1947 Willys Jeep CJ2A

It's not WWII surplus. The Willys script on the hood and the tailgate tell us this is the first civilian Jeep. There's a myth that after the war military Jeeps were available as surplus for as little as $44. It's true that surplus Jeeps were sold to veterans, but in good condition the government demanded $975, almost as much as a brand new Jeep from the factory in Toledo. This Jeep also has an original 1947 license plate.

The government also sold as surplus, "150,000 rubber life rafts, recouping $3 million on an equipment that originally cost $30 million. Each raft was sold as part of a $105 package containing 143 items, which included a bible, 12 signal flares, a bilge pump, a gallon of massage oil, a checkerboard, and back issues of Fortune, Esquire, Reader’s Digest, and The Saturday Evening Post." As Major Kong from Dr. Strangelove would say, "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."

Tweet

1946 Willys Jeep CJ-2A

A 1941 Chevy coupe weights 3,025 lbs. So it's not clear what the Army was thinking when it asked for designs for a general purpose vehicle weighing no more than 1,300 lbs. Bending to reality, the spec was changed but still limited to only 2,160 lbs. That's most of the reason why the initial Jeep contracts were awarded to American Bantam and Willys-Overland, makers of America's smallest cars.

Four levers?! To the right of the driver, the first lever is the gear shift. The second takes the front axle in and out of four-wheel drive. The third shifts the transfer case between high-range gears (good for driving on pavement) and low-range gears (good for driving off-road). The little lever on the floor is for overdrive.

The civilian model (hence the model name "CV") is the same as the military model, except that the military model doesn't have the gate on the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tweet

1980 Jeep DJ

From the mid-1950s through the mid-1980s, the DJ delivered most of America's mail.
* "DJ" stands for Dispatcher Jeep. The Jeep now called the Wrangler was sold for decades as the CJ, or Civilian Jeep.
* The vehicle is very different from CJs of the same era. It has a lighter frame, rear-wheel-only drive and a DJ-only 5-slot grill. A lot of them had transmissions from Chrysler, and they had engines from several sources.
* I have no idea what that extra radiator/cooler attached to the grill does.

Tweet

1954 Willys Jeep truck

The Willys Jeep station wagon and truck were introduced 1946-7, and continued in production virtually unchanged to 1965. By the '60s, this vehicle was positively antique compared to Jeep's Wagoneer, introduced in '62. Even the brand name Willys had otherwise been retired in the '50s, when the company became Kaiser-Jeep. But there's the 'W' on the tailgate.

Tweet

1970 Jeepster Commando

This is the second Jeepster I've spotted in this part of the city. I like this color.

Tweet

1950 Willys CJ3A Jeep

In Jeep's early years, the civilian CJ was identical to the military model.

* A little history. Willys-Overland was one of America's oldest car makers, dating to 1903. It survived the Depression (barely) making compact cars. Although it did not invent the Jeep and did not actually own the design, it was the largest builder of Jeeps during World War II and managed to secure the design rights after the war. After that, nearly all of its products were Jeeps and other four-wheel-drive vehicles. Willys was purchased by the Kaiser Corporation in 1953, Kaiser-Jeep joined American Motors in 1970, that company was purchased by Chrysler in 1987, and Chrysler was purchased by Fiat in 2009. Jeeps are still made on the same Toledo, Ohio factory grounds as Willys cars were a century ago.

* To the right of the driver, the first lever is the gear shift. The second takes the front axle in and out of four-wheel drive. The third shifts the transfer case between high-range gears (good for driving on pavement) and low-range gears (good for driving off-road).

Tweet

1970 Jeepster Commando

Willys-Overland, and, subsequently, the Kaiser-Jeep Corporation had been patiently selling 4-wheel drive vehicles based on the wartime Jeep to the public in small numbers for two decades before they really began to catch on. This 1970 Jeepster Commando was built by Jeep the year Kaiser-Jeep was bought out by American Motors. Under AMC the popularity of Jeeps continued to grow, and in fact Jeep was the only part of AMC really worth anything when Chrysler bought the company out in late 1987.

Tweet