38K Miles? 1952 Willys Aero Ace 2-Door Sedan

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The Willys (pronounced Willis) Aero, sometimes seen as Aero Willys, should be more popular than it is. It personifies post-WWII design and naming conventions in America, and they’re just plain cool. This 1952 Willys Aero Ace is posted here as a Potts Brothers Auction, and you have until September 18th to get your ducks in a row, that’s when the auction starts. Here is the original listing.

If there’s a more desirable project car for sale right now, I can’t think of it. I guess I’m biased as I still regret not grabbing a decent driver-quality Aero Ace two-door sedan like this car about 15 years ago for $2,500. Ouch. $2,500 in 2008 is only $3,500 today, so yes, car values are off the charts compared to inflation, in general. You can see that this dusty Aero Ace, which I’m assuming is an estate sale find, needs work, but it looks pretty nice in the dusty photos that the seller has provided.

I have a bike in a chrome shop right now and it’s not cheap (about $2,000!). Many of you know that doing the chrome on a car or truck can be prohibitively expensive during a restoration. Due to the Korean War, some vehicles in the early 1950s received much thinner chrome and sometimes just silver-painted bumpers. Plan accordingly when you bid on this sweet Aero Ace.

Those tiny tailfins on the Willys Aero cars get to me every time, they’re perfect. Willys offered several models starting with the base Aero Lark two-door sedan with a four-door sedan coming along the following year. A very rare Aero Heavy-Duty, similar to the four-door Lark, was made with four doors in 1953, then came the Aero Wing, the Aero Falcon, the Aero Ace, and Aero Eagle, a hardtop version. A couple of others were the Bermuda, which replaced the Aero Eagle in 1955, and a Custom Series, also in ’55, replacing the Aero Ace.

This car looks incredibly original to me, right down to the yellow pine tree air freshener. Hey, wait a minute. Just kidding, I really like this car, and a steel dash won’t have cracks or wrinkles, unlike your forehead if you slam into it. I might sneak seatbelts with shoulder belts into this car after redoing the interior, just to make sure that doesn’t happen. The back seat looks much better than the front seat does, which may have a cover on it?

I don’t know if the exact fabric is available, but I’m sure it could be matched pretty closely. SMS Auto Fabrics has many similar fabric patterns to choose from, here’s a fairly close one from a ’52 Hudson. The two-piece split windshield looks good as does the three-piece wraparound rear window. This car likely has a three-speed manual, maybe with overdrive, but the seller doesn’t list any more than “manual” in a written description of the car’s features.

The engine should be a Willys F-Head 161-cu.in. (valve-in-head intake and valve-in-block exhaust) inline-six with around 80 horsepower. We don’t know anything about this car, the auction house doesn’t say where it’s from or when it was last used. There is a photo showing what is presumably this car outside of the dusty garage shown here, but I’m not sure. In any case, you could hardly do wrong with this nice project Aero Ace. Have any of you owned a Willys Aero?

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Comments

  1. BA

    Being from south of Toledo, Ohio we always said Willys not Willis . Hey Willis was a popular saying at one time but never used for a jeep!

    Like 10
    • Scotty GilbertsonAuthor

      That’s how I’ve always pronounced it until recently, BA. If Mr. J.N. Willys himself pronounced his last name as “Willis”, I’m guessing that’s at least how it started out being pronounced.

      Like 12
      • thomas okonski

        I’m from Toledo and never heard Willis used for this car. Always Willys . I’m 79 and a car guy my whole life.

        Like 6
    • Duaney

      All one has to do is see the UTube videos of original Aero Willys televison ads. The speakers all say Willis. Not Willeees Using correct English spelling, Willys or Willis is the same pronunciation. Willees would be the correct spelling for the different pronunciation. One of the videos has Edgar Kaiser pronouncing the name as Willis, he should know as he was manufacturing the car by then.

      Like 2
  2. LCL

    What advantage is the F head layout please?

    Like 3
    • Vince H

      They have room for a bigger a valve than a flathead so they breathe better.

      Like 8
  3. KurtMember

    Another rare jewel. Love it!

    Like 8
  4. kim in Lanark

    I always heard Willys, not Willis. Cars with low miles pop up regularly on this site. I always wonder what the backstory is.

    Like 7
    • John B. Traylor

      I just googled Willis and surprise no car name, but lots of people.

