41 Willys Coupe (UPDATED on February 9, 2009)

This old '41 Willys coupe is an old race car project. Part of the dash was removed for roll bar clearance, The firewall and cowl were removed, as were the floor pan and rear inner fenders.

Here's a shot of the new sill panels that will replace the ones in it now, which are pretty rough.

This simple wooden jig keeps everything in alignment while the inner fenders are fit to the quarter panels.

The new rear inner fender (wheel tub)

Here's the new inner fender trial fit to the quarter panel. Notice that it's made wider than needed. This extra material will be trimmed once I'm completely happy with the fit. This panel will then set inside the flange of the quarter panel just as the original did. The cardboard is used as a template for the 18 gauge steel panel that will attach to the inner fender.

The steel filler panel has now been added and it's in for another trial fit. A little more trimming and it'll be ready to weld in place. There is some damage to the quarter panel to repair first and the lower quarter behind the door will be replaced as well as the lower tail end panel of the quarter.

The left inner fender is ready for a trial fit too.

The view from the trunk side.

And one from inside the car

Here's a shot of the new floor pans.

The larger panel is the trunk pan. It will be rolled to match the contour of the frame rails and will need careful fitting to the new rear inner fenders

The owner of this car lives in Wyoming, but wanted to be involved with the build. He recently spent a week with us and while here, I put him to work, building the new right rear fender. As I said earlier, he's a very talented fabricator and that skill also helped in his ability quickly learn how to shape metal. Prior to this, he had never tried shaping a piece of sheetmetal. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of him doing the hard part of beating the metal on the beater bag with a hammer, but did manage to get a few shots of him working the panel in the english wheel.

Once he had it fitting the flexible shape pattern perfectly, it was time to fit it to the buck.

The rear package tray/decklid hinge mounting assembly had been removed, probably for roll cage clearance, again. A new one would have to be made. This one belongs with another project. Fortunately I had it to use as a pattern.