TRAIL’S END BY JERED KORFHAGE JERED.KORFHAGE@FOURWHEELER.COM PHOTOS: FOUR WHEELER ARCHIVES
Revisiting a Willys truck rebuild taken just far enough
D
ave Kollman says transplanting the ’56 Willys pickup body onto a J10 frame wasn’t too difficult and that it only required relocating a few body mounts, adding a few bolts, and just a bit of welding—and that was only the beginning. Dave and Denise Kollman bought the Willys from its original owner who had used the pickup as a work truck and for snow plowing jobs. The plan was to maintain the truck’s body but replace the frame with one out of a ’78 Jeep J10. With a matching wheelbase, the new frame would add significant strength to the project, which they’d need for the power upgrades. Dave and Denise used a 401ci V-8 that spent time in two other truck projects as well as in a ’71 AMC AMX. They had the block bored 0.030-inch over stock and balanced, they added a Holley 600-cfm double-pumper carb, and matched it with an aggressive cam, a larger intake, and Hooker 2.5-inch headers. The mill exhaled through a set of Flowmaster mufflers, and the result was buckets of torque and enough horses to keep the Willys floating atop the sand when the couple went riding in the dunes. The driver rowed through the gears on the BorgWarner T-18 four-speed and engaged fourwheel drive through the Dana 20 transfer case.
Axles for the Willys project came from Dave’s Dodge Power Wagon and each Dana 60 received a Powr-Lok limited-slip differential and 4.10 gears. Fitting the front axle to the new J10 frame required removing two inches from each end of the axle. Dave decided four inches of lift would clear his 39.5-inch Super Swampers
and American Racing Outlaw II wheels. To accomplish this, he used custom leaf springs in a spring-over-axle configuration with a pair of shocks at each corner and an accompanying steering damper. Mating the J10’s steering links to the Dana 60 took some finesse but Dave managed to maintain the steering geometry by turning the pinion angle up 1.5 inches. Bodywork for the Willys involved stripping the sheetmetal bare and giving it a coat of Imron Red, returning the grille and door handles to their glorious chromed state, and adding bling like chromed CJ-7 nerf bars, a powdercoated rollbar, and a Westin bumper. Dave made extra room for the big meats by widening the front fenders three inches per side and lengthening the rear fenders five inches. The Kollmans left the original gauges and converted the Willys’ wiring to 12-volt to adequately power the new audio system and other electronics. This truck, named Total Recall by the Kollmans, is a fine example of a classic build that didn’t push the extremes of lift height, horsepower, or hype. We’d like to see your Willys truck and hear how you’ve built it, maintained it, or even how it’s still put to work. Send a note to editor@ fourwheeler.com and feel free to include high-res images of your Willys if you have them. FW
FOUR WHEELER (ISSN 0015-9123) September 2022; Vol. 59, No. 9. Copyright © 2022 by Motor Trend Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Published monthly by Motor Trend Group, LLC, 831 South Douglas Street, El Segundo, CA 90245. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA, and at additional mailing offices. Single copy price is $6.99. SUBSCRIPTIONS: U.S. APO, FPO and U.S. Possessions $19.97 for 12 isssues. Canada orders add $12.00 per year and international orders add $24.00 per year (for surface mail postage). Payment in advance, U.S. funds only. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to FOUR WHEELER, P.O. Box 37198, Boone, IA 50037.
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