Can any of the Willys experts out there tell me some of the differences between the '39 Coupe bodies and the 40-41s ?
I believe the 39 and 40 have the windsheild wipers above the windshield and the 41 has them in the cowl. 1939 1940 1941 If you look at a lot of the coupes listed as 1941's ... they are realy 39 and 40 models with a 1941 nose. ... Sort of like a lot of 1932 Ford pickups are really 33 / 34
Iv'e heard that the frames on the '39s were narrower than the 40,41,42s. Is this true ? Are the bodys the same underneath ?
I am not sure about frame width, I think they are the same '37-'42, but I do know that the frames are the same for the coupe, pickup, and sedan.
Okay, this might get a little long winded: I will not go into the Australian production for the sake of simplicity. There were two U.S. Willys models in 1939 - the Model 48 which was a carryover from the 1938 Model 48 with a few minor mods. 4 bolt wheels, mechanical brakes, 100" wheelbase and 48hp. It has the same dash and front sheetemtal as the 1938, and the open type rear fender openings. The second and new model was the Willys Overland, which is the sharknose type with the undercut hood and headlight pods mounted on the front fenders. This had 61 hp, five bolt wheels, hydraulic brakes and 102" wheelbase. It also had the small rear fender openings. The dash was a new design for this year. 1939 Bodystyles were 2 door sedan (rare), 4 door sedan and coupe in standard and De Luxe versions. A 1/4 ton pickup truck and a very different looking stepvan were also offered. In Canada a modified International 1 ton truck with different sheetmetal was offered as a Willys. The 1940 had a revised dash and new front sheetmetal with integrated teardrop headlights and a split grille. The dash was again revised and consisted of a central rectangular instrument cluster with a fixed and an opening glovebox door on either side. Wheelbase remained at 102" and brakes, wheels and rear bumper remained the same as 1939. The front bumper was changed for the De Luxe models and featured two oblong slots cut out, either side of a center hole. The standard bumpers were solid. Bodystyles were the same as the 1939 offerings but a station wagon (woodie) was offered for the first time by the factory, with one door on the driver side and two doors on the passenger side. Reputedly only five woodie wagons were built in 1940 and five in the 1941 style. All models up to and including the 1940 model year had roof mounted wiper(s). The De Luxe models for 1940 only had the art deco hood 'cat's whiskers'. In 1941 Willys renamed their passenger and small truck line 'Americar'. There were significant changes: the WB was increased to 104" and the wheel opening of the rear fender was actually moved 1 1/2" back to center the wheel optically in the opening. The frame was significantly modified and most notably, widened. It tapers out from rear kickup to a full 2" wider at the rear frame horns. Thus the rear fender brackets now passed through a notched inner side of the rear fender, rather than through the tail pan as on the earlier years. The bumpers were now peaked (rather than rounded) and bore the script "Americar" on passenger cars, and "Willys" on pickup trucks, as did the hubcaps. The rear axle was 2" wider. The dash was revised with a strip type speedometer clusted and different shaped glovebox doors. The cowl is an instant giveaway: there is a reveal stamped around the windshield opening and the wipers are cowl mounted. The grille was changed to a wide rectangular one piece design and the headlamp bezels had a round ring inside the teardrop outer. Body trim was now wider and peaked to reflect the styling of the bumpers. Door handles had teardrop shaped base escutcheons and mounted to a corresponding tear drop shaped boss on the door itself. Previous years had had round escutcheons and round door bosses. 1942 Models were a carryover of the 1941 with a divider bar on the grilles and rounded rather than peaked bumpers. There are more differences but these are the most easily identified. The hemi engine option was not available until some time in the 1950s.
