Hot Rods Willys we have known !

Some more.

 

TJ Richards body ID tags.

 

Holden body ID Badges

 

High Compression Aluminum Head believed to be a No Fin Head made by Barney Navarro. I am looking for any Navarro documentation on this and also a Willys Burns Intake. Look at the size of the combustion chambers.

 

We have a number of Aussie cars around here as well...I'll dig a few out, but here is a TJ Richards Ute.
It is actually a '38 but with a 40 nose...couldn't get a big enough radiator in that
'38 front end. This one is east of me by about 90 miles. g-willys

 

I had a buddy at Ft. Ord named "Willy". Bill was a good buddy. Wanted to box. Would give you the shirt off of his back.

Sent from my SM-G930T using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Life is unfair!

 

Thats harder to find than hens teeth!!

 

@Barn Hunter, that is a very nice 33. What's the story on it?

 

Looks like the car that sat in my driveway on many occasions for my Willys picnic. Built by a friend here in Minnesota, a number of years back. Looking for the pictures!!! g-willys

 

Still looking for the pictures of the turquoise 33 coupe that was at my picnic...but here's another that is 20 miles north of me, and looks exactly as you see it here...with a blown 396 Chevy. It is a beautifully engineered car, and ran well in its day...driver's name is on the door sill. This one is nicely stored in a heated room. The pictures were taken at Thompson Ohio back in about 2003, or '04. It was quite a wheel stander. Owner is a super nice guy that has helped me many times

 

Here is a vintage shot of it

 

Had this back in Miami in the 90's when I was flipping cars with a friend. We ended our dealing together with 2 '33 Willys...this one that I got and he got a glass one that the whole body flipped up from the back like a funny car. This one was featured in a magazine back in the 70's I believe. It's a steel chopped body with a red ram hemi. I never got it to run right and only owned it for a short time. I believe it now has a 426 in it and last I heard, it's the same color.

 

May have been featured in a magazine or two, but not in the 70's...wasn't built yet. Was built in late 80's
...I wasn't sure at first, but the picture above settles it for me...I gave the builder a '33 rim for the back, and the pictures I found will show that rim...I'll post tomorrow...definitely a very cool car. I have a picture somewhere during the build as well...there is quite a bit of metal work in that car. Owner ran an upholstery shop. Got the photo's loaded ...here they are. g.willys

 

Holy Cow...still has the same plate as in your picture...g-willys

 

I believe the body was found on an Indian Reservation, wasn't it Bill? I remember seeing it at a car show in Woodstock, Illinois I don't remember what year and the guy was claiming to have built it. I said that's funny I know John and I know he built it. He got upset as I walked away . I think it went to Lake Havasu, AZ and I believe it has a Hot Heads Hemi in it now. This pic popped up on another thread

 

Been a while, but I know it came from Northern MN. He had to do some metal patching to the body and he chopped it, so the workmanship was good...he's a very good builder. Guy in Woodstock must still be embarrassed.
Don't really understand how you can take credit for something you didn't do. By the way Tony, as you know , he is back into Willys, BIG TIME. g-willys

 

Another Aussie car...this 33 Phaeton parked behind me at Back to the 50's about 6 or more years ago...belongs to a local collector. First one I ever saw was in Suderman's collection, this is the 2nd I have seen. a neat car! I really like some of the things they did over there...roadsters, utes, tourers. That's Mike R.'s trailer behind his '41 sedan. gwillyss

 

Go put a tarp on it, and tell the guy you are dead serious about wanting to be the guy who buys it if he ever decides to sell, but if nothing else, you care enough about it, that you are willing to help keep it from deteriorating any more. Maybe even put it up on blocks for him. Worth a shot. Worked for me on a 68 Camaro some little old lady had.

