On the question of narrowed rear ends. The rear end in my avatar (built in '65) was out of a tri-five Chev. Not a real good choice, but I was young. Chev axels had large splines, but the middle of the axel was much smaller. Someone pointed me to a machine shop that could do it. It was an old shop and all the machinery was run by a overhead belt system. The axels were welded to build them up in the area of the new splines. After the splines were cut they were heat treated. This was common at the time and they survived a year or two of the second owner racing it with a small block. It was not uncommon for welded axels to twist or break, but you did what you could afford. Norm
@NORSON, my dad ran a 1955 Chevy rear end in his 40 Willys and it was the weak point of the car. He tore it up a few times behind the 327 and the Muncie 4 speed. The narrow and strong factory rear ends in those days were the 1957-58 Olds-Pontiac 9.3" that was about 60 inches wide and a posi was available in 58. The other good option would have been a 1957-58 ford car rear end. The station wagon or ranchero has the big bearing. This one is the ford 9"or at least it will accept a 9" posi unit. It is 57.5 inches wide and I don't know if it was available with positraction from the factory. Also on this one the Edsel cars might have been wider so you would want to measure them and I am not sure about the width of the ford truck rear ends in these years. This is dad with his Willys
A cheap trick is to get any axle that has a large diameter (we used early Olds/Pont.) and shorten them and respline to the early Chevy. No welding required. The axle is still weak at the spline but you can get a narrow axle for your application. We went to the narrowed Olds/Pont. rear in the MG and took the narrowed 57 Chevy rear w/Olds axles and put it in my 36 Willys PU that used stock tires like 8.25 x 15 so not much strain. Pat
The problem at that time was getting gear ratios for some of those rear ends. Knowledge and availability was centered in socal. Poor boy hotroding was still the norm in in my area. After thinking about it, I seem to remember going though an axel rack searching for axels with enough meat to re-spline, but unable to find any at the time. And I didn't know what to look for. Norm
Norm, Do you have any pictures of the 33 Willys that you used to have or the one that you are building now that you can share?
This axel post was about my avatar (Bantum). I did have a '33 willys body and frame at the same time (just a hulk) that I sold to Steve Magee. But no pictures. The Willys I am building now is more of a phantom at this point. Norm
Here's one I had not seen. Chuck Corder posted it and Jim Hill identified Joe Yarini's blown SBC car from Atlanta. Jim thought it was run in the 60s.
Woodie had moved near Grants Pass, Oregon and we were able to get him down to Champion Raceway in Medford for a couple of the AA/S events. It was great to have him in the tower telling stories. Many do not know that he was involved in a Willys sedan project which ran at Bonneville (Salt Assault Willys) or something like that. RIP, Woodie.
The Flatty is Bing's (El Bignelli I think) Speed Shop Here is another Grist Brothers shot. Looks like it's after the roof damage was repaired.
Pretty sure this is the "mystery Willys as the one posted by "ramblin dan" pulling that wheelstand. Definitely Dover. Pat
Here is another shot of the coupe named Gran Ma from the 1959 film Ingenuity in Action. It is getting difficult to find pictures of early Willys cars that raced up to about 1961 or earlier that have not been posted yet.
The Jalopy Journal
