Now, you probably think I run eWillys because of all the money, fame, babes and glory I receive. Not true! Instead, it is a story like this one that makes the work worthwhile. Nearly two years ago I started swapping emails with 15 year old Chris Ruhnau. He had a mostly stock 1947 CJ-2A and was having problems with some wiring issues. We worked through those issues, brake issues, battery issues, and even a girl issue. Last summer he spotted a CJ-2A just down the road from him, with a full cage and more for only $1000. He couldn’t resist, so at age 16, he was the proud owner of two jeeps. Clearly, he suffered from a case of Willys Sickness.
Over the past winter he spent time working on his jeep and going to high school. This summer, he got everything finished and found his way to his very first PNW event. As you will read, he had a great time. Nice work on the jeep Chris and keep on racing!
“Dave!!! You’ll never believe this! I raced my jeep today! The PNW4WDA put on a race in Ethel, Wa. I raced twice in the obstacle course! It was so much fun. I’ve never had so much fun! In both races I got the same time… 1.61. It was really hard though because it was really soupy. I only had 2 problems, my fan wire shorted out and then my battery died, but those are minor and i still had tons of fun. everyone was coming up to me when I was sitting in line and asking about the jeep and saying it was nice. I felt pretty good about that. A guy i know that races said that he’s going to let me take my jeep to his shop and we’re going to fix my steering and he’s going to give me some brand new rancho shocks so that my fenders and battery box wont rub on the tire so much. The guy that used to be the leader of PNW4WDA asked for my email, too, to let me know when the events schedule so I can race a lot this summer!”
Great post…I like happy endings…the best part is we have a young man interested in a Willys! Motor on son and keep the shiney side up.
This may be the coolest story I’ve read all year! Nice going Chris!
I wish I could say that Chris reminds me of me when I was that age, but he’s light years ahead of anything I did when I was his age! You go young man!
P.S. I’m sorry you got the flat fender bug, it’ll cost you.
Very cool!!
greg, the funny thing is, i bought that jeep for alittle under 100 bucks. the only money i put into it was fluids hoses and a master cyl for the brakes and clutch. so about 300 bucks. the rest of the stuff like the dash, rear panel (“mb tailgate”), the spare tire carrier, rear bumper, front bully bar, all the different sorts of brackets, and rear shackles were built by me in the shop there at wf west highschool. i havnt got a welder nor a tortch set so lots of things are bolted down for now.