Juan showing his grandson a CJ-3B. Juan is passing on the joy of jeeps.
Juan shared this neat story about restoring a pedal jeep for his grandson Francisco. The email was written in Spanish, so I translated it as best as I could.
Juan writes, I am pleased to talk to you about something incredible that happened to me. A few days ago a jeep friend, Alejandro Galvan, messaged me, telling me that there was a pedal jeep for sale in acoatepec bazaar. They were selling a pedal jeep like the one my parents gave me when I was almost two years old.
The next day my brother and I went to see it. We bought it, cleaned it and compared it with a photo of my toy jeep from 60 years ago. We were surprised to discover that it is identical, except for a few modifications such as different tires tires and a windshield. I plan to ask the person who sold me if they know the source. Maybe there’ s a chance it was originally my very own toy. How amazing that would be!
Since my grandson just turned on year old and it was his Catholic baptism, we gave it to him. To my great astonishment, when my grandson saw it I could see in his eyes the joy. After the celebration, my brother and myself began restoring it to look like my pedal jeep. I’m very pleased with the way it turned out. Warmest regards from Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico.
BEFORE RESTORATION: You can see the photos of Juan’s original pedal jeep in the photos in the first picture.
AFTER RESTORATION: (I wish I’d had one of those as a kid!)
That’s one happy kid!
The picture of the grandson in the restored Jeep makes me smile. What a great gift his Grandfather has given him. And imagine the joy Grandfather received during the restoration process…Hot Dog, another Jeeper is being trained…
Kudos to a wonderful Grandfather..
And that is one cool pedal jeep also !
Way neat, makes you wonder about it being yours. I’m sure there weren’t many around back in the day and now you just see pics.
Lovely.
Great story! I want to repeat the same thing with my grandson. Now all I need to find is a Forward Control pedal Jeep!
Great story!
Wow is that neat. wouldnt that be something if it were juans original? my pedal car was a mustang. my first car was a mustang. but i leatned how to drive in a jeep
Craig: Do you know of any FC pedal jeeps that were made?
I would just about bet that between Craig and Jesse, they could figure out how to build a FC pedal car. Juan’s grandson’s pedal car is quite a bit different than most of the Jeep pedal cars we have seen. It has a combination of Triang, Anchor and Sherwood styles in it. Maybe it was made in Mexico or Central America originally??
Did I just have a shower moment???… A FC pedal car???…I’m thinking, and as my mates say, that is me working with out tools…anybody in the southeastern USA have a pedal car to donate for a worthy challenge???…appropiate crdite will be given to the donor…perhaps naming rights…or at least bragging rights….