1929 Willys 3 window Hemi powered Whippet

Well I have been making slow progress on the Whippet but am going forward. I'm running mostly cool old stuff from 1964 and older. The rear end is the newest part which is a Full szed truck rear end and look how close the tires fit I never knew how wide the Whippets were until trying to find a rear end that would fit. Anyway if you have ever worked on a Model A, you should feel lucky!! Ford parts are easy to find. Whippet parts are scarce as all hell!!!! Also the wood in a Model A is like a twig from a tree compared to the whole tree in a Whippet.
I'm not complaining one bit as its probably the only 3 window Willys Whippet hotrod in existence. LOL!
So here are some progress pictures.


This is the day I saw it and bought it. It came from Montana and the guy I bought it from had it sitting in his one of his garages for 10 years. Not one body panel lined up as all the wood was gone.




Everything was just wired together to hold the car together.




Installed a bunch of bracing to start lining up panels.




Chopped a Whopping 3" which on a Whippet gave me a legal 6" windshield.


What better than running a Hemi. This one I bought of the guy that sold me the Whippet as a package deal. 1952 Desoto 276 from carb to pan.


Stripping the body down to my vision of a Hotrod Whippet.






The roof that was on the Whippet was pretty much non existent due to rust from having a Naugahyde

 

I believe the roof I used was a 1929 Chevrolet and after a couple cuts and widening 1 1/4" andhaving to infill a 4" filler behind the door an raising the window opening on the back, it looks like it always beloned on the car.




The was no deck lid either so I decided to make one as like I said, Whippets are a bitch to find parts for.




Made a new gutter from 1" square tubing and my vice.






Look how wide the trunk is on a Whippet. I believe its 44".




Had to get tires and rims to see how it will look as a roller. Pretty cool!


This is the front end that I chose. I will be using it and will make it so I can swap a different front end easy enough if I don't like it when its on the road. The problem is that I'm using a 1940 Ford front end with the spring in the stock location. This is where a Model A grill would fit or a 32 shell etc. So it limits the front that I can use. If I mount the grill in front of the spring, then the gap to the fan is like 8" away.
Also I picked up a different 1940 spring that is 2" lower and replaced the broken shackles. After the weight of the Hemi was installed, the spring isn't frowning so much. It looks alot better as its now at least 6" lower than the picture. I'll have more pictures in a couple days.

Edit: The grill is off and gone for good!!!!! I like the new one way better!!!!

 

Man, I like that car. It is looking good. I would like to see mor epics of it. But I am not sure if you have the right grill for it.

 

That is going to be one great car when you finish it! I must agree on the grill though.....a little out of place. Good luck with the build! btw, LOVE the Hemi!

 

So now its time to build the Hemi. I tore it apart and basically it just needed re ringed and new bearings. The bearings were in good shape but figured a new set is cheap enough. The pistons were a bit worn but the bores were good for just a rehone.






EBay has been a killer resource for original 58 year old brand new parts. These pistons are 1952 New old stock . Got em for $160 with pins!!






I redid the heads also myself with all new valves, springs, seals etc. All new 1952 vintage parts. The valves were also an Ebay item. I picked up all the original valves for just over $30 .








This is an old vintage Water alcohol injection set up that I will be running. I have never seen one this old. This is for 1933-1953 Holley /Stromberg set up but I will modify the factory 4 bbl carb to use this.




Instead of just an oval exit out the tail pipe, I like to slash them. Just gives it a better custom look. Came up with this myself on my bike.

This is going to be my gas pedal. Its an old Ludwig drum pedal. Love what the name of it is. Speed king!!!

 

veryyyyy nice i love the route your going with the car!!!! impressive

i feel the same grill just isnt working for me

 

1953 Caddy air cleaner.


The headers are actually block hugger headers that were from a 331-392 Hemi that I modified by flipping them upside down and then welding a new flange on them.




