mark
Well-Known Member
OK, so my father-in-law has a Willys pick-up. We convinced him to buy it a few years back from the neighbor of his mother who had it in the garage in trade for his mothers Saturn sedan (yes, pretty sure we got the better deal). But he needed a basic car that he could drive rather than his old willies hot-rod languishing in the garage.
It was an older "hot rod", "street rod" conversion/custom job. From what I've examined so far is seems the PO did a pretty decent job, although I suspect it was done in the late 70's or 80's, maybe even early 90's. Decent but older paint-job, big wide bias street tires (which screams 70's hold out), power steering, GM column, white-spokes and a 50's Chevy step side bed. Over all the work looks pretty good and its a cool truck (which is why we encouraged him to do the trade). Got what looks like and we were told early Scout 80/800 axles underneath (closed knuckle, drum brake
uke Small Block Chev, some sort of old, clunky 4-speed (or might be a 3-speed, we haven't played with it that much lately) coupled to a passenger drop twin-stick t-case (haven't crawled underneath but I suspect Dana 18 or maybe a D20). It also runs like crap as the carb is gummed up with old fuel (been sitting for many years before we got it, then probably 4 years sitting in my FIL's garage collecting dust).
So after all that, if I have any hope of my FIL driving it like he should, we probably need to loose the stick and put in a nice auto. We are also talking fuel injection or propane as it will not get driven much (propane's a good choice for that) or far when it is driven.
So, I need some recommendations on a good, easy-to-swap in (so probably stand-alone) 4-speed auto, and then a passenger drop t-case to go with it. Simple is the name of the game on this one, so probably an early 700R4? But which one. And the only t-case I can think that would be the simplest adaption would be a '88-91 suburban/blazer NP241 which aren't all that common and beefier than we need. Any other options? If possible we want to avoid $$ adapters and it would be nice to be able to pick everything up of CL or similar for reasonable prices.
Also considering swapping in a drivers drop front axle, as loosing the closed knuckle and the drum brakes will also be a priority. Also haven't figured out if the truck is going up or down. I.e. nice 4x4 looking Willies (chrome rims, 31-ish BFG AT's), or down (drop it down a little more, nice rims, street tires). This will NOT be an off-road machine. Probably doesn't even need to be 4wd anymore but unless I cut the frame and did a street-rod IFS it wouldn't be right to loose the t-case and front shaft.
So open advice. I'll try to get some pictures in the next couple days. Should have taken some yesterday when we had it out of he garage for the first time in probably 3 years. (I'm doing some remodel work on the house, and need the garage space, so Willys will now live in a Costco Tent in the back yard for the next couple months). If you had what I described above, what route would you go.
It was an older "hot rod", "street rod" conversion/custom job. From what I've examined so far is seems the PO did a pretty decent job, although I suspect it was done in the late 70's or 80's, maybe even early 90's. Decent but older paint-job, big wide bias street tires (which screams 70's hold out), power steering, GM column, white-spokes and a 50's Chevy step side bed. Over all the work looks pretty good and its a cool truck (which is why we encouraged him to do the trade). Got what looks like and we were told early Scout 80/800 axles underneath (closed knuckle, drum brake
uke Small Block Chev, some sort of old, clunky 4-speed (or might be a 3-speed, we haven't played with it that much lately) coupled to a passenger drop twin-stick t-case (haven't crawled underneath but I suspect Dana 18 or maybe a D20). It also runs like crap as the carb is gummed up with old fuel (been sitting for many years before we got it, then probably 4 years sitting in my FIL's garage collecting dust).So after all that, if I have any hope of my FIL driving it like he should, we probably need to loose the stick and put in a nice auto. We are also talking fuel injection or propane as it will not get driven much (propane's a good choice for that) or far when it is driven.
So, I need some recommendations on a good, easy-to-swap in (so probably stand-alone) 4-speed auto, and then a passenger drop t-case to go with it. Simple is the name of the game on this one, so probably an early 700R4? But which one. And the only t-case I can think that would be the simplest adaption would be a '88-91 suburban/blazer NP241 which aren't all that common and beefier than we need. Any other options? If possible we want to avoid $$ adapters and it would be nice to be able to pick everything up of CL or similar for reasonable prices.
Also considering swapping in a drivers drop front axle, as loosing the closed knuckle and the drum brakes will also be a priority. Also haven't figured out if the truck is going up or down. I.e. nice 4x4 looking Willies (chrome rims, 31-ish BFG AT's), or down (drop it down a little more, nice rims, street tires). This will NOT be an off-road machine. Probably doesn't even need to be 4wd anymore but unless I cut the frame and did a street-rod IFS it wouldn't be right to loose the t-case and front shaft.
So open advice. I'll try to get some pictures in the next couple days. Should have taken some yesterday when we had it out of he garage for the first time in probably 3 years. (I'm doing some remodel work on the house, and need the garage space, so Willys will now live in a Costco Tent in the back yard for the next couple months). If you had what I described above, what route would you go.
![IMG_3159[1].JPG](http://attachments.www.hardlinecrawlers.com/xfmg/thumbnail/4/4716-7b6e4a00bcf97e620db4b6a3e9ad88c4.jpg?1625928476)
