blown 392 willys coupe

stopped by a friends shop and he had this chopped top 41 willys coupe in for some carb adjustments
it's all steel and has a 871 blown 392 ci engine and it sounds really GOOD
thought you guys might like to see it

it should be a very nice car when it's finished...



Click here to hear it run:
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v512/moparron426/th_IMG_2731_zpscglw3ath.mp4[/img]

real nice ron ! at least those carbs are, or should be, easier to adjust than crawling in the back of your chopped van to adjust the six-pac carbs it had on it when i got that task. i think i melted 12 times before those carbs were dead on , and it wasn't even close to being warm that day. if i had to do that today, i would have a heat stroke for sure ! the inside of your van with the engine running was, how shall we say, a "little" on the toasty side. any more pics or info on that willys ?

Chopped a steel Willys coupe then butchered up steel fenders???

looks like the fenders were returned to the stock opening. i wondered about that too, and the reason for doing so.

Looks like they fixed a previous hack by widening the rear fenders to sit over the tires properly then fixed the hacked opening.

That would be a major pita to change the rear wheels on. Not my taste, but its not my car either. Gene

Yeah Gene we discussed that it looked like a pain to get the rear tires off, it looks like the whole rear end would need to be removed to change a tire. poor design.

Piano hinge the fenders, lol.

Sometimes it's form over function.

He could solid fill the tires.

Probably wouldn't ride much different.

Changing to lug bolts from studs and lug nuts solves that issue.

- EM

Pretty sure the rim overhangs the brakes by more than there is room between the tire and fender.

Sweet Ride.....Love 392's and Willys..... Tough Crowd in here or Jealous...????

Rickster

Nope, just goofing around

Being a long time Moparts member, I'm just following the long held Moparts tradition, I'm stating my opinion. LOL!

Its a great car, much nicer then anything I've ever owned, and nicer that anything I will ever own. But its not my thing.

All of that still doesn't change the fact that changing a rear tire will be a major pita on that car. Gene

imagine being at the side of the road and having to drop the rear suspension to change a tire. not for me.

The reality is, it might never see much road time. It will probably get a ride to and from the event, maybe drive to and from the nearest hotel, but likely, drive to and from the waiting trailer.
It might see some track time, and might cruise around the event grounds. In all fairness, it might see limited local cruising, but I'll bet the trailer isn't far away. You can't have enough room to put a very big suitcase in the trunk.....Its not going to see any cross country road trips on its own. Gene

Yeah, figure on putting it on a lift and dropping the rear axle. Could be worse, try pulling the wheels off the studs on my '50 Olds.

John, maybe shorter studs might help.
Before we opened up the wheel openings on one of my son's early 50s projects, so many years ago, it was a pita to get the tires off the rear of that too. Those old cars weren't designed to have wide wheels and wheel studs instead of wheel bolts. Gene

If I jack up my 67 by the rear I cannot get the 8" wheels off of it.. I have to lift it up by the frame....

Not as bad as that willys would be, but I have had to set it back down a couple of times ( when I first got it back on the road) and reset the jack from the rear end to the frame....

It reminds me of a Muscle Machines die-cast my wife has. I personally couldn't cut up a Willys. That's one of those car designs the car company got right the first time. I do salute him building something different.

Local guy here had a 65 Chevy that had to have the box removed to change a rear tire.

The box? what's that? Honestly, whens the last time you had a flat tire? The car probably has a coil over shock rear suspension so you would only have to remove to nuts to drop the rear to remove the tires. If you did have a flat while going down the road you'd be calling a wrecker as there it no place big enough to carry a spare that size.

Like all automotive projects similar to what we do, you need to have a plan going in (long before you start) - and the plan should include where you live and how far you have to drive to do the things you want to do with your project such as shows, racing, fun trips, etc. This car, obviously, is not going to be something that you would want to drive very far from home. If you want to participate in stuff that is over 100 miles from home base, and be able to drive there and back ( in any weather ), Your car is going to have to be equipped with more than a cell phone. And no matter how much you try to make your car road worthy, a trailer back is almost always mandatory.

Speaking of Willys (what's the plural of Willys?), I'm helping a friend with the finishing touches on his '33 Coupe...490 inch B block, Torqueflite, Fab Nine rear end

Summer>>>>> Good stuff rite their !!!!

absolutely correct. at my age and condition, i have a somewhat complete contingency plan thought out. what's funny is, the car [my 33 dodge humpback panel truck] is nowhere near complete. it will be a real pain to drive more than around 100 miles, so i either need many stops, or trailer it to where the destination will be. with that said, i am trying to keep my vision of 40+ years ago alive, and i hope to be able to complete this vision to a somewhat driveable state before i cash in. if my life changes even a little bit in the next year, i hope to be able to continue on this quest, and hope to be able to share a pic or two on the progress.

I would love to see your humpback, can you post some pics of it?

That's gorgeous John. 33 is my personal favorite year of Willys.

- EM

Sticking with our original plan for my 33, I wanted to carry provisions to fix a flat on the road if necessary. I carry a small bottle jack, lug wrench, inflation bottle with sealer in it, in a little compartment in mt trunk.

that's a great plan for a flat tire situation john. as most rods run a greatly mismatched tire size, there is not a really convenient way to carry both sizes of tires needed for spares unless a guy wanted to tow a small trailer of sorts. traveling distances in, or with, a group of friends helps a lot if difficulties arise. i really like your trunk execution by the way !

I have a AAA membership. Most of my cruising is within a 100 mile radius of my house. That's my contingency plan for not carrying a spare.

I've put well over 100,000 miles on hot rods over the years, and have not had a flat tire, in fact, most of those miles were without even having a spare tire, but even then, I don't have vehicles I couldn't change a tire on if I was sitting on the side of the road. I can just see getting a rare flat on a car like the Willys in some hoe dunk little town and expecting some old guy in a small garage to drop the rear end because I had a flat, but then again, you will be waiting for a tire to be shipped in from someplace anyway. So I guess it really doesn't matter.

I suppose the difference is that I build my cars to drive. Function carries a lot more priority the form does to me. Gene

Hope you didn't jinx yourself with that first sentence. Your way over due!

Nice work Ron !!

Crizilla,
A few years ago, we had a tire go down on my wife's PT, but we were just a few blocks from a tire store and the tires had almost 60K on them, we bought new tires.
We also had a flat on the PT last summer, but were a few blocks from Walmart with a tire center. It was nearly time for new tires again. We replaced them last month. Seems to be a repeating issue, old tires on the PT! LOL!

If the Dakota gets a flat (the tires on it are about 6 years old, but look almost new great thread, no cracks or signs of dry rot), I might have to get a new truck, nearly any excuse will work...

The tires on the coupe were new in May, but we did become members of AAA this last spring, I'm getting too old to gamble as much as I used to. Gene

No spare last two cars, maybe the next one.
Been doing this stuff from when tubeless tires where started and tubeless almost never go flat quickly, usually a slow leak and you can make it to safety.

We are a little isolated where we live. Just about any direction out of our town = 70 - 80 miles to civilization again. Guess I'm just a little paranoid.