Projects 41 All Steel Willys Gasser - Ex Elverne Pfeifer car

We do not plan on racing it much. However, we are planning on participating in the Hot Rod of the Year event at this year's Indy Goodguys. We will be driving it the 100 miles around Indy and make a pass in it at Muncie dragway. If you attend the event be sure to say hello to us.

 

September was a very busy month. As you can see in earlier posts, we had the Willys at the US Nationals in Indy in September, Shades of the Past in TN as well. Here are a few pictures of it in Xenia, OH at Kilcare Raceway set up with the Lo Man Rods booth. We took the Willys and our 32 Studebaker Rockne to the show.

 

Next we also took the car to the Indy Goodguys show and participated in the Hot Rod of the Year event and drove the car over 200+ miles and quite a bit of rain that day! With skinny tires up front and slicks on the back, it was quite a ride. Yet, no one should ever say that this car is a trailer queen. We participated in the entire event and didn't stop even with terrible rain coming down multiple times. All that did the event had a great time and it was terrific to meet many great people during the weekend that participated. Attached are a few pictures from this event. I took a few of these from other posts that others had taken from the event. If anyone has any other pictures of the car during this event, I would love to have more.

The first stop we made was behind some guys house which was very impressive and was like a 50's town complete with movie theater, 50's diner that we had lunch in, barber shop and more. It was part of the best parts of the trip. It began to rain here and everyone packed up and got on the road to Muncie Dragway to try to beat the rain storms.

 

After we left our first stop we then all drove to Muncie. We hit some patches of rain and wet roads but nothing too bad at this point. By the time I made it up to the track, I was able to do a burn out and pull up to the lights and the rain began. I was told that they were going to shut it down and to go slow down the track. It didn't matter anyways since during my burnout, I blew off some of the covers for my injection and it began to suck them in the injection and began to not run right. Therefore, I never did get to make a good pass due to the rain and not running right. I got back to the staging lanes, pulled the covers off and it cleared right up. The storms were coming in quickly at this point and we all took off toward the rain.

These pictures were taken from another post that Kirk (used to be with Goodguys) had taken. Thanks for the pics!

 

We then had a 75+ mile trip back to the track for the final stop of the day. We drove a lot of it through the rain and sometimes very hard rain where, Mac Nicewander with Lo Man Rods (who was riding with me) was wiping the front windshield being fogged up and I am trying to just look and keep it in between the white lines. This was the part of the trip that was not enjoyable. Yet, we kept going through it on the highway and made it safely back to the 500 track. We then had to drive around the track one time and was able to call it a day.

In all we stopped 4 times for fuel during the 200 mile event and spent over $150 in fuel. The next day, we tried to clean the car for the most part and get it out to the track again with the other contenders. Needless to say, it was destroyed underneath the car and took me two days to clean when we returned to get it ready for Baltimore and the Rodders Journal event the following weekend. Here are a few other pics from the event.

The car won the "Period Perfect" award that weekend. Thanks Brandon

 

We ended up the month in Baltimore at the Rodders Journal event. It was a beautiful drive through the hills and mountainous area from Ohio to MD especially for the time of year. We again drove the a ton the whole weekend and participated in each event that they put on. Thanks Curt and Steve for putting on a great event and a chance to use the car multiple times and experience different areas.

That Thursday night we drove the Willys and another Lo Man Rods car down to Fells Point downtown. It was on cobblestone streets along the water. Very cool area especially cruising in the Willys at night. With the sound of the car and open zoomie headers cruising through the tight streets, we unfortunately set off several car alarms. I am sure the locals may not have appreciated it, but it sounded cool and it was a great evening.

 

The next day, we drove beautiful backroads to Havre de Grace. Nothing is better than seeing several hundred hot rods, customs etc. driving together and going down the road. We got on the highway and drove back to get back quicker. Heck, what's 100 miles on a beautiful day in a loud Willys (wearing earplugs of course) compared to 200+ miles in a lot of rain? Easy!

I will try to post several pics of this day.

 

Here are just a few pictures at the show on Saturday.

