I would love to participate. Don't know if the economy will provide me with the means and who knows what car(s) I will have at the time. Next challenge is getting insurance for this hotrod.
Nice car can't wait to see video of that thing pulling the wheels off the ground!Cause I'm sure that with that much power it should have no problem.
anybody have experience putting a cage in a Willys? The roof is so small, the geometry is going to be interesting. Plus, trying to allow for driver movement and comfort. I am considering a SW kit, but will do more investigation before ordering.
we have the cage just about done. Wow, what a challenge to tuck it up into the roof to allow room for the driver. We will end up using almost 80' of tube. After the cage is fabbed up, we will be able to lift the body enough to do a nice job on the top welds up in the roof. Then we will start making noticeable progress. Still on target for a late June debut. Keep your fingers crossed.
I got my fingers crossed. How about a match race between it and the 49 Olds. It will be just like the movie "Hot Rod"?
We blew it all back apart this weekend. Now we can access the top of the roll cage to produce some quality welds. We will then start cleaning up the frame and underbody. We can get all that painted and then start re-assembly. Once we weld the cage to the frame it won't come apart without major surgery. We used 70' of steel for the cage. Now we should really start seeing some progress. We have two months left before our debut and it finally seems like we can accomplish that. One the other hand, we have all the wiring and plumbing to do......
we are finally seeing visable progress. The cage is all welded in and painted, the frame and underside are all finished. The front end is back under the chassis. The engine, transmission and differential are back in the car. The interior of the body is finished with bedliner. We are fabbing brake lines, fuel system, ladder bars and the cooling system at this time. Soon, we will start on the electrical. It certainly appears we will have a good chance to debut at Back to the 50's next month. I am very impressed with the way the cage turned out. There is very little room in these cars and I am a big guy. It is a work of art to look at the way Steve tucked the cage into every nook and cranny to save interior room, oblige safety concerns and provide strength/rigidity to the entire vehicle. Great job Steve.
we continue to thrash, but are making great progress. Probably doesn't look like it, but we are gaining every day. Fuel system is almost done, electrical is close, we are installing glass in the doors as we speak, the driveshaft is in, the dash is coming together. We are very confident it will be running and driving within a week. Of course there will be much more to do, but it will instill new enthusiasm once it moves under its own power. We plan to have it completed in four weeks in time for Back to the 50's.
If I may....due to cage design and installation, my steel car was marginal/a small pain in the**** to install a windshield using safety glass/rubber/rope trick. The current 'glass project is even worse....so much so that it will probably have to use a glue in from the outside type of install. Your pictures of the A pillar cage upright look awful tight.......have you tried to fit a windshield or a plywood/masonite substitute yet? If not, might be a good time. The windshield, I found, installs easiest from the inside, pushed up in front of, and below the dash face, to the windshield opening. Depending on your cage A pillar uprights, this may not be possible. If you still have slack/some body movement, now would be the time....... Back to the '50s? The Geezers are in Bowling Green, where all good gassers should be. Best wishes.
appreciate the suggestion, but this old Willys is not for the guys on here, it is for me they can look and hiss all they want.
we are on the same page. the windshield should be in the car tomorrow, come hell or high water...but we could use some rain
probably not, the Hemi we stole from the Matador squad is making 825 at the flywheel without the squeeze.
Wow thats real steel man what a rare one I would like to see a picture of an all original willys coupe just because . Anyone?
within the next two weeks, we are going to CUT the rear fenders to radius them to clear the slicks. Yes, we could sell them and buy glass ones and have money left over, but then it wouldn't be ALL steel. We had to kinda gulp when we cut the hood, removing the cowl vent and a bit more to clear the birdcatcher. Stuff cuts like*****er, but it almost seems a sin to do it. Nah, make it a hot rod!
I know the feeling! I have a mint 34 five window body - am going to chop it quite a few inches. One side of me cringes a bit, the other says . . . "Screw It - it is my car and this is the way I've always imagined it!". If I wanted to be a "resto rodder" . . . I wouldn't be part of this community anyway . . .
Cut those fenders!!!! Several years ago, the Geezers were in Florida for a nostalgia event. I brought along, a brand new pair of M/T slicks for one of the guys. They were one step bigger than he had been running, same wheel, (too much tire for my car) they wouldn't fit under his fenders. There we were in the pit area, needing to open up the radius. The call went out for a hacksaw, and a few minutes later, there was Al (owner/driver) and his buddy taking turns with the hacksaw, opening the radius , about 2 inches if memory serves me. You gotta do what you gotta do. And yes, these were steel fenders, finish painted along with the rest of the car. Just do it!!!!!!
The fella sitting on the tire is the god of hot rods and gassers. He will remain nameless as he is a very special resource and a valuable member of our hot rod creation team. It runs and drives!!!! Yup, we fired it up today, it is absolutely wicked. So loud, you can shout directly into another person's ear and they cannot hear you. It is an alcoholic! The E85 smells like applejack (fermented apples) when it burns. I LIKE IT! The engine runs amazingly cool. We idled at about 2000 rpm for 20 minutes and it would not go over 160 degrees. But we did burn up almost five gallons of fuel!!! We drove it down the State highway for a mile, sans doors, fenders, front clip, hood and deck lid. What a rush! We burned another gallon of fuel. I am estimating it will take four gallons per pass. We continue to progress. Obviously, the plumbing is complete. We have all the glass installed. We will have the sheet metal on this weekend. Lots to do and many details/adjustments to tend to. We have less than three weeks to go before the debut.
bodywork on these old fenders is slow going! But they are on the car! just a point of interest...the cowl was moved back 9.5" and the firewall was moved 12". There are dimples in the fender tops where they slid under the cowl. THATS how you can tell if a Willys has real steel fenders! We were not liking the amount of harmonic "ring" in the exhaust tone. It just dominated your thoughts. We also had an idle problem due to the big cam. Needed to be about 1800rpm to idle. Steve got a bright idea and inverted the header cones up into the headers. Both problems solved. Just a bit of back pressure was all it took.
The thrash is on...only ten days until we head for Back to the 50's. Kinda slow going now that we are on the bodywork. Steve did a great job on the frontend and hood. He will finish up the rear fenders today. I cringed when he cut up those virgin fenders, but he sure made them look cool with the radius and wheel lip he came up with. When you see the car, you will notice lots of little tricks and details that went into making it safe and durable. That is Steve's style. Function over form, I guess.
The Jalopy Journal
