a buddy has a line on what looks to be 40 willys convert its in a field and missing some parts (front end) how many did they make?
They didn't make any. Either you've got a butchered up one or you have a different model car. Post some pics and it will be ID'd for you.
Not to steal the thunder of the thread, but does anyone have a picture of a bone-stock 40 or 41 willys? I looked earlier for about an hour couldnt find anything.
I'm pretty sure they made a few, like 2-5 or so. This was discussed here several years ago. There were a few pics of 1 from the early 50's as well.
I stumbled across a pic of 1 with two airmen while doing WWII research. I'm afraid I don't have the time to wade through 15,000 images to find it though!
American bodied Willys in 40-42 did not come in convertible at all, they did not make them. They did however make a convertible in Australia, they were manufactured in by Holden and RJS company. Not sure if canada had one or if the african versions had one but, America didn't. The Austalians also had a convertible 4 door sedan, phaeton, etc... Willys america did however cater to one off pieces, special order. I can go into depth on the pre-war Willys if you're that interested. I know that there were a few convertibles shipped back here to the states, as the pic of the soldiers show. That was a '42 in those pics.
The problem with absolute statements is that they can come back to bite you in the ***. Franklin Delano Roosevelt says you're wrong - here is his factory 1940 Willys roadster.which currently resides in the Little White House in Warm Springs, GA. There is no eveidence that Australian T.J. Richards bodied roadsters or tourers were built after 1937 - several have had later front clips added. I have an original 1937 Australian Willys brochure.
Holden did not manufacture an open Willys after 1936. Who is RJS???? I think you mean "TJR" - T.J. Richards made open Willys in 1937 and so did Hope Body Builders Queensland - in ute form. The original photos of the 1942 convertible you mention are sitting on my desk as I type this.
there is no nose on it but he said def willys . he has a 40 willy pickup in his yard and he said the fire wall is the same as his truck . i will see if i can get pics and post em
Search is your friend: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=326347&highlight=willys+conv
This one as offered up as being an original, however a previous owner showed up and said it was fabricated ........ notice it does have a different windshield and beltline .. cc
I suppose next someone will tell us they made Willys panel trucks. And yes they made like a half dozen factory convertibles. I can't find the picture either.
I don't really want to hijack the thread but since there is so much misinformation flying around let me at least set the record straight. The panel in your photo came out of Argentina I believe, and appears to be a Willys nose and cowl with a back half and doors from something else - may be an International. Willys did indeed make panel trucks in 1935 and 1936 as the Model 77 and then later a Half Ton Step Van in 1938 or thereabouts, through 1941. Panel vans were also made in Australia, based on the ute type body from Holdens through 1941. The late Terry Ehrlich of Hemmings Motor news owned a 1939 Aussie built panel van for many years. It is currently owned by Jason Desjardins in So Cal. Photos from the Willys Overland Knight Registry Gallery. The red roadster is one of the TJR 1937 roadsters with a later nose - as I mentioned - there are several in the U.S. and Heritage AC offered a fibergl*** body pulled from an orignal TJR roadster. Remember, there are no absolutes when talking about this stuff.
When I talked with a guy a couple years back on this stuff, he wanted to build a high-zoot ride from scratch copying a Willys convertible. He didn't want an original, he said the metal in them is junk and the paint won't stay on them. I guess they made like half a dozen or some crazy low number for the US, probably all of them started as coupes and the factory cut the top off or something like that. But he also said there was one sitting in a field in western Pennsylvania somewhere, stripped pretty bare, but a real Willys convert. He was afraid of it, though, because of no tags - there's so many fibergl*** ones out there he was sure the tags from it were on some plastic car and in Illinois I guess it's a pain in the *** to try to do a car without any tags, you have to get it registered as home-made current year or something. And in the last 70 years or so who knows what's happened to the cars, the ones that didn't become drag racers could just as easily have become field cars with the tops knocked off them. I mean, I found a real unaltered Willys in a junkyard in 2006 that had been there since about 1950, so there's probably more still to be found.
There was a Willys convertible for sale locally on CL back in September, but the page is gone now. Guy told a friend of mine it was genuine and all original he wanted $65K for it I think. I remember seeing the ad though, and I didn't think it looked "factory".
Did anyone see the ad in Hemmings this month for a 40 conv for 65k? The picture looked a bit like the red one. Located in Penn.
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