If I have any regular visitors to this blog, it probably hasn’t escaped their notice that, since the Halloween “Muscle Car Monster’s Ball” concluded, I have been spending almost all my time at my Model Motoring track and my old Aurora cars I call The Road Crew rather than at Drag City Raceway, the big Tomy AFX track where I race the Auto World Ultra G fleets. That’s normal for this time of year, since the last quarter gets so busy for me that I often don’t have time to run tournaments. That’s only partially because of the hectic nature of the holidays; it’s also that the industry I work in has its busiest time at the end of the year, so I’m often putting in long hours at the office and on the road. Added to all that, I’ve been finding some pretty good deals lately on some classics I’ve been wanting for a while, so I’ve been as busy rebuilding and restoring originals as I usually am customizing and racing the newer cars.
ABOVE: the ochre yaller ’41 Willys as it arrived (left) and during the “pre-build phase” before acquisition of the red tires, when I had standard “Tuff Ones” wheels on the front
All that said, I decided to do something a little different for the Road Crew for the end of the year, a sort of holiday celebration to pay homage to the original platform as 2023 draws to a close. What you see here is the result of that!
I obtained this really cool Willys body a while ago in a 2-body lot I bought primarily for the other car; it came along with the red Corvette Grand Sport I had been after for nearly 2 years. I can’t take credit for the body, because I bought it as you see it. I sure didn’t need another ’41 Willys – got many already in the muscle fleet! – but with its ochre yellow color, retro-style pinstripes and flames, and old-skool decals, this was just too cool to throw into “the body box” and forget about. But, what to do with it?
Knowing I had one remaining set of those cool retro AJ’s threaded aluminum wheels sitting around got me thinking that it would be cool to duplicate something I tried a while ago with one of my Cheetahs (which I later undid) and build an original Tuff Ones chassis using that set of wheels, going full early ‘70’s style with it as if it were an early 60’s Gasser redone for the following decade. What I had, however, was a set of white racing slicks for those wheels; what I wanted was a set of red ones. I had no idea how long it would take for me to finally find a set! It took months! I didn’t think they were hard to obtain because I used to see them for sale often, but of course, that was before I decided I wanted them! Then it was a hunt!
Well, I finally got a set of red tires, and I actually got more than I bargained for; I bought a whole car for the wheels, because I found one for sale that not only had the red slicks on the back but also had a set of threaded aluminum front wheels, something I had never seen before! That sealed the deal: I used the chassis on that car for another purpose, set the body aside for a future project, and the wheels, tires, and axles went on this Willys. And look at the results! Came out better than I ever planned! Like I said, all I did here was build the chassis; the body came as-is, but wow, does it ever look great! Runs great too, both in “cruise mode” and in “race mode” on the “HO Highway.” In fact, as a concept, this car came out so well that I decided to do up a second gasser-style dragster, so I went looking for another set of those cool AJ’s aluminum wheels. And I found them! And that turned into a far more extensive project, which-you shan’t be surprised, dear readers-will the the subject of the next post! So stay tuned, race fans!
The design of this is so very cool Bud. I’ve always thought those Willy’s were boss, and you made this one look incredible. Those red wheels are something else! Bravo!