Right off the bat, most rodders think of the 1940’s Willys Coupe that we have all seen in so many street rod configurations. And by the way, for those that didn’t know, the original pronunciation is “Willis”, but we all seem to prefer to pronounce “Will-eez”. Either way, there is no right or wrong. Willys-Overland Motors became best known for their military service Jeeps. However, many Willys body configurations remain that could evolve into custom Willys rat rods.
In 1908 John Willys purchased Overland Automotive and renamed the company in 1912. The company built many vehicles for the military and struggled on and off with hit and miss success until bought by Kaiser Motors in 1953. The last Willys car built in the