Photos: Chadly Johnson Words: Al Lindgren & Chadly Johnson
I’ve been a car guy my entire life, more than some, less than others. As a kid growing up in Evansville, Indiana in the mid 1960s, I enjoyed the same things as other motor heads, including: 1/24 scale slot cars, Schwinn banana seat sting-rays, model kits, magazines, drag racing, gassers, etc. I built MANY 1/32 scale 1941 Willys kits, the Monogram ones that you put together and are seamed up the middle with plastic tires. I’d build them and paint them with my mom’s fingernail polish because it looked like a candy color. It used to really piss her off, but she never stopped me.
We moved back to Minnesota in ’68 when I was 10 years old while I was collecting any car magazine I could get my hands on. I would wear them out looking at the pictures. Most of this was way over my head, but I really liked the way both ’55 Chevy and Willys gassers looked. As I got older, I would rubber neck looking for those cool ’55 Chevys, thinking I could maybe buy one as soon as I got my license. I wanted to find a Willys, but they were NOWHERE to be found. I did see ‘55s in small towns and they also got me all whipped up!
I got my driver’s license the day I turned 16 and found a cool ‘55 Chevy Delray for sale. The double nickel had a blue lacquer paint job, Astro Supreme mags and a ’56 265 engine. I begged my dad to go look at it! When we checked it out, he said $1,500 was a ton of money for it, but he agreed he also liked it. With the money I had saved up I had the coolest ride on the planet!! I drove that car with pride for many years and even though it’s been gone for 40 years, people still ask, “Whatever happened to that Delray?” I guess the ‘55 made an impression on more folks than just me.
Zip forward to the ‘80’s, where a pair of Willys car clubs would aid in finding a coupe: the Westcoast Willys Club and the Mid-America Willys Club. I scoured the want-ads, and if it weren’t for Barb and Greg Dummer, founders of the Mid-America Club, I may not have found my coupe. The club would put out a magazine every other month and a membership booklet every year. The membership booklet came with the names of owners, what cars they owned and where they lived, plus phone numbers. I just started calling people with Willys and asking if anything was for sale. I’d put a post-it note next to everyone I called. I still have those directories and notes!
Well, one fellow about 60 miles south of where I lived said he “may” entertain selling his ’41 coupe. I couldn’t drive down there fast enough! This was the spring of ’91. The car was a garage build that was slammed with a big block, wheelie bars, parachute and a roll cage. The coupe was basically a drag car. Well, I had gotten married the year before and we were still living in an apartment. My new bride agreed that the opportunity to find one didn’t come along very often, and she agreed we should buy it! $5500 later and I had my dream car… a 1941, all steel Willys coupe.
The coupe was not a nice car by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a steel coupe! We drove the ‘41 into the “Back to the 50’s” car show that summer in St. Paul, MN. With the coupe not being all that nice, my wife wondered if we would even make it to the show. We drove in, and a guy immediately jumped out in front of us and yelled STOP! The guy had to run to get his camera for a photo. My wife said, “I don’t get it, it’s a piece of shit.” I smiled and said, “It’s a Willys.” At that time there were no glass cars out yet and the steel cars were rare…I guess the steel cars still are.
The car was parked after a few years because life kind of got in the way. Over the years, in my mind’s eye I had everything to build on the car. I knew exactly how I wanted it! I would walk by it every morning on my way to work, thinking: Someday I’ll get to it. I was always looking for parts and collecting stuff for the day that I’d start the build.
I have actually owned more than 10 Willys over the years, some just for parts, and some really nice ones like an un-restored ’41 coupe that is sitting in a museum in California right now. I’ve had a complete running ’34 rumble seat coupe… the ’34 was cool and very rare, but I like the fat fender ’37-’42 Willys more. I bought out two of my California friends’ Willys collections just to get the best parts I could find. Buying out collections is not an inexpensive endeavor, but when this stuff becomes available, you gotta jump on it! I had this vision, and nice Willys parts would get me closer to that vision of what I wanted the car to be. Collecting also kept me “in” the hobby even if the coupe was just sitting there waiting for what was to come. Jobs, kids, building a house, starting a machine shop business, but always the thought that maybe someday the time would come to build the dream. I didn’t pick a date to start; it just kinda started, and I kept the build going on and off as money would allow…a process that took more than 15 years.
The coupe has many features I’m proud of, but the main feature is simply the fact that all the Willys parts are actually Willys parts… or as close as I could possibly get it. I didn’t open up a pile of catalogs and start to order stuff, but instead hunted for years, and stepped up paying big money for rare parts. The coupe has ’41-42 window cranks and they are VERY rare. The ’41 sits on its stock chassis and runs its stock gas tank with a correct gas cap, which are extremely difficult to find. Most people wouldn’t know one if they saw one, but a true Willys guy “has to have one!”
Some non-Willys features include the 265 engine, which is the same one that came out of my ’55 Delray and that I’ve held onto since ’77. I’ve also had the Corvette valve covers since ’77, when I purchased them from a dealer for $22. Topping the engine is a 4-71 Weiand roots blower with a single Holley 650 double pumper. The 265 also features: a Joe Hunt Magneto, Eelco oil pan, and a unique custom air cleaner built by Kurt at Creative Metalworks. I didn’t want a hole in the hood, so Kurt designed it to fit. The holes in the air cleaner represent the back split window. Mated to the engine is a Muncie M22 4 speed placing power to a ’57-’64 Olds/Pontiac rear end with 4:10 Richmond gears. Bolted to the rear and Don Long style front axle are 16×10 and 15×4.5 Halibrands with Firestone and vintage Goodyear Blue Streak tires.
The interior of the coupe displays a stock seat, clear ’41 date coded glass, chrome window moldings and a vintage “Slot and Dot” Cragar steering wheel. Externally the coupe wears its original color of Stage Bedford Grey accented by Champagne gold, which is how Willys came off the production line in ‘41.
I had the coupe back home 2015, not totally done but it was time to start having some fun. I was fortunate that I had some very talented people, many encouraging lifelong friends… and an understanding wife to help make this dream happen. It’s funny – through all the changes that happened in the hotrod world since the build started, the car never deviated much from my mind’s eye vision so long ago.
I have to give special thanks to: Kurt and Pat at Creative Metalworks (chassis & air cleaner), Jeff Fiala at Wheeler Racing Engines, Jon’s Custom Chrome shop, Jennie Bloedorn at Upholstery by Stichbitch, and L’Cars (metal work, paint and final assembly). Thank you all for helping turn the vision in my head into a driving reality.
