I have got the other guard on and hung the grille. As some have noticed, the front tower brace is not going to clear.
Angling down the front by nearly 2 degrees dropped the grille 50mm-1" and lost 14mm-9/16"of clearance over the front brace. So wouldn't have cleared anyway.
The rear is the factory placement and the top was angled downward to clear the donor bonnet. Can see placing another rear one on the front, by turning it backwards, made that angle worse.
With the front one off it actually clears due to the thickness of the leading edge of the bonnet over the grille.
Thought I might as well gain a bit more by leaning back the brace to make it parallel with the bonnet line.
I made a cut behind the some mounting holes, as I want to weld those up anyway along with two others, and pulled the brace back.
I then cut the front one off its mounting plates and turned it around. Then lowered it and lent it back until it was parallel with the rear one. The level is sitting at the same angle and height as the bonnet will be. Clears by 17mm-5/8".
I lowered the front brace 19mm-3/4" in total and spread it out so it sat in the same spot as before on the mounting plates. The front brace does help as I had 1mm of deflection in the towers from fully loaded to unloaded, with the weight of the suspension and wheels and tyres pulling down on them, with the rear one only fitted. Once I added the front one there was no defection at all. I may still add a brace under both of them and will link them also with a dimple holed sheet metal piece across the top.
We are assembled! I even got out the Willys stamped front bumper out to checkout the look. I will still run it under the grille even though the grille is 50mm-2" deeper than stock and also the front guard rake giving another 25mm-1". I will bolt it directly to the subframe.
I have raised the front 50mm-2" so the chassis is dead level so I can start building the frame mounts for the body. Looks alright at this height too! I will not be running these wheels or tyres! The tyres are 29.5" tall, (245/65R17), and will go to a 30.5", (245/70R17), or even a 31.5", (245/75R17). Should be alright still on gearing with the 3.73 ratios and the fact it will be around 500kgs lighter than the donor wagon without all the weight of the rear doors, hatch and all the carpet and insulation and such.
Wife was not as keen on the looks of the grille without any of the cross bars. They came with none on the 47-50 flat nose versions, or 3 or 5 bars depending on the year for the 50-65 ones. Maybe just one 'floating' bar in the middle will work? I don't want to cover the top and bottoms of the iconic grille slots.
This is the money shot for me.
