My new project is a Willys knight i got for 400.00 this past sunday. The sheet metal is in pretty good shape some rust holes across the rear lower two inches and bottom of the cowl. The worst thing is almost all the wood frame peices are rotted to bad to even make patterns for new ones so the plan is to jig up the body and tie all the parts back together with tubeing and sheet metal. So far this week just been trying to freeup the windshield frame for removal and taking off other bits and peices. The plan is to use 9in ford from my brothers race car, a 4in dropped I beam up front with split wishbones. For motor and trans i am hopeful to trade some one a new interior since thats my career.
good for you kcal .that s a bargain because its hard to find nearly 80 year old tin with little rust.hansome car also keep us posted dave
I almost freaked when I seen your car. I bought a 28 chev for 400.00 a while back. looks almost identical. jump over and check out the thred ***led (29 chevy full sheet metal kit car) by ratcoach29. Yea I know chevy is not a willys. but we were talking about old wood, and tubing. to stablize ours...ghost
Looks like the windshield swings out like my Nash. Seamans Body Company make it? Save any little pieces of the rotted wood, it's good tinder for carrying/starting a fire in an emergency. .
Yes it does the top rail of the windsheild frame is a tube with pins in the ends that are supposed to slide towards the center of the car then release from the A post. Can you beleive it they rusted stuck after only 79 years
anytime you want your money back let me know!!! good find. ive never found a deal that sweet.im a willys fan from way back so that body is one id love to have good luck with the build and keep the pics coming
The ones on my Nash were rusted, I finally worked one side off, drilled out the bolt without damaging the threads then screwed in a longer bolt and worked it back and forth tapping it gently with a hammer all the time and nokrust, finally got it out.
Ya wanna trade for a 28/29 Willys-Knight 6 cylinder and ******? I got one, if ya do. Neat motors, having no typical pop-valves.
My high school girlfriend's dad had a '29 Willys-Knight, it had been repainted but was otherwise original. It was fun to drive around in, but boy those mechanical brakes were something else. The sleeve valve engine was pretty interesting as well, it ran really nice but smoked a lot.
I finaly got some work done on the Willys today. Seems like theres always something else that gets in the way work,home repairs (furnace spewing fire where its not suposed to) etc,etc, I started today by removeing the mangeled drivers upper door hinge they are unlike any i have seen the two halves interlock with each other kinda like if you curl the fingers on each hand then hook them, I tried to hammer them back in shape but gave up and decided to just get some hinges from speedway or somewhere may even do suicide doors while im at it. As stated at the start of this thread the the wood in this body was nearly all gone there was nothing connecting the rear half of the sedan body to the cowl(no floor subframe no rockers nothing above the doors) So i decided the best approch was to lineup the body feature lines and door gaps then temporary tackweld doors to body then cowl to doors. I plan to run a string through the windsheild out the backwindow to make sure all is centered before braceing is installed. I took a few pics today here they are sorry if i missed getting pics of some of the details this is my first major build . Thanks/Al
Looks good so far with my 28 chevy I had to put it together the same way. I then structured the entire build with square steel tubing to replace all the wood. Keep us posted...ghost
Thought I would post a few pics of what i got done tonight. I worked on getting the rest of the wood out luckily the curved pieces are good enough to use for patterns. I am planning to use one inch square tubing mostly eccept in the rocker area i am thinking one and a half inch. If anyone has any input i am open for suggestions. I am also posting some pics of a 1911 model T that i did the seats and top on last week at my day job. It is the oldest car i have worked on so far in my career.
As I said earlier your car is pretty close to the build of my 28 chevy coach. I used 3/4 inch square tubing in the interior area and 1 1/2 in the lower rockers. I did the lower area first with the larger material. Then structured my roof area with the smaller material. Then worked the sides in attaching to the lower and upper areas, and building my door structures at this time also. Then went into the floor area for the sub structure, for the flooring. At the time I was doing all this. I had tack welded the doors and all body structures together, so when your done and you pop your doors open they should hang proper, and have the proper gap. I will put some pictures in hope it helps. Keep in mind I am converting my chevy to a sedan delivery but the structure should be pretty close...ghost
Ghost thanks for the reply i am going to metal by the foot in the morning to get tubeing with any luck cutting and and welding by afternoon.
And I forgot to tell you the tubing at the back of the car (lower) was the same 3/4 tubing as the rest. The only 1 1/2 was right in the rocker area good luck
KCAL, looking good man. Nice score! That's going to be a great little hot rod some day. I like the oddball bodies. Dare to be different.
I got a little bit done today lower rocker area 1-1/2 sq tubeing,above the doors 1inch tubeing back almost to the rear corners. I also put in some temporary braces to keep the sides plumb. Its hard to see but the first pic shows the strings i ran from the center of the cowl to the center of the rear window then a second string from the center of the car hanging down as a plumbbob this allowed me to make sure the sides of the body were not leaning to the left or right to much. I then put on the outer roof panels and walked around the car a dozen times sighting all the body lines once satisfied i did a little welding. The next thing i plan to do is form some sheet metal to tie the roof panel to the tubeing above the doors.
Nicely done. brings back my tubing nightmares. just kidding I enjoyed every minute of it. if you need more pictures of any areas let me know. Maybe my ideas, and your thoughts on the construction. Might help me on mine cause I still have a ways to go. thanks... ghost
The Jalopy Journal
