33 Willys straight axle frame ideas?

What did guys use back in the 60's for a frame under their 33 willy's coupe g***ers? Looking to recreate the past and want to be period perfect. Any pictures or ideas on how to setup the ch***is would be much appreciated

Derrick

 

Most of the 33 Willyses ran an actual 33 Willys frame. Scratch built frames weren't NHRA legal until 1968. I believe one of the first with a scratch built frame was under the Stone-Woods-Cook Willys after it was repaired from a crash in the summer of 66. One of the first 33 Willys with a scratch built frame was the Hamberis & Mitchell car. I believe it debuted in latter 66, and wasn't legal for NHRA gas cl*** racing until 68. It ran BB/A at Indy in 66, and at the 67 Winter Nats. With the scarcity of Willys frames, it's probably more practical to build your own frame that mimics the shape of the 33 Willys frame. Here's some pics of Del Wiesner's tribuite car. I believe it uses a frame by Active Power.

 

Some photos of my frame on this link http://www.drcreview.com/news.asp?art=166 from a magazine in 1966,

 

I appreciate the help. I was down in Bakersfield and watched Del Weisner's coupe run. The pictures you sent me are very helpful.

 

Contact Rick at Willys Cl***ics in Mentor, Ohio - he has a 33 print that may help you.

 

Any other Ch***is pictures from guys that are building or have built a g***er style 33 Willy's coupe? Anything to look out for with the reproduction willy's ch***is?

 

I am currently restoring the Hart Automotive car. Here is a picture of it when I pulled it out of the previous owners garage...I believe that Chuck Finders and Larry Sikora did the ch***is, but that may be a little later build style than what you have in mind...I can take more pictures if you like..

 

You may want to check out the 33 Willys coupes Rocky Pirrone built. He built a tribute car to his dad's Boss Hydro 33 Willys and the KS Pittman 33 Willys. Those cars are typical of what was being built in the 67-68 era. He's also a member on the HAMB, Boss Hydro. He's a very nice guy, and I'm sure he'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Here's a link to his albums on Webshots. Lots of good pics there.

http://community.webshots.com/user/BossHydro

 

So what exactly are you building? A race car, street car, tribute car? What period are you shooting for?

I'm building a 33 right now that had professionally built race ch***is. I know where there's a stock 33 frame in my area for $500 but I p***ed at it. By the time you made it strong enough to handle any power, it wouldn't look much like a stock frame except for the shape.

Mine will have a 1965 stance but be NHRA legal to 8.50. I will also street drive it.

 

And as mentioned above, Rocky Pirrone is the man. His cars are about as period perfect as you can get with all the safety features to run FAST.

 

Dang Jim! That 33 is shaping up awesome. Can't wait to see it rolling.

Mark

 

This is the frame for the Mazmanian Austin. This was also not allowed to run early on as a legal g***er as it did not retain its original rails. This has 2x3 main rails with a 1 5/8" chrome-moly cage and crossmembers. All components scratch built as there was not much available in the line of brackets and tabs ect. in 1967. With the addition of some side bars this cage would certify to 8.50 To do an original frame you would need to blast it clean, weld up all holes, and box the main rails, then you could get to work on a pre 68 g***er style ch***is. JK

 

Shakeypuddin, It sounds like you are building something similar to what I would like to do. Probably a tribute car more or less. Im thinking high stance and similar to the cars that ran back in the 60's but probably run a small block with injection to start off with. 3 years ago we were neighbors down in Bakersfield at Famoso and I was asking you all kinds of questions about the injection you are running on your 55. We had a buddies green 40' Ford 2 door sedan that was an old race car down there at the time. Whats the drivetrain you are running under your Willy's?

 

Oh yeah, I remember you guys.

My Willys will run and blown and injected 427 BBC with a glide and a built 9" rear.

From 15 feet away I want the car to have a 1965 vibe. Of course when you get up close and look around you will see some more modern speed parts. I guess I'm not a Hemi / hydro / olds rear purist. I dig all that stuff but I like to beat on my cars and not worry about breaking rare and high dollar driveline parts.

 

Thanks guys for the kind words......here's a couple of pics. On both the Boss Hydro and K.S. cars we retained the stock frame rails. Both ch***is's are boxed, and both have the complete frame rails encased in the roll cage area. The roll cage is what makes the ch***is strong.

 

Here's a couple of the K.S. car going together. If you look closely you can see where we totally enclosed the frame rails, about mid way where the engine would sit.

 

Another shot of the bare frame. Since we we were using the stock rails and we're building the cars as close as possible to the 66-67 era, I welded in the floor and in the case of the K.S. car the firewall to reduce ch***is flex. Both cars have run consistent 8.90's with the Boss Hydro running as quick as 8.46.

 

Here's a couple more shots. We made the front end tilt on the K.S. car. The original had to be removed. We used this tri pod design for the tilt and it worked really good. Had a lot of guys take pics of its design.

 

Here's a shot of the interior. As you can see in the photo, we added another "hoop" right at the door post. This helped to tie the ch***is together and made the doors shut like a caddy.

 

Completed shot of the engine area. As you can see, I didn't want to use the bars over the engine area as you see on a lot of cars, performance wasn't as important as keeping these cars as close to period correct as possible was.