Tell your friends about this article with your social network or email   Share   
I've always liked the looks of the Willys
pickups and wanted to restore one, but I
also wanted more room to haul around my
family. I found a 62 pickup with the bed in
really rough condition and a 57 wagon with
problems on the front end so I decided to
morph the two together for a quad-cab
pickup. I also wanted the benefits of more
modern running gear so I found a rolled
2001 4x4 Chevy pickup to use as the chassis
and power train. That way I have power
steering, power disc brakes and great
suspension.
I spent about two years on the design before
we started building. Most of the heavy lifting
was done by Jim Leach, a hot rod enthusiast
and builder here in Mesa, AZ. The body had
to be widened about 10 inches to fit on the
Chevy chassis and that provided more room in
the interior. I have five daughters so I made
sure we had three seat belts in the front row
and four seat belts in the back row so that I
could ride together with my wife and all five
of our daughters in the truck at the same time.
We also added power windows and door locks
with remote poppers and a great A/V system.
The Pioneer system includes a GPS and a
flip-down DVD screen. We used the seats
from the Chevy pickup and re-upholstered
them in leather-soft material. It was tricky
trying to figure out the configuration for the
gas tank spout, wheel wells, a/c and other
items, but everything finally came together
and works great.
Specs:

1962 Willys quad-cab pickup. Customized
body from 62 pickup and 57 wagon is
mounted on newer chevy 3/4 ton chassis
with 6 liter engine, 4x4, auto transmission,
power steering, power disc brakes, a/c,
power windows, power door locks with
poppers, gps and dvd with tilt-down
monitor.