Projects 41 All Steel Willys Gasser - Ex Elverne Pfeifer car

Hey Kevin, It's looking great!!!!!!! My father-in-law should be finishing up Ex Elverne's caddy powered 50 Merc soon as well. Hopefully it will be done at the body shop here in the coming months.

 

Looks like your doing a great job of building a Willys, lots of nice detail going on there.
I'm somewhat confused on your intent. Are you building this as a resto of Al's car or one thats kinda looks like it?
I do beleive you have the out side body sheet metal body of the orginal car, but other than that from what I know, ch***is, SS firewall,etc. is gone.
Bueatyfull job your doing but painting it dark blue doesn't make it a Pfeifer car, and I do see that your ***le does say ex Pfeifer car.

 

This was his actual car he raced. Sorry to the purists that don't like the changes we made to the car. Yet, all of the original firewall, aluminum interior, etc didn't exist on the car when I got it either. My "intent" was to get this car back to looking as close to his car like it did in 1964. Yet, everyone needs to remember the Pfeifer changed the car multiple times as well. I know of at least 3 different motors he ran in it, 3 different wheel combos and more. The car continued to evolve. So I guess you could say that it was his actual car but, yes we were trying to build it like it looked. Yet, depending on what year you saw pictures, we are way off on any combination. We put the wedge motor back in it, we have a set of zoomie style headers, made ladder bars like it had, made the all aluminum interior like it did have, same style wheels, all original sheet metal, trim etc.

Therefore, no matter which way we went with the car there would be someone that says it was not the exact same as 1964. Of course it is not. Those parts don't exist. We wanted to duplicate it yet I also wanted to take the car to a different level. It was "Best Engineered" back then and I am confident it is pretty close now. I am not sure if I am supposed to put in the ***le that this was Pfeifer's car (body only, missing the original interior, paint and exact engine due to the fact that previous owners changed these items) but now it is my car now. For everyone that doesn't like something we did, there are others that wouldn't change it and want something else. When it is not your own car, you will never be happy. Therefore look for the things you like and ignore what you don't.

I wanted this car to represent Pfeifer and tell the story of him and the car back then while also making it my own car. I wanted to honor him like I have tried to honor my father. I built the car for my enjoyment and for others to appreciate. For those that may not appreciate the car or any of the changes that were made I am unsure how picking my car apart helps change anything. This is not guided to anyone on here in particular; yet, I am amazed how others want to tear others projects down. If I do not have anything good to say, I typically keep quite. If everything looked the same it would get pretty boring and there would never be new ideas. My fathers car doesn't look exactly like it did in 1968-1975 either. Yet, this wasn't my doing. Before he p***ed away, he bought the engine, suspension, and a ton of other parts for the car. It was what he wanted. Pick them apart all you want, but the cars are not anyone else's nor was the $$ put into them.

Thanks to those that appreciate what we are trying to do here.

 

We keep debating what to do with this. If we make a cover for it then someone is going to say we are trying to be "high tech.". If we don't someone will say it should be covered. We are going to make a template to cover it and then go from there. We can continue down this path forever but at some point I have to be done with the car and fabrication. Thanks for the other compliments. We hope you liked the car and how it looks so far.

 

Love what your doing with Willys. If it turns out half as nice as the Studebaker it will be outstanding. The Studebaker was one of my favorites at the 40th Street Rod Nationals.

 

Thank you. We believe that the Willys is a level above the Rockne. So many pieces that most people will never see or know that exist. It will debut at the Hot Rod Reunion this year.

 

Nicely said. My father-in-law is doing the same. He has owned the car for 53 years and still tries to keep things the way Al did. It took him years to get the right color formulated. He put a caddy crate motor in, in 1960 because Al pulled his caddy motor and put it into one of the Willy's.

Again, nice job.

 

Wow it does not get much better than this.What a beautiful Willys , you have done an amazing job restoring this great car.

