I don't know if it's the same car, but on your 40-42 pics
page there's 2 sedans with bonnet cutouts,
the purple with orange flamed one in the middle left,
and a hot pink one in the lower right of the page.
I know the flamed one is sitting somewhere in Sydney
and has been since 1995, (if it's not the pink one)
and although I don't know who owns it, I know it's history...
I bought it as a running, registered stocker from my grandfather
in February 1966 for $20.
The rego number was ANW 663 and it was my very first
car! Strangely, although I was
right into hotrods at the time, a 41 Willys sedan just
didn't strike me as being hotrod material,
I was building a 28 Essex coupe body channeled over 34
Ford rails, which was going to be a 'real' hotrod
and the old Willys was nothing more than my daily driver.
When I got it of my grandfather it was a deep bottle
green, possibly a military colour,
and had been that colour since new.
My only additions to the paint were the words 'Green
Monster 2' down each side of the bonnet,
and a coat of red lead on the top of the bonnet and the
passenger rear guard after I wiped it out on a
fencepost in my driveway at home in Croydon Park.
I have fond memories of driving her all up and
down the NSW coast with five mates in it and half a dozen
malibus stacked on those rubber suction cup
roofracks you used to buy for FJ Holdens. The stacks
were so high we had to climb up the doors to get the
top boards on. I also fitted her with Customline 15"
wheels painted white, and a floorshift 1939 gearbox.
I remember seeing what I thought was it in Liverpool one
day in the early 80's I chased it along the
highway in my PI Triumph sedan but couldn't catch it,
so I went back to Gosford. The car I was
chasing was gold flake, so I was probably chasing the
right car!
I thrashed it around for a couple of years until I'd blown
up every spare gearbox my grandfather
had been able to scrounge in the years he owned it before
me, then I swapped it to Ronnie Williams
from the Drag-ens for a twin spinner Ford sedan I wanted
the sidevalve out of for my Essex.
Ronnie fitted a hot sidevalve out of one of his cars
to it and took it to Castlereagh a few times,
then it languished behind his garage at Wiley Park for
a couple of years, then vanished.
Ronnie painted it a dirty dark brown, probably a leftover can of paint he had lying around.
I spoke to Ronnie last year and he told me its history
from there, and its current whereabouts,
but if you want detailed information you'll have to discuss
it with him.
The car changed hands a number of times after I swapped
it to him in about 1967 or 68
I'm sure he told me he didn't own it in 1979.
It went to a mate of his who rescued it out of his old
back yard after he moved out and had nowhere to store it,
so around 1969-70 was probably when it was most at risk
of being scrapped.
Yeah it is great to see it's still around. It still wouldn't
be my ideal rod though, being 'old school' I'd much
prefer a fenderless T roadster or A coupe! .
But my grandfather was a real stick in the mud, he hated
the white Cusso wheels on it, didn't look right he told me,
made it into a real old bomb.
Don't get me wrong, I loved that old car, had some fun
in the back seat on a number of occasions too! (Plenty of room to
stretch out!) A mate and I also used to take her on shooting weekends out
the back of Sydney, he'd sleep on the front seat, I'd sleep on the back.
True funny story.. Driving to The Entrance on Christmas Day 1966. A surfing mate and I were going to visit our girlfriends who were holidaying up there from South of Sydney. Malibus on the racks, just two of us, and mum had packed us a cold Xmas lunch to eat on the way. I'm driving and munching on a drumstick, and suddeny we're at the turnoff to Gosford. No blinkers, so it's hand signal time, and I've got a half chewed chicken drumstick in my right hand. The traffic was crawling along, and you should have heard the roar of laughter when I made the turn signal with the drumstick!
I've got all my grandfathers old slides here in the garage, so I'll have a look when I get a chance and see if there's any pics of her from pre-1966. I'm not aware of any taken while I had her unfortunately, I certainly don't have any. I don't know how long Poppa Jim had her, as long as I can remember as a child anyway. We also had a 38 sedan and a 38 ute in the family at one stage.
Now if I was going to go out and buy myself a Willys today,
I'd go for the 39 Overland front rather than the 40-41.
That's what I call a car with character!
Cheers,
Glen Crawford
...
1979 at Valla in Gold owner Ronnie Williams
At the Penrith Nats in 1991 owner unknown
