Hot Rods Willys we have known !

Yes it was. This is the first time that I have ever seen anything like this. I have seen want adds in the newspapers a long time ago that said.......wanted 1940 Willys Doghouse but I don't think that this is what they had in mind.

 

Tomorrow is the coldest Superbowl in history...not too far from here. Today we had over 4 inches of snow!
You never know what you might find in a snowbank...is it just a pile of snow, or one of them rare coupes everyone on the H.A.M.B. is talking about??? Do we have to wait until the snow melts ??? g-willys

 

Here are two crackers. flanking my modest 1923 Centre Door Model "T"

Two of my best Hot Rodding mates.

The 41 and the 33 both really famous ex drag racing cars.
The 41 currently undergoing a rebuild.

 

Hey , Willys are still as hot as ever! My last one pictured, I will have more!

P1000661 by oldgasserfan posted Nov 10, 2016 at 12:34 PM

P1000660 by oldgasserfan posted Nov 10, 2016 at 12:34 PM

 

I also loved the sedan cars, and have fond memories of Minnesota dragways in the early 6o's when these two
(Same Car-diffrernt owners) created thrilling runs most every trip down the track. Consistently strong. g-willys
Car is still around too!!!

 

Here is another one of the coupes I owned for a short time. I thought I would have to replace the roof on my driver.
When I found it, kids had jumped on the roof...so much so that it held water...I didn't think it could be saved so I was looking for a roof, but settled for a whole body instead. When we were able to port-a-power the roof out, I didn't need the coupe roof, and let the car go to a friend for some parts and work. He put it on a chassis, and completed the body, and it went ot someone in Ontario. Well a couple of years later it showed up at the Goodguys Indy show, and it
looked pretty darn good. When I got it, there was no chassis. The guy in the picture is the Canadian who finished it.
In between my friend put it on a chassis, and made everything a roller.



My white coupe...lots of dents in the roof
g-willy s

 

This one is a personal favorite...it was at our Willys gathering at Bandimeer race track near Denver, in 1994.
Willys never made any like this at the factory, and for my climate, it would be impractical, BUT I sure would love to have a Willys Roadster. Incidently this one belongs to Jack Coonrod, and he knows his way around early willys bodies.
He did a great job with this early body. I hope he finished it, and still has it???
The second picture is of a car I found near Bandimeer, in Morrison CO., and took it home to the midwest. Never did anything with it and sold it to a friend a long time ago...and he sold it to sombody in Michigan. g-willys

 

It seems like there were quite a few Willys sold in Minnesota. I definitely am enjoying the pictures and stories. How many coupes have you owned?

 

Well initally I thought it was 7, butI can only account for 6 that I actually bought, and had in my possesion.
There were quite a few Willys in Minnesota, but North Dakota also had many, and ironically the two cars I now have are from North Dakota. (my '39 Coupe, and my '36 sedan. ) I sure had a fun time chasing willys for the last 25 years.
You saw the local '38 on a 40 chasis that I missed out on...I will tell you about the best one I missed...from Arizona back in 1982.
g-willys

 

Willys fans, I had to jump in on this thread. The first Willys I owned was the red coupe that I raced for several years. It never was very fast but still a ton of fun. That was in the late sixties. When class rules changed and forced my Willys into a bracket race deal I decided to put the Willys on the street. When looking for parts I found the Willys in the next pictures. The year was 1971 and yes it's the read deal.

 

Joe,
That is a car with a ton of cool history. How did you find it and what shape was it in then? I think that I have read somewhere that at one point it was chained to a light pole at a gas station. What else can you tell us about it?

I also like your first one too. It's cool to see the tow bar on it.

 

The pickup I bought from Ed Belzer from Jacksonville Il in ‘93 as a partial completed driver. Ed still owns a 2 door black ‘39 Overland. Did a ground up on the pickup and put 35k miles on it and sold it in ‘99 to fund a 32 5 window. Bought it back June of ‘16 practicality unchanged.

The sedan has 40k miles and one repaint. Only changes are lowering (dropped axle and rear blocks and wheels). I’d like to sell this car to start on a ‘33 roadster.


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Elgringo, I answered an ad in the Philadelphia newspaper that read Willys car and parts for sale. You can imagine the look on my face when I encountered the SWC Willys. It was in a single car garage still wearing the candy blue paint and all it's lettering. The Martinez interior was still intact. The power train was long gone as was the original hood. I was glad to pay the $1000.00 asking price. Here is an original photo of what it looked like when I brought it home. The front wheels are laying in my attic.

 

Wow...I've seen all those cars many times (not as many times on the SWC car, but I have seen it.) Eddie Belzer is an o'l friend who I haven't seen in a while either...wonder if he is still in Texas? Those are all neat cars, and the SWC find is better than a needle in a hay stack. Here is another car I owned for a few years, but never did much with it, and ended up selling it to a guy from south eastern Wisconsin...not all that far from here...but I never saw it again. As I remember it had quite a bit of Bondo in it. Note the neat job of a vinyl top all the way back over the rear window.
g-willys

 

This is the car I've had the longest...turned it into my white coupe. Picture was during the build...2nd picture is what I started with. g-willy

 

I last spoke with Ed about 6 months ago. He is still in Texas, has the ‘39 and is selling this 41 pickup.

