The complete remodel done in only 10 days.
On Friday the Toledo Jeep Plant unveiled a Willys MB for a Veteran’s display. What makes this story unusual is that from start to finish the team only had five weeks to find a jeep, get it delivered, and rebuild it. That’s a pretty short window! The person tasked with finding the jeep was former plant manager Jerry Huber. Naturally, he turned to eWillys to locate the jeep. He shared his adventure in an email.
Jerry wrote, “I e-mailed you a couple of months ago to congratulate you on the ewillys website and to tell you how much I enjoy it. Well, here’s a short story you’ll enjoy. About five weeks ago, I was contacted by some of my friends at the Toledo Jeep Plant asking if I could help them find a donor Willys Jeep that could be turned into a Memorial Replica for a Veterans display at the Plant. After accepting the challenge, since they wanted it completed for Memorial Day weekend, I scoured your website for potential vehicles and since we were operating on a small budget it was pretty tough.
When I spotted a 42 Willys in Texas with an asking price of $995, the folks at the Plant immediately jumped on it. The seller was so impressed with the intended purpose that he offered to deliver it to the plant in return for a Plant Tour and a couple of Tee-shirts. We rec’d the Willys at the Plant on May, 10th and the mechanics, body and paint crews went to work immediately.
The jeep from Wimberly, Texas, that is now on display in the Toledo Jeep Plant
The Jeep workers and the current Plant Management really got behind the project and gave it their full support. Special kudos to the team from Jeep that pulled of the restoration in such a short time. Finding the donor Willys was a first step and this would not have happened without your ewillys site. Thanks for all your effort to sustain the Willys Jeep heritage.”
World War II veteran and Jeep retiree Lupe Flores, right, looks at the restored Jeep. Behind him is Ron Szymanski, and Bob Kiss, one of the painters on the project. THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER
You can read more about the event in the Toledo Blade:
http://www.toledoblade.com/Automotive/2014/05/24/WWII-vehicle-made-here-marks-holiday.html
We ALL immensely enjoy your EWillys.com website and that apparently includes employees from the Toledo Jeep Plant. Thank you, Dave, for all your hard work and congratulations on a job well done!!!
This is a great story, just wondering if anybody was able to determine the date of manufacture from the serial number. It would be so cool to know when this Willys came off the assembly line in Toledo and now has returned to Toledo.
Kudos to eWillys and Dave for helping in this worthy project. So very glad to see the Jeep plant got Ron Szymanski, the curator of the Willys Museum (until Chrysler dismantled it) involved in the project.
Everyone have a great Memorial Day weekend and remember what it is all about!
Great story. And bravo to the Texas Jeep owner, the Toledo mechanics and, of course, Dave’s Ewillys which now has become the central and unavoidable Willys Jeep hub of the world.
This is great, now all we need is a museum to house it and 150 more!
For factory I am not impressed – Ewillys did their part, the TX owner did his part – they, Toledo, could have at least done a proper frame horn/front end job and located off the shelf running and blackout lights, any repro supplier has them – maybe I am too picky
Add to that a plastic jerry can, no seat cushions and no rear seat – Todedo could have done better then that – 10 days or not!
One more thing – Tires – It’s the factory where it was built for crying out loud – put the proper tires on it – all the vintage suppliers have them.
Its a great story and a great thought. But why not consult with some of the WWII jeep gurus who could give advise for the proper details. Tires, combat wheels, weird bumper thing, correct hood blocks, marker lights, seat pads, even a period jerry can.
I hate those people who critique a movie and loose sight of the whole point of the movie, so that said. Nice Job.
The point of the project was to make a “Display Model from 50 feet” and that goal was achieved; Very different from a complete restoration. Considering the time & money restrictions, these guys did a great job.
The notes regarding the accuracy of the restoration are fair. Importantly, their goal wasn’t to do a complete restoration at this time, but rather to create a replica or symbol. That’s a result of the limited time frame and budget. What they did accomplish is to get the jeep *closer* to being restored.
In addition, one can also imagine that the people who set the budget were probably not the people who actually did the work, so what we likely see is the best given the circumstances.
Whether they have plans (or a future budget) to do a more complete restoration is unknown to me, but there’s nothing I see (and nothing they’ve done) which prohibits it from being done. Thus, it is a step in the right direction.
There could be an upside to this. Perhaps Jeep would be open to donations for the restoration of the jeep? One simple proposal would be an offer to donate the right tires and rims. Another offer would be a volunteer effort to create a detailed list of what it would take to properly restore the jeep as if it had just left the plant and a reasonable plan for achieving the goal. Or, a group could try to work with Jeep to create a matching grant where the vintage jeep community would raise money and jeep would match that to see the jeep restored.
So, my feeling is that it’s a good story, but one that doesn’t have an end just yet.
WELL SAID DAVE, I agree. Peace & well being on this Memorial Day weekend.
Well remember too this is 2014 and the factory is now owned by Fiat.
Unfortunately, It’s not the same plant that Willys was built in, either. That plant was torn down years ago-this one is a few miles away. Hopefully, that MB will be continually improved as they get the time and money to do so. It’s really amazing that they did something like this at all-if they had more time, I’m sure they could have done a more correct job, but I’ll bet those old vets enjoyed seeing it no matter what.