UPDATE: eBay has a rare color photographic slide depicting a DJ-5 Gala/Surrey like the one shown in the Hawaii ad at the bottom.
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Originally Published May 21, 2020: During the late 1960s, a couple different Jeep dealers in Hawaii offered DJ-5 Jeep Galas for sale. There were at least two different styles of ads published. The Gala was a Surrey that was sold by the export arm of the company.
In 1967, a Kaiser-Jeep dealership owned by Von Hamm-Young Mercantile, flew the 1968 model of the DJ-5 Gala Jeep to Hawaii. From the story below, it would seem that this may have been the first example of a DJ-5 Gala Jeep arriving in Hawaii. Note that the photo’s caption only describes this jeep as a Gala.
Over the next two years, the dealer published ads hoping to spur sales. We’ll likely never know how successful sales were, but I’d suspect not too many were sold.
1) The first ad appeared between April and September of 1968. The example shown below was published in the May 30, 1968, issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. There are a variety of things that struck me with this ad. First, it’s the first ad I’ve seen for a DJ-5 Surrey/Gala. Second, it is advertised as a “Surrey Gala”, rather than one or the other. Third, it came in six different color schemes. Fourth, later in the year (specifically September 24th in the Hawaii Tribune Herald), Big Island Rambler was the dealer name at the bottom of the ad, with no specific link made to Von Hamm-Young.
Apart from all those points, it’s generally just an odd ad for a vehicle!
2) This ad appeared multiple times, but only during April of 1969 (I could find no other ads for any other month in 1969), isn’t quite as odd as the 1968 campaign. The ad also doesn’t mention the multiple package options. This particular example was published in the April 4th, 1969, issue of the Honolulu Advertiser.
I’m assuming these were the 4 Cylinder, not the V/6. Which brings up another point. We all know that the DJ3A Surreys all were equipped with the Flathead 4 cylinder, only engine available for that model in that era. Now we have the DJ5 in the mid 60’s, was a engine option offered on the 2 wheel drive DJ5? Questions, questions, too many questions, has something to do with being from NJ.
Mike,
Some speculation here, but here are my thoughts.
Yes, the standard DJ-5s launched in 1965 all had the f-head, not the V-6 option, based on the original specs for the DJ-5 (thanks to Pascal for posting all of these specifications http://jeepwillysworld.com/old-jeep-brochures/#jp-carousel-808 ). However, there was an option provided for a four speed.
I think it isn’t a big leap to think that the dealer would have mentioned the upgrade possibility in one of the ads, but who knows? My guess is that they were probably just trying to dump these DJ-5s by 1968 and 1969 and turning them into Galas was one way to get them out the door.
Dave, tht makes sense, you “hit the nail on the head”.
I own a ’70 DJ5 (like in the photo, not a post office type ) it has a 3 speed floor shift it was owned by the Nassau Co. NY parks dept. and was painted Omaha orange . I am looking at several sales brochures from ’65 to ’71 and a V6 was an option in the 2wd Universal and a 4 speed was not . The chrome bumpers like on the Tuxedo Park were an option only on the 2wd .
Terry, OK, thanks, I was wondering about that. Did you buy your DJ5 at a county auction? Any one of those county vehicle auctions back in NJ I’ve gone to, always have a “Favorite Son” who gets top pick. Needless to say, I am not one of them.
Terry, good to know! Which brochure(s) are you looking at?
– Dave