Hot Rods Willys we have known !

Over many years my friend and I, looked for, bought, and collected any Willys we could find. We looked for ones that were buildable as street rods or race cars, and we also looked for ones that had good parts that were often hard to find. This was in a time between the gasser wars, and up to the time when their popularity sky-rocketed, along with a renewed interest in gassers. Anyone is welcome to put pictures, storys and comments on cars they found as well. All we have left are two complete cars each, but over the years we had many, many cars, parts and 'junk' related to our favorite cars...the Willys.
The first picture is of our Willys graveyard...through which passed as many as 25 or more cars, and parts that could be used to complete other cars. The timeline was from the mid 80's until about 2005.
We had coupes, pickups, sedans, original parts, sheet metal, and more. Almost everything is gone, but we each have our coupes, and my friend has as a pickup, and I also have an early sedan. We have also watched the prices go from, wow, that's cheap, lets buy it...to ridiculous dollars for a car that originally sold for around the $500 dollar mark when new. How could our favorite car get so popular???
Enjoy the ride.

 

More Willys we have known

 

Like all your picture! Really like your picture of the 39 frontend.

 

MORE>>>Willys...My Current coupe (20 years) & My 1st Coupe...1961

 

Fantastic thread, I am definitely enjoying this one

 

Thanks for sharing....of note a pretty nice for a late 30's Willys un-restored 4 door just changed hands here after about 50 years with the owners...didn't think they'd ever let it go.

 

My Willys' have been a 49 Pickup, a 49 wagon and this $250 37 pickup which was really a cut up fordoor sedan.
[ATTAC

 

The very begining of my '36 sedan build...started and quit 3 times on this one before finally completing it last winter g-willys

 

I was told that this old barn find is now this rebuild

 

LOVE IT...it looks good...I'll do a follow up on the 2 38 sedans we found in a barn as soon as I find the "after"
pictures. Looks to be a '37...is it? g-willys

 

g-willys it is a 1937. Good shot of the Dash boards there, you would know, was there a difference between the 37 and 38's dashs? TrailerEd on here built it, suppose to be a build thread

 

from an old post 1963 @ the track

 

The dashboards on the 37-38 were mostly identical...they all had the two big gauge clusters, and the small gauge in the bottom middle. Some had what was called a cigar lighter (probably mostly cigarettes)...it was in the upper middle.
There were knobs on the bottom and a couple of little swithches on the very bottom, almost underneath.
Main differences on the 37 versus the 38 were the 2 hood hinges in 37 (like todays cars) versus the piano hinge from '38 on. Another major difference was the lack of a rain gutter over the doors on the '37...they all had the gutter from 38 on up.. Running boards were standard in 37 & 38, but they must have been removed here. '37 &38 were also
the biggest production years for Willys. g-willys

 

A chassis ans some spare fenders.......looong gone...but at some point, part of the willys graveyard. g-willys

 

Some lucky person got to buy a complete,1940 440 Deluxe Sedan last October that was sitting in a garage in the SF Bay area since the early '70s for $1,000!

Messaged the seller just a few hours after posting offering more but they told me they had a buyer already.. Two days later, the ad was finally taken down! Wish I acted sooner, haunts me every day.. Had my truck & trailer ready and was ready for the 12+ hour round trip.

Wonder if the lucky buyer was a HAMBer? (Hope it at least was, would hate to see a nice original example like it turned into another billet barge or faux "gasser").

 

More 37 from TrailerEd

 

Man i could really use those fenders right now for my ‘40 pickup!
They look nice too!

 

Yes, that's what she started out like. It was a true one owner car. I got the original title, and every personal property tax reciept from new until I bought it with it.

 

Man i could really use those fenders right now for my ‘40 pickup
When I built my pickup, the metal strip guy just went out of business...I bought glass 41 fenders until I could get the steel ones dipped...no one ever knew I had glass on there...did have a steel hood with the glass fenders. g-willys

 

I've owned and found 7 Willys coupes, but I've only built 2, and sold the other 5 to pay for my car hobby. The first one was driven as a stock Willys, 4 banger and all. It came from Northern Wisconsin. It was a 40 coupe Deluxe, and I bought it 1960, and drove it for 2 years (summer & winter) in and around Duluth/Superior, before turning it into a race car. That would be like buying a 1997 car in 2017. Wish I had more pictures of it, but back then I didn't have a cell phone. I had so much fun with that car as a stocker. As a race car it always had something go wrong, but that too was a good learning experience. The picture shows the coupe without the motor, so the front end was even higher I had a race partner and he put the motor in a 37 chev, and we stored the coupe until I sold it through my race partner in 1969.
g-willys Car still exists and there is a story about that on the HAMB.

 

Before doing my next coupe (the one I currently own and drive) built in 1997...let's see how good you eyes are.
What do you see off in the distance along side that brown house? Don't look at the other picture just yet.

 

This car is still around and these pics. are 25 years old. And he still won't sell.

 

A Willy's thread wouldn't be complete without my friend Gene Cromers coupe,"The Moonlighter". HRP

 

I like the headlight trim pieces. They are probably cheap to build, nice and lite, if you don't use the original pot metal piece. Way better than the Ford style or universal seal beam ad on set ups that many of the old coupes chose to run...yes I know, the early rules said the headlights had to be functional...but they didn't fit the style of the car.
g-willys

 

I have a body for one of those. It’s in great shape too.
Andrew

 

I had one chance to buy a 40 coupe when I was 18, a local farmer had an old gasser in his shed, it was yellow with blue tinted windows, no drive train but other wise complete and in great shape. He wanted $1000, which was $990 more then I had, I went back a few years ago just in case he still had it, of course it was long gone.

 

I used to sit in the race car as a teenager and dream. Was fortunate enough to purchase it in 2000

The stock 38 is my driver having purchased it maybe 14 - 16 years ago.

Big fan of all years 33-42