My “Penny” – Willys Truck is a Work in Progress

I have three Willys Trucks right now, a 50, 55, and 62. The 62 is not running yet, I bought the green 1955, in 1980 from Wasilla, Alaska. It had a 226 Hurricane in it with a knock, but the body was in good shape. I was young and immediately did a spring over, cut the frame off, and sent the block to the machine shop in Anchorage. When the machine shop went to bore the cylinder to sleeve it as it had a wrist pin gouge in it, the block cracked.

So I bought a Buick 350 V8, rebuilt it pretty stock with a Commando bellhouse, put it in the truck. It was great, except with the lead in my foot I kept breaking axles and springs. So sometime around 1993 I pulled the V8 and put a fresh dauntless 225 from the Commando in the truck and have been running the V6 ever since. It runs really well, good low end and it is happy running down the highway at 60 mph. Used mostly for hunting in the 90s. My wife and I rolled it twice, sank in mud up to the window frames, and slid down many mossy covered slopes.

Willis is semi retired now, we only drive it about 1000 miles each year. I’ve been blessed to “winter out” of Alaska for the last 5 years. I bought the copper color 1950 pick up in Kingman Arizona, in Feb. 2012. Someone before me did a bunch of work, putting 1990 Cherokee running gear under the truck, coil springs up front the P.S. box, and power brakes. It has the 4.0 with 5 speed manual trans. The interior still needs a bit of finishing up, but I installed an AC unit last year and started on the door seals and windows. It drives like a slot car, plenty of power and is fun to drive! Penny is a work in progress.

LIFE IS A DARING ADVENTURE OR NOTHING AT ALL!!!