A Stitch In Time

The car came with "Factory Air" but it only worked with the vent open and driving at 50 mph. Therefore a Vintage Air system was selected and the old factory air closed by "stitching" in some metal and let the bodyman work it over. Also the antenna hole was plugged. All of the work was done at J&B Streetrods. In the picture above you can see that the brake booster was mounted on the firewall. The decision was made to install it on the frame and make the firewall as smooth as possible. I was thinking about the cost of this project and it is good news; if I had left the money in the stock market I would have lost 50% of it therefore I have only spent 50% of what I thought I had spent.

PS I am looking through the Stimulus Package and hope to find something for this project and I think I have found it: 1 billion dollars for Old Former Army Retired Trying Somehow to build a car (Old FARTS)

2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back

Sometimes things just don't go the way they are supposed to; the wood on the sides have developed stress crack along the joints; last night the dash lights wouldn't work; the low beam headlights were about as bright as a burned out match; then I overfilled the gas tank and ran gas out the overflow causing an "Al Gore" reportable incident; and I had 25 emails about basically nothing. Other than that it was a pretty good day.

Now back to the real world, we are wiring the power windows and lo and behold nothing seems to work. The connectors that came with the kit are too big, won't make good contact and basically suck but alas things could be worse. Here is one of the worse things that could happen.

This car was advertised to cruise smoothly at 80 mph.

Not quite sure if that was true. As you can see the U-bolts holding the rear end in the car were not even through the nuts as well as the lugs for the wheels were too short. Maybe he meant safe at 8 MPH.

A New Expert Emerges

By now all of the floor has been replaced and the body was ready for a first class bodyman to work the metal and paint the car. The guy next door was a retired bodyman and said he could do the job. He was into the job and doing a good job but had to quit due to illness.

That left me to seek EXPERT NUMBER 2. While the body was in the shop we could concentrate on the frame. After looking for awhile I picked up a business card for a body shop. I interviewed him and he looked at the car and said $10,000 to do the body work. I said that was outside of the budget and he came back with a $6,500 bid. I accepted and then the body went to his shop. He picked up the body and started to remove panels and weld in new ones, EVEN the ones we had put in. His father was there telling what a good guy he was a great bodyman. I visited a couple of times. He wasn't making much progress and then the big bomb. We need to sign another contract because of all of the work was not counted in the contract even though the contract said; "All bodywork, paint and polish" Let's see if you are good with Math; How much was the new contract? You are right Mr. Computerhead: $10,000.

And The Beat Goes On

Still sad after the departure of the MGM I now return to the Building The Willys. After much thought I will now review some of the metal replacement. After ripping the floor out as you can see there was considerable work to accomplish. We decided to replace all of the floor from the firewall to the tailgate. This was not an easy task and patch panels purchased proved to not fit. The best part was calling the panel provider and them saying "well all Willys are different". Makes you feel sooooo good. Tomorrow we will intoduce you to yet another "Expert" Expert 2 in our series of experts.

An Old Friend Leaves Town

Today I want to forget the Willys and tell you that an old friend has left town. It was my faithful companion for the past 3 years and many car shows and 38 thousand great miles. It has gone to Arkansas to a new owner and hopefully will give him the same cruising miles that I had, Bye Bye MGM (Mercury Green Monster, a name given by my granddaughter)

I Just Wanted a Tuneup

Sometimes you dig into something and instead of stopping you reach for a bigger shovel. I just wanted to tune the Willys a little and BAM it is now torn apart and this is just the beginning. The front seats sat on risers (actually they were floor mounted glove boxes) and my head would hit the roof, so out they came and then we moved the crossmember back behind the seats to get it lower, Well that sounds simple but ....... it takes a lot of doing.

But so what it is fun (??) and sometimes you just want to do it right. I know I know, that is a change

In a couple of days you will meet Expert # 2, so be ready.

The Studs of Motorcraft

Had to go on a business trip and actually was too lazy to post, probably lost my readership. Today I want to discuss some of the crew. They all have low testosterone levels UNTIL a hood is raised and then they become

"The Studs of Motorcraft"

We all know them, a lot of tools, nothing to work on and BAM a hood goes up, their libido goes up and the smell of testosterone is in the air. At the far right is Bill Horne (pronounced Horny) and owner of J&B Streetrods. In the middle is Keith the Woodman aka. Paul Bunyon and on the left is Jay the Polish Man. These are just some of the staff that contributed to the building of the car. Wait now I'm not sure Jay did that much, but he always took the largest chair so it was never stolen, but work I can't remember any. Oh wait a minute he did polish HIS wheels to try and look busy.

One other character is Jim: His sandwiches are so heavy he needs the transmission lift just to get them at should level. From Brooklyn so what can you expect. A good man and gets a lot done unfortunately not on the Willys.