Hot Rods Willys we have known !

Wow, some unbelievable nice hood and center section, there g-willys! And you say that one started out as a 38? Where's the fenders? Just as nice?

 

If anyone is interested I can speak to this coupe. I went to look at it a month ago. Took several photos. It's for sale on the H.A.M.B. in the classified section.

 

It had a '38 title that I got in Minnesota, when I sold it to go out east, and the fenders as I recall were decent...when my friend in St Louis got it, I am not sure what it had for a front clip...at least 3-4 years had elasped since I had sold it.
He knew it was mine, as the guy in Penn. had never changed the title over, and it was still in my name. You'll notice that as a drag car it had a 40 front end and grille, all fiberglass, and I know the rears were glass also...I don't know if he got the steel ones with it...I'll have to ask him. He no longer races it (says he doesn't want to crash a steel coupe), but the glass car he built looks just like the steel one, except that it has a '41 nose, and the steel coupe had a '40 nose (front and rear fenders, etc are glass on both cars. g-willys

 

Brought this home in about 1992...started twice on it before getting back to it and finishing the car last spring.
It Has a crate motor with the early TPI fuel injection. It was a nightmare to build...took me four years once I got going. Turned out very nice, but still breaking it in...only 600 mile on it. I really didn't know how much smaller the 33-36 Willys were in comparison to the 37-42 (and we know they were not big either)...I'll have more on this build later, but here are a couple pictures of it....g-willys

 

g-Willys your 36 is absolutely perfect.

 

GWillys, Good to see the early year Willys street rods. I appreciate all the Willys cars and trucks, not only the 37 to 42. Looks great. Here is a photo of the SWC car as a street rod. It covered many miles from 1972 thru 1980.

 

Spent many an hour looking out a Willys windschield...that looks like a cool ride. How many SWC cars were there?
I always loved when they got written up as Peble/Pulp/& Chef. There wern't very many street rod Willys coupes before 1980...most of them were race cars, and during the time frame you reference, Willys were cheap by today's standards.....
g-willys

 

Some Willys at the local yard a few years back.

 

GWillys, There were only two official Willys cars. The one I owned was first built in 1960/61, called Swindler II. It had the steel front end with the tube grille. It was initially driven by KS Pitman. It was wrecked in late 61 and re-bodied to look the same but this time with a Cal Automotive glass front end and 58 Ford mesh grille. Doug Cook was in the driver's seat for the 62 season. That is the car that I bought and eventually restored. A second much lighter car was built in 63, painted the same light blue with an Olds engine sporting a solid aluminum grille. It was called Swindler "A". At that point the first car became Swindler "B". The "A" was also wrecked. In 1964 the "A" car was outfitted with a Hemi and painted black (black widow). The track photographers hated the black car as it was hard to photo. In 1965 both cars were painted candy blue and by now both were Hemi powered. The Olds engine from the "B" car ended up in the Chuck Finders 33 Willys that carried the Stone, Woods and Cook name but was owned by Finders. The team was so popular that two cars were not enough to fill all the race requests. The "B" car was retired in late 65 and parts were sold or traded. The "A" car, with lower panels trimmed, was given a gold stripe and served as a match racer until about 1968. Ray Cook drove it mostly as Doug was driving the A/GS Mustang. This last Willys is the car that is owned by Mike Cook. It resides in the Hot Rod Museum. The Stone, Woods and Cook name was used on several cars until 1972 but they were owned by other individuals.

 

GWillys, here is the Pebble,Pulp and Chef tribute car done by Dennis Taylor. Got to meet him in Bakersfield. Neat guy.

 

Rich B.
Was that Windy Hills??? g-willys

 

French Lake

 

A friend of mine got a hood from there a few years back...most I ever got was a few bee stings. g-willys

 

Wow
Amen to that!

 

Here is one that sat at mechanic shop in Waseca Mn for decades.

