"41 Willys’" model

I have not built anything since I was kid and got back into it in late '07 and finished this one up in '08 just in time for the April show at Hobby Town U.S.A. I really only did the one cause I liked the this movie so well. Now I've got several projects I am working on. Mostly tv or movie cars. First pic is the car from the movie, the second one is the prize winning car. Was surprised to have won first time out, even though I know it's not perfect or my best work. Last pic shows the detail put into the brake lines,brakes and faking a grass carpet look with paint. I added a full length write up as to how I built it if you want to read that too.






"41 Willys’"

This is a model of the ‘41 Willy’s coupe drag car version from the movie
“Hot Rod” staring Gregg Henry, Grant Goodeve, and Robert Culp.

If you watch this movie closely, you will see that there are at least three or four different Willys’ coupes used to make the movie. There are cars that use American Racing wheels, Slotted aluminum wheels, that I could not identify by name, and solid faced Centerline Aluminum wheels used on the rear of the car with drag slicks. The fronts used what looks like a standard truck street tire with black steel wheels. These front tires also vary in height depending on the car. Also, one other identifier for these cars is the front end alignment. On the street versions you see that the car sits much higher in the front end and that the cars have too much positive camber even though it has a straight front axle. The drag cars have a lower front end height and the camber angles for the front wheels appear to be set at zero as they should be on any straight front axle car regardless of its ride height.

I grouped the cars into two categories. Street Car and Drag Car. This model was designed to copy one of the drag cars as closely as possible. Street cars used what looks like a GM tilt steering column with plastic wood grain accents on the steering wheel where as the drag cars used a chrome stock looking steering column with a chrome three spoke steering wheel. I used the slotted aluminum wheels that came with the kit I used to make this model. I used a wired distributor that matches the color of the wires used on one of the many engines used in one of the cars. There’s two different color parachutes used on the cars. I think the silver one is used on a stock street car. I used a black one that can be seen on the real drag cars. Street cars show high back Gm type bucket seats with no roll bar, but the drag car shows a single seat with an inverted oblong shaped roll bar padded near the top of the roof and drivers head area. It also shows a Hurst V Gate inline 4 spd. shifter with blue outdoor grass carpet that can be found on many fishing boats of this era.

Every effort was made to create this model as accurately as possible to the drag race models used near the end of the movie.

A Revell kit number 85-2032 of the “Stone, Woods, and Cook” ‘41 Willy’s was used to create this model.

The main body was primered using Bright Touch BT49 Gray Primer. A general purpose primer sold in a 10 oz. Spray can. Some trimming was done to the body before priming, but there was no other body prep performed.

From there most of the other parts were painted before assembly or removal from the trees. Most of all major parts and the chassis were painted with Rust-oleum Specialty Laquer a high luster coating 1905 Gloss Black sold in a 11 oz. Spray can. This was purchased at the local Wal-Mart.

I used this particular paint to give the car a hand painted or spray painted look. In the movie the car is quickly thrown together to replace a drag car that was destroyed in a street race with the towns bad boy. Since the car is left in primer throughout the entire movie you would assume that the entire car was completed as cheaply and quickly as possible, therefore the cheap spray can paint job look was applied to the model to make it look as original to the movie as possible. Also you can see the main character spray painting the first Dodge black in the opening scenes as he’s building it up.

The engine is a Mopar 426 Hemi painted Hemi red using Testors Chrysler Engine Red # 2732, which was the original color of the 392 Hemi’s used in the early ‘50's. While in the movie the only shot of the 426 Hemi’s block that can be seen is black, which is not a stock color. Also that engine is only seen after it was stolen from a police car and had not been converted for use in the Willys’ as a drag car engine. The police cars used in the movie are AMC’s and as far as I know a Hemi was never offered in any AMC since they used there own engines throughout their existence. Furthermore I have never been able to find a police car with a 426 Hemi installed from the factory in any of my research.

The 426 Hemi used in this model sports a wired distributor from Parts by Parks #1003 with yellow wires purchased at the Murfreesboro Hobbytown U.S.A. I used a wired distributor that matches the color of the wires used on one of the many engines used in one of the cars. In one scene a red Mallory magneto and coil can be seen on the engine. I painted the distributor to simulate the red caps used on Mallory mags. I have not attempted to create my own Mallory coil to mount to the firewall.