      Like 0
      • "Edsel" Al leonard

        That’s because it’s spelled “Willys”….not “Willis”…John North Willys-founder of Willys-Overland Motors.

        Like 3
  5. Paul Draver

    A commercial from 1954 should clear up the pronunciation question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdHp5mM56ts

    Like 3
  6. MokeH

    To add to the word confliction, I never heard either the car or the jeep called Will”e”s. Always Willis.

    Like 3
  7. "Edsel" Al leonard

    Where is this Willys at??Unless I missed it……:>)

    Like 1
  8. "Edsel" Al leonard

    Auction site gives no clue either………..

    Like 2
  9. Onkel

    3452 Post Oak Rd, Ringgold, Georgia 30736

    Like 2
    • "Edsel" Al leonard

      Thats the address of real estate only- a large home, 12 acres and a shop for auction…no mention of a car….hmmmm

      Like 3
    • Rick B

      I’ve never heard it pronounced Willis – EVER! And I’ve lived on the Left Coast all my life in including SoCal

      Like 0
  10. Timothy Antoine

    Willies was the way it was pronounced in Toledo , my next door neighbor had a Willy’s Knight . While growing up in Toledo in the 1950’s just off NeeVada St.

    Like 3
    • kim in Lanark

      Well, if it was Willies in Toledo that pretty much settles it.

      Like 2
  11. Greg in Texas

    Beautiful car. Lots of subtle style and understated class. I understand they also in fine tuned state can get 30mpg. Definitely keep it as original as possible if the motor a trans are salvageable. If not, I might sneak a Datsun inline 6 under there, but last ditch undesirable option case only. A steel dashboard can be very stylish. However, not exactly desirable in a lightning storm. Some unspoken changes perhaps because perhaps manufacturers and dealers didn’t want to mention metal parts in lighting storms could be you losing the big lottery. Permanently. So just don’t drive it in the storms. Not that you should anyway!

    Like 1
    • BigDaddyBonz

      If you had to change the motor, you could at least put a domestic I-6 or V6 in it.

      Like 1
    • George BishopricMember

      You’re encased in a solid steel envelope, and you worry about lighting hitting the dashboard? A much more lethal problem with ’50’s dashboards is all of those hard chromed metal knobs that look like rocket launcher s and space ships, and which penetrate the human skull quite efficiently when the passengers, unrestrained by seatbelts, hit the metal dash!

      Like 5
  12. George

    these were very nice cars. More of a compact size into. Where “longer lower, and wider” was the gospel of the day.

    GM and Ford’s price drove down the cost of their full-size car to only a couple, hundred dollars more than these Compaqs. It made them far less desirable, and they sold much less than expected.
    drove down the cost of their full-size car to only a couple, hundred dollars more than these Compaqs. It made them far less desirable, and they sold far less than they could have otherwise.

    When Kaiser stopped making passenger cars for the US market, the tooling was put into storage and in the early 1960s it was sent to Brazil. Brooke Stevens gave it a fairly dramatic restyling, and it was known as the Willys Itamarati, which is generally considered the first completely Brazilian car

    Likewise, the tooling for the larger sedans were sent to Argentina where it was used to make these Willys Carabella

    Like 2
  13. Dennis Bailey

    If you look at a vintage TV ad on YouTube the lovely announcer pronounces it Willis as did the family according to other sources. If you didn’t know the family you would easily mispronounce it according to standard spelling conventions.
    Now that Willys no longer produces cars nor advertisers, the argument will forever persist. I’m just happy I bought a ‘53 Kaiser after missing out on a Willys, although my friend calls it The Kaisah!

    Like 4
  14. MikeH

    This should settle the controversy—Willys’ own TV ad.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdHp5mM56ts

    I’m surprised she can talk with her waist cinched in like that.

    Like 0
  15. Robert Stevens

    My father worked for Kaiser/Willys when I was young. He was transferred to Argentina in 1955 & we moved to Buenos Aires at that time. The company was then abbreviated as IKA. The full size 1955 Kaiser was produced in Argentina thru 1962 as the Kaiser Carabela.

    Like 0
  16. Kenneth L Gaar

    Regionaly illiterate boneheads! As to the auto; would like to have something from my birth year. Not sure if this is it. The cost will far out pace the value. A base model offering nothing unique.

    Like 1
  17. Scotty GilbertsonAuthor

    Auction update: this one sold for $2,511.

    Like 0

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