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Welcome to eWillys.com, a website for vintage jeep enthusiasts. I update this website nearly every day with jeep deals, jeep history, interesting reader projects, jeep related info, and more.
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John spotted this early CJ-2A (#10335). It has a few updates, but appears fairly stock (especially for a PNW vehicle).
http://northwestclassicautomall.com/ClassifiedAds.html?cid=37&pid=11278&step=4
“1945 Willys Jeep CJ-2A
All original except back bumper and top.
Original miles 45,640.
VIN# 10335.
Has all 5 tags.
6 Volt.
Column shift.
Runs great.”
All original? Those chrome wheels look great for being 70 + yrs old.
its a shame someone would pimp a historical vehicle
Mike,
All as in “mostly” … 🙂
Vernon,
To be fair, it might not have been a historical vehicle when pimped.
While I’m pretty much a “leave ’em stock” guy, I don’t consider modern wider wheels “pimping”.
If you want modern tires (for ride, handling and safety) you almost have to go with bigger wheels than stock 1945 units.
Later Jeeps, (like my stock ’77 CJ-5) not so much.
Now a Jeep with a SBC with chrome aftermarket accessories junk and “racing” seats, THAT’S pimpin’.
What’s “PNW” stand for? From above comments, it seems like it might be “Pimped with New Wheels”. Aren’t different perspectives and opinions interesting?
Steve: Sorry about that. PNW=Pacific Northwest, which generally refers to Washington, Oregon and Idaho …
John: There’s definitely a balance between “pimping” a jeep and making it practical for long, difficult rides (not that chromed parts improve any of this …).
My 2-cent commentary and thoughts (maybe not worth 2 cents).. in some ways, this is the heart of my approach to eWillys: Many many modified jeeps from the 1960s-1990s in the PNW reflect multiple influences, including ownership of jeeps by a surprising number of Boeing engineers (modifications), off-road challenges (specifically navigating very difficult and tight Cascade mountain trails), the PNW4WDA racing circuit (which at one time included folks racing their daily drivers), the west side wet weather (leading to the use of soft tops), driving to and from trails (leading to modifications of brakes and engines), and more.
I know that these days lots of folks hate seeing old jeeps with mods. From my experience, stock jeeps are great for short drives. They can be very capable of keeping up in most scenarios with a modified jeep.
However, if you plan to spend 15 full-weekends a year (winter, spring, summer and fall) driving or riding in a jeep packed with camping gear and a nuclear family of four as it bumps and grinds over difficult terrain with stock seats, stock suspension, stock tires, no winch (or pto winch), no-powersteering …. well that experience becomes old very quickly. And, after all that, you need to drive that vehicle to work and back, then race it a couple weekends a year, you needed modifications so that the jeep could do all these things safely and dependably. This is what my father faced with his jeep.
There’s a reason why many updates added to jeeps by the 1970s (better seats, more power, more security, better handling) because the weak axles of CJ-2As would break at the worst times. The Ross steering could be exhausting trying to steer in difficult situations (literally life-threatening at times). Multiple days in the old 2A seats were a killer. The lack of posi made the west-washington and west-oregon mud impassable. etc, etc.
When I was 16, I thought nothing of driving dad’s modified CJ-5 250 miles at 65mph to Idaho (our annual summer pilgrimage). It was my family’s other vehicle, Dad’s daily driver to work, and our weekend warrior. That is why my first jeep build was basically a CJ-5 with a glass flat fender body and rollcage (tied to the frame), as it could do all that I needed as my primary vehicle.
Anyway, those are a few brief thoughts regarding why so many jeeps were updated, especially along the west coast. There has been and continues to be a long history (seventy years now if you count the introduction of Warn products) of modifying jeeps to make them pleasant to drive across a spectrum of challenges.