1990 Willys MB Jeep - Mahindra based - body mounted.

The going rate for a Mahindra project like this is about £800 -1200 on ebay; I paid £1000 for mine. 
It is a bit hit and miss with these price wise, and although there is always a few people interested, very few people actually bid so they never go for big money.
It does not attract many people like an original willys does.
To do what I am doing, it also does still need a lot of parts buying before it is a Willy's though, so just buying one is not the end of it.

Interestingly, although the Mahindra is generally not expensive, the Mitsubishi jeep, which is essentially the same thing, although with a Mitsubishi diesel engine, tends to go for big money.
Like this one:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mitsubishi-Jeep-J53-Willys-CJ3B-w-Sankey-Trailer-Off-Road-Wrangler-Landrover/362805578954?hash=item5478e5ccca:g:QGMAAOSwML5dofeT

Daan
 

Love this, old school cool with a mad max off road feel and modern reliability and MPG.
Makes me want an off-road project so bad. Good luck with the rest of the build 👍.

So great to see progress on this - way beyond my limited capabilities! 😁

Cheers will do.

Daan

loving this build. i have a tj with a chevy motor and it ripps. there was a 4x4 breakers at five bells in essex had a mahindra but that was years ago. i remember them having rust issues almost from new when they first arrived over here. there was a dealer in romford area at the time.always thought they were cool but never knew they were willys based.

This is cheap:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283807158606?ViewItem=&item=283807158606

It is a long wheel base version though, so a willys jeep body won't fit.

Daan

That looks absolutely lovely.


I love the details, and loads of bits hanging off, sticking out etc, unlike smoothed off modern stuff.


Look forward to seeing the rest happen.

What a thread boost!!
Great find that.

Hi all, getting back on this project again. I have started with for me the most interesting part of this project; the chassis modifications. Starting with the springs. I want to stay with leafs in the interest of keeping it real, but the original spring packs were in a bad state. New ones are available, but that would be too easy; I wanted something a bit more 21st century, basically. Parabolic springs are all the rage, giving a much smoother ride due to less friction between the leaves, by having only 2 leaves, which only touch each other near the spring eyes.
So I looked for parabolics. These are not available for the willys jeep, so I am into adapting something. Land rover aftermarket para’s were an obvious choice, and it turns out the front springs of a landy are identical in length compared to a willys jeep spring. That was too good to miss obviously, but the rear spings were harder; I have been looking at just about every parabolic spring available, but nothing is quite right. Then a car set of rocky mountain springs appeared on the bay, which I snapped up, mainly for the front springs. I did offer up the rears as well, and with some measuring, I decided, they are going on too.

Parabolics vs. the rustbuckets:


Mounting them was not straight forward; I made use of the existing (rivet) mounting holes on the chassis. Although the front springs are the right length, they are not the same width, 2.5” as opposed to 1.75” of the Jeep, so still won’t fit. For the fixed points, I designed a bracket in CAD, that I got made by Blackbird industries; Mike Brown did a great job turning my drawing into reality out of 6mm steel, Cheers Mike:




The shackle ends I made myself. I drilled a load of holes in a 100 x 50 x 5 box section, then welded the tubes in:




A few grinding discs later, I had 4 shackle hangers:




Mounting the front was easy, the brackets being bolted to the original holes on the chassis
The rear was more interesting, the springs being about 5” longer:



The front hanger uses one original hole, effectively move the bracket up to the next hole. and one new drilled hole, using the bracket as a drill jig:



The rear hanger uses the 2 original holes, as well as the hole used to bolt the rear crossmember in place:



The rear springs were original 3 leafs, but I removed 1 leaf out of them, turning them into 2 leaf springs



Next problem is mounting the springs to the axles. The rear was straight forward using of the shelf parts: Due to the wider springs, you cannot use the original spring plates any more, so I got Jeep CJ7 spring plates, which have 2.5” springs as well. The U bolts also won’t fit, as the spring packs are half the thickness compared to the original springs. So I found some aftermarket jeep U-bolts, that have more thread on them.:


The front was more complicated. I bought CJ7 front spring plates too, but they did not fit, as they have 2” springs at the front. There is also a clashing problem with the shock absorber. I improvised for now with some wooden battings, but are going to have to make new spring plates for this to work. Heavy duty shackles are also in the works:


The springs are compressing quite a bit when I put my weight on them, which is better than the original ones, being rusted together solid.


I keep an open eye out on how the ride will be, the Mahindra is obviously lighter than the land rover they are meant for (about 150kg lighter), so we will see.



Thanks for reading,



Daan