I remember your ‘39 well and John Z’s ‘33.


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John Z. is sort of back into Willys, and has attained some original race cars and restord them so to speak. They have belonged to local racing great Al Tschida. Al could shift a 4-speed so well, that it sounded like an automatic. John has a coupe Al prepared for his brother-in- law, and a '41 4 dr. that was also raced by Al. Sadly Al died a couple years ago of complications of alzheimers , I believe.

 

Owner of this car, got run into from behind, hence the dent in the rear pan(driver's side). He told me it was long enough ago that you could go to a junk yard and have them cut out or remove a panel from the same kind of car, for replacement.
He had never had it repaired, and the piece below the tail pan was laying there in the trunk of the coupe pictured below.. He said a body shop told him they could pound out the dent, and didn't need the panel, so he gave it to me. I in turn told that to Jim Frank some time later, a shop teacher from San Diego, and a Mid America Willys Club member . He asked if he could borrow it to have a metal man from California copy it for him. That metal man turned out to be Marcel Delaye, from Marcel's Custom metal.
He ended up making several for Jim Frank to sell, as that piece was either rusted or dented on most older willys when we started find them. It led to door bottoms, rear fenders, and many, many more pieces of sheetmetal for the Willys.
So to speak...here is the piece that started it all when it came to Willys sheetmetal now being made around the country.
Thats a tail lite of a coupe I found(different car) hanging with it...neither are for sale...just wall hangers, g-willys

 

G-Willys, I love that kind of stuff hanging on walls. When I put the SWC car on the street in 1972 I stored the original Cal Automotive glass front end in my attic. It's still there today.
[[/ATTACH]

 

I bought this ‘37 sedan out of an estate in Quincy Il. I sat on it for a few years and collected some parts and sold it to a friend. He turned it into a coupe using only the floor and wheel wells. He changed out the cowl to a center hinge and the dash as well. He told me the conversion took 200 hours for just the metal work on the shell. This car is going to be original. He has plans to do another as a hot rod/gasser.





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POST SCRIPT: The Barnes Brothers Willys still exists in racing condition and is still in the Barnes family. How many Willys from the sixties can still claim that?

 

32Fenderless, Wow, they are some talented people. The body of the SWC car was pristine except for the firewall. Guess you could be selective in the sixties when you were looking for a Willys coupe.

 

Elgringo, You mentioned about the SWC car being chained to a light pole. Actually, that is true. Around 1966 the SWC race team moved from Willys to Mustang. The Swindler B car was traded to Cal Automotive for Mustang fiberglass parts. Cal Auto put a Chevy in it with Hilborn injectors, painted their logo on the decklid and chained the car to a light pole in their parking lot to be used as their sign.

Their lettering was still on the car when I brought it home.

 

I enjoyed the Greg Koesel story...an 11 second D/Gas car is a quick car, by any standards. And Frenchtown...I've always liked that yellow car of yours.
Joe Troilo... You won't see a Willys coupe door that fits better than that one...WOW...I got one decent fit on my white car, but we won't even talk about the other door...typical Willys craftsmanship...design a classic style car that we all love, but so little attention to quality.

 

Gwillys, Wow cool garage. The SWC car only had one bad area. The panel below the deck lid was very wavy and thin. It did not match the rest of the car. I asked Ray Cook about it and he said Doug would put a torch under it and melt lead until he reached the right weight ratio. Then remove it later if needed. The constant heating and reheating ruined the panel over time.

 

Now for the infamous 'We spotted it from the air" Willy that I once owned. I still have one part of it...had such a nice trunk I put it on the white car, and substituted a fiber glass one which also did fit nicely. This was spotted from the air somewhere in Manitoba Canada, BECAUSE it was laying on its side...pilot said he would not have recognized it otherwise. And two guys in Winnipeg had it and I bought it from them. When I sold it, it went to Pennsylvania, but then a couple years later it ended up in Omaha, and got sold to a friend in St Louis MO. What he did with it for years was Marvelous. That will come in my next reply. Here's what I call the Wilderness Willys in the woods. It was a '38...I was going to make it into a '41. g-willys

 

'32fenderless
Neat coupe from a sedan...I had to find whole cars, because I sure couldn't do that kind of work...got a picture of it done? g-willys

 

He hasn’t finished it yet. Was in the body shop last I knew.


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My Willys spotted from the air...it went to a friend of mine in St Louis, and turned from an ugly duckling into a swan.
He did a beautiful job of reconstruction, put a blown Olds in it and along with a number of others, started the Geezer Gassers that delighted all of us with many competitors from the drag racing Gasser past...and still going strong. This coupe, I think now watches from the sidelines as a few years ago my friend built another coupe that is now their race car. My Canadian friends that found it, delivered it all the way to my door step from Manitoba. I had dreams of building it, but went with another coupe body to build the one I have. I just love the license plate on it. My wife got a chance to get behind the wheel for about 15 minutes of crusin at a car show years back. g-willys