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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. |