Hi thanks for having me.

First about me, I've had a few mice GM cars over the years... 37 Chev, 52 Chev, 72 HQ SS (Lettuce Alone), VK Berlina 308. I wish I had kept them all.

The one I did keep is a 38 Willys Coupe with Holden body. My dad did it up in the early 60s, initially with a hot grey motor and then a hot 186. I sat for my drivers license in it in 1974 and inherited it in 1985. I only drive it occasionally, but it is a big part of my life.

It has an EK dash because that was state of the art in the early 60's. The old man put a 4 speed manual, disk brake front end and rack and pinion steering on it in the 70s. To go with that he put a HQ GTS steering wheel, probably because he had a HQ SS (Ultraviolet) without a logo on the horn button. But that just doesn't seem to fit to me.

The Coupe is looking pretty tired these days so I'm thinking of returning it to his vision in the 60's, which is far from original but lets not into that.

I was liking the look of this steering wheel that sort of captures the 30s look but still looks like a rod.
https://www.usrpc.com/wp...020/08/R5620-scaled.jpg

The thing is I'm not sure if it will fit. The steering column is probably a HR because that's what the old man would have been working with at the time. But would he have just bolted in a HQ steering wheel with the horn and indicator cancelling still working?

Edited by user Sunday, 23 May 2021 9:51:46 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hmm, thanks for that, the plot thickens, maybe the old man put an HQ steering column in it.

I was pretty sure he put a HQ front end on it so it would have disk brakes, others have looked at it and said it was a HR front end because of the calipers, maybe very early HQ.

He also converted it to rack and pinion steering. I remember he tried a commodore rack but they mount on the wrong side of the crossmember, so he went with something that sounded odd at the time. There is a rattly steering universal knuckle that looks to be off a Torana.

I know it sounds like a dog's breakfast but it drives and steers really well.

Arrid,

I forgot to mention yesterday, that a HQ Steering Column will have a Steering lock & Ignition Switch incorporated into it.
Where as HR, HK, HT, LC Torana & HG don't. If it's one of these the Ignition switch is on the Dash.

Agrid,
Here is more complications for you.
Putting HQ Ventilated Brakes on the earlier HK HT or HG is a common conversion too. This is done by putting the right side HQ Stub axle, discs and calipers on the left side of the HT crossmember. And put the left setup onto the right side so the steering linkages can connect to the HQ stub axles.
This means if your road wheel has the later HQ stud Patten then it must be HQ ventilated Discs & Hub.
If your Willys runs the early holden stud patten then the brakes if 14 inch could be HT HK or HG (not ventilated).
If early holden stud patten and 13 inch wheels the brakes could be either HR, or LC Torana (not ventilated smaller disc).
Years ago HR & LC disc brakes were very expensive compared to HT and HQ brakes. (very hard to get).
So the brakes would more likely to be HQ or HT. (A lot more common, stronger and cheaper at the time).

Try and make sense of that lot!

I'm taking the wheels off to get them polished. I'll take a photo of the steering setup for the interest of the group.

Edited by user Saturday, 19 June 2021 7:28:40 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Looks to me like you have a HT/HG front suspension crossmember with the thicker GTS disc rotors, calipers and an LC/LJ Torana steering rack.

Edited by user Sunday, 20 June 2021 12:01:01 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

It just means it’s a HG front end. GTS used the same calipers as the rest of the Series for both HT and HG except for HT GTS350.