That's terrific Pascal. I wondered if we could do this. I didn't want to ask you for more of your time.  You've given so much already.

Hopefully we will get some folks to add there stories and additional photos.

Tim

                                                                                                                            [ftp][/ftp]
                                                                                                                                                                          1970
           Long ago in the town where I grew up, there was a gun store.  And there a group of five or six regular customers would stop by almost everyday around noon to play a hand or two of cut throat pitch, or hearts, and help eat a bucket of chicken livers or maybe work out on a bag of 19 cent hamburgers.  Yes Virginia, there was a time when you could get a hamburger for 19 cents.  I fell in with that bunch and before long was considered a regular.  A designation that came with certain responsibilities and rewards.  One of the rewards was access to 1948 CJ2A that lived out back behind the store.  Years before one of the original regulars had left it there and gone on to where even the Willys in four wheel drive couldn't follow.  That man's family had no interest in the jeep so there it set.  The keys were on a nail by the cash register and whenever a regular need to move a deer stand or put his car in the shop he would stop by and announce that he was taking the Willys for a few days and the store owner would pitch him the keys and remind him to bring it back full of gas, and that was that.  I only recall one time when there was ever a problem.  It was on the night of the very first telecast of Monday night football.  We all got together at the store owners house to see if there was anything to this deal of football on Monday night and the Willys came along too.  It was parked in the yard in front of the house.  By half time it was obvious that this new football thing was really cool.  And also, unfortunately, the pizzas were ready to be picked up and the second half was about to start.  The man closest to the door was dispatched to hurry to the store and pick them up and to make it in time, he hopped in the jeep and forgetting that the yard had two levels, he shot straight backwards off a five foot vertical rock wall.  We all heard the crash and rushed out on the porch and there set the Willys, balanced on it tailgate, with its front wheels in the air looking like it was begging for a biscuit.  Keeping in mind the approaching second half, we folded down everything that would fold and pushed it over on to where its top would have been if it had had one.  Then it was flipped back over on its wheels, the steering wheel was adjusted, and off to the store it went.  As time went by the regulars slowly drifted away and one day the gun store lost its lease and was soon to be turned into a beauty supply store.  I stopped by just before that tragedy was to take place and happened to see the Willys, still it its place, and apparently overlooked with all of the changes that were going on.  The gun store owner already had a jeep so when I made him an offer on the Willys he excepted with the understanding that if I ever wanted to get rid of it I had to bring it back - with its tank full of gas.

Ranchhopper,

What was it that made this 'The One'?

Tim

That is a great price for that Willys.  Great score.

Tim

This is a shot as I pulled my Dad's 49 out from under his shed where it had sat for 30 some years. Dad owned a repair facility and one of his customers/errand runners left him to him when she and her husband moved to Florida. It had many modifications done over the years, floors were wood, gas tank mounted in the rear, side panels sheet metaled over etc. Mom and Dad sold the house and we held a yard sale with numerous questions in regards to the jeep. No one in the family had any idea of what it was worth, but a few customers told us it would be worth more if it was running. Being a mechanic by trade I decided that if I was going to get it running I might as well restore it. Needless to say this project has turned into a obsession  . I started in May of 2012 and took it for its first ride with an unpainted tub in December of 2012. I took the body back off had it painted and put it back on in January. Ready to get it out of storage and start driving it on a daily basis now that the weather is warming back up.

I cheated..

johnrb3b wrote on 04/01/13 at 16:20:20:



I know.... I have only had it 3 weeks, and have already put a grand into it..