Features 1937 to 1942 Willys Picture Thread

The first pic has the quality of a painting or art rendering.
Very cool stuff here.

 

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These are before and after pictures. Two years ago at the Syracuse nationals, I met the man who found, built and raced the truck. This truck was raced in western NY. My dad bought the truck in early 80's after its racing career. It was candy red with a 318 mopar. My dad started to rebuild it with a smallblock chevy. He later sold it around 1988 as a project truck. I have not seen it since. I would love to get it back in the family.

 

Ron got pics of the truck ?

 

Found these in other threads here in the HAMB.

 

That's my pics .

 

kQQl stuff Raceful any more ?

 

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St. Louie GatewaY We Haul Special

 

Rocky, the red coupe is my dad @ Lakeland Tenn. dragstrip in 1962. Yes I have some more pics and lots of stories.

 

Look Forward to seeing the photos and hearing the stories.
Paul.

 

Cant wait Raceful.... always hungry for more stories !!! and of course we all no how many words a picture is worth. a thousand for regular stuff..... a kQQl mill. for willys shots ! looking forward to them ...

 

hey 33 any more pics on that truck or some history ? never seen that shot b4 thanks...

 

Hey Gasserguys just want to wish everyone of you and your family Happy New Years and thank you all for a year of sharing great pictures and a wealth of historical information with me and each other... Finally a place that the our knowledge will be documented and live on forever for future generations to come... and know what a wonder life they have missed out on as times keep changing.......... peace out kQQl daddyo,s

 

Sorry rocky its just one of to many photos I have....(LOL)
Happy New Year to everyone.
Paul.

 

Happy New Year everyone in the Willys World !

 

Going thru my pictures and found these.

 

Some of you my already know Bob Mohler from Yucca Valley CA,
he is the owner of the Blue & white ex- Jack Merkle willys,
(see it in these photos) he sent this the other day and said it was OK to shear with you guys, take no notes of the numbers I think I mix them up ( My Bad ).
Paul.

Here's some 50 year old B&W Gasser Photos taken by Gene Eckert of New Jersey.
I met Gene at the LIONS Dragstrip 40th Reunion celebration at the NHRA Museum
in Pomona earlier this month.


Gene is a Willys Gasser fan and flew out from New Jersey this month for the Lions event.
He sat near me and my friend Jerry and found that my '40 Coupe was an ex-Jack Merkle Racing Team
Car (owned & raced by Bill Boer). Gene is a personal friend of Jack Merkle, which should
be of interest to John & Jack Olcott (of PA), and Guido Coldwell (SoCal), who were
also previous owners of the Bill Boar (Merkle) B/Gasser prior to my acquisition.


Thanks Gene for these historic old race photos!



Bob Mohler

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hi Bob[/FONT]

Got a group of pics for you. Sorry these are in B&W, but when I took them over 50 years ago that was what I could afford with my little Brownie.

I can supply a little info about each of them.

• 04 & 05- These are from 1964 at Indy Nationals. That's Jack Merkel's car. He beat Jerry Mallicoat for the class trophy that year.
• 06 & 07- The shots 06 through 15 are from Westhampton Dragway way out on the end of Long Island in 1963, These are two of the more reknown gassers that ran out of Jacks shop in Queens NY. 06 is Coney Island Ralph Landolfi who ran a record setting B Gasser. 07 is Vinnie Tarantola who owned Power Shift Hydros (Vitar) who in 64&65 was Nat'l C/GS national champ and record holder. Vinnie sold me my first Stick Hydro for my 55 Chevy street car and then race car.
• 08 & 10 are Eddie Sanzo's first Willys gasser. Was an A/G very competitive car with a 377cu in small block, ran on or around nat'l record
• 09,11,12 & 13. I forget who they were, but ran out of Jacks shop
• 14 & 15- give you idea of what racing was in those days. NO guard rails, standing on the track as they ran, no idea that anything could happen. Man, that was fun
• 16, 17 18- Some of Indy in 1964. 16 and 18 are from the tech inspection that used to be done at a local supermarket parking lot in Claremont, IN, about 2 miles from the track. That's Big John's car & Jeg Coughlin's car. 17 is Jerry Mallicoats's car at the track in the staging lanes

Got lots more to send as soon as I scan them.
Thanks for the Mooneyes pics, they were great.
Hope the holidays are enjoyable

Regards, Gene Eckert.

 

Nice job Paul

 

Just a little info on some up dates I hope to get completed this winter on the 41.
Put in the new Richmond 5 speed that I bought allmost 2 years ago.
Install Street/ Nostalgia motor I'm gathering new parts for (new cam,timing chain,oil pump,aluminum heads,etc.,etc.)last couple of afternoons in the basement cleaning up old Eelco oil pan thats been hanging in the attic 20 years.
Best of all (I think), putting on a Chromed nostalgia 471 Cragar blower setup. I had a 471 on my first Willys 45 years ago. That one had the triple V-belt drive. This one has the 2 inch Gilmer belt drive.
My .02 Cents worth for now.

 

My Dad Carlton Franks beats Vinny Tarantola, the record holder @ U S Nationals Indy in 1963, first year of the Christmas Tree. He ran the C/GS class final off with Moody & Jones.

 

My Dad Carlton Franks with the Willys Coupe on top racing @ Jake's Dragstrip in Moulton, Al. April 1963.

 

hey Raceful that last pic was awesome looks like dual 5,s and willys? what a way to show up !

 

The coupe was my dad's , the rest were other racers from our area, maybe gas prices in 63 I think, 19 cents, made them pool resources for fuel, who knows, I was 5, but never missed a race!, By the way, I still have the fiberglass hood from the photo in the Indy pic, still the same color and lettering. Good Memories...

 

Olds powered ....wanye arteaga,s sedan

 

.. Ks, ARTEAGA, AND COOKIE

 

Deliver to my house please

 

Here's a updated pic of mine,ditched the sidepipes installed by the previous owner,added some dump tubes and repaired the lower front fenders..and some vintage shots when it was being built into a streetrod the late '70's..