UPDATE: Was $7500. **SOLD**
“Here is the backstory on this Willys as I understand it. I am the third owner. The original owner bought the vehicle as a farm Jeep for use in mid-Georgia. The vehicle was never titled for road use. It spent it’s working career as a chore vehicle, never leaving the farm. The second owner bought it some 15 years ago intending to restore it to original, but fell ill and never moved forward on the project. It spent it’s entire time with him in the garage. He titled it in Florida just before he sold it. I bought it in October of 2011 as a project Jeep, something to bring back to life and eventually restore.
Because of it’s origins it has less than 18,000 miles on the odometer. Engine, drive train and frame condition back this up. Compression is in the sweet spot, no rust or frame damage and it shifts and drives great considering it is a 56 year old vehicle. I have spent the past six months and $ 4K in parts getting it back into roadworthy condition. Here’s a partial list:
* All fluids, hoses etc. changed, some fluids twice. New oil pressure switch.
* Electrical: New wires, plugs, points, condenser, flasher, bulbs, wiring issues traced down and fixed, new regulator, new headlight switch. New battery cables. New coil. New generator mounting bushings. New horn button. New battery hold-down. New battery. New speedo cable.
* New heater hoses and radiator, new temp sender, new radiator cap.
* Brakes: New shoes all the way around including e-brake, new wheel cylinders. New brake light switch (twice now). Drums turned.
* Drive Train: New front pinion seal, new u-joints (all four). Front knuckles disassembled, cleaned, new kingpin bearings, new front left axle and all new gaskets. Tie rods pulled, cleaned and new boots. Drag link pulled and rebuilt. Bell crank pulled and rebuilt.
* Fuel: New fuel gauge sending unit. Carb kit and rebuild.
* Engine: New valve gaskets. New oil pressure switch. New oil filter and filter hose. New fan belt.
* Tires: Five new tires, one new rim and one new spare tire mount. Military style NDCC’s, original for that year.
* Body: New windshield, gasket and windshield frame to hood gasket.
* Wiper motor (original) pulled, disassembled, cleaned and painted. Still doesn’t work quite right though. Needs a rebuild kit (hard to find). New wiper blades and arms.
* Cosmetic: New hood blocks and tie-down. Sandblasted windshield frame, POR-50 then semi-gloss black which was original for the windshield. Sandblasted rims, primed and painted a matching white to original. Added lap seat belts.
What’s left mechanically? Speedo has quit working. Needs to be pulled and repaired. There’s a leak at the bottom of the water pump. I haven’t diagnosed it yet, hopefully just a gasket, but even if not it is a simple project to replace the pump. Very slight oil leak at the pan. I pulled the pan and cleaned and haven’t been able to get rid of the leak. Could use new springs and shocks. They look to be original. Springs are pretty flattened out. Shocks actually seem okay. Passengers seat pad is pretty well shot so a repair or new seats are in order. Idle knob is intact but the linkage at the carb is missing. On startup and occassionally after a long idle it blows a little blue smoke. I believe this is due to leak-by on the valve seals, not rings. Compression is too good. No top or doors. Also occasionally the gas pedal linkage gets stuck somewhere and it locks at a high rpm. Happens when I shift hard. The linkage is catching on something somewhere and I haven’t been able to figure it out. I just kick it down with the gas pedal, but it needs to be found and corrected.
It has the PTO shifter which does work, but no PTO shaft.
Things I’ve noticed: First, if you know these vehicles you will immediately see that the front and rear bumpers are not original. Both have been adapted for farm use. They are no doubt stronger than original, but if you intend to restore this to factory then you’ll have to cut them off and find old ones. Not hard, readily available. There’s a little backfire downshifting. Timing, I imagine.
The body, or parts of it is not original. A new floorboard is welded in and the side panels are not quite right. Seem to be new ones over the old ones. I can’t really tell. They are bolted on at the rear wheel wells, a dead giveaway. Taillights are not original. There is no tool box under the passengers seat, and I suspect the mounts for the seats have been modified to fit the new floor pan. The frame and floor inside have been undercoated and both are holding up well. I still need to align the front wheels. Also, I was not able to get the rear hubs off so I just greased them. They seem fine.
No lowballers please. Also, I am not interested in selling to someone who wants to jack it up and turn it into a mud truck or rock crawler. This vehicle is very close to pristine. For someone interested in a frame off, the majority of expense is out of the way. The rest is just labor and paint. With a little more work it will be a fine show car. Now that I have it back on the road I use it to run errands, etc. I look for excused to drive it. It’s amazing how much attention it gets. I don’t need to sell it, but other than the pleasure of driving it I just don’t really have a pressing need to keep it, so it would be nice for it to find a new home with someone who will continue the restoration. E-mail me with questions. I can supply additional photos.”
