1940 Plymouth Willys Pickup - Project Thread

Just wanted to start a thread to document a 1940 Plymouth that Mopar_Ron and I are putting together. I purchased the truck a few years ago, but I started working on it this summer.

We put the truck on a 1980's Toyota pickup chassis and it'll be setup to resemble a traditional' type of hot rod.



I cannot find the photos from when we started, but I'll post the pics I have right now.

Mocking up the front fenders



Ron showed me how to make a cab mount and I proceeded to make the next five. Ron = OVERkill.

We then decided we were going to "squattie" the truck to get it that much lower, so I assembled the front clip, measured where everything looked good, and then marked the cab where the bolt holes are on the fender. Then we pulled the whole front clip off and drilled the holes we marked, while also welding in some nice 1/4" studs to make everything really simple for removal.



After some more examination there was a anonymous vote that the stock plymouth was punched in too bad. Ron had the idea to take a piece 1x1/4" plate and bent it to the contour of the front of his '41 Willys. We then built these center section pieces off of that a some pieces of 1/2"x1/2" tubing. We didn't want to directly copy his, so this will look like a '40 Willys/Hybrid/Custom/Headscratcher.





















Mind you, this was ALL done without access to an english wheel.

Checking space for motor mounts and relocating the strut rods to behind the control arm, versus in front which was gonna fight with my radiator room.

We also cut out the whole torsion bar suspension/cross member, etc.





Test fit and in the 318/727 goes. We then proceeded to make motor and tranny mounts from some 1/8" steel plate and some spare roll bar tubing.



Our AWESOME removable tranny mount.



My awesome LB Swap meet score - $40.

After removing the torsion bar suspension setup, I had committed to going with airbags. I ended up stealing some from Ron that I must replace at a later date when funds are available.

We started by removing the shock, shock mount, lower snubber and some bracing that we will box in later.

It was originally just going to sit low, but after we started cutting, I decided it needed to be lower, and a little lower...







Trimming our homemade airbag plates.











We did the same trimming to both sides.^^

Test fit



After welding



New height



Then we did the other side the exact same way. We're getting pretty good at this.



This is a MUST WATCH video.



This is how low it will set, whenever parked.



It has 9" of fully adjustable travel.





UP



Gasser-wannabe





and down...

Paint the grill cardboards white and call it MATER. Great pic's and project. Keep them coming.

the truck is coming along nicely
can you tell Jon is happy about how low it can go.
he did a little on the floor area to then on to making the sheet metal to cover it and then make a trans tunnel
then on to making the headers....

Why the 80s Toyota PU chassis?

Quote:

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Why the 80s Toyota PU chassis?

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we had it

This is a budget build,
had the chassis
had the engine and trans
have a radiator
have a gauge set(A100 van)
have a shifter
have some wheels
have a steering column
had the air bags and compressor
have bed sides and rear fenders
making a set of headers
have some seats


need windows
manual valve body
mufflers
wiring
hoses and belts(might have them to)

teaching Jon how to weld
fabricate
metal work
body work
and get a cool old truck road worthy on a budget
Ron...