1938 WILLYS
HOLDEN BODY (AUSTRALIAN) 3 WINDOW
BUSINESS COUPE
This 1938 Willys Coupe was bought after
We brought the car home on a rental trailer
it was found on a ForSale board at Valla
behind my 1937 Ford Club Cabriolet
Park Rod Run in 1997
Looked pretty neat too.
Since purchasing the Coupe it had been put into storage awaiting it's
turn.
The Coupe is now back home due to the storage not being available
any longer, so to maximize space the Willys Pickup Cab was removed from
the chassis and the Coupe body put in it's place.
This coupe differs from other Australian Willys Coupes that I have come
across in that it has a full boot (deck) lid instead of a rumble seat which
seems to be the normal way.
As people in other countries may gather this body is somewhat different
to the US body style.
The Australian Holden body differs mainly at the front door
pillar, the tops of the doors and has a 3" higher windscreen.The other
coupe bodies produced where built by TJ Richards which were a 5 window
coupe but had the same front doors as a US sedan but had different door
hinges and handles.
With the coupe body fitted to the Rodded
The door pillars in the Aust bodies are
Pickup chassis I have started to fit a steel
timber which will be replaced by sedan
frame to support the body so that the body
pillars which are metal. although they
can removed when the pickup cab is finished.
do need to be modified to fit.
I have managed to find another cowl from a 1939 Willys sedan which will
replace the
rusted out coupe cowl. As you can see by the photo's the new cowl
required some repair
on the door hinge pillar. It has now been fixed. the new cowl will
be fitted shortly after
the door pillars have been replaced and the body strenghtened. Isn't
this fun.
The time has come to remove the old cowl which can be quite daunting
but it had to be done. the inner header panel was also very rusty due to
a rat's nest so it was also removed and the replacement cowl had a good
header panel so it was used. It made lining up of the windscreen edge much
easier.
With the new cowl fitted and doors put back on it was time to roll
the coupe out for a few
photo's. Where the roof joins the top of the rear quarters it was
quite rusty under the 10lbs
of lead so it was modified instead of coming straight down and joining
it has been given a slight roll, which to me looks a lot better. These
photo's were taken previous to that work.
The coupe will lowered all round so it will have a 90's stance.
When the body has been sufficiently strenghened it will be placed on a
spare chassis and work will continue back on the Pickup body untill it
is finished.