The Revell kit has four wheel disc brakes set up for the car. The four rotors have the calipers molded in. I removed the calipers from the rotors using a very sharp 1 ½" pocket knife. I used this knife for precision work and along as it’s kept sharp it works very well in my hands. I replaced the calipers with some aluminum calipers made by The Model Car Garage #MCG-707 purchased from the Murfreesboro Hobbytown U.S.A.

I decided that it looked bare without brake lines. So I decided to make some for the car. I finally found my 100 ft. roll of phone line I bought while working on a house that I sold a few years ago. I cut off 2 ft. from the roll and split the outside insulation and pulled the black wire from the phone line bundle. This is outdoor phone line. There are 6 wires inside of it. Red, Black, Green, Yellow, Blue and white. I used this type of outdoor type phone line because it has solid copper wire inside of the colored insulation making it easy to mold and take shapes. Don’t use inside phone line that goes from the jack to the phone. While it has the same colors inside of the main insulation, it uses stranded wire and it won’t form or take any kind of shape. It’s also my opinion that the outdoor phone wire is the same thing used in my pre wired distributor used in my engine.

To make the brake lines on the front I stripped off enough black insulation so that the wire could be placed on the frame up under the body tub. I left enough length to make the bends on the frame and about a 1/3" of black insulation to simulate the rubber hose from the frame to the caliper. It takes two pieces to make each side.

On the rear I used one piece stripped in the middle and hung over both sides of the frame. It has enough black insulation to simulate the rear brake hoses to the rear calipers.

The interior of the drag car was shown with outdoor metallic blue grass carpet. This can be found in use on most marine bass boats of the present era. Due to size and shape of the interior I chose to simulate that carpet. I painted the floor board with Rust-oleum Specialty Laquer a high luster coating 1905 Gloss Black sold in a 11 oz. Spray can. This was purchased at the local Wal-Mart. I then proceeded to cover it with two coats of Krylon X Metals Special Purpose 2301 Blue paint.

It did not give the desired appearance that I was looking for. It was too dark and was not very metallic looking to me. I decided to repaint the floorboards using Testors #25 Brush and Testors Silver #1142 right over the top of the blue metallic paint. I layed the paint on very heavy and used the brush to create brush strokes in the paint as I desired. I allowed it to dry for some time while a desk fan was blowing across it, but not directly on it. Then I reapplied two light coats of the Krylon X Metals Special Purpose 2301 Blue paint. Not only did it lighten up the color, but within a few seconds of drying time under a desk fan, the blue paint began to react with the silver paint. It created a spider web effect and coupled with the brush strokes and metallic elements it produced a pattern that satisfied me as a simulation of the blue grass carpeting used in the drag car’s floorboard.

The dash has an after market tach and gauge added to the top of it for easy sight by the driver. I’m not sure what kit that the gauge pod was used from. I found it in an old box of junk model parts that was kept after a fire we had in ‘87. The fire destroyed some models that were worth well over $200 ea. And they are still hard to find today. Most of the ones that were lost were destroyed by the company that came in to remove our belongings and supposedly clean our stuff from smoke damage. That’s why I have this parts box.

The rear bumper from the Revell kit is nothing more than a round tube push bar used for drag cars at the time. I robbed a rear bumper from a ‘40 Ford found in a Lindberg combo kit Dodge L-700 & ‘40 Ford Coupe with Flatbed Trailer kit # 73068. From pictures of the movie car this bumper is almost exactly the same as a ‘41 Willys’ rear bumper. The Ford bumper was a little long for the Willy’s and it had bumper guards that go all the way down to the bottom of the bumper. The Willys’ has a bumper guard on one of the street cars. I decided I would remove most of the lower portions of the guard even though I knew I would have to paint the area while leaving the rest of it chrome. It does not stick out too badly unless you look under the car right at it.

