NOW WE’RE COOKIN’

LPG-SUCKING WILLYS WAGON

Let’s get this straight: Mark Holdaway’s not an idiot, not in the slightest. In fact, we’d say there’s a damn good reason for his apparent mechanical madness. His creation, which on paper may sound like an underpowered hybrid freak show, is anything but. The 1947 Willys may be an amalgamation of various parts, hot rod style, and rely on what, by today’s standards, is a very outdated but nostalgic power plant, from which Mark’s extracted more horsepower. However, for Mark, that’s all part of the appeal, as the word ‘normal’ isn’t one he’s keen to be associated with. His love of the fairly rare Willys wagon goes back to his earlier days, when he was lucky enough — or, more likely, brave enough — to build a 350 Chev small block–powered four-wheeldrive version. One of his favourite memories is loading the sucker to the windows with firewood, towing an equally overloaded trailer, and chasing cars up the old Albany Hill on the way into Auckland to do deliveries. The chassis on which the car … er … jeep … er … wagon sits is the original chassis from the Chevpowered machine, the body of which has long since fallen victim to rust, with the Chev having been sold long ago. Mark’s kept the chassis and suspension for more than 30 years, moving it

from shed to shed with all the house moves along the way. Sixteen years ago, after decades of people asking why he’d kept the old chassis for so long, Mark began another rebuild with the purchase of what appeared to be a fairly tidy, very original, and complete body. That body was a rare New Zealand–new wagon that had been purchased by a Four Square shop in Dargaville for rural grocery deliveries and came complete with underpowered side-valve four-banger and threespeed trans, riding on skinny 16-inch cross-ply tyres. As always with such things, the project went backwards before it went forwards. The big step back was getting the apparently tidy body acid dipped. You could say that what came out of the bath was an air-conditioned Willys! Of course, for a jack of all trades, and someone well connected in the hot rodding scene, such as Mark is, it wasn’t long before the cancerous steelwork was being replaced. A trip to a Pukekohe swap meet had Mark stumble on one of his favourite engines: a 1950s Ford Mercury flathead — but without the highly desired fourinch stroke crank. However, teardown revealed standard bores, main and rod bearings, and no cracks, making it a great core to use. Ironically,

the standard-pin four-inch Merc crank from this very block was located a year later at the Kumeu Swap Meet! A test fit of the flatty into the Willys chassis showed it to fit as if it had been made to be there — it really looked right at home — so Mark started to create one of the more unusual flathead engines in the country. With access to the parts catalogue from Flatattack Racing Products — a company run by well-respected dry-lakes flathead racer and development guru Mike Davidson — Mark sourced many of his engine and ancillary components. With so many parts built tough in South Australia, Mark was letting no Chinese parts end up on it. Mark has had a long career associated with the New Zealand trucking industry, so he figured that this wagon needed to be ultra reliable and economical to run, as there would no doubt be many long journeys ahead. Having been a registered gas-conversion mechanic back in the ’70s and ’80s, he knew a dedicated LPG system would be ideal for the slowrevving long-stroke engine. However, the old carbystyle gas system was now outdated, with modern electronic fuel injection (EFI) computer-managed systems at the fore. To resolve this, a Flatattack plenum-style injection manifold was modified to accept Prins port-runner placed injection nozzles and solenoids, with a VN Commodore throttle body, managed by a Kiwi-built Link G4 Xtreme enginecontrol unit (ECU) modified for LPG, along with all the usual sensors. Long-time drag racer and top flight engine machinist Mike Gearing was enlisted to build a super-strong mild-compression-ratio engine, engineered for supercharging with a yet-to-be-fitted Judson slidingvane blower developed for Ford flatheads in the ’50s. The build went right to the basics of line boring the main tunnels, a Flatattack main bearing stud girdle, the original Merc four-inch stroke crank, boring out 80-thou (0.080inch), new Scat H-beam rods, JP Teflon-coated pistons, Isky 400-JR cam, adjustable lifters, 1.6-inch stainless intake and 1.5-inch stainless exhaust valves, with full blueprinting and balancing. The barely adequate stock oiling system was modified for better flow and filtering, employing a Flatattack full-flow filter unit and high-volume oil pump. Mark also biffed out the notoriously leaky Ford water pumps in favour of Flatattack — this time, aluminium units that have proper bearings and seals. The cooling system was finished off by Bradley Evans at Richmond Exhaust and Radiator Specialists, who scratch-built a brass radiator for it. The cc-matched Flatattack aluminium heads top off the block, with an MSD electronic distributor and ignition control box giving the shock factor. David Herdegen of Dtech Motorsport in Tauranga did the tuning, with an initial result of 104hp at the

