Recently I got a great price on 30+ Willys World news letters from 1974-1985. There were a few interesting nuggets in several issues.
One the cover of the March-April 1982 issue appears this Willys-Overland photo, taken February 2, 1950. The pic shows what W-O called a “Herman Panel Delivery Van”. The model-name itself is curious, as Willys had referred to the earlier (and later) versions of this van as a Package, Economy, or Delivery Van.
Herman was a van-body manufacturer, as this brochure shows. Note the dual windows on the door. This is similar to what the company designed for Willys-Overland.
My guess is the Herman Panel Delivery van was a prototype. For some reason, it appears it was never a production model. However, Willys-Overland did work with the Boyertown and Montpelier companies to create a similar version in the late 1950s.
MONTPELIER DELIVERY TRUCK ARTICLE:
BOYERTOWN DELIVERY TRUCK INFORMATION:
More information here: http://www.ewillys.com/2022/02/20/economy-delivery-van-image-comparison/
The number of these work vans that were produced must be low, so it follows that the odds of finding any of these examples 60 or 70 years later must be extremely high. Good luck to anyone that’s trying. The good news is there mustn’t be very many people looking for these. No competition.
Cool article. Thanks for posting.