


> snip.... just seeing what to "harvest" to make it all come together is something. If somebody was smart, you'd have a job doing prototypes from the Shelton skunkworks..... :thumbsup:


Ahhhh! The "harvest". LOL Split! The politically correct term for butchery.
The harvest is somewhat documented in Vitale's web site. It is suggested that most everything you need has already been done by a previous designer. All ya gotta do is find it and cut it out. Just cut and paste.

In a nutshell, things around here wind up in four piles.

1. The Good 
2. The Bad
3. The Ugly
4. The Garbage

The good is reserved for restoration only. Most things in this pile have a minor flaw or three, but are easily brought back with a minimum of aggrevation. 

The bad consists of stuff that might be brought back but at what cost? Just like the 1:1 world some "totals" are worth it and some arent. It is the hardest pile to classify and always in a state of flux based on the needs of the day. This the pile where customs are born. Enough to work with but not enough to justify a resto.

The ugly serves two distinct purposes and is the nuts and bolts of the operation. The ugly pile is the source of sections for grafting. Their value is the shapes and contours that can be found. Need a certain curve or angle?
It's there! Depending on how it will be applied to the project, the chunk is quickly snipped out with the *****, or neatly pared away with the dremel or hobby knife. Once a cull is hanging in shreds it gets stripped of factory detail paint, usable screw posts or "A" pillars, and turned into goop. Occasionally I'll also snip out round shapes or curves for stash as french curves are hard to duplicate from scratch. It is a magical pile where Tyco Lambo fenders become Model "A" grill shells and Vibe XK 140 rear clips become a streamlined hard top for a HR Roadster. More about seeing than thinking. If ya over think it things get too complicated. 

A subclassification of the ugly is the dreaded "painted cull" which involves stripping them clean to derive any repair value. They are bagged and set aside in the event that I may be hard up for a particular color plastic.

The garbage is merely anything whose plastic value is exceeded by the effort required to remove foreign objects like conventional glue, staining, or anything that looks like it will spoil a batch of goop. The only exception being ultra rare colors where the color value justifies the labor to glean a nugget.


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Great looker! :thumbsup: rr


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## JordanZ870 (Nov 25, 2004)

Hey Bill!
very cool to see how you put these beauties together. I wonder if this is how all of the other willys truck masters came about for the repops that we see??...maybe something close? It will certainly be a beautiful piece when it is done! Not a bad color either. That yellow just seems to have that "old-timey" feel. :thumbsup:


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

Bill,

All those yellow cars, manipulated and pieced together by the "Goop Master" are going to make yet another Sweet ride for your track...Zooooooooom baby!

Love to see all the pics you post up of your Goopy builds. Thanks again for sharron!

Bob...zilla


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## Dranoel Dragon (Oct 9, 2007)

Un-F'in,-believable. How do make cars that I'm not a big fan of into something I'm dyin' to get my hands on?


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## WesJY (Mar 4, 2004)

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Wes


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*More surgery*

Thanx for ALL the props guys. You're very kind.

Never gave it that much thought Joe...thinking hurts my head. :freak: I imagine they copy or sculpt. The old school masters were initially carved in clay because it's easy to work with...er so I thought.

In the first pic the Ford J donor grafts are file fit and bonded to the damaged front wheel wells. Looks goofy, but I just leave the tails hanging cuz it's easier to remove the bulk when profiling then add a shortage later.

Pic 2; After the grafts have set a while the first skim gets brushed on. Note the lumpy upper edge.

Pic 3; I usually give it about a half an hour and rework the lumpy edge with straight glue. Think of it like feathering a repair without sanding. It only takes a few seconds to stroke out a smooth edge and blend the repair. The reason why? ...moves me right into 1200 when finishing begins instead of starting at 320 or 600 to buck the clods off.

Pic 4; Dry to the touch the next day, a good graft will look like this. The top edge of the repair is blended to the parent material. You can see some shrinkage right on the graft line, which is totally normal. The final 'lil skims will be applied with a 00 detail brush unil the incision is proud enough to knock down with the file. The remaining hanger material will be killed at this time too.

Hiding in plain sight. The rear fenders have been profiled and reskimmed too. I'll worry about hanging them after the chassis is refit and the front wheel wells recieve some radius work.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*Twiddling my thumbs*

Had to walk away from the pickup for curing. Took some time and skimmed some customer cars... then had nuthin to do.

Although I had set up a quickee chassis for mock up purposes; I wanted to go back and tidy it up. 

Pic 1 shows a brass axle tube insert for the front. This allows the stock AFX axle to be used without over boring the wheels for a hulking T-jet axle. In addition two AXF front axles are shortened so that each side is fully independent unlike the factory setup in which one wheel trundles along with the axle. Similar to the old pin retained front racing axles.

Occasionally we hear about snap in rear axles for t-jets. In Pic 2 we see my version of this idea. 

Pic 3; Standard ride height chassis. Hot rod parts are supplied by Dragjet Resins. Super ll magnets, wizzard brushes that were notched, and BSRT pick-up shoes. Full gear lap and shoe tuned, she's ready for install.

Thanx for riding along! :wave:


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Here's a coupla update pics on fenders.

Fronts had the excess roughed away with the file. Radius gets recut with the trusty sanding pencil and 180. The Ford J grafts worked great. :thumbsup: 

Bonded the rears to the bedsides and walked away. Left everything long and fat until I can get back to them in a few days. In the mean time I'll start on the tonneau...maybe Nuther Dave has a bit of shower curtain left.


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

Mellow Yellow looks like a "needs to be done in resin" don't it Dragjet?


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## jack0fall (Sep 8, 2004)

OMG!!! Bill once again you've pulled out all the stops...  The Mello Yellow is wicked looking. I wouldn't mind having one of those parked in my garage (pitkit that is). :thumbsup: And thanks again for posting all the step by step instructions. 

Jeff


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