Stones Wood & Cook X 3

[Peter Lombardo]

Stones, Woods and Cook 1941 Willys times 3

Like many of us “old timers”, back in the early 60’s, as a youth, I built a number of what today we call “iconic” kits….a few of the Roth custom rods, the Orange Crate, Black Widow and the Silhouette to name a few…..but of all the old kits from that era, my favorite was the Stones, Wood and Cook Willys. I am not exactly sure why it was the stand out kit for me, maybe it was the fact that it was highly detailed (for the day) with opening doors, or the Roth painted signage on the car or even the name, which always seemed to roll off my tongue easily, heck, it could have been the box art with the photo of the car coming off the line….. I just don’t know, but one thing was for sure, with my relatively limited modeling skills, I, like most kids back then I butchered that kit.

I mean, those door hinges were impossible to get right, and the suspension parts and tedious working steering did not enjoy being glued together, and having to use only tube glue that was slow drying and had a nasty tendency to get on all of your fingers and then mysteriously on to the body…..man what I ended up with was a preverbal glue bomb.

Well today all of those builds are long gone, tossed out by my mother, along with my collection of baseball cards from the 50’s and 60’s (long before the crazy prices of the 80’s for those collections) and my home made slingshots, Swiss Army knife and Tiger Battle Tanks when I was in the Navy…..Oh well, back then it was no big deal to me as I was interested in Girls, Cars (real), music and beer after discharge. Sound familiar?

Anyway, back in 1990 when I got back into building, one of my goals was to find all, or at least many of those iconic kits from the 60’s that I had built and build them now with my improved skills. I know this is not unique……many of you have expressed the same thoughts and goals. Today I find it extremely rewarding to hold one of those kits in my hands…..it takes me back to a simpler time. No real worries……no mortgage payments, no job stress, no car payments, and no parenting worries ……man, the only concern was getting my homework done so I still had time to do a little modeling.

I acquired the Revell SWC Willys kit in 1992. For 20 years I had it safely tucked away in a draw just waiting for the day when I would finally think the time was right to build it. I was not worried about my skills, I mean at this point I will attack just about any model or attempt any new technique fearlessly. So back in 2012, the time seemed right….after all it was the 20^th anniversary of me acquiring the kit, so I began the build.

I had a wonderful article from the “Rodders Journal” that recounted the early days of the car…….the variations of it, the time it spend converted to a “street” car and a brief history of the players and some detail of the illustrious racing career of that car. Most importantly, it has some wonderful photos from back in the day, so I was able to model the car relatively accurately to the early 1960 time frame. As I began the build which would ultimately be close to box stock, I know the door hinges were going to have to go….I rebuilt them from scratch and I think they work much better since for one thing, they have metal pins holding them….the other change was giving the model whitewall front tires as in many of the old pictures of the car it was sporting them. The Oldsmobile engine has the necessary spark and fuel lines to complete the engine compartment. Amazingly, at least to me, the decals had held up extremely well over the years, with the copyright date on the kit being 1969.

Along with the original SWC car, I have here two additional versions of the car……..as I said earlier, this car has been presented in a number of versions and by a number of tribute builders. As much as I like the original car, I find the candy blue version even more attractive.

I really like the gold “Old English” style lettering on the candy blue paint. By the way, the paint is Duplicolor silver, over primer topped with Tamiya clear blue. This is really a Big John Mazmanian kit that I converted with Slixx decals. I opened the doors and made the same kind of hinges that are on the original car. This car was detailed based upon an article in an older “Hot Rod” magazine

.

In the last version of the car, I took a little “artist License” and changed up the pure black car a little. This is the SWC version of the Big John car Revell issued a few years ago….. Sure, the black looks great, but I wanted a little life to the color, so I used a very deep dark purple which appears almost black but it really isn’t. I opened the doors on this one too, but used conventional style hinges for expedience but gave it working steering.

All three cars were clear coated after decaling and were buffed and waxed to get a nice smooth finish.