The bottle is a very rare Water Alchohol injection unit made by Almquist back in 1951!!!





1956 Oldsmobile gauge cluster.

 

Very cool! I dont mind the grille. Love the speed king kick pedal. Nice work.

 

im gonna have to say that grill just is off.... and whats up with the spring in front??

 

This is how tight a full size Ford truck rear end fits in a Whippet. Nice and tight.



Trying my new skill. hammer welding the center section into the roof.


Made my own gutter as when you live in the NW, you need gutters!!!




The steering wheel is from a Vintage boat and will be polished up and painted gold with the ribs high lighted.







The brakes are a different set up that I came up with, most Hotrods dont have power brakes but this one will have them. Just as it will also have power steering as the 1957 Imperial 12 volt generator has the pump on the back side so I figured, why not use it as Im also using a smaller wheel and have shoulder and elbow problems already. I want to drive and put alot of miles on my car and not have to wrestle into parking spots.

So here is the brake set up.








Everything hidden under the dash and even the speedo cable misses the booster and the cowl door lever functions perfectly with this set up.
The swinging pedals are from a 30s vintage truck or car. The steering column is a 1951 Chevy column.

More pictures to come.

 

This is my first Hot rod and I have never done anything even remote to this. Everything that I have done or made work is stuff that is a first.
I still have work to do on the grill. I'm going to extend it and rework the Cab over lights.
The thing I like about this stuff is that anything goes and if it doesn't quite look right, it just takes a little more creativity. But, like I said, we'll see on the grill.

 

Thats the problem. Its a stock 1940 Front end with split bones and the spring horns relocated. The spring has reverse eyes and the axle has a 4" drop.
The springs on the front of the Axle were stock for many years.
I didn't realize how the spring makes grills a real pain, thats why I tried this grill shell. And besides, if I shoved a Model A grill or a 32 grill on it , it would look just like 95% of the other 1929s out there.
I'll work on the grill shell.

 

Dont change it! I like the grille.

 

Very well put, and thanks for the updates. That will be such a unique car, when it's done, keep up the great work.

 

Thanks for the compliments and the opinions.
Nothing is worse than having something not look right on a car. I have a pretty good eye for what looks out of place. The grill has always been one of those questionable "do I like it, do I hate it, can I make it work" items. I'm not done with it yet as I just don't want to be a cookie cutter builder. I have about 10 grills hanging on the wall but none fit over the stock front spring and when I set them back, theres no room for the fan or radiator and when I set them in front of the spring, they look way out of place. Fricking 1940 Ford springs!! LOL!! Anyway, I'm not giving up on the grill yet, I have some tricks up my sleeve to make it flow better and not look like all the other 1929s out there.

 

Nice work keep us posted!

I'm not a fan of the grill but I dont have any ideas for you

 

So here's a picture of the dilemma. If you look at the depth of the grill, it has to be this deep as the cross member that holds the front spring perch is just in front of the radiator, and in front of the cross member is the spring perch and spring. Theres like 9" of obstructions that need to be covered.
So there is no where to run a thin grill shell like a Model A, Model B or anything similar. Running the stock 1940 front end with the spring in front of the axle makes for very tight quarters even just for the radiator. So I needed to come up with a grill that would span to the front spring. I have thought about what to do with the set up from day one. I think that the lights and how the shell just ends makes it look more out of place than it would if the lights were changed and the shell coming down, taperingback in a bit. I also have a Terraplane grill that may work but............

 

hell the grille setup looks fine! as long as you don't freeze to death this winter the spring should yield some fun road time.

 

Got the Hot tub working and I have heat in the shop. Life is good!
I spent all day setting up the split wishbones and rear links. I had to heat and bend the spring horns on the front wishbones and installed the new shackles, I had to heat and bend them a few times to get the correct geometry between the spring eye and the horn but thats one more thing off the list!!!.
I raised the rear links as they use to sit in the original spring perches under the frame. They just sat too low so I raised them to the middle of the frame. I still need to weld in some gussets to prevent the frame from squeezing in where the bolts o through and connect to the links .

