Terry Moor
I have three Willys Pickups right now a 50, 55, and 62, the 62 is not runnable yet. I bought the green 1955 one 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 C.I. V-8, rebuilt it pretty stock and with a Commando bell house, put it in the truck. It was great, except with the lead in my foot I kept breaking axles and springs. So some time around 1993 I pulled the V-8 and put a fresh dauntless 225 from the Commando in the truck and have been running the V-6 ever since. It runs really well, had good low end and it is happy running down the highway at 60 mph. Used mostly for hunting in the 90’s. 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, only drive it about 1000 miles each year.
I have been blessed to “winter out ” of Alaska for the last 5 years. I bought the copper color 1950 pick up in Kingman Arizona, in February 2012. Some one before me did a bunch of work, putting 1990 Cherokee running gear under the truck, coil springs up front the P.S. box, Power brakes and all. It has the 4.0 with 5 speed manual trans. The interior still needs a bit of finishing up, but I managed to get an A/C unit installed last year and started on the door seals and windows. It drives like a slot car and has plenty of power. Really fun to drive. “Penny” is a work in progress.
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