For those that we met this summer, it was great to meet you. We hope you liked the car that we spent 3 years to build and some of the history that we were able to share. We hope that a few magazines will tell the whole story in the near future. We put over 500 miles on the car alone during September and 3 of the shows that we attended.

For those that like the build, thank you for the compliments.

 

great build ,.one NICE WILLYS

 

Looking real good. Glad to see all the hard work is paying off.

 

Here is a link to Hotrodhotline where the car is listed if you know anyone that has an interest. I do not need to sell the car and do not care if it doesn't sell. So please do not lowball me on any offers or complain that the price is too high. It would take that much and more to build this car let alone find a body like this one has to start with.

http://www.hotrodhotline.com/classifieds/classifieds.php?a=2&b=47636

 

Cool thread & a nice car.
P.S. How'd you find the rear tires in the rain?

 

It definitely wasn't fun. The car goes straight, but mix in ruts in the road and a lot of water filling them it is not that fun. I was white knuckled a few times when I couldn't see the road very well except for the white lines and the rain coming down really hard. We just slowed down when it got really bad. This was all on the highway also so we couldn't slow down too much. When it is just raining and wet, it drove just fine. I was just nervous about hydroplaning.

 

Took the car for a spin today before it gets too cold out. Tim Robbins, with Lo Man Rods came over and we have some good video with the GoPro. We are hoping that it got some of our burnouts on the road. We have a lot of new pictures of the car on the back roads near us. Hope to post some of them soon when they are ready.

 

Here are some shots from this weekend from a drive we had. Tim Robbins with Lo Man Rods was the photographer.

 

After many conversations over the past 2 years, it was great to finally meet Elverne Pfeifer's son, Kerry today. He made a visit to see the Willys and hopefully bring back memories from his childhood. It was great to spend time and share stories about our fathers and their cars.

We took a ride in the Willys and enjoyed a few burnouts and spinning of the tires!

Thanks to Kerry for bringing the original 1964 NHRA trophy for "Best Engineered Car" presented by Hot Rod Magazine. Attached are some of the pictures with Kerry and I along with the trophy now reunited with the car.

It was a great day of sharing stories, riding in the Willys, and showing him the car.

Thanks Kerry!

 

That was a good thing you did for him.

 

I sold my 36 Willys sedan to a Erik Bothe from Kenosha Wisc. in 1984 I drove the car to Youngstown Ohio and he flew in, he liked the car and drove it back to Kenosha. He had a 33 Willys coupe with a hemi in it and wanted something a bit more drivable. Could Erik be a relative to Kent Bothe who was involved with this Pfeifer Willys. I know Erik sold the sedan and I also heard he passed away many years ago. I just think its an interesting coincidence.

Pat

 

Kevin, did you end up selling this car?Nice build thread.

 

I sold it for about a year and a half. I bought it back over a year ago.

 

wow kevin, I couldn't have sold it, and im glad ya bought it back! hope to see it again, any plans for any shows this year?

 

We will definitely have the Willys in Columbus and potentially a few more shows. I will have my new roadster done this year so I will be driving it a lot and may have both cars at a few shows. You can see my roadster build, a lot of the Willys and other rides on my Instagram at @opposingcylinders.

 

So Kevin, have you ever talked to anyone who remembers it actually having the caddy motor in it?

 

Yes. I also have a lot of documentation of the car through it’s stages. I also built a great friendship with Kerry Pfeifer, Elverne Pfeifer’s son.

 

I also have the original 1964 NHRA Best Engineered trophy, the original moon caps Pfeifer ran on the car for a while. The Pfeifer family was also gracious enough to give me Elverne’s original race helmet he wore in the car.

 

That's great history.I'll bet he's smiling down.Do you know the induction he ran with the Caddy?

 

I don’t recall. I’m sure I have documentation some where or it lists it in one of the magazines.

 

If I'm correct I can fill in a piece of the puzzle here. I think he was running the hilborn injection that's sat in my workshop. I have written off to hilborn and they came back with the original bill of sale with Als name on it.
Here is a link to my original post here on the Hamb where I was trying to find out more history about him:

Looking for information on an old speed shop in Wisconsin.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...n-on-an-old-speed-shop-in-Wisconsin..1154656/

Thanks,
Jim

 

That's too Cool...