Fino's 58 Wagon

might depend on what the definition of cross-member is here....in my thoughts, its less about stiffening or strengthening the frame so much as to provide a connection between the two rear frame rails to ensure that if anything is pulled with some lateral component, it would distribute the stress to both frame rails instead of just one....

yea, you guys think I can weld?....I'd think it'd be nice if the hitch cross-tube and frame brackets are welded together, but I think its good for that combination to be removeable from the frame to access stuff like the fuel tank etc. Maybe I am thinking of it wrong, but many front winch plates are mounted across the frame rails and bolted to through the sides....

 

So this is what I am thinking...at least as the first option:
The cross-tube sits immediately under the frame rails, the sleeved bracket goes up the entire side of the frame rail. It would be mounted with 3 bolts (the tail of the frame rail has a bit of diagonal cut). One of mounts I would use the existing bumper strap bolt hole. A large inside the frame rail backing plate would be made as well - there is some boxing in the shackle hanger area and behind, but the inside of the rail can pretty easily be accessed....I left the 1" of angle/corner for now as wondering if that would help with lateral/sideways loading - but not sure its really needed.


Also, If I cut it off, I could add (butt weld) a small extension with gusset to the bracket that goes forward along the frame rail (to the right in the pic) that would allow for another bolt mount


I can't go too far forward as the rear shackle will start to have interference.....Normally I wouldn't trust my welding, but in this case, it would be for an additional and maybe unnecessary extra mount....the primary 3 mounts would not be dependent on my weld. Honestly, I tend to think we overbuild a lot of this stuff - mostly in the sense that i think the frame rails would fail before some of this other stuff....but whadda i know....

 

Taking a little break from the hitch project - broke my drill press yesterday as well as I have another little project going on with the wagon....

the driver side door wasn't opening from the inside (stopped working sometime last fall) - works perfect from the outside, so I just open the window to get to the outside handle to get out....
Additionally, when it did work, there were some odd features.... to open the door, you would pull pack on the driver site handle, but the handle on the passenger side opens the door by pushing forward... Just seemed 'unconventional'....Here is the driver door (the passenger is the mirror image).....what I learned from some on OWF is that my handles were installed wrong, and need to rotate 90 (90 CW on the driver side) so they point forward and down. Additionally, the handles should pull back (on the low side) to open the door....in other words, the driver side should rotate CW and passenger side should rotate CCW to open (and the spring load will return it)...



After learning about escutcheons and how to get the handles off so I can get to the mechanisms inside the door panel, I found the handle to be broken and possibly why things are a bit weird....



So, the good news....the passenger side door now seems correct... the handle needed to be re-clocked so it points down and forward, and when looking at the door and handle, it must be turned CCW to open the door. so with the handle pointed down and forward, to open it, you need to pull the bottom end of the handle down and rearward.



to open



But the the driver side (the broken side) also rotates CCW when looking at the handle to open....Here I attached the handle in the correct forward and down orientation


but to open it, the handle must move forward and up (turn CCW)....I got the door latch working perfectly, but it seems the rotation direction is wrong....Not exactly sure what is wrong with the mechanism - best guess is a passenger side mechanism (CCW) was put on the driver side (which should be CW) somewhere along the way, and to do that, the linkage rod was flipped around to the other direction which quite possibly reverses the way it twists/rotates such that it opens the door latch? I'll let you know more once I get the current one out and can compare directly. To get the entire mechanism out of the door, the window regulator needs to be removed first, and I have been waiting on that for a second set of hands to ensure I don't break the glass.

But also made a trip to the local Willys salvage yard (that would be duffer's - thanks John!) and although we did not find a good handle replacement, I did get a driver side door mechanism (and a good set of escutcheons):


and yes, it rotates clockwise - which is not what mine does. I think I can get my damaged handle to work with a little love, but may end up getting an aftermarket one.....now to get the window and regulator loosened/removed....at least everything is getting a bit of cleaning and some fresh lubrication..

 

All done!....the new to me interior mechanism works perfect and the door opens when pulling the handle rearward....I did a bit of work on the handle and got it good enough to work for now - it might not last for long, and its definitely a bit loose/sloppy, but I'll be gentle with it. I even repositioned the window handle such that both the driver and passenger doors are perfect mirror images - of course, I don't know exactly what position the window handle should be in? The pic is with widow up/closed.... I can reclock it (and the passenger side) to any of the other 3 positions if there was some reason to....its sort of a small thing, but really rewarding to have the door handles figured out....

 

They match the headliner.....the OEM seats were covered with it as well - straight out of the 70s. With the aftermarket black front seats, the back seats removed and black steering column etc, things are a bit more toned down the plaid isn't quite as overpowering - it's not my favorite but it's not going anywhere for a while.

 

Yes I've seen those...they sitting on the 'save' list until I have a few things to order to reduce shipping cost....not sure who makes them but they are available from all the standard suppliers so probably omix. We'll see how long the current set up lasts....

1) wife used that side, so she gets the good stuff
2) also, I can't really control how it gets used by random passengers....I can control how used vs abused it is on my side

 

It took a bit to finalize the hitch as I also have some other stuff going on with it....the hitch blocks access to drop the tank which I needed to do both to troubleshoot the non-functioning fuel gauge and also to 'straighten out' some of the mounting that was bent up (some PO smack the gas tank on the rear passenger side pretty good at some point). Its not perfect, but good enough....Is the tank galvanized? Anyway, the fuel sending unit tested out good and got the sending wire all cleaned up and the unit grounded - as for the gauge, well that is a different story - more to come later....


Hitch is in - I think it fits nicely and isn't too obtrusive - the back end is sitting a bit high on jackstands in these pics:


Primarily intend to use a hitch pin through the receiver as the tow point, or a soft shackle to the pulling line - this keeps the lever arm of the receiver to the shortest if the pull is a bit off-angle.

 

The nest step is to add some skid protection for the tank....the starting plan is 3/16" plate steel....
In the rear it will mount flat along the bottom of the hitch cross-tube....but I won't have access to the inside of the tube (well not easily), I was thinking of tapping thread into the drilled holes - its 1/4" thick - probably not the strongest mount ever, but maybe good enough for this?


The front is a bit trickier....The plate will have to bend upward both for mounting purposes and to protect the front of the tank....It may be possibly to mount it into the OEM round cross-member, or I may be able to mount some sort of cross-bar across the frame rails, behind the big OEM one, and use that to mount the plate to (in that case, the cross-bar might be integrated into the plate and just bolt in at the frame rails).... I'd like to not have a flat front to a flat bottom (90 corner) as that would get hung up the most, but not sure I can make a 45 angle there - would be easier if I had a way to bend the plate on a giant brake - but yea, don't have that....maybe I could mark the bend lines and angle and take it to a local fab shop?


FYI - The tank hangs about 2-3 inches below the bottom of the frame rails, but just above the bottom of the receiver hitch. Ideally, it would be nice to have some vertical sides to both add some additional rigidity to the plate, and to protect the side of the tank just a bit....again, whether I can weld the sides on vs find a way/someone to bend the edge up is part of the thought experiment for now....

 

And here I was thinking they made the rig.