Welcome aboard.

I'm not sure that I have ever seen an early Willys (or is it an Overland??) such as that. It looks like a decent start for anything you want to do with it though I would consider leaving it pretty close in appearance as stock. As far as drive train, and since you mentioned Ford power () why not consider a 351W as well as the 5.0/302. Currently a lot more reasonably priced aftermarket parts for these two 'W' design engines then the 'C' as there are some hard parts that will interchange.

Again, welcome and bring your photos, comments and questions