Juan wrote to me the other day. He wanted to share his life long passion with jeeps that started when he was a young boy in Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico. Juan doesn’t speak English and my Spanish isn’t much better, so I have done my best to translate his email (and any mistakes are my fault). Thanks for sharing Juan!
DAVE good afternoon.
I am a 60 year old retired Veterinarian. My Father was born and lived in Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico, land of the best coffee. My father always used Willys jeeps or trucks to access our ranch because they were the only vehicles that could make it. When I was eighteen months of age he gave me Kings Pedal Jeep as a gift and I treasured it.
In 1969 I left my country and moved to the port of Veracruz to study veterinary and animal science. I went to work at the state of Oaxaca. Each week or two back I returned home to help my father in his old age. When I retired, I return to Coatepec to launch a small veterinary pharmacy. My parents had both passed away by that time. After returning home, I found that many friends asked about my father and whether he had any jeep parts for sale. After enough requests, I got the idea to buy some jeeps and rebuild them or part them out.
In 2007 one of my children taught me to use the computer and showed me lots of different willys sites. After seeing the Willys clubs in Colombia, I got the idea to form a Coatepec Willys clubs with some friends. We changed the name to Jeeperos Coatepec, because we have many friends that had 4×4 vehicles other than Willys. We hung out every month, attended cultural events, sports exhibitions, and were invited to participate in events on the beaches of Veracruz chachalacas, where every year all the republic clubs totaling more than 200 jeeps gathered. We have participated in movies of Che Guevara Arnold, in a French movie, in some commercials, and more.
Unfortunately, one of my children died eight months ago. This depressed me to the point where I stopped wheeling and being active in the group. However, I have slowly been overcoming this tragedy with help from my friends. And, thanks to websites like yours, I feel more motivated to keep up with my jeeps. We hope some day you can make it down here [editor’s note . . . so do I!]. If you do, you can enjoy a jeep ride through the plantation, canals and farms of these places .
In the first three photos below show the small collection I have. A 1947 CJ-2A, 1953 CJ-3B, a CJ-5, a CJ-7 and more.
Many Thanks.
Juan Lopez Badillo
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From these first three pictures you can see that Juan has a nice variety of complete and incomplete jeeps.
This has the potential for a Colorado Tour Rig!
There are some other photos that Juan included:
notice the two he’s got parked on the slope ?
Que buena historia! Willys para siempre….
Juan, I can tell that your green CJ-3B is used for work, but it also “cleans up” when the work is done. It looks nice at the Jeep show in the lower photos. Is that your original pedal car next to it? It must be getting a rear brake cylinder replaced.
You have a nice collection, and your friends’ Jeeps station wagons and trucks also show pride of ownership. It looks like you switched from caring for animals to caring for Jeeps. Good choice of your retirement projects. You don’t have to feed your Jeeps when you are not using them.
I like that name, Jeeperos. It’s nice to know that the infliction is contagious in all parts of the world. I don’t think the original Jeep designers knew that they were creating an everlasting vehicle that gets into the soul of so many people worldwide.
I have learned through the experience of others that the hardest thing to endure in life is to outlive your children. You have good friends, Juan, to help you through the most troubling times. I’m glad that you are the road to recovery with the help of the good old Jeep.
Now I have to explain to my family and old friend that “Jeeps are good therapy”. (They will think I’m even more crazy. lol.) So far, it has kept me out of the bars.
I wish we all had the means to drive down for a Jeep Get-Together in Southern Mexico. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate vacation?
**Steve E.**
WOW!!! Look at those bodies. Those of us up here in RUST WORLD are jealous. Delighted Jeeps are useful as healers as well as money pits, but we’re going to spend it on something. Thanks for sharing.
The third last pic, the light green one………………………..looks lovely. What colour is that?, beside light green.
Sea Foam? That was close to the color I’d originally planned to paint Biscuit. I too like that color.
I like it too
I think that color looks closest to Pasture Green, which is a popular color on CJ-2A’s. I like it, but I prefer two darker greens similar to the Willys Pickup next to the CJ: Emerald Green, and Glenwood Green.
For anyone interested, here’s a link to Willys color charts from Kaiser-Willys:
http://blog.kaiserwillys.com/willys-jeep-color-guide-1946-1963