 

Found a Willys coupe in a junkyard with this front end on it in Louisville, Ky. in 1964 when I was 15 years old, and a friend and I were looking for something to drag race. I asked the guy at the desk what they wanted for it. He said $50, but they didn't have a title for it, so it couldn't be street licensed. I told him we were going to drag it so all we needed was a bill of sale. We went home and checked our savings, and we were short about $20. Two weeks we had the money, and went back to buy the car. It was gone. Guy had bought it a week after we left the 1st time. Damn.

 

Great article. These are the type of stories that keep a guy dreaming. Some day I will have one.

 

My father used to tell me of a local farmer who had purchased a Willys coupe that was rear-ended in the mid to late'40's. Dad thought it had the early ('38-9) protruding headlights.The enterprising gentleman proceeded to cut the body off at the leading edge of the trunk lid and put a wooden flatbed in its place Dad said he drove it into the ground. He said he last saw it in mid '60's. It was broken down and then it was gone..........

 

Here's a couple Willys you never see, and one each, that I missed, one that I passed on. This a picture of a 1932 Willys roadster, and a 1931 Willys truck. The truck is not around anymore, it was sold, but the roadster is, and is my friend's favorite of his Willys collection. Both have chevy drive trains, but the bodys remained pretty much as found. From 33 to 42 Willys made only a small handful of convertibles (roadsters) and never produced them for dealers as best I could tell. Before that they did make a roadster style car, and this one has much more room in it than the 33-42 vehicles. Before 1933, the cars that Willys produced were big cars, and borderline luxury by comparison to the 33-42 cars.
Those were the Willys Knight, Overland, Whippet, etc.. As I looked up stuff on the pre-33 Willys cars, I found that those years had lots of similar features, and so for me it was impossible to completely research which is what year!
Safe to say they are all pre-1933 vintage...it took me long enough to tear through the 33-42 cars to find out some of the nuances that they have. g-willys

 

Here's the one I passed on...it was in Colorado, not too far from the Coors Brewery...$1500 in the mid 80's.
I liked it but the reason I passed was that I found a Willys pickup much nearer to my home in the Twin Cities, in Detroit Lakes Mn. and for less than half the $$ in the mid 80's. g-willys

 

Yes Willys were cheap in the 80s but very hard to find. I found an all steel 40 coupe stock type car with no motor or transmission for $1800 in the late 80s. The body was very solid but had dents in almost every panel down low where the former owner would bump it with his tractor in the barn. I guess that he was old and didn't see very well. This was the story that the seller told me when I asked about the dents. He said that if it didn't sell he was going to trade it for a 1980 Z28. At that time I lived with my parents and dad came with me to look at it. I had the money and told dad that I wanted to buy it but he said that I would tie up a fortune in body work and to keep looking for a better one. He had the truck and trailer and so I didn't get it. Shortly after that the prices started going way up on steel coupes. I wish that I had a picture of that one.

 

This is the one I missed...I really wanted this one...located in St Paul.
...It belong to a brother-in-law of someone I worked with. I really did want this one, and believe that I was the only one who knew about it, but the gentleman told me he wouldn't sell, and planned to restore it. (He kept it under a tarp in his yard.) I still thought maybe if I waited long enough, and because I saw my co-worker every day, that maybe he would tell me when his relative would be ready to sell. Then one day I asked, and he said 'Oh he sold it to someone and got $3000 for it'...around the late 1980's Interesting thing about this coupe was that the guy had put it on a 1940 Willys chasis(notice the '40 deluxe bumper!), with juice brakes, and the shifter on the column (which was the 1st year Willys did that.) One more thing...take a look at the dent on the driverside rear pan (between the trunk and the bumper)...there is a very interesting story that goes with that...for later. g-willys P.S. This one was only about 8 miles from my house!

 

I would to have loved to have that one. It's interesting when we talk about prices in the 80s versus now. To bad that you didn't find out where it went. Many of these projects never get on the road and it might still be sitting in a garage somewhere

 

Take a close look at this picture of my friends Willys Coupe when it was found

 

A Willys doghouse?