Not really, any steel bodied Coupe is worth good money. Many people who have '37 - '39 Coupes install a '41 front end to meet their taste. Though when installing a '41 FE, the front wheels set back slightly to the rear of the fender opening as the wheelbase is shorter on the '37 to '40. Vic
I have a question for the Willys experts out there. How much difference is there between a Willys coupe body and a sedan bodys? In other words, if you had a nice sedan and a junk coupe could you use the top and trunk of the coupe on the sedan and make a nice coupe. I've had this on my mind for some time just wondering how much difference there is. Are the fenders different? Are the doors completely different? How much metal work would have to be done to pull this off.
I put a junky coupe body on a sedan floor retaining the cowl and rear panel below the trunk. Only 37-40 sedan bodies will work for this swap. Coupe doors are different than sedan doors of course but steel coupe doors have been made from sedan doors before. I think you have to use the tops of 2 sedan doors and lengthen the bottom half to make one coupe door. If you search for my Nasty Habit Willys project there are more pics.
Wow!!! That is exactly what I needed to know. Even the pan below the trunk lid will work. It looks like you started with a very nice coupe body. I doubt I would be able to find something that nice. Any other advice would be great. Where did you say you had more pictures?
Hey guys. I noticed references to a 42 Willys coupe in this thread. I didn't think there was any such animal???? I thought 1942 was the first year for Willys to build ONLY military vehicles because of the war and never went back to normal passenger car production? Am I wrong?????????
Quote "1939 Bodystyles were 2 door sedan (rare), 4 door sedan and coupe in standard and De Luxe versions. A 1/4 ton pickup truck and a very different looking stepvan were also offered. In Canada a modified International 1 ton truck with different sheetmetal was offered as a Willys." Was there not a discussion awhile ago about a Willys panel on Ebay that was pointed out as being an International with a Willys front clip on it?
JHackaday.....Find the "search this forum " box, type in Nasty Habit Willys and you will find parts 1-4 of the build.
Willys built passenger cars in 1942 in limited quantities - Model 442, including coupes. The only real external differences from the 1941 were effectively the grille, which had an overlay to give the impression of a split grille, and, as mentioned above, rounded bumpers rather than the peaked blade type of the 1941 441. The sedan photos below are of 1942 Model 442s, the coupe is a 1941.
Hi Guys... Weasel did a great job on posting this information - I learned quite a bit and continue to do so - thanks so much! We wrote a piece on our website about the prewar cars from '37-'42 that were used as the basis of postwar custom cars and sports cars. Here's a link for those of you interested: http://www.forgottenfiberglass.com/?p=21717 Thanks again, Weasel, for getting us headed in the right direction. Best.. Geoff Hacker Forgotten Fiberglass
Weasel does know his Willys...in addition the 441's & 442's had a wider frame out back (not much) The inner rear fender panel was flared out at the bottom to go over the wider rails out back. The rest of the chassis with a few tweaks here and there were very similar. The '40 coupes were essentially the same underneath as the earlier ones, but they changed the wheel base by spring center bolt location, etc.. In my years as a Willys owner, I have seen some data to indicate under 10 K production in 1942 (somewhere around 6-7 K) with a lesser percentage of that being coupes and pickups. I have a magazine picture somewhere of a loading dock with '42 sedans, and military jeeps side by side, so they were already into jeep production by that time. One other subtle difference that I thought of was in 41-42 Willys put a door lock stem on the passenger side door, and thus a hole in the window trim piece for the rod and stem. There were a lot of mechanical, brake, and engine part that were interchangeable on the military vehicles with the earlier cars. I have some nos brake eccentrics from a military jeep that are identical to those on a 40-42 brake set up. g-willys
Weasel, thank you very much for the information regarding the differences between the 1937 thru 1942 Willy's coupes. After reading I went out to the garage and saw the windshield revel on my 1941 Willy's coupe, along with all the other changes that they made in 1941. The things that you mentioned are all written down in my note book on the subject. Their is not much information out their on these cars. Mac's Garage has a great article with some great original pictures. Domenic
Weasel, this revel on 1941 Willys is different on the 41 sedan and the 41 coupes , on my 41 coupe the revel fades as it starts to rise after the lower windshield corners and it continues all the way around on the sedans. Domenic
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