It's hard to imagine that this '41 Willys was once used exclusively at the drags. Well, maybe not in its current attire, but it appears to be the legacy of many a Willys car or truck! It's reported that this truck was raced at Lakeland Drag Strip in Florida but spent its evenings at home in Memphis, Tennessee. It was here that Steve Legens of Legens Hot Rod shop in Martins, Tennessee, would find and build this pick'emup for Seth Wagner of Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Seth is an avid street rodder who always wanted a truck, and this just seemed like the right project. We can't argue with four years of tremendous effort by LHR and the cumulative effect of 241 handcrafted modifications. The truck was debuted at this year's Detroit Autorama, capturing Great 8 recognition while competing for the prestigious Ridler Award--again, impressive for the first one-off sheetmetal attempt by Steve Legens and his staff.
The foundation for the Willys consists of a LHR frame made from .125-inch wall steel tubing with bobbed rear framehorns and H-member. Anchoring the 100-inch wheelbase chassis is a Kugel IFS with Aldan coilover shocks, and Wilwood 13-inch diameter rotors/disc brakes operated by a Kugel underdash master cylinder/pedal assembly. Steering comes by way of a Sweet rack-and-pinion. The IRS is based on a Winters quick-change centersection with a limited-slip 4.11 ring-and-pinion, Kugel uprights and axles, Wilwood inboard disc brakes, four Aldan coilover shocks, and lots of chrome and polish work. To this you can find one-off Budnik Revolver wheels measuring 20x8 1/2 in front and 22x10 in back, and outfitted with Nitto tires--245/35/ZR20 and 285/35/ZR22.
As a one-of-a-kind effort, it's a moot point to say that the top is chopped or the body is sectioned, as the entire metal jacket deviates from stock. To make the body, Steve had dies and wooden bucks made of a stock '41 Willys bodylines and the window openings. From here fresh sheetmetal was shaped to what you see before you. Other custom efforts include the hood (custom sides, latch, spring-loaded release), grille (Dan's Polishing stainless steel insert), modified '34 Ford door handles, and headlight openings, which have polished Mini Cooper lenses dropped in and '41 Willys taillight lenses fitted within custom cups in back. But it doesn't stop there, as the pickup bed is added art. Between the LHR stainless steel runners, a bed of lace wood flooring has the LHR fuel filler concealment kit that allows access to the modified and polished stainless steel 18-gallon Rock Valley tank. LHR sprayed over the fresh metal Spies Hecker two-tone silver and charcoal paint.
All hot rods should have something special under the hood. In fact, a Willys should always have a blown Chrysler Hemi to be true to form! While the criterion is met, it may not be exactly what you had expected. It's a blown Hemi alright, but this time a 2005 Daimler-Chrysler 5.7L modular Hemi that started life from Street & Performance with a Viper manual tranny (McLeod clutch and shifter) was matched to it as the basis for the power. An Inland Empire Driveline aluminum polished driveshaft transports the power between the tranny and the rearend. As for the blower, it is an inner cooled Magnuson supercharger prepped for the installation by LHR with one of their intakes and numerous other mods. The camshaft comes from COMP Cams, the injection and computer are by way of FAST, and all cooling chores fall to a Walker radiator and SPAL electric fan. The stainless steel headers come from Stainless Works while the remainder of the exhaust system was fabbed by LHR with Magnaflow stainless mufflers as part of the mix. The air cleaner element is a K&N, but the packaging is all custom from LHR while all the brightwork was handled by Dan's Polishing.
Inside, the pickup is just as unique as it is outside. Let's start by saying that everything is custom, hand-tweaked, or just plain pulled from Steve's imagination--it's simpler that way. In the meantime, the fabricated dashboard and gauge pods house the Classic Instrument gauges, which have custom faces with a "W" logo for Seth Wagner imprinted on the gauge faces (a service CI will perform on their gauges for any car owner.) Look closely at the custom floor-mounted console and you will see the McLeod shifter, but you will also notice a reworked Vintage Air control panel for the heater, air conditioner, and vent system, and an Eclipse DVD/GPS system that powers Pioneer 4-inch and 6x9-inch speakers.
Insulation comes from Dynamat and wiring from Ron Francis, both systems installed by LHR. The Flaming River steering column is topped off with a '52 Holden wheel by Pearlcraft (Australia) fitted with a custom horn button. The buckets are another custom item, stitched with buffalo leather in a caramel hue with saffron-color BMW velour carpeting. Door panels, mirror, air conditioning vents, and pedals are all LHR. About the pedals, they are whittled from aluminum with lace wood inserts.
Have we told you everything about this Willys--no! Unfortunately there isn't enough space in this month's issue of STREET RODDER to really do justice to all of the modifications and just plain nifty craftsmanship on this '41 Willys. (However, you can go online to www.streetrodderweb.com and see a lot more on this truck, including bare-metal shots.) Hopefully you get the idea that this is one extreme truck with many great ideas that just may find their way onto other street rods in the future.