Willys Gasser build pics....from the 60's

Progress was slow at first as Dave worked at the Midas Muffler shop in Sacramento and money was tight. The project got kick started in Dec. '64 when his wife surprised him for Christmas with a complete Kellison Fiberglass Racing Kit consisting of a '41 glass nose, doors, trunk and rear fenders for the car.

The body was taken off and the frame was cleaned reworked and painted with no rust paint. Dave took the frame and boxed the front, and added his trademark oval lightening holes to the rear part. It was very time consuming as he would torch the holes, then drill and grind the holes into oval shapes, one at a time. Pontiac Olds rear with Ford Truck springs were added. More work to the body with firewall removed, floor work, etc.

By August '66 the body/frame were back together and he started to concentrate on getting the transmission and engine for the car.
(see pic with Dave's '61 Pontiac Ventura)

Stay tuned for the next installment!

 

More work continued into '66-'67. Here's the delivery of his tranny and 396 BBC engine for the Willys. The car would soon have one even coat of primer as it got closer to it's debut at Lions in '68.

 

Here's some shots of the engine mounts being made for the 396. Starting to get primer on the car here too.

 

It was sometime around '68 when the car was first put on the track. Note the primer finish, and steel wheels. The car would stay in primer through '72. Dave built the trailer from what he could find - there was no $$ to buy a car trailer so he managed to find an old boat trailer and stripped it, added wood and made do. First was a single axle, then later he added a second axle setup. He was working for the CHP by this time.

 

OK - got some more pics scanned....

Looks like the Willys was painted orange sometime in '73. The pics dated Dec. '73 show the progression from all steel wheels to first the American spindle mounts up front, then to the full magnesiums with the rear big windows added by Dec. Note decals are being run on the car by then as well. Also, the trailer was upgraded to a dual axle.

 

Awesome thread, If I could have a Willys in the garage I would

 

Wow that is cool. I love Willys coupes.

 

Picking up from the last install.....

The Willys was raced alot from '73-'75 or so. The Orange Plus name on the car appears in pics dating back to early '75. Dave received trophy for best appearing car - think this was at Irwindale Summer '75. Dave lowered the front of the car and the mph responded breaking over 140 MPH during this period.

 

More from mid 70's...good times. The audio tapes I have recordings from are from this timeframe..very COOL.

 

Here's neat pic from Antelope Valley Dragway from the 70's.

Another launch from Irwindale.

Nice shot of the Pete Jackson Injection setup.

Great shot of one of the elimination runs Dave made - this one I have recorded and is against a veteran racer in the Corvette running an injected HEMI mill. Very close race at the end...dave wasn't sure who won as he had the vette covered all the way down till the end when the vette came on hard. He saw the guy get out of his car afterwards, throwing his helmet in disgust - that's how Dave figured he'd won. Dave's quipped on the audio..."Sure hope we got that turkey". Priceless.

 

Nearing the end of an era....

This data sheet was how Dave kept track of his runs. Dated 1/14/76 - The car was bouncing quite a bit and found out that the shock had broken. Somehow they strapped the car down and kept running that day. I have recordings from this day as well. The car was a handful, bouncing wildly at times down the track before they were able to come up with this improptu fix of the shock problem. Runs were made not only by Dave, but some of his friends took a turn at the wheel as noted - he even made runs with a passenger a few times.

Later that year Dave was contemplating back-halfing the car with a Pro Street style racing chassis to go faster. Along came a deal for a late 50's Pro Gas Vette and the Orange Plus was sold to Bob Kinnan (spelling?).
Here are a few pics of Dave delivering the car in pieces to Bob.

I believe Bob sold the car to Kiwi Kev some years later.

 

I will tell you one thing....Thank you from the bottom of my heart....I was thinkin' of parting with some of my long time Gasser stuff,,,,'48 Anglia, '41 Stude coupe, '52 Henry J,....after seeing this thread....thinkin' bout what you must have thought when you got into your old rig again...the memories, the visuals,....I couldn't stand it...almost made me sick to my stomach....while I appreciate the fact it is still around, and in good shape-dang....I could never part with any of my stuff! Thank you Kevin...you saved me from your grave error! I know...you have another, and just as cool too I might add......but dang......that is like seeing a lost body part of yours again!!!!

