Mick Coyne’s ‘41 Willys Gasser

Starting in the mid-1960s, I would watch Willys Gassers at the local drags in Half Moon Bay. I told myself “One of these days I’m going to have one.” I was in the Vietnam War in 1968 so this is my attempt to build a period correct 1968 Gasser.

In 1995, I found a steel body. It was really rough. This was a roundy-round dirt racer before bought it. It had been rolled twice and a foot was torched off the bottom of the entire car. What a project. But if I squinted my eyes real tight I could see a possibility.

I found a 41 Willys steel front end off a drag race truck in southern California. Welding, welding, and welding, it started to take shape. Patch panels came in handy. I got it to a point where I could actually drive it in 1996. It had a blown SBC, later switched to a blown BBC. Although it was a strong runner the SBC just looked too small under the hood.

Then it went to my friend’s [fabricator] “Choke’s” home shop in Sebastopol, Ca. He had previously built a roll cage in my ‘30 pickup so I knew his work was excellent to say the least. He built a full roll cage for it, a one-off rear suspension utilizing quarter elliptic springs and with ladder bars, slides up and down off the rear end housing. He boxed the frame, made new cross members, made an aluminum rear bumper, an aluminum steering column, and drop [not store-bought]. He even made the wheelie bars, again nothing store-bought; he made the exhaust system [with flanges] so no gaskets were needed. We did a lot of horse trading, parts for labor.

The engine is a 468 [454 bored], Isky hydraulic blower cam, with a 671 Supercharger, fender well headers with collectors, tricked TH400, and a 9” Nodular Ford rear end by Strange Engineering. Detroit Locker with 35 spline axles, and drive studs.

I had it painted 2008 Lamborghini red by Blackdog Customs. The wife had the front axle and parts chromed for my birthday… “if it don’t go – chrome it.”

I had it upholstered at Freddie’s Upholstery Shop in Concord, Ca. Black tuck-n-roll with a “not so secret/secret compartment. ”The headliner was a real challenge with the roll cage being so close to the roof.

I initially planned to drag race it in C/Gas [9.60et] but it took so long to locate these rare parts I decided to just drive it on the street. As an example, I found a dashboard in the state of Washington, one glove box door [they have two] in Palm Springs, and the other in NY. Stock gauge cluster in Saratoga California, dash trim in Pennsylvania, a used Sun tach with sending unit at a swap meet in Bakersfield… and that’s just the dash. This was all prior to the internet so my resources were magazines, swap meets, phone calls, traveling, and word of mouth. Incredible.

We’ve trailered it to several race tracks like Famoso in Bakersfield, Lodi, etc. but mostly drive it on the street.

Many thanks to my wife Elaine: she has been right there with me at my side every minute of the build. She’s a huge help. Yes, she does tune ups, brakes, you name it.

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