UPDATE: **SOLD** Price Unknown
Car, Railway Maintenance, Mutigage , 8-Man, 60 HP Gasoline engine Willys Model MB Motor Car / Speedster
If this is not the most unusual and the most rare WWII vehicle I have had the opportunity to sell it is definitely in the top three. It was built for the U.S. Army Transportation Corp by the Kalamazoo Manufacturing Co. Kalamazoo Michigan. It is serial number 5913 USA number M1013 and was delivered January 1945. What makes it interesting to me is they used everything they could from the MB, purchased right from Willys. The engine complete with oil filter, air filter, regulator, battery, bell housing and T-84 transmission and all of the gauges are the same as the MB. They even used the MB fuel tank and radiator. It is 4 wheel drive and that is accomplished through chain drive and a forward-reverse lever which gave three gear speeds in each direction so the transfer case was not needed. When it was found and purchased 5 or 6 years ago, it was still in very good running condition and had never been allowed to set outside. Most of the vehicle is wood and due to inside storage for 60 years 95% of the original wood was saved in the total restoration. You can see in the as purchased photos (yellow trim) how good the wood was, only the side rail boards had to be replaced mainly from being kicked and broken. Before restoration it was used on several Sunday rail trips in the Jackson Ohio area. It will go much faster that you will want to drive it. As you can see from the photos it was professionally and totally disassembled rebuilt, researched for paint scheme and reassembled. With the wood being in such good condition it was easy to sand down to the original colors and markings. It was shown at the 2006 MVPA convention in Dayton Ohio.”