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 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, and a long stem Lokar shifter reaches for the sky. 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 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.

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 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 600 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.