A Wild and Wooly ’41 Willys Gasser from the Inside-Out!
In 1969, seven-year-old Kevin Doolittle received an H.O. slot car racetrack for Christmas. The two cars included with the kit were a ’55 Nomad and a 1941 Willys coupe and from that day forward, young Kevin knew he was going to own a Willys Gasser someday…it just took him 47 years!
Actually, over the course of the ensuing decades, Kevin has been through a lot of cars…like hundreds. But, for some reason, a ’41 Willys Gasser had eluded him, even though he built and still has several other vintage Willys in his garage. Kevin restored the historic “Challenger” ’40 Willys driven by Jim Kirby of drag racing fame and owns the Mura brothers’ World’s Wildest Willys pickup that was named America’s Most Beautiful Competition Vehicle at the 1965 Grand National Roadster Show.
As amazing as those Willys are, Kevin still craved a ’41 coupe that he could drive and enjoy on the street. It was just a matter of the right car coming up at the right time, which happened about a decade ago.
Like most car guys, Kevin is constantly searching the web for cool rides, even though his garage and project list are already packed. Finally, a bright yellow ’41 Willys showed up on eBay. “It was an old street rod with a 396, a crushed velour interior, and 40-year-old pearl yellow paint.” Kevin told us. “I knew that as soon as I got my hands on it, it was going to become an old-school Willys Gasser.”
With the winning bid, he brought the old Willys home. The aging street rod was dated to say the least, but it was all original Willys steel, nice chrome, and a running, driving car – though far from what Kevin envisioned. It was time to call in the troops.
When you’ve been playing with cars for 50 years, one tends to build a pretty solid network of talented car pals that are ready to help out where they can. The process started with Donny Shaner, of Rebel Auto in Lake City, Pennsylvania, who found and went through a bigger big block Chevy to provide the thumpity-thump heartbeat a Gasser requires.
The answer came in the form of 496 cubic inches of Chevy thunder fed through a pair of Holley carbs perched high atop an Edelbrock tunnel ram intake. An MSD ignition system provides the zap to ignite the fuel mixture, with the spent fumes blasting out through a custom set of stainless steel zoomies. The TH400 was freshened up by Bonnati’s Transmission and received a Hughes 3,500rpm stall converter, while Kevin went through the big Oldsmobile rearend, stuffing it with a Posi unit and 4.10 gears.
As the drivetrain came together, Kevin turned to Scotty Zielinsky of Sew it Seams in nearby Erie to transform the crushed velour into a classic black diamond-stitched interior. The worn-down bench was tossed in favor of a pair of ’64 T-bird buckets that were covered, along with the headliner and side panels, in black vinyl diamonds. The dash remains stock except for the Stewart Warner gauges installed during the car’s street rod days, and Kevin powers through the gears via a B&M shifter.
The Willys frame was retained, though the front end was hefted up high with a pair of chrome leaf springs attached to a drilled and chromed straight axle. The drum brakes were also retained – and chromed of course! Out back, the Olds rearend is secured with leaf springs and long fabricated ladder bars. Kevin chose the classic Cragar S/S wheels, 15×4-inches in the front with 15×10 out back.
As for that 40-year-old paint? After radiusing the rear fender openings to fit the Radir pie crust slicks, Mark Swartzlander of East Coast Air Brush and Design deemed the yellow as a perfect canvass to add “all kinds of crazy.” As you can see, we’re talking a glorious blend of custom paint practices including, but not limited to, lace, patterns, metallics, fades, infinite geometric lines, bubbles, starbursts, and even some custom lettering, all adding up to a sum that’s so much greater than its parts. You just have to smile.
It took more than four decades, but it seems the wait for this Willys Gasser was worthwhile, as Kevin explained that he wouldn’t change a thing on the car. That’s partly because he just got done changing everything, but this is also the Willys he’s had in his mind for ages. And for anyone thinking this is a fairgrounds cruiser, he recently drove it home from Nashville more than 600 miles, cheater slicks and all!
You gotta find them, build them, then drive ’em!
Photos by John Jackson
