UPDATE: Barney Goodwin (of Barney’s Jeep Parts) sent this 1973 photo out of Houston showing another possible example of an orange city-of-Houston CJ-5 painted similarly to the jeeps below.
Barney added, “This photo was taken in June, 1973 in my hometown of Houston. A neighbor who was an official for the City of Houston owned it. (His city car is to the left of the Jeep in the photo).
Like the Jeeps in the posting (below), I believe this had been a fleet Jeep, special ordered for a construction company, municipality or county. It had the same hard top as in the photos (see the doors propped against the wall behind it. Out of sight but in my copy is the windshield. It is orange also) Note the orange hinges, mirror arm, etc.
The changes he made to it were sand tires (the beach was 50 miles nearby) which I believe were on the Kelsey deep dish rims used on the Renegade and Renegade I, and also the white upholstery .
It was neat to see him cruise around on hot Houston summer days in this- just as it appears.”
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A 1968 image from a slide on eBay shows a dually CJ-5 that’s been modified in an unusual way. Too bad the quality isn’t better.
From this pic:
A second photo on eBay reveals there were two jeeps at the 1968 equipment show in Houston, the jeep above and a second dually CJ-5 with a back hoe. Unfortunately, the image isn’t hi res enough to reveal much about the jeeps:
From the top of this photo:
Interesting photos from my hometown of Houston. The Jeeps probably were brought in by Woodie’s Jeep which opened in 1945. First Jeep dealer in Texas and closed in 1986. We have the remnants and library of it here at Barney’s. As these are painted Omaha Orange already, they may be on loan for the show by a construction, drilling company, or local government agency. as there are other orange pieces on that side of the road. Note also the Scout 80 with winch and Travelall behind it on the last picture.
It reminds me of the aircraft tugs we had in the Air Force in the 90s.
The front clip and front cab were YJ parts..there wasn’t much in back of the driver other than a shortened “bobcat” frame and duallys.
forget the jeeps , look at those old AERIAL BUCKET LIFT TRUCKS !! — thats my specialty , I used to fix them for years and years , so much fun , elevate , rotate , extend , they had to work perfectly or you would lose someone — honestly , there was few people I wouldnt have minded losing — I almost lost an arm in a Telsta boom once — you had to be very careful — 40 feet is a long way to drop — a lot of the older ones had big Onan generators to power the lift — Marvel carburetors — we had some early lifts that were HAND CRANKED !! — our Utility Body lift truck had a ladder going up the boom to the bucket , handy in case something malfunctioned in the unit — of course we had one guy that forgot to lower the bucket from a telephone pole and drove off — he went down the ladder and forgot to lower it — he ripped down cable , phone and some power — then he did it again , he was old , senile — we wrote him up , though never fired him — costed thousands to repair that unit — giant hydraulic ram just ripped apart — I liked going up in the Telsta T-40c bucket ( The Cadillac of old buckets ) and scanning the beach for bathing beauties — we were right on the beach , awesome place to work , plus the $125 an hour I charged for AERIAL BUCKET LIFT REPAIR AND SERVICE !!
Telsta Lamplighter,
Enjoyed reading your commentary, reminded me of a similar equipment show held at my home town city garage in Clifton, 1962. I still remember a 1962 Chevy aerial bucket truck on display, and they were giving spectators rides up, up, and away in the bucket. I was 12 years old, attending with my childhood friend “Crazy George”. It was the first time either one of us had seen this type of equipment. The salesman offered both of us a ride up, I was too scared, but of course “crazy George” took him up on the offer.
Mike,
I retired as a City Garage Superintendent for Chillicothe Ohio. An event we held occasionally was
Touch-A-Truck in the City Park. We’d clean up and display our trucks and equipment and demonstrate some of it. Police and Fire would join in with their cars and fire trucks. It was very popular . No Jeeps. But before my career, they did have a DJ3A for parking enforcement which was later replaced by a Cushman.
Barney Goodwin
Touch-A-Truck is a great way of showing our youth that there are more exciting things to do in life than sitting all day in front of a computer. We need more of this type of community involvement. The most exciting part of my life as a kid in the 1950’s, was spending Saturday afternoons playing on an old out of service fire engine parked behind the city garage. Glad we can share stories and posts, in my opinion, today’s generation could a lot from us old guys. Thanks Barney.
I think a man I knew back in Houston had one of these orange “fleet” Jeeps and I took a photo of it back in ’72. I’ll find it and forward it to Dave for posting. I remember it being a’66 with the same hard top shown here except full, and even the windshield frame was orange indicative of a special fleet order as production models had black windshield frames.
Barney,
I’ll post that pic you sent me when I get a chance. My email is acting goofy this morning.
– Dave
In my home town of Clifton NJ, there was a big push to paint all city vehicles orange. Around 1964, the city council did pass an ordnance to this effect, lasted for a couple of years, then back to the green the city had for decades.