 

33 Hemi & Frenchtown flyer... thanks for the kind words...I was lucky to have almost everything with this car, and the body was in great shape...only thing missing was the grille mesh...I found a good reproduction one many years ago, and was able to fit it better than I thought, when the time came.
Incidently the two tone stocker coupe on this page belongs to a friend of mine...he has had it now for many years. He wanted to make a gasser, but all his friends said don't touch it ...DRIVE IT, and he has. About 3 years ago he found another coupe, and is going to make that one into a hemi powered gasser. I first saw the red & white car some 20 + years ago, when it was brought to a Jeep restoration place in the twin cities for a brake job estimate. When told $300 for the brake job, he put it on a trailer and towed it home...I kept track of it for a while, but no deal. My friend caught him in a weak moment a few years later. It was missing a couple hub caps which I donated to the cause. g-willys

 

G-Willys ,I lived in Waseca and used to hang out at old Al Sharps. He would help a couple of us teenagers with our cars. I had wanted to own it since 1970. Very cool that it still exist like it was.

 

I looked on a map to see the location of Waseca, relative to the Jeep restoration shop which was in Farmington...so not too far out of the way. The restoration shop is gone now. The person that owns the car now lives between Hugo and Forest Lake...and we see him everywhere in the summer with it. I sure wanted it as well, but it didn't happen, however I have had several Willys, and currently have the two in my avitar (white '39 coupe, and a '36 sedan. Is Al Sharp the name of the guy who owned it?...did he drive it much? Nice to hear from you...bet you don't miss the snow and cold. g-willys

 

Here's a '35 Willys coupe at the swap meet at back to the 50's several years ago, it never sold...asking 13K.
It did end up out east however and I saw it somewhere in a streetrod magazine with the same coloration. What makes it a '35 is the tilt out front window...the last year they did that...my '36 has a fixed windschield.
g-willys

 

G-Willy the coupe sat on the corner of Al's parking lot of a three man mechanic shop. It would sit all winter , but every summer he would start it up and drive it home a few days for lunch.He lived about 8 blocks down the street.
Then it would get parked in the same spot until the next year.

 

Price Transfer Lions Dragstrip Museum set up days: June 20, 2017

Hey Joe,

Nice photos of the light blue Willys. When I was at the Price Transfer Lions Museum Grand Opening in June 24, 2017, I was able to talk to Mike Cook for some time. The Swindler 2 was there on the previous weeks getting ready for the opening displays. I was able to get some great shot in the prelim set up days. No one there to muddle up the background, etc.

It was a centerpiece of the Lions displays for that day/night. Mike Cook was very informative. His information on the Willys and other builds was enlightening. The whole museum event was awesome, from the live Cacklefest outside to the multiple car displays inside the Lions Dragstrip Wing of the whole Price Transfer Automobilia complex.

Jnaki
(It is closed, now, but hopes are for a rebuild and another opening for the general public, soon.)

 

Jnaki,
Wow, it still looks great. I had seen a few setup shots on line awhile ago. Rick Lorenzen was the right person to end up with the car. I always knew it would wind up in a Museum. As one person said it has returned home to the West Coast. Making it the centerpiece of the Lions display is right on. Very few Gassers made the impact the SWC team did while at Lions. I have several photos of the original steel front end. At one time I tried to get it from the Museum for a static display just like the one you show in your photos. The car looks right at home amid all those great Willys cars. It will always have a place in my heart.

 

I saw the red and white patina car at BTTF's a few years ago, and really love it. Glad the owner hasn't changed it yet.

Last summer I saw a subdued gray/green coupe at BTTF's that also blew my mind. The car looked like it must have been built from all NOS sheetmetal, the inside of the trunk was so clean.

G, I think that gray sedan of yours is a breath of fresh air. Looks so subtle and clean, and hope to see it up in Minneapolis this summer.

 

Hi Joe,
Nice photo of the SWC coupe. Here is another shot from the opposite direction than the film during the Lions Dragstrip Museum gathering. (The Swindler 2 and friend) The prelim set up days were excellent as there were a ton of drag racing industry people all over the place during the actual opening event.

Jnaki

The Swindler 2 and friend...

check your PM

 

These are some of my favorite shots by Dave Davis. This is 2009. It's the first time the cars were together since 1965.

