Projects Gene (Moonlighter) Cromer's A/G Willys Resurrection

If you're Jones'in For some Gasser Stuff, there's A COOL Video of Donovan Stott's Anglia on Youtube! if I'm not mistaken, he beat Quains Willys ??? Chris

 

Well, it's all done now. In six short months, a bunch of rusty old parts and pieces have become a drop dead gorgeous race car once again. Lot's of good folks and family can be proud of this huge accomplishment. I'm sure you are all just basking in the "glow" right now. Gene must be in seventh heaven. This thread has provided a lot of enjoyment for us "internet folks" that were too far away to come & help out. I hope some of you Anderson area folks will keep us posted on the upcoming activites of Gene & The Moonlighter. My wife & me would love too meet Gene & the car in person. She really doesn't do the internet forum thing, but has enjoyed it all looking at the pics and video's on my computer screen. She banged a four speed to a lot of local stock eliminator victories herself back in 1973-1975, but sadly can't even ride in a car for more than an hour or two trip anymore. Hope the Moonlighter can get close enough to us in it's future journeys, that she can see the car & give Gene a big ole' hug. --- Thanks for the Memories --- Steve & Patricia ---

 

I did some digging, came up with this....hopefully it's the vid referred to in post #1749 above??

Donovan Stott Gasser Race in White Trash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PZV2mPut7o

then shortly after found this one...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFoAlO9pDk4

 

Thanks pretty neat video. Looks like he put it on Quain or Quain being a good guy and uncle??

 

I finally finished editing and processing the photos I took Saturday at Greer. Now have posted individual pictures of the gassers that took part.

Go here to see them all http://smu.gs/176gU5z

 

Saturday was a wonderful day for a lot of reasons. One of the things that I was anxious to see was Donovan's debut in the wicked little Anglia. Donovan has no fear and did a great job, just like I knew he would! I know Quain and Mitch were very proud of him. Quain and I talked for a long time today at the shop about everything that has transpired over the last few months. It was a wonderful experience and Quain just smiled when I told him that he may have finally met his match in Donovan!

 

Donovan launch


Second gear


race face

 

Donovan may have won the race, but Quain put on a show for the fans and had them cheering. He did a good job keeping it between the walls.

 

Quain's 406 sounds really potent. Makes me wonder if that 327 CI on Donovan's hood may be a bit of an understatement. --- Steve ---

 

Don't get me wrong but this thread is getting off track. HRP

 

I think we all agree there was an amazing amount of work done here in just a short period of time...quality work too, by some of the best.
Just for curiousity I asked Gene how long it took him to build it the first time.
" I dont really know. I got mad at it and pushed it outside, and built a '55 Chevy and raced it for a year before I ever staarted back on it. I just wanted to make sure everything was like I wanted it before I raced it".
Just a little tidbit of history.

 

I just spent my whole morning reading over this thread for the first time. My buddy John was telling me about it weeks ago. But this is a very touching story on one man's love and the help of some amazing friends. This is what A&E or Discovery or even Brian Darwas should be filming.... Just amazing.

Congrats Gene! Hope to catch up with you soon!

 

A little tidbit you left out, the 55 chevy was Ford powered!

 

Great pics, Seadog. Thanks for sharing them.

 

Frank,,the show is on the Saturday before Fathers day.

I doubt Quain will be at the Anderson Downtown car show he is scheduled to race at the X-Treme Gateway Showdown at Gateway Motorsports Park, St. Louis on June 14-15th. HRP

 

How in the Hell is talking about Gassers "off track" ??? Chris

 

HRP, or Frank can you give us a heads up when the moonlighter and Gene might be at another track. The more lead way would be good. That would give the ones traveling more time to make one. I'm already booked for Henderson. but I would love to see it under power at a track. With its value now and history a full throttle pass might be questionable...

Charlotte Goodguys in the fall might be a good show for it. It is the following weekend. The Jim Kirby challenger car was there last year.

 

I'll be happy to let you know of anything in the future,,as it stands now the only thing I know about is the Downtown show,Genes looking forward to this show. HRP

 

Gene went to the trouble of polishing the crank and rods, porting the heads & installing oversize valves. This hints at a future full power pass to me. --- Steve ---

 

i know its a ton of work, but would love to see the willys at bowling green. i would help in anyway to get it there.and help with it at the track. great to see it up and running!

 

Just so every body knows Gene is planning to make a few passes in the car and has been from the start (The family and I have been trying to talk him out of it with no luck) That's the reason I added a new roll cage new latter bar mounts and that sort of stuff. Anyway at one point I was asked to make the first test pass in it and I said no way. If something happened and I crashed I would be known for the rest of my life as the one who destroyed the Moonlighter if Gene hits something it will just be more history. I don't know when or where this will be but I do know that there is a big gasser race coming up in Knoxville Tn. June 22 and he has already got gas money.

 

Chris,,I have nothing against talking about gassers but since this thread has been dedicated to "The Moonlighter" resurrection and nothing but it seems changing direction and discussing other cars instead of "The Moonlighter" just strikes me as off track.,,JMHO. HRP

 

If there are others that wish to order "The return of the Moonlighter" T-Shirts it would be good if you could go ahead and process your orders. I will talk with Gene tonight and decide just how long we will continue the internet sales. I believe that Gene plans to have some with him on his future track visits.

Thanks so much to all of the people that have ordered or purchased them to date.

As a rule of thumb, we order and ship on Fridays. So if you send your order in today, I will place my order with Fred Dobbins for your shirt tomorrow and it will be shipped to you next Friday.

Shipping seems to be pretty fast. Had several different orders sent to Califormia on Friday and recieved in California on Monday.

 

Gene probably suprised a lot of us when he demonstrated that he still had his engine building skills. Who knows, he may still have his driving skills as well. There are a handful of guys Gene's age that can still handle fast drag cars. He will still remain a ledgend no matter what. I hope the Moonlighter ends up in a museum somewhere out in the future. It is definitely deserving. --- Steve ---

 

Turned out perfect! One more stompin', snortin' Willys reborn.

 

Daggonnit, I work industrial construction which means I'm on the road alot, I was in Jesup Ga last weekend when Gene and all were at Anderson, quit that job to come home and handle business, now I'm 50 mi from Kville but gotta leave next week for PA. Be there for at least 3 weeks. Maybe one day our schedules will mesh and i can at least see it static, maybe meet Gene, a real pass with Gene in the seat would be better, who knows? Thanks to all who made this thing come together, I've enjoyed checking every day for updates and been amazed how fast it went from a pile of parts to a resurrected, period correct, absolutely stunning real racecar!

 

You local guys that get by Gene's shop sometimes .... be on the lookout for telltale signs. Moonlighter's rear tires looking furry, big black marks on the driveway, helment in the seat etc ... could be signs he's about ready to go raise hell with it somewhere ... lol --- Steve ---

 

No doubt. Black marks in the driveway will be in the near future. This is where Gene always tuned the Willys suspension.

 

I hope the folks from Anderson are more forgiving than here. I used to "chassis tune" on my driveway on Saturday afternoons before towing to the strip. The cops showed up after a few weekends & made me stop. Said they had noise & smoke complaints from the neighbors. --- Steve ---

 

Arrived home from vacation last night and just chilled(put almost 3000 miles on the old truck). This morning saw the updates with more stories and pics. May be a long summer without the dailies of this build, but as long as I get a 'fix' once in a while all will be OK. Thanks to all for sharing, Carp