50 Willys PU Street fighter

[shizzy]

Here is my project. It's a 1950 Willys Pick up. I was talking with my friend over beers about this Street fighter truck idea I had bouncing around in my head. He promptly offered up the titled body of his stalled project in trade for a case of beer.



This is to be a budget build, NOT to be confused with a rat rod. I don't plan to paint it, Nothing is going in to it that does not make it go, stop or turn.

Its now sitting on an S10 chassis I picked up from a friend. Front suspension had been rebuilt, and already had drop spindles and coils. In the rear is a 9" ford with a three link and will be getting coils and weight jacks. Up front will be coil overs and SPC upper arms.

Keeping within Budget is a 305 chevy (traded another friend a case of beer) and a TH350. The 305 is getting a Summit house brand cam, dual plane intake and I'm going to build a set of small tube full length headers.



Wheels will be 18 x 9.5 Boss 338's and tires will be somewhere around 285-295's on all four corners.

I'm going for a street fighter / vintage circle track / Road race feel.

[Typhoon1015]

awesome, it seems trucks are starting to get big in pro touring style lately.

I look forward to the build. Keep a tally of $$ it would be interesting to see when all done.

I also have a vision for a similar style truck, but I think others are going to beat me to the punch(lots of other projects going currently).

[shizzy]

I think the initial buy in price is what is making Trucks popular. Around here a rust free roller GM A body is around $4000. I'm in a case of beer. I'm planning on coming in under 5K for the whole build.

[Tig]

Love these old Willys pick-ups, bad ass for sure.

Just curious, is that notch going to be a temp set up?
I'd hope you'd use the proper material for that, maybe some 2x3 or 2x4 tubing or a small frame notch.

[shizzy]

That's not a Notch, It's a bridge for the springs and shocks. Both sides are now connected. The frame is getting boxed, more bracing is going in and it's getting a cage with bars connected to the bridge.

[SS PUNISHER]

Any updates on this??

[Tig]

That's not a Notch, It's a bridge for the springs and shocks. Both sides are now connected. The frame is getting boxed, more bracing is going in and it's getting a cage with bars connected to the bridge.

Gatcha, I just notice the material to the left in the pic above.
Wow caged to, nice. This is going to be good.



I'm also in for updates.

[shizzy]

I've been extremely busy. The rear suspension is all tacked in.

I ended up cutting the whole entire floor and inner rockers out. The front half of the floor and most of the fire wall was already missing and I decided it was going to be just as much work to try to patch the old as it would be to start new.



I welded 2 x 3 tubing in to the inner rockers so that I had a solid base to build body mounts to and attach the floor.



I then spent the next few months building the body mounts and putting in the subfloor.



then it was on to the floors and the firewall. The engine is set back a good 11" from the stock S10 location so making room for the HEI distributor and the factory cowl vent AND the transmission AND my feet was a challenge.

[shizzy]

In the mean time, I picked up a 2004R from a friend and traded the TH350 for a pair of Quadrajets. Another friend gave me a Performer intake he found in his shed. I also picked up a set of Vette / LT1 valve covers at U pull. They are a bit beat up, but for $18, I couldn't pass it up.

bad side shot, it's cold here in MN, no outside shots for a while.



With the exception of the tranny tunnel, the floors are in. Despite the doghouse, The factory cowl vent will still work.



the HEI is still snug, but it will side in and out with the cap and rotor removed.



Summit house brand seats. I wanted better seats, but I'm on a beer budget here.

[shizzy]

next to go in are brake pedal assembly, steering column and shifter. Shifter and steering wheel will be here on Monday.

[Tig]

Extremely busy is an understatement.
Awesome work man, looks great and is coming along nicely.
I wish I had friends like yours hah, score on some nice parts.
Are you going with a coil-over set up or conventional coil spring/shock?
What rear set up did you with?

Nice work.

[shizzy]

It does seem like I'll go out to the shop and work for hours and only get done 1/2 of what I planned.

As far as the friends, they are just as broke as I am, so we all seem to understand parts trades.

the rear is a 9" out of a 79 Lincoln. it's a pretty nice rear, 3 link with a panhard and coils. I was able to reuse the S10 front leaf spring mounts for the front mount points for the lower control arms and the stock control arm mounts on the 9". I did have to fab a crossmember and a mount for the upper link, but was able to reuse the OEM one on the 9". The rear has coils and weight jacks, and I'd like to go with coilovers on the front, but that will be dependent on cash.







The cardboard box is a mockup of the fuel cell. It looks like Ill have everything aside from the radiator between the front and rear wheels. I should end up with a pretty even weight distribution.

[shizzy]

Also, the dash is completely hacked. I haven't decided yet how to handle that. Following with the theme of the build, I may just cut out the whole middle and left side and start from scratch.

[shizzy]

As I said before, the dash was hacked to pieces.



So again, I decided it was easier to just cut out the bad and start fresh.





I then welded a straight piece of 1 x 1 to connect the two sides. I'll trim more out and fill the whole panel in so I have a clean slate to deal with.

New shifter and steering wheel.

[shizzy]

Booster and master in, hole cut for the steering column.



sure feels good to be able to sit in an actual seat bolted to an actual floor and grab hold of an actual steering wheel mounted to an actual steering column and put your hand on an actual shifter mounted to an actual transmission.

[shizzy]

No real update, though I may have reached a crossroads type decision on the build. I'm pretty sure I'm going to yank out the 305 and 2004R and swap in an LS/4l60E combo. both my engine and tranny are of unknown quality, I have no brackets, pulleys or accessories for the 305. Doing the math for both a SBC and an LS comes out similar dollar wise.

[no go nova]

nice build what is the rear spring rates?

[Auto Rod Technologies]

Very cool project, going to be neat when finished, can't beat that price either!!

[shizzy]

The rear springs are 150 lb's. I did some simple internet math. They are universal circle track springs so I can change them out for a different rate. They only run $50 a pair.

[craigs73]

looks pretty cool