Vehicle Description
1922 Willys Street Rod
John North Willys, a pioneer automobile dealer from Elmira, NY
became head of the nearly moribund Overland Co. of Indianapolis in
1907 after the firm had suffered financial reverses. The following
year he moved production to the old Pope factory in Toledo, Ohio
where the marque would make its home for decades to come. Overland
soon earned a reputation for building sturdy, economical, stylish
cars priced with three speed gearboxes, instead of Ford's two speed
planetary gears, and with more powerful engines.
Straying from its original design, but still in keeping with the
theme, this freshly detailed wild Willys street rod from 1922 took
most of the original car away, and now just utilizes the passenger
tub and radiator surround from the original car. Also, the Overland
frame has been used, but certainly beefed up to make this runner
structurally sound. An interesting build and certainly when it
comes to weight reduction, this car takes the cake.
Exterior
KISS (Keep it simple stupid) mantra was utilized to the nines on
this build. The passenger tub and radiator surround would be the
key components of steel and the reference to the original car. This
steel has been massaged to near perfection, with no rust and
straight doors and gaps, all bathed in royal blue. The radiator is
capped off with an Overland badged Motometer styled radiator cap
with a dog bone twister. A nicely chromed front windshield surround
which is tiltable and frames the front of the tub, on the back is a
chromed roll bar. Behind the tub is a stainless long "bolster"
styled gas tank and two small taillights perched on top of the big
square tube framing. All hanging out for the world to see, 15-inch
Billet Specialties polished wheels are wrapped by 165R15's in front
and ultra-wide 29x18.5-15's in back. It does not get any more
classic California lake bed drop the hanky style than this example.
Smoke 'em if ya got 'em, and this car does and can!
Interior
Opening the small door on either side gives us access to the
passenger compartment and the KISS plot thickens. Ivory vinyl
covers the innards of the doors and has some horizontal tuck and
roll stitching in the middle. Slipping past the pristine black
carpeting, I took the opportunity to take off my shoes and wriggle
my tootsies in this beautiful carpeting, but I digress! A squared
off tuck and roll ivory vinyl bench stretches across the back of
the tub and rests right up against the roll bar. There is a padded
pool noodle in the ivory vinyl rimming the back of the tub. In
front a royal blue dash has a machined aluminum panel with swirl
pattern housing VDO black bezeled and faced gauges. Fronting is a
rally style steering wheel from Grant GT atop the steering column
along with a new turn signal switch, and a well-placed Lokar
shifter reaches for the driver's hand. Stick 'em up.
Drivetrain
Here's the money shot, with all chromed and polished add ons to the
350ci V8 mill which has been bored over .060 over. It is topped
with dual 4-barrel carburetors and red ribbed cast valve coverings.
Headers snake their way to a big side pipe on either side, but
these are blocked off and the exit is now from the bottom of the
car. On the back is a 700R4 4-speed automatic transmission with
Ford 8-inch 4.11 TracLoc rear axle in blazing red paint. The back
of this engine bay is highlighted with a Bowes seal fast
stainless-steel machined firewall just for extra mechanical bling
to hang all out there. Our consignor notes that an oil and filter
change were recently performed as well as a new starter being
installed.
Undercarriage
More mechanical eye candy under here with solid clean black painted
steel frame and floor pans. Upfront a Mustang II with coil over
suspension is on, and in back a 4 link with coilovers and a Panhard
bar. Disc brakes are in front, and the drums with new wheel
cylinders are retained for the back. A glass pack style exhaust
takes the spent gasses from the sidelines and quiets it just a
bit.
Drive-Ability
A quick starter, and as it warms up think of it as an orchestra
getting ready to play a symphony. We took her out and from personal
passenger experience this car is an E ticket ride! The radials take
a while to hook up, but when they do, you can quickly get yourself
up there with this car. And the sound is incredible. The car is
very stable despite its power, and you can easily drive it normally
on a back road or boulevard.
A not often seen car even in its original form, but this original
steel and frame version is truly fun-tastic! An awesome build with
some serious balls, and the engine and drivetrain are true visual
bling. Sunglasses please, and I'll have a bullet to bite on during
takeoff.
Classic Auto Mall is a 336,000-square foot classic and special
interest automobile showroom, featuring over 650 vehicles for sale
with showroom space for up to 1,000 vehicles. Also, a 400 vehicle
barn find collection is on display.
This vehicle is located in our showroom in Morgantown,
Pennsylvania, conveniently located just 1-hour west of Philadelphia
on the I-76 Pennsylvania Turnpike. The website is
www.classicautomall.com and our phone number is (888) 227-0914.
Please contact us anytime for more information or to come see the
vehicle in person.