All I need to add to these is a Big John, candy red car, which I have, also with Slixx decals and I will have satisfied my itch to build the 41 Willys Gasser cars of my youth.

As always, thanks for looking and I apologize for once again running a bit long-winded.

[John Pol]

You did real great job thanks for sharing

John Pol

[Terminator-Fox]

Good story and all the Willy's look fantastic. One of my favorite drag cars of all time.

[Mike Kucaba]

You could also add the '33 Willys that had SWC on the doors and I think it was driven by Chuck Finders. There might be pics on Google.

There was also the Mustang driven by Doug Cooks son. I saw it race once at Oswego,IL. You have an impressive group of gasser history there, and all are very well done!!

[Phildaupho]

Great collection. I have always really liked the original version.

[TooOld]

Great looking bunch of Willys !

I've always preferred the original too .

[Chris White]

very cool, nice work

[slusher]

Very sharp builds...

[cobraman]

A very fine trio of models you have there.

[madhorseman]

Awsum Peter!!

Since I was a kid, I've Loved the Stone,Woods and Cook team cars!! You've done some reall great work!!

I'm planning a S,W&C project when I finish a couple of projects that are ongoing now.

Thanks for sharing,

Roy

P.S. I took a poetic license with a Davey Allison car I'm working on and painted it with Tamiya's black metalic paint, so I get it.

Edited November 9, 2013 by madhorseman

[realgone58]

Peter, I really like your builds. Just beautiful! I am a big fan of correctly done vintage drag cars, and yours are perfect! Out of the three, I've always liked the original best.

[maltsr]

Great builds Peter, and I always enjoy your narratives, however 'long-winded'

[PappyD340]

BEAUTIFUL trio Peter!!

[gtx6970]

Very nice. and Well done,

Even though I am not a gasser fan myself. I agree a SWC car is a must have on the shelf .

And like you ,I built one as a kid, so having one today just seems like a good idea. And same here, I'll use one of the new tool Mazmanian car to do it

[mnwildpunk]

Great job on all three truly a labor of love of this car. Personally I am not a fan of Willy's but the history of the SWC cars makes up for the willy being so ugly lol.

[Speedfreak]

Great builds Peter, love the Willy's. I'll take the deep purple one!

[peekay]

I can't pick a favourite, they're all top drawer!!!

[Scalper]

Nice trio .. all very well built. very nice.

[Mike 1017]

Great build of these historic Gassers

[Ace-Garageguy]

Very nice trio. It's a treat to see all 3 SWC Willys gassers together and looking so very very good.

[Danno]

Very nice Willys trilogy!!

[ToyLvr]

Really awesome work, Peter!

And thanks for the trip down memory lane, too. Like you indicated, a lot of us share a similar history. I'm still trying to track down some of the milestone kits from my youth and recreate some magic.

(Sorry if we're boring the young folks on the forum)

[Chuck Most]

This is the third or fourth time I've checked out these cars, and I can't say anything that hasn't already been said. Love '60's drag-racers, and you always bring a level of quality to all of your models that's rarely matched- great to see those two attributes combined, and thrice in one thread, no less!

[rmvw guy]

Nice job on all three! Enjoyed looking at the older version best with white walls. Enjoyed reading your story also, having a car model friend here from New Jersey, I understand your gift of gab. I am surprised you didn't mention the Yankees. lol "New Jersey" comes up in every conversation my friend has with anybody, even after he has lived here 7 or 8 years.

[Peter Lombardo]

Gentleman, thanks for the kind words, I really appreciate it, also, I am heartened to hear that a number of you guys shared the same experiances that I did growing up in the "Golden Age" of model car building...........I know right now is the best time to be into the hobby, with all of the great kits and cottage industries stuff available, and I think it will get unbelievably better once the "Desktop" machines hit their stride, but really, the 60's were an amazing time to be getting into model car building..........boy, if I knew then, what I know now, I would have an amazing pile of vintage kits sitting in my closet.

Again, thanks for "getting it".