my 40 dodge/willys PU project

I started this project last year and had to put it on hold while I finish up some other projects.
this project is going to be my new racetruck, I haven't had a racecar in like 16 years and cant wait to make some passes with it.the cab is a 1940 dodge and I am going to make a 41 willys frontend fit it.
the first group of pics of the build is of the frame and then mounting the body and doing the chop top and build the roll cage Ron...


this is what I started with


cutting the frame apart

 

more progress pics of the project.

I want it to look something like this one



welded up the ladderbar mounts

 

that thing is toooo sick...love it when people show what they do with their frames.....keep the pics rollin.....any hints at the powerplant you gonna throw in there????

 

any other vital statistics? what kind of engine you shootin for?
looks great so far keep us updated on your progress..

 

...what frame/front end was under that truck when you started?
Looks good so far, keep us posted.

 

thanks guys for the words of encouragement

the frame is a early 90's toyota chassis that was free and it is 2x4 boxed all the way, I will only be using the frame rails when its done. it will have a mustang II style frontend on it. as far as the engine goes it will be 493CI stroker 440 mopar with about 600 hp, a race preped 727 trans and a 4.10 dana rearend with a spool and 14x32 slicks.
this truck will also be driven on the street. Ron..

here are a few more pics of the progress

I started setting it up with a mopar 8 3/4 rearend


then I picked up a DANA 60 rearend from a truck









I kicked the frame up for more rearend clearence:

 

I think I'm going to like this. I'm curious on how Willy's front clip will mount and look on the Dodge cab. Keep us updated.

 

Do you have the front end yet? I am curious about the measurements where the front end meets the cab.

Same here...

 

here are some more frame shots and some of the truck outside after I got the cab and rollcage finished up Ron....

the frontend fit the body pretty good, all I had to do is trim about 1" off where the fender meets the body, I will have to mak the dodge hood and nose top fit the willys center section, I haven't got that far yet

 

Wow, it looks like that front end fits real well!
Can't wait to see how the rest of the nose works out.

The rearend turned out great too..

How much did you end up chopping the top?

 

the top is chopped 3 1/2" which turns out to be 4 " from the windshield post Ron..


here are some more of the frame and cab mounting.
I mounted the cab solid because the rollbar needs to go through the back of the cab and the body will never come off again anyways.









and this is the start of the top chop

 

Good Lord Loaded For Bear!
....nice.

 

have fun on those damn Dodge doors!! The bastards never quit tapering!!!! I did this one 3 inches. You've got a nice lookin ride going there. The Willy's idea is good, the dodge nose is butt ugly no matter how much you chop off it. Has anyone seen this lil' blue beauty on Ebay? It's under rat rod. I like how he sealed up the motor.

 

here are some more of the chop














this is how much the top was off after the chop

 

finally get to see a rear end set up i like....love the way did the frame in the rear looks sooooooo good.....i saved all your pics...this is soooooo awesome......keep us posted on the progress

 

I wonder why your posts didn't line up better. Im chopping one right now and we did it 5" the posts lined up damn near perfect. although we did the back glass different my customer wanted it chopped the same as the truck so now it has this cool funky football shape. Those doors are a bitch tho I'm still working on them there's so many damn curves and tapers to them. our doors look like a jigsaw puzzle right now. But the chop looks pretty good. Hopefully I can get it finished soon. I wish the roof of our truck was as straight to start with as yours was.

Your chop looks great.

 

here are the pics of the rollcage and chop top, I had to do them both at the same time to make it easier to do all the welds on the cage.
I also made the cab 3" longer behind the door so I could fit in it better
lets try posting the pics this way to save some bandwidth

just click on the thumbnail to see larger one





























or if you cant wait to see the rest of the pictures you can go here and look through them:
http://rides.webshots.com/album/559598861LBwiIz



.

 

with the 3 1/2 chop and the rear post lined up the front post was off by 2 3/4" so I made a cut across the top from door to door and with the 3" that I lenthened the cab I needed to make a filler piece 5 3/4" across the top



and here are some more of the cage:

 

Nice, when do you find time to do all of this with your COE's and making a drag truck. I sent you a link, to west coast willys club. they are a wealth of info and would like to see your's. http://www.gerlecreek.com/westcoastwillysclub.htm

 

Oh ok i was having a duh moment I forgot about splitting the roof I had to do the same on the truck I'm chopping now. When I set mine down I lined the A pillars up first and so I wasn't thinking when I looked at your picture sorry.

 

Pardon my lack of patience, but I want to see an update on this one. This may be the most clever build in HAMB history. Take an almost worthless truck cab and turn it into a highly desirable gasser, it's just an awesome idea. Anxious to see how you work out the hood/cowl fit.

 

thanks for the words of encouragement....
sorry but nothing new to report on this project, but MAN do I want to get back to it, but I need to finish up the other 40 dodge pu that I am building as a for sale truck, then its back to this project. I will be taking pics along the way to show how the hood will go together Ron....

 

Ok guys I finally got the (squattie)fire truck done and I am back to work on the racetruck project,
first I removed all the toyota stuff and put on the mustang II stuff and boxed it all in .
then I trimmed the back of the willys hood(point of no return) and realized that the hood will have to be split down the middle to make it meet up with the dodge cab, so I cut it and moved it and it lined up pretty good,
the biggest issue that I had was coming down from the body line the wiilys goes in and the dodge goes out so I had to cut part of the side of the hood out to get thing to fit.
and then I had to make some little piece that followed the body and pop rivet them on to hold the side panel out instead of in and then I started glassing things up. then I stared to glass the split down the middle of the hood. it starting to look like it belongs on there Ron...

sorry for all the pictures but a few guys wanted to see how the front mates up with the cab, pretty good so far....



heres the squattie truck i just about have done.


old frotend stuff


mustang II frontend








now on to fitting the willys nose to the dodge cab...
























well now the body line is out instead of in:

 

cool truck

 

Still think its genius!

 

Posted by moparron426:
"I mounted the cab solid because the rollbar needs to go through the back of the cab"

Actually, it isn't necessary on a pickup to run the "C" bars through the back of the cab to pass NHRA technical inspection. You can eliminate the C bars entirely by putting in the full peripheral cage like you did and then building a Funny cage inside that. I've passed a few trucks like that at National and Divisional events.

Richard
SFI Silver-Certified technical inspector.

 

Thanks for that info Richard, when I was starting the cage I couldn't get a definite answer to the question about the back bars, but I did not want to get the truck all done and show up at a track and have them tell me no way I could run so I just bit the bullit and made the rear bars.
I don't plan on ever taking the cab off anyways unless something catastrophic happens, so the back bars make me fella little safer Ron...


also here is a link to ALL the pics from this build so far...

http://rides.webshots.com/album/559598861LBwiIz



.

 

no more progress this week but I did get it outside to get some full pictures of it, I hope to finish up the hood this week Ron...

 

Well, I'll be damned!!!!!

When I first started reading this thread, I thought "there is no frickin' way that a Willys nose is gonna fit on a Dodge cab".... Boy, did you ever prove me wrong!

Great bunch of slicing and dicing! I'll be watching for progress reports on this project for sure!

 

nice truck!! you'll probably have it finished by the time my dial up finishes loading the pics!!