 

Wow...how'd I miss this thread??? It rules!!!!

There's a Willy's not "too" far from my area that is VERY similar to this....only in black primer. The guy who owns it drives the HELL out of it....it's a wonderful thing....

 

WOW, wild, wild stuff for sure how could you not want one.

I second the earlier poster who said he wanted a copy of the pic of two willy's driving down the street, POSTER SIZE!

 

I posted a little while back about header baffles I had done for my 1930 model A pickup - which turned out awesome. Well for those that have fenderwell headers and want that open header look, I've found a great solution. Once again, Randy at Randy's Custom Headers in Corona, CA hooked me up with a set of the baddest looking header baffles and tips on the planet! These things are off the hook!!!



I had a couple of issues to consider when building these as I have an old set of fenderwell headers with unequal lengths where they hang and they are very close to the Kellison fiberglass (circa 1964) front end. So I needed rather short baffles, and wanted to make some kind of tips or turnouts to deflect the exhaust away from the headers and still look good.

I sent some sketches of ideas I had & Randy came up with the perfect solution.



After receiving the raw baffles and tips, we cut and clocked them to fit so they hang exactly the same distance from the ground. Randy finished welding the tips to the baffles and then had them coated in black. In just a few days I had the new coated baffles already wrapped in stainless packing material, gaskets, nuts, bolts, washers...ready to bolt on. The Willys has this badass sound with the open headers and the nasty motor anyways, but now with the baffles it's still got that nasty demeanor, only 40% quieter. Just enough to keep John-Law at bay.........

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Once again -THANKS Randy. If you need headers, baffles, etc. give Randy a call, this guy's really good and awesome to work with.

Randy Miller
Miller's Custom Headers
1203 W. 6th St. #33
Corona, CA 92882-1809
714-272-0499
951-898-1531

[email protected]

http://millerscustomheaders.com/

 

What an awesome post Kev! Thanks!


56xgasr.......nice addition to the thread.

 

Car sounds good, 55xgasr! Now it's up here in the NW, and will be turning heads!

 

Thank you ! for sharing !

 

Check out these Gennie Shifter Shift Knobs, called Huffer!

 

Holy crap I'm jealous...16 passes all in one day? Thanks for sharing all the info on the Orange Plus. Great story. Great history.

 

The Orange Plus will be spending time up here in The NW this summer and been fun taking around. Got the new baffle setup for the exhaust and sounds very wicked. Not much restriction which means LOUD, especially at 3500 rpm and above...but love it! First time out for any extended cruising was to the local cruise in here in Bremerton, WA in July. The car hadn't been on the road in at least 10 years so there were bound to be issues. The rad was blocked so ran pretty hot, and had a pesky oil leak coming from back of the intake. Redid the rad and lifted the intake and new gaskets/resealed and now good to go.

Next was able to make it out to Goodguys event at Puyallup, WA. with my ramp truck. Had it out front next to our booth there. Great fun talking and meeting alot of cool folks that dig these old cars too.

Last weekend was able to take it up to Mission, BC Canada for the Old Time Drags. Had it on back of the ramp truck for the 200 miles up and 200 miles back having a blast. Great time up there with awesome cars, racing and those great Canadians.

See some of you at Hot Rod A Rama this weekend!

 

When I tore into the top end to fix the oil leak and get rad fixed found some cool stuff.

Radiator I believe is the original one Kiwi Kev put in back in '84!

Check out the roller lifters and Isky Rev kit as well. All looks really good inside. Put a new bronze dizzy gear on as well. The engine runs one of those Isky Reverse Rotation (backwards) camshafts. Has the two gears up front like a gear drive and the backwards cut dizzy gear so the firing order is the correct 18436572...pretty interesting stuff.

 

Sweeeeeet!

 

Great thread. reminds me of one that got away

 

Ouch!

 

Stuff like this is why i'm here, awesome thread

 

That Willys Race Riot...very cool. Geat Pic!

 

great pics and even better stories guys !!! AWSOME THREAD !!!!

 

great thread, thanks for sharing the pictures and history!

 

I am trying to track down this car (Orange Plus). Does anyone know where it resides these days?