This story was submitted by Grundy customers Joann and Glenn Dura.

So, here is the story of our Willys…

After my husband Glenn was in a serious accident on September 12, 2001, and spent three months in the hospital and then had an additional six months of rehab, we decided to get his dream car: a 1941 Willys.

Life is too short; enjoy it while you can.

As soon as he was able, we drove to Willys Works, in Liberty, N.Y., and we ordered a Willys to be built. But, the next day we went to a local show and saw a yellow Willys for sale. Glenn drove it. And, that was it.We cancelled the one to be built and bought this one, thinking it was a "done car."

Well, these cars are never done.

We redid the engine, the suspension, the wiring, the cooling system and the air conditioner. Now, the car ran great, and we loved it—except someone told me it looked like an Easter egg.

A Willys is supposed to look mean, not like an Easter egg. So the next thing to do was to get it repainted.

We brought the car to Dale's Custom Auto in Hackettstown, N.J., because we knew the work he had done on other cars and the awards that these cars had won.We discussed what we wanted with the paint, but then found that the doors were all cracked around the hinges and the tilt nose was cracked from always opening and closing it.

Dale is great with fiberglass and fixed everything.  He made a custom roll bar inside the hood with actuators, so that the hood opens automatically from a switch in the car. Now, there is no pressure on the hood, so it won't crack again. The doors were all reinforced and put back on the car, and the front cowl was also reinforced.This car is fiberglass and has a 502 with over 600 horsepower; the body gets twisted from all the torque.

We were at Dale's just about every week and kept going over designs that he would tape on the car for us to imagine how it would look. We decided on a design, and he did a test panel for us.We really told him he had free reign, since we knew how good his ideas and his work were.

Well, after one and a half years of work, we got the car on a Thursday morning—June 5, 2008.  We put it in our trailer and drove to the NSRA show in York, P.A.

On that following Saturday morning, we were picked for the PPG paint award for "Outstanding Use of Color."

We really loved this car. Yet, now that the paint was so outrageous, and our Easter Egg Willys had become a "Wild Willys," we needed new interior to go with this great paint.  That was just done by Gillin Design.

We are so hooked on Willys that we have a 1938 Willys Pickup with a ‘41 nose that is on a ‘75 Corvette frame and drive train. It is so much fun to drive.

But, when I saw a Willys sedan and loved it, I searched the internet and found a ‘39 Willys 2-door sedan with a ‘41 nose for sale on EBay; it was located in Georgia.

We called the owner and left on a roadtrip. We came home with our black sedan.

Along the way, I also had to have my ‘99 Corvette convertible. I really can't take the Willys to work, so I needed my own toy to drive—and, I love it.

We are completely car crazy and just about every nice day is spent at a car cruise or a car show.  If it is too far to drive the cars, we load them in our "mobile garage," and we're off.

Our only problem is not knowing which car to take!

-Joann Dura

Story edited by: Becky McLaughlin

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