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full company history

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historyman View Drop Down
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    Posted: 12 July 2010 at 6:30pm
Is there anyone out there doing (or who has done) corporate research on Willys-Overland, or on the dealer network?  I'd love to work on a project with someone to really get into this company, a biography of John North Willys, and these unusual vehicles that the company produced.  Plenty of other makes have full-blown histories, but I have never seen one for Willys.
 
I'm interested in everything, from the board room to the showroom . . . design, production, marketing and sales, service . . . you name it.  Pull together all of the various facts and figures that people post here, have a section of historic and restored vehicle photos, old ads, etc.
 
Jim Mackay
[or just use my mailbox here]
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russnj View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote russnj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 July 2010 at 6:46pm

43 MB, 48 CJ2A, 50 CJ3A, 55 M38A1, 56 CJ5, 79 M151A2, M100 ,65 M416
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mwilson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Aug. 2010 at 4:15am
On Broadway in Denver there is brick building with a stone block over the front door that reads, "Willys-Overland" -- I don't know if it corresponds to any of the dealers mentioned in the list that was provided.
 
I do know that my grandfather purchased his new 1948 CJ2A from a dealer "on Broadway," but in the late 1940s almost all of the car dealers in Denver were located on Broadway. Unfortunately, most of the buildings (and the corresponding addresses) are long gone.
 
Interesting project, and good luck!!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote salyers47 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Jan. 2011 at 4:36pm
The only thing standing in Toledo is the Willys main stack. Everything else has been knocked down :(  very sad!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote PapaC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Mar. 2014 at 4:06pm
Here's something I dug up a while back while researching something else. Not related but but something I found interesting about the man himself.



Henry J Kaiser

In 1954, a bold, rotund tourist arrived on Hawaiʻi’s shores.

Vacationing with his second wife, he rented a Diamond House, rather than the scarce hotel accommodations. He made Hawaiʻi his home.

While, today, we look back at Henry J Kaiser for his developments such as Hawaiʻi Kai and the Hilton Hawaiian Village, these things are part of his later legacy.

Kaiser had a long successful career prior to coming to Hawaiʻi.

Before getting here, he had several successful enterprises as wartime shipbuilder, automaker, steelman and millionaire chief of a vast industrial empire.

Kaiser was born on May 9, 1882 in Sprout Brook, New York; at 13, he left school to work to help support his parents and three sisters, by working in a dry goods store.

He moved to the West in 1906, and his sales jobs led him into the construction business and the first company he formed in 1914.

Let’s fast-forward a bit through several of his endeavors.

Through the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, California during World War II, Kaiser built “Liberty Ships” and “Victory Ships” (cargo ships.)

His operations built more ships than any other during the war (now part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Park.) (He formed Kaiser Steel to supply steel plate for the shipbuilding.

He also made automobiles (including jeeps,) and later formed Kaiser Aluminum (where the operations included mining, refining, aluminum production and fabricated aluminum parts.)

In addition to building medical hospitals, centers and school, he formed a foundation focusing on health care needs in the country and also founded Kaiser Permanente. (In 1958, he opened Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Honolulu.)

A consortium, called Six Companies, Inc., with Henry J. Kaiser as chairman of the executive committee, was formed to build Hoover (Boulder) Dam on the Colorado River.

This group, with Kaiser at the helm, also collaborated on the building of Bonneville, Grand Coulee and Shasta Dams, natural gas pipelines in the Southwest, Mississippi River levees, and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge underwater foundations.

The two most notable Kaiser products in Hawaiʻi are the Kaiser Hawaiian Village Hotel (today known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village) and Hawaiʻi Kai.

Back in 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikīkī to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped (1928) as the Niumalu Hotel. Kaiser bought it and adjoining property and started the Kaiser Hawaiian Village.

He sold to Hilton Hotels in 1961 and the property (now totaling 22-acres) continues to be known as the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

That year, Bishop Estate leased a 6,000-acre area, which included Kuapā Pond, to Kaiser Aetna for subdivision development. The development is now known as "Hawaiʻi Kai."

Kaiser Aetna dredged and filled parts of Kuapā Pond, erected retaining walls and built bridges within the development to create the Hawaiʻi Kai Marina.

Henry J Kaiser died on August 24, 1967 at the age of 85 in Honolulu.

By the time of his death, Henry J. Kaiser had founded more than 100 companies, which operated 180 major plants in 32 states and 40 foreign countries, employing 90,000 people and making 300 products and services, with assets of $2.5 billion.



Edited by PapaC - 05 Mar. 2014 at 4:10pm
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Mike Gardner View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mike Gardner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Nov. 2014 at 12:32pm
I have some sales records from 1946. It's all Baltimore area. It covers all cars sales not just Willys-overland. I could scan them and post them. Right now they are for sale and I have someone interested in them.
1945 CJ-2A 11713
1995 YJ 4.0
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samcj2a View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote samcj2a Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Nov. 2014 at 4:19pm
You should contact Bill Norris and Bob W. here.  Bob W. literally wrote the book on CJ-3As.  Bill also has written a great deal about Jeeps.
Sam

1946 CJ2A   15292 ACM    6678

1947 CJ2A 122031 ACM 111989

Are Glass Bowl Fuel Pumps OE?
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