Welcome pops

[Forum Master]

Welcome to the CJ DJ 3A 3B Willys Community Forum pops!

Tell us more about you and your Willys!

We love pics so don't be afraid to post pics of your Willys.
Here we like any kind of them!

You will find a lots of smart people here that are willing to help.
Enjoy your stay,
Pascal and all forum members

[pops]

Hello folks,

Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble, but this is a little complicated, all good just complicated.

Well here I am, John from Vermont, but now that I am a granddad some folks are calling me "pops". Over the last 50 years I have had the pleasure of owning and tinkering on a lot of different iron. Big fan of trucks and tractors. Never any old cj-s, a number of Scouts and I think 5 Cherokee's.

One of the first vehicles I ran the back roads in (at a brave age of 14) was a  neighbors early cj-5 Hurricane. I tinkered on it a little  and  knew just enough about engines to realize that it was a rather unique power plant.

Now I find myself square in the early Willys world with three projects. I'll share a little about each and I think the last one will be one of the weirdest willys rabbit holes.

1) As I said I have run Scouts and also have some of those little japanese mini trucks to tool around the farm. I do a lot of running around to our various farm properties, local shops and other tasks and think it is time to upgrade. Looking at getting a CJ2b, like to find a hardtop to go with it. Interested in a range of conditions, and might build one up from a pile of parts, see # 2.

2) I find myself pretty busy working on Baker Island of the coast of Maine. We need a good utility vehicle primarily to haul items from the shore up to the lighthouse and move tools around the compound.  About 1/2 mile with a rise of about 150 feet. Top speed does not need to be any more than 15mph.

At one point there was a Coast Guard  Jeep  stationed there and I would like to build up a rough replica of that. I have one period picture and I think the original did not have a tailgate. I think for our purposes we want that. Given the hostile environment, salt water, I am thinking fiberglass(?). I dunno.

Here is where this gets a little weird, we have a range of volunteers who help out and I would like to set this up with a forward / reverse / automatic drivetrain, the simpler the better....think golf cart level simplicity.  I am considering both electric and gas. Again, top speed of 15 is fine.

Sorry if this offends any purists, but if it does then you may want to skip #3.

3) Before the war, a friend of mine bought a 1926 Amilcar. A cute little blue two seater that has been called the poor mans Bugatti. In the early 1950's, after putting around with 900 cc's of flathead power he decided he wanted to more go. After looking around for a suitable 4 cylinder, around 2 litres, he stumbled on the new and modern Hurricane. I am not sure if it was the American ingenuity of Willys (this fellow was an amazing self-taught engineer / machinist) or the roots of the F-head back into Rolls Royces, but he ordered up a motor.

I THINK he got a brand new crate motor and after some creative shoe-horning, got it into this rather small car. For decades he terrorized the streets and tracks of Connecticut with this pistol of an automobile.

For about 10 years I worked on his other cars, occasionally taking a few minutes to sort the Amilcar. It had been sitting for some time due to weak spark and a bad carb. We were always busy working on other stuff, which he drove till he was 100, but never quite got the Amilcar going.....

Well, nowI own it and plan to refresh the drivetrain and run it, alot. I am a big fan of taking older motors and balancing them, adding better spark, carburetion and seeing what they will do. Racing is certainly part of the plan. April is the month to get it going...

Taking a 75 year old engine in a 100 year old car and heading out on a 1000 mile tour, or track event....clearly logic and common sense has been abandoned. My children do say I'm not quite right.

Anyway, that's who I am and what I'm up to. I will work my way through the tons of info on this site and elsewhere. If you want to share something specific on any of the projects, thanks!

If anyone has items for the COAST GUARD project KOBI takes donations.  http://www.keepersofbakerisland.org/


All for now

Pops

[Rus Curtis]

Pops,
Welcome!  Thanks for the intro!  Quite an interesting ride!

On flat fenders, you'll be able to choose between a CJ-2A, CJ-3A or CJ-3B.  There are some subtle and some less subtle differences.  Lots of additional information found on the 3A and 3B Pages (links at the top of this forum) and also on these sites (Note: the CJ-3B Page has a large collection of information on additional models produced):

https://cj3a.info/index.html
https://www.thecj2apage.com/

The island idea (fiberglass) has some merit but there's other things, i.e. springs, chassis, nuts/bolts, etc. that will need some attention.  Does that location have washing or storage facilities?  I'll confess, I don't have any experience with coastal issues.

I had to look up an Amilcar and remember reading about it.  Interesting.