 

Since the SWC cars are getting some attention thought I would pass along a few more shots from the 2009 Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield. The Stone, Woods and Cook team was given the Justice Brothers Award and here are some great photos from that event. Photos by Dave Davis.

 

Here's a radical '39 coupe at Tompson many years back...nicely done ,but a little over the top for me...g-willys

 

Hi Bill.......
Wondered how long it was going to be before you got around to the story on my/our car from the Canadian woods. Yes, it started life as a '38, but when I took possession of it in Pennsylvania, it had NO fenders, NO front end, and NO deck lid.....cherry picked by all of its previous "owners". It did however have a clear title, the doors and door garnish moldings, (even though the passenger door had been shot full of holes, and when shots didn't penetrate the door skin, it looked like a shotgun rifled slug was used). And from laying on its left side for all those years, the left quarter, roof pillar, and roof above the window opening on the driver's side looked like screen wire. Thanks to Jim Frank and Marcel, a full quarter panel was formed and eventually grafted in, along with a passenger door outer skin. A couple of L-O-N-G stories and a TON of money to 2 idiots who called themselves sheet metal specialists, the body came back to me......in worse shape than when they started. The first one removed the dash and the drip moldings and "lost track" of them. After 18 months of NOTHING being done with the car, I forced the door open on his "shop" and retrieved it. The second idiot refused the deck lid and rear fenders, and proceeded to "work" on the trunk floor and under deck lid panel. I get the car back after several thousand dollars, bring it home to continue on and find that he has SHORTENED the body by 3+ inches. Deck lid doesn't fit, fenders don't fit, and doors don't fit. After I cut the floor out of it that he bragged on as being "perfect" I invested in a wire feed Miller welder, and go after it myself, after a bunch of sleepless nights and extended discussions with wifey. NOTE......It's only sheetmetal......you can always cut it out and try again. Cardboard patterns and masking tape can be your best friend.

Lots of time and mig wire/gas later, it's starting to look like a Willys coupe. My projected 18 month project becomes an obsession. As you well know from multiple calls to you for parts and advice, the project becomes a roller that actually looks like a coupe. It's good enough to take to Denver in '94
for the inaugural Gasser Gathering (thanks Rob). This motivates me to continue, instead of giving up and selling it off.

A couple of years go by, the car becomes a gray primer racer/driver and I'm in 7th heaven. I can't tell you
how many times I was asked if it was the car from the movie "Hot Rod." Nope, just another Willys.

The car is ALL steel from the firewall back......deck lid from Dan Lau/Wisconsin. Rear fenders by me courtesy a pair of rears that were cut WWWAAAAYYYYYY high in the radius. My sheetmetal brake, shrinker/stretcher, and pieces from a couple of sedans (courtesy Tom Grasso/Nebraska) it's a "real" Willys.

The car has literally been from coast to coast and border to border. It was raced and street driven for 10+
years. We were the founders and continue to be the leaders of the Geezer Gassers, this car being the motivation. The car weighs 3900# and some change, and the blown Olds has pushed it to mid 10's before being retired. Its replacement is a 'glass car, Olds powered again. It's a dedicated drag car, weighs 3100# and has run a best 9.70 @ 138.

The steel car is pretty much unchanged from your pictures, except for a wheel change from aluminum
slots (poor man's Halibrands) to Pat O'Brien's Real Rodders Wheels.

A quick commercial and pat on the back........The Geezers were the FIRST and ONLY nostalgia gasser
program in the country for MANY years. We ran with Goodguys, NHRA, and countless other tracks
all over the country. The group has been invitees/participants @ the NHRA's California Reunion 3 times, and a 15 year participant @ Bowling Green since the first Midwest Reunion. We are trade marked and a registered LLC. There are now several "gasser" titled groups out there, but WE were the first, and
continue to be the basis and foundation for them. Have a look at their rules, regulations, "guidelines"
and operation.......in most cases, they have paraphrased and modified our guidelines to be their own
thing.

'Nuff said. If you would like info/help/direction/motivation, PM me. I'm currently helping a friend with his coupe resto. I have no secrets and don't charge for help or info. I have NO parts.

 

This is my favorite thread in a while