 

you can get a WAY less arched spring, also you could put the spring behind the axle on the bones, or above the axle.

 

I love the rod, man! Unique, and kind of east coast-style. The interior details are great, too!

 

I tried finding a spring that would fit the stock axle. No sizes that I could find would fit for an above axle install. The spring I have is less arch and reverse eyes. The picture shown has no engine weight and doesnt have the new spring installed.

Not a real big fan of the spring behind the axle with a very heavy Hemi supported by the hollow tube of the wishbones. Theres lots of ways to do the spring but I chose to use the stock set up . The new reverse eye spring with 2" less arc was a cheap $20 item which like I said dropped the front and made 100 % difference in the stance.
I picked up some cool black with white pipe Bugeye sprite seats recently that need to be re upholstered. I'll soon be working on the floor and have pictures of the seats.

 

The 90 degree brake bracket will be taken off and cleaned up as I just cut it off the frame as it would have hung down below the frame or I'd have a 3" bump right at my feet. I cut it off and was looking for a place to fit it. When I shoved it up in the dash, there were two bolts sticking in from the engine compartment that held the coil bracket. I looked on the brake bracket and the two holes that were left looked close so I shoved it on the two bolts from the coil and low and behold, the bracket slipped right on. The weird thing was that the two holes were factory 1929 holes
that fit the old coil bracket from a newer 12 volt set up and then the 90 degree brake set up. It was like it was planned.

 

lets see pics of the Terraplane grille as well for consideration PLEASE!! cool car

 

I'ts hanging in the barn and will need some modifying. Its way long and also needs a bit of finessing to work. Once I get the car driving and out of the shop, thats when I can actually look at the car from a distance and change things up a bit.

 

looks good, i like it!

 

Now that you mention the east coast look, I can sort of see it. The roof looks high like almost unchopped from the side. The funny thing is, the front window is 6" high and my buddy who is 6'4 and 300 lbs, sat in it and had a couple inches of headroom. Thats with a 4" channel also.

 

Decided to go with a T5 5 speed instead of the automatic as it won't take as much HP to go through and will now have an overdrive. So here's the big bucks swap from an auto to 5 speed progress. I had to flip the Hot Heads adapter, redrill a few holes, reverse the indexing dowels and then replace the flexplate to this custom steel flywheel with pilot bushing as part of the flywheel.


Pressure plate and clutch installed


I will be making my own shifter but here it is in place and all bolted up!!!!


The transmission is set at a 17% angle that GM did and so to simplify things, I set it the same way with the bellhousing that was made for it. The actual transmission bolts to the bellhousing that has the holes at this angle. All the T5s can be mounted straight up if using a standard Bellhousing but then you would have to build a 17% wedge for the transmission mount.
I had to grind the splines off the input shaft a 1/4" so that the pilot bearing wouldn't get knocked out of the flywheel. I also had to make a few relief grooves in the bell housing to clear the adapter bolts. Other than that it worked out great.

 

looks good buddy anymore progress

 

So finally after getting the driveline all in and hooked up I stated working on the body again. I welded up the roof to the body, welded the cut where the window was raised, welded the 1 1/2" seam to widen the roof to fit the Whippet. I also added a lower panel below the trunk lid as the trunk lid I built went all the way down. I used a 1932 5 window panel and widened it 3", cut the edge and pie cut 0-1/4" to make it line up correctly with the actual body. The repop piece was super cheap and wasn't made very good but it was a good start. It looks 100% better than the trunk going all the way down .












I'm also working on the floor structure and modified a Ford truck fuel tank to fit quarter turn on top of the kick up behind the seat.
Sorry for the cloudy pictures. The air was getting thick with grinding dust!! Cough cough!!
Still lots to go but I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel!!! Its just a small sliver of light but light none the less!! LOL!!