Here’s another great purchase adventure from Jim.  Thanks Jim!

Jim writes, “Another flat fender adventure but this time with a happy ending (not that kind of happy ending).

The guy on the phone said, “its a WWII Willys MB, great shape, original, runs and drives etc $3000”. So, I drive 6 hours west to Flagstaff and pick up a buddy of mine, then turn around and head back the way I came to find this elusive rig.

We travel many miles east to Winslow, then the “fun” started as we began to follow what turned out to be a nightmare set of directions. Turn at the end of the pavement, follow the mining road, take the left side of the wagon trail over miles and miles of beat-your-truck-to-death-washboard, dust-covered, filthy, silty, rocky, brutal, teeth grinding, two-track trail for two straight hours! Good thing I had my truck washed and waxed the day before.

We get there, see the jeep and man am I unhappy in the middle of nowhere. It is bad, horrible, mismatched wheels, fat, flat, rotten tires, high back bucket seats, roll bar, filled with junk, a butchered windshield frame, and obviously not driven for years. Nowhere near a $3K MB.

I looked at the poor guy, surrounded by his huge collection of junk and said no offense pal but that’s a pile of parts shaped like a jeep worth maybe $500 and I’m not too happy you got me all the way out here for this mess.

He said well, I need the money and if that’s what its worth, hand me $500 and here’s the title. Um, well, that pretty much killed my next argument and shut me up.

After throwing away the seats and roll bar, filling a huge trash can with junk, garbage, pounds of dirt, alternators, a radiator, various parts of other cars and rat nests I started looking closer.

It has the right engine, though 12 volt, right trans, right axles, a super straight nose and dash, a decent tub, mmm…. I check my parts pile and find some correct seat frames, a gas tank, a perfect windshield frame (all from a Durango yard sale for $100) and even managed to come up with 4 civilian 16″ wheels with rollers so I could remove the fat, flat rubber and mismatched spoke wheels.

With a fresh battery we found it would turn over but not start, though it had good spark. Turns out a pack rat had been using the carb as a toilet! There was literally 2 inches of rat shit in the carb! We yanked a good carb off a CJ3A, bolted it up, hit the starter and what do you know, the motor not only ran but sounded great with 50+psi oil pressure. All of the sudden it looked like an MB, with the yard sale parts, skinny tires and wheels, you could start to see the past, faded olive drab ghost of its military history.

I think this is going to be fun, maybe build an SAS desert MB replica loaded with period correct gear and painted desert tan? What to do, what to do….

Succumbing to the Willys sickness, Jim checks out a possible deal, only to discover this mess …  he writes:

“Skunked by trailer trash. “Oh yeah, sure nuff, its real purty, a dang nice old willard jeep, bring youres trailer cuz youins gonna want thisun fer sure.” “Yessir, we wuz just drivin it a few weeks ago, but took some apert to restore it, then decidered to sell er.” “A battery, sum gas and few hours of fun, you could be drivin that afternoon fer sure, only want $1500 fer her and boy howdy it hurts me to let er go for that.”

Lying sack-o-crap, 58 (one way) miles later, trailer in tow and cash in hand, I was, well, lets just say, I was not very happy! Notice the engine is just hanging down between the engine mounts! Whats holding it there? As far as I can tell, the back of the trans hitting the tub and the fear of falling! Jeez, what a waste of time, he offered to come down to $1300 cause he liked me, I wanted to offer a lasting scar and a limp. grrrrr!

It is fun though… Dang this Willys sickness!”

Continue reading →

I can only imagine that Jim travels with a trailer everywhere he goes, just in case he sees a stray jeep on the side of the road.  Well, in this case, he went to buy some tires and bought the whole thing.  I can’t wait to see what he does with this.

“I just couldn’t say no. Was talking to an old rancher, told him Id buy the near new tires and stock 16” wheels off this “huntin Jeep” (sitting in his field) for $200. He said,”Hell, if ya dont need no title you can have the whole dern thing fer $300.” How could I resist????”

And just for kicks, Jim goes on to hypothesize about how the builders put this jeep together … “Well sir, me, Crazy Killer Carl and Billy Bob Jr. Jr. Jr. got that there big ass rebuilt V8 engine in her, had to move the grill forward and use a giant shoehorn, pry bar, elbow grease, moonshine and lots of beer. Then, we stuffed that there big ass radiator in her but couldn’t close the hood! Would have just left it off but didn’t want no rain to get into the carb. So, we made us a custom hood scoop and some custom “venterlation” ports at the back of the hood on each side which looks bad ass if we may say so our own bad selves! We also modified the dash for a rockin stereo and speaker which we’ll put in later as soon as we can afford one. Hell, we no longer use a rifle for huntin deer, just run em down with all that horsepower! Look out overhaulin, you have some serious down home engineering competition!”

Continue reading →

Here’s a favorite CJ-3B that Jim owned, sold, but now wished he kept.

Jim writes, “This was super nice rig, built frame off, all stock, all new, immaculate, my girlfriend drove it alot and we should have kept it but was offered huge money and couldn’t say no.”

Continue reading →

Here’s an example of how an M-38A1 can be improved with some paint, some parts, and creativity.  As Jim notes, “from ugly yellow hunting jeep back to what it should be…”

Before:

After:

Here’s another M-38A1.  By painting it green, installing some parts, and adding some touches,  it adds a great deal to the military feel.

Before:

After:

Continue reading →

Jim writes that this one was “One of my favorites, had a lot of character. This CJ3B was a really ugly ranch jeep I found in Montrose Colorado. Ran and drove well and after I got it home, figured out a way to make use of that ugly bed extension. Every tourist and kid in downtown Durango loved this thing!”

When I saw this thing for sale, I bluntly said I didn’t understand it.  But, after looking at the ‘before’ pictures, I can see Jim took the hand he was dealt and played it creatively.  Make sure to see the pics of the backend.

Before:

After:

Continue reading →