The Ford bumper appeared to be too long as well. I found one clear picture of the rear bumper on a drag car that did not have bumper guards. I saw that the bumpers outer ends curved more around the side of the rear quarter fender. I decided I would try to curve the outer ends of the Ford bumper to match the curve of the rear quarter fenders without disturbing the center portion of the bumper. I figured I would have to use some heat to move it into place. I was surprised when I found out I could bend and manipulate the bumper to curve and stay in place without any heat what so ever. Took several attempts to bend it ever so slowly to get it correct without breaking it. This would have never worked with a higher quality piece from a better kit than the Lindberg kit I used it from.

Then, I took the arms from the push bar on the Willy’s kit and cut both arms off of it after test fitting the mounting to the frame. I squared the ends up with a knife and some 320 grit sandpaper. Then I mounted both arms to the frame and checked the length with the body installed. Satisfied with the results I sized up the Ford bumper according to the body and installed it on the push bar mounting brackets.

The ‘40 Ford in that kit was called upon to give up its stock rear wheels and tires for this Willy’s coupe. I used a drill press set at its lowest speed to drill through the center of the steel wheels. This allowed me to press the wheels onto the mounting studs of the front axles and allow them to spin on the axle. The tires where also a great match since they’re taller in height and have the ribs near the outer tread. All tires were spun in direction of travel against 320 grit sandpaper to give that broke in and run down the track look.

I was at my wits end about how to build the hood scoop to match the one on the drag car. I did notice that there’s more than one hood scoop used on these movie cars and it may vary in design due to the fact that it appears to be handmade. Some appear to be more pointed at the rear and some look more squared off. I did see a clear scoop from a ‘55 Chevy drag car kit that may have worked, but I’d hate to spend $15 for a kit just to rob its scoop.

While looking for an injector hat in my junk box, I ran across a canopy that came from a P-51 D Mustang. It was the kit made after the Smithsonian’s Mustang they have on display. You may remember the kit with the Smithsonian’s name all over the box. I took the huge canopy and cut it approximately in half. I then took a very coarse automotive file from Napa and proceeded to square the front opening and create the sloped angle so that the top of the scoop would protrude out further than the base of the scoop opening. Then I proceeded to file the canopy bottom flat on the file. The file was barely wide enough at the beginning, but as I filed it down the sides of the canopy glass shrank inwards making it narrower. I also took some of the roundness out of the rear curved portion of the canopy glass trying to square it up some. I almost went too far. It just covers the opening in the hood of the Willy’s. Then I primered both inside and outside of my new hood scoop. A test fit showed that this would work to my satisfaction. I’ve held off installing it till I can make sure this I do not find another scoop to use.

I initially intended to use a hood scoop used for two fours on a tunnel ram. Most of those types of scoops are splint long ways and have to be glued together. My thinking was that the top layer of that type of scoop might make a better scoop if it’s wide enough and filed down properly. It would give a more rounded portion at the rear of the scoop than a pointed end like the one I made from the canopy glass. Either way would appear to be correct from what I can tell from the pictures I took of the movie cars.

I finally decided to use the scoop from the Revell ‘55 Chevy kit # 85-2211. I filed it down to make it lower to the hood line. I filed it down from the forward facing end of the scoop to shorten it up to the proper length. Then I angle cut the opening to match the scoop opening on the movie car.

Next, the gear shift in the drag cars appears to be a Hurst V-Gate inline 4spd. Shifter. I have never seen one in any kind of model kit before. My wheels got to turning and thinking about some parts I saw in the junk box along with another model kit. I bought two ‘71 Plymouth Satellite / Road Runner kits made by Monogram #2213. I’m building one as a Road Runner and the other I will customize and turn it into a Petty NASCAR race car. The kit uses the stock slap stick shifter handle for the floor shifted automatic transmission. I would not need it for the Petty car so I stole it for use in the Willy’s, but that’s not the end of it. I took a 4spd shifter from an unknown kit and cut the handle off above the shifter boot and base. I drilled the base and pressed the handle from the Satellite kit into the top of the boot and shifter base. Then painted the boot a flat black color and now it looks as close as possible to the Hurst V-Gate used in the Willy’s drag car.

The rest of the car was assembled using the Willys’ Kit. I hope you enjoyed the model and if you want a copy of the movie you can order copy off the net from www.hotrodsandmemories.com