Car Features

Photos: Chadly Johnson     Words: Jeff “Titus” Bloedorn

Everyone knows that old race cars sure can go through the mill; well, this Willys coupe was surely one of them. Al Tschida teamed up with Fuehr and Farsund to build this Willys in late 1965. Parts from Al's Nationals-winning Willys from 1964 were used in the construction of the coupe, so it already had some proven parts, and a proven mechanic and driver (Tschida). The car was even painted the same color as Al's last Willys... Burma Green. The team took the car from Minnesota to California for the 1966 Pomona Winternationals. When they got there, they decided a class change was needed, and they added some balast to the rear and went from C to D gas class. And guess what... they won!

In the end, the team broke up and Al ended up with the car. He then sold the car to his brother in law Bill Mitchell, but remained the mechanic and driver, sometimes trading driver dutys with Bill. Somewhere along the line some candy green paint went on the car, along with graphics for the Antelope Valley Speed Center, which was a fictional shop as Bill was a land dealer and owned some land in Antelope Valley, Calif. Eventually Bill Had the lettering changed to reflect a new business of which he was part owner: The Triad Land Company. In the 1969 Pomona Winternationals the car rubbed the wall with Bill drivng it; it damaged one side of the car, so Dennis Ricklef was hired to repair and paint the car... and off it went to race some more. A couple years later the gasser classes were going away, so Bill sold off the car.

Doug Mosch, out of Marshall, Minn., bought the car in California minus the motor and flat towed it back home. Doug owned “Doug’s Used Cars and Speed Parts,” so the doors got re-lettered again! Doug didn't own the car for very long before he sold it to Doug Woltjer, who put stickers over the doors that read "Wild Willys" and installed a Big block Chevy with a tunnel ram. He then drove the car to High School! After a while, the BBC made way for a tamer SBC and was driven some more. Doug owned the car from 1971 to 1982.

The Willys went on to another couple of owners who didn't do much with it, and their names seem to have been forgotten. In 1985 Jim Minnichsoffer from Scandia, MN ended up with the car. Jim had plans to street rod it, so the front clip and front suspension were given to his neighbor! Unfortunately, and fortunately, Jim never made any progress on street rodding it, and the car was put into long term storage.

Fast forward to 2014. After a 25 year chase, John Zechbauer finally was able to purchase the car from Jim; then the long task of finding all the original parts to the car was started. John knew where the front clip and suspension were. It turns out 9 months after Jim had given the parts to his neighbor, the neighbor passed away; his two boys held onto the parts and didn’t really seem to want to get them back to the right home. After some tense times and a lot of help from Jim and of course a money exchange, the parts were reunited back where they belong. John also got in touch with Doug Woltjer and was able to get the original driver side window out of the car.

Now the motor was long gone; it originally had a SBC in it, so that’s what went back in, with Hilborn injection and a 4-speed transmission. The front suspension and clip were all reinstalled back on the car too. Great attention to detail was paid as it was painstakingly rebuilt using all the vintage photos. A decision was also made for it to get the Triad Land company logo put back on the doors. The logo job went to the very skilled Kathy Weeks at Weeks End Sign in Lake Elmo, Minn... it was the perfect finishing touch! At the time of the photographs John was still working on getting the Willys running, and he hopes to hear it roar back to life very soon.