 

cool car!

 

wow !

 

kewl!

 

For those in the Dayton, Ohio area you can see this car in progress at L.M.R. (Lo Man Rods) during their open house at their new shop on April 28th. Check out their shop and current builds. We may have the Rockne there that day as well.

Thanks for the compliments on the Willys.

 

It just so happened that when I aquired my x Pfeifer car some 20 plus years ago I had no intention on restoring it back to what it was. At that time hardly anyone else had thoughts like that either. I wanted a hot rod to drive and in the process got rid of alot of the special things. Heck most people laughed at me cause I wasn't building a red 32-34 ford. I've had thoughts of going back as I have the orginal body, orginal frame but now boxed and chromed rear.

With the work your doing the car is gonna be a great looking Willys. Its to bad that the people like Al and Scott are both gone. I never got to talk to Al or Vern as Scott called him and had plans to meet Scott but he changed that last fall rather quickly, but did have the chance to talk to Scott about all the Pfeifer cars they built and talk he surely could.

 

I really like the car! Don't take the comments the wrong way - the EFI, disc brakes, and radials send a mixed message to the purists on the forum. I think everyone is in love with the car's beautiful build quality, perfect stance, paint, and chrome. Great job.

 

No matter what a guy does the naysayers and the guys who want to own a real steel willys will knock it.coming from a willys guy that owns 6 steel willys, the cars bad ***.keep up the good work and screw the haters.

 

Thanks for the positive comments on the Willys for those that appreciate all the hard work and creativity put into this car. I will continue to post more updates on the build as we go for those that like the car.

 

Check out the link to LMR (Lo Man Rods) website with some of the build/fabrication pictures on the Willys. You can also see some of the other cars on their Gallery page and more on his site that is growing.

http://lo-manrods.com/willys2.html

More updates as we progress on the completion of this car.

 

Supper nice Street Rod!

 

I've got the MAY '65 issue of HRM. Always nice too see an old g***er brought back to life!

 

Found a few pics. will try to post,will look for more

 

Thanks for the additional pictures in the last attachment.

Updates: the fenders, doors and deck lid are being painted currently. As more details develop, I will post more pictures.

 

Love ya Willys and the Stude would be proud to have them both keep up the great work cheers Wayne

 

Mac has the rear fenders, deck lid and doors ready for color. The inside of the rear fenders and front fenders are already done. I am getting more excited to know that we are around the home stretch. Little details on the car are coming together and we are close to its debut in Bowling Green at the Hot Rod Reunion.

 

Here are some pics of the rear fenders starting to go on now. The doors and deck lid are also painted and about ready to be put on. We have one more month to have the car completely done.

 

Just a few more pictures that I took today at LMR shop. Shot one is of the inside. You can see the head rests that were made.

The engine has been getting tuned recently and just needs final tuning and running.

The deck lid is painted. Mac at LMR is getting ready to place the brushed aluminum inserts on the inside of the deck lid. It then goes on the car next.

 

Cool

 

Very nice

 

Anxious to see latest photos. How's it going?

 

More updates coming. The rear fenders are now bolted to the car. The deck lid is also now on and just being fit. LMR (Lo Man Rods) also made the one-off centers for the front and rear wheels. They are on and now polished. The rear fenders are gapped and fitted to the body tight. I will try to show some metal shots of what the fenders looked like before and when they were originally cut for the old slicks. They have been re-worked and a lip placed back on them and were made to fit these wheels and tires.

The rear bumper is about to go on and the rear end of the car is complete. We are working our way forward!

 

Here are a few "before" shots. You can see where the original rear fenders were worked on. LMR also put a new rear panel in the body which put the original lines back in the body. All the sheet metal was worked and gapped by Tim Robbins at LMR. He is an amazing metal worker and has done a ton of trick things for this car. Yes, I am biased.

The body has the original inner fender wells which are now all slick painted and you will see inside the body when the trunk is up.