History A moment of history...Teixeira Willys

Add my name to the list of "Just found this thread" (thanks to Justin putting it on page one today)
But... while intigued to watch the step by step, I have mixed emotions, mainly... Son of a Bi....

I'll explain. You see Freddy's my neighbor (just down the country road), and when I first moved out to the Fresno country side (12 yrs ago) it was via marrying a racer's daughter. Although my in-laws were well known circle track racers (tell Freddy I'm Larry Trig's son-in-law, and a friend of Denvers), I was a 20+ year veteran (?)of drag racing. That being, my father-in-law proceeded to enlighten me with names and residences of drag racing royalty that lived nearby, including taking me to the site of the ol' Raisin City Drag strip (I'd heard stories of it, but never seen it in person, being from Minnesota, and the Merced area respectively).

One of those introductions early on was Freddy T., it took place somewhere out and about, not at his house. After the introduction my Father-in-law filled me in on Freddy's colorful racing "History", and thought he still had the car at his house. Of course the first words out of my mouth were "Do you think he'd sell it?", (I was bracket racing a '48 Austin ex-gasser, and a '64 Chev II at the time at nostalgia drags).
I was very jazzed, and as fate would have it I had to drive by his house everyday to and from work.

Needless to say the desire to stop in was burning more and more as weeks and months flew by, and then one day a caught a peek of it under a car cover backed half way out his side garage (remember the first time you caught a shot of that "babe" down the street in a hot bikini... yeah, it was that). I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was the car Royal's working on.

Then later on after months (probably more like years later), my heart sunk one night as I was coming home from work... I saw huge billowing black smoke coming from Freddy's corner. His back shed/shop was engulfed in flames with fire trucks all over the place.
As soon as I saw everyone was out of the main house, and that it seemed to be concentrated to the back shed/shop my next fear was that the gasser car was being sent back to where it came from.

I was eventually brought out of my mourning a few months later when talk around the vineyards had it that the car wasn't in the shed. About the same time the new Hiway 41, just to the east of us, had officially opened, so my daily work route changed.

Throughout the years I often wondered where that car had ended up, and what could've been. Damn, but hey seriously, way kool for you Skip. Maybe I'll send my '39 mopar over and have you do some of your magic fabbing on it.
Oh, and thanks for bringing that gasser back home.

P.S. There's a guy who lives behind me with an old original '34 Coupe that also used to run out at Raisin City, tried to talk him into selling this past February (it's been sitting out in back, in the weather, taunting me, for at least 10 years), but he claims he's "going to get around to fixing it up" when he quits farming (?). He's almost seventy. Shame.

 

Good luck buddy, I've been barking up that tree for years.

 

Awesome thread. Old race cars rock. Are you gonna go with with the 68 style paint job? Doy you have any picks of it before you started on it? How did you come across the willys?

 

Love it! Glad I finally saw this thread. Great work!

 

i have been staring at this post for an hour. WOW. Really nice work. I can wait to see it ripping down the strip. Best of luck.

 

Will it be running at the march meet in 09'???

 

Sounds like Basque name.

 

Did you track down the decals yet?I got a guy that can make them for you.

 

If you have a good photo and a few dimensions, I can volunteer my services and draw them up on CAD for the decal maker, if it will help.

P.S.- This is one of the coolest threads I've seen in a while! I love the old Willys drag cars. How fortunate to have the original guys who built her to help put her back in her former glory.

 

looking great as The norm

 

just plain awesome man, love the work

cant wait to see more of it

 

These are the front fender braces just behind the wheel.

 

The bumper brackets for the huge 4" pipe are ready.....I was surprised the Fred still had one for a pattern......the original one was torched out later in life when the car was a Corvette.

 

I hate to ask, Skip, but are you and the team on any kind of a deadline, or are you going to "finish when ya finish"?

I have my hopes up for a certain event coming up, but you can't rush perfection....

 

If it stays on track the car will be about 90% done for the CHRR if there are no setbacks.

 

Man, I just saw this thread, that's why you were asking me about a column drop.
Great build, thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for your help Chris and Kiwi Kev saved the day.

 

Now for some well deserved dead animal......."How do you want it"?......." Pull out the horns wipe its ass and serve it up".....mmmmmmm good!!!

 

I like mine well done. BTW, nice apron.

 

your saveing a big part of hist, lots of good karma there

 

Frame is back while the body gets prepped for paint and I finished up some welds on the crossmembers. Some small fabrication items will be taken care of and then hopefully soon onto the 6 foot torque arms and floater rearend.

 

Also Fred stated that the stock Willys radiator was extented 4 inches. These are the radiator mount brackets.

 

this thread just keeps getting better. thanks for sharing the progress Royalshifter.

 

looks good royel are you full time in the shop now.

 

I will be for off the month of Sept. and then hopefully back to 8:00 to 5:00 at a new job Oct. 1.

 

Good Luck to you and Ladyshifter in whatever awaits you...

 

Pro-rebuilt steering box is back.

 

Welded up somemore gussets for the trans crossmember.

 

The two bolts that go through the side of the frame to bolt up the pedal assembly are installed...I also welded a sleeve through the frame for the bolt that had nothing to back it up when tightened..............Again I want to stress that I am fabricating these parts for display purposes only and do not take responsibility for it being raced. It is being built to 1964 NHRA rules and will not pass todays safety inspection. This important vehicle is being restored for it's record breaking history and should be in a museum or a private collection.