back wheels and around 140 at the crank. While not huge by modern standards, that is still a 40- to 50-per-cent gain, and the torque is now phenomenal — all while the economy makes Mark smile, especially with LPG prices being low. Wanting to keep the Ford tradition alive, Mark sourced an early Ford automatic overdrive (AOD) transmission from Dave Green at Specialty Cars and Co. It required simple but precise modification to its bellhousing to mate to the 8BA engine — a tricky task performed by drag racing legend Pete Lodge. To gain full control of the trans shifting and employ engine braking on hills, Mark fitted a Lentech performance valve body from Canada, along with a Lokar shifter. The finishing touch was a custom flexplate and converter, supplied by Marshall Transmissions in Hamilton. Although Mark’s original chassis build had been four-wheel drive, there was no way this one would be, so a genuine rare Willys beam axle was fitted up front, with a Ford nine-inch hung in the rear. Both ends have been brought closer to the tarmac with reset lowered springs and reversed eyes, along with Monroe shocks at all corners. Mark’s a clever bastard, and that was proved once again when it came to sorting out steering

and brakes for the Willys. A Holden HQ steering box, Billet Specialties steering column, and 1940 Ford steering wheel were assembled, and a Holden Gemini brake booster was mated to a Ford Falcon dual-circuit master cylinder with a remote billet aluminium fluid reservoir on the firewall. All this operates Falcon discs up front and 12-inch Ford drums at the rear. Like everything on the vehicle, the eclectic mix of parts works harmoniously for a great result. The same outside-the-box approach was applied to the choice of wheels. Mark realized that tyre and wheel choice are really the icing-on-the-cake detail so often overlooked. He commissioned The Wheelsmith in California to produce the beautiful aluminium Artillery/Divco milk truck–style 17-inch rims, now wrapped in 225/65R17 and 235/70R17 BF Goodrich special import tyres. With the panel work mostly sorted by Chris Stanley in Silverdale, the paintwork was a relatively simple task, ably taken care of by Heyward Rods in Richmond, Nelson. The main colour is Toyota Dark Mica, while the custom soft silver was added to the body recesses. The finish is not quite as stock as it appears, with many one-off parts added as necessary, including a hand-built stainless-steel visor with engine-turned finish on the underside to match the original Willys gauge cluster panel, NOS Buick spotlight with hand-built body mountings, and modified Ford hot rod swan-neck external mirrors. The interior received a smart style treatment, for both looks and comfort. The original unequal-width Willys front seats were sliced up and re-welded to give two equal-width units, then covered in maroon leather. The seats, silver door trim panels, and grey wool carpets and hood liner were all trimmed by Rob Jackson in Richmond, but the standout feature may well be the beautiful hand-crafted oak floor runners and fittings. The workmanship and quality build details are evident everywhere, whether it be under the hood in the engine bay or inside in the gorgeous interior trim. With the hood closed, the wagon raises a bunch of suspicion: it doesn’t sound at all like a venerable flathead; we’d say its sound is more akin to that of a big block — and the exhaust smell, well, let’s just say that the LPG aroma had us looking for some sausages to grill. Some 30 years after his first encounter with parts of this Willys, Mark now has a vehicle to be happy with — with continuing development. Sure, it’s a somewhat odd, twisted combination of parts, but you’ve got to give it to Mark — there really couldn’t have been a better way to build it. Well done, that man!

THE WORKMANSHIP AND QUALITY BUILD DETAILS ARE EVIDENT EVERYWHERE