The book is Supercharged Gas Coupes by Don Montgomery.If you like Gassers it's a must have.

Ted had told me "The Lincoln" dragster never did suffer a crank failure as the Mel's have a high nodular iron crank. He did say there was cracking when they experimented with small rod journals so they kept the rod journals larger and used Howards Aluminum rods.

Seeing the Grist Mel jazzes me up for my Blown Mel project. I can't afford another Willy's so it's going in a '58 Merc Sedan.
Plan on painting it like my other '58 si it would be an evil twin.

Thanks, I'll check and see if it's one that I have. Thanks for sharing!

I am loving every minute I have of finding photos and searching for parts for these old beasts!

@ the Grist family. BTW, may I use some of the pics you posted for involving them into the revolving header?

Yes, you may use the pics. Is it okay for me to post a link to the restoration project (it is on a forum site called H.A.M.B.)

Eddy

Sure, no problem. Please go ahead linking to the HAMB. Just make sure to let them know about this forum too. Thanx bunches for letting me use your photos. I'm gonna create a few banner pics within the next few days. I let you know once they're up.

Thanks Theo and will post the MEL site info over at the H.A.M.B.

The Grist Bros Willy coupe was sold by Floyd and Ralph Grist way back in 1964 ... for $600 less engine and transmission. We lost touch with the car for over 45 years. The car wound up in Mississippi drag racing local tracks and then the owner was killed in a drag racing accident in another vehicle. The Willys apparently sit in a barn for quite some time and eventually was purchased and went to the Houston area for a number of years. The guy in Houston finally sold the car to the current owner, who moved the car to the Atlanta area.

The current owner, when getting some parts from a West-Coast supplier was talking about having a chopped Willys and was told there were not many chopped Willys out there and that he might look through a book called Gasser Wars to see if anything looked familiar. He did and found the car. He got my dad's and uncle's names and started trying to find them. My dad passed away back in 1974 when a brain aneurysm burst. He did locate my uncle, who got me involved. At first we were a little skeptical, but, after I pulled some old photos and starting comparing the curvatures of the roof line of the chop, it became very obvious ... it was the old Willys. Anyway, the car is being restored into a street rod. The progress is being chronicled at a message board called the H.A.M.B. The link is:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/show ... ys+chopped

I really appreciate this forum. I was 13 years old when the Willys was sold. I've spent many hours in the garage with dad and Ralph working on the car. I used to have all the torque values memorized as they used to quiz me all the time.

Anyway, it you'd like to see what all has been done to the car, follow the link. If it doesn't work, I'll try it again. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks to the great support from this site! It will be an honor to have photos of the car in the revolving header.

Good post too, Dad.