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What was your motivation?

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Nothing Special View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nothing Special Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Feb. 2019 at 5:54pm
Originally posted by Oilleaker1 Oilleaker1 wrote:

Don't feel bad. I own a Scout also. Wink

I don't feel bad.  I just know I'd feel better if I also owned a flattie!
Bob

Flatfender wannabe
'71 Ford Bronco
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3A Steve View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 3A Steve Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Feb. 2019 at 9:25pm
As a kid in the 50's thru 70's my parents used to go camping in the Southwest. Ouray was a regular stopping point. First used to go on commercial jeep tours with Buddy Davis in his stretched and propane fueled flat fenders. After he died in a hunting accident at the end of the 50's, my dad used to pleed with  Al Fedel at the now long gone Conoco gas station to rent us his white CJ3A with the Conoco symbol on the hood. This was the first jeep I ever drove (for a very short distance) when (I think) I was 14. After the jeep rental operation opened at the old Western Hotel we rented jeeps there and I drove after I was legal.

Had a 47 2A in high school. Drove it all over Southern Illinois. Friend rolled it on a gravel road with 3 of us on board on the way to a campground. No roll bar and no damage to anything other than to my windshield which crunched once and settled a few inches shorter. Sold it to a local cop who told me the engine fell out (I think he exaggerated but apparently the bellhousing was missing a few bolts).

Had a Scout after that. Drove it to Canada and to Baja. It was road capable and good offroad but it wasn't a jeep. 

Had a diversion into sports cars. Got married, had kids, retired, and didn't have another 4WD until I got a 2012 Toyota bare bones Tacoma (wind up windows). Thought that would rekindle my desire to return to 4 wheeling. Liked the Taco but perusing eBay and dreaming ended up with buying a 51 3a in New Mexico. After 4 years now the itch is scratched. Well not totally, I did pick up a 51 Willys Wagon last year in Missouri... always liked the looks of them. 

Don't know if it is the same for women but I think there is a little boy in most men that loves a jeep and the imagined adventures that go along with it.  (Yes I do like the Bronco and the old FJs and maybe even the old Datsun Patrols and even would love the v8 Scout)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tsip 46 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb. 2019 at 1:20am
Hi everybody!

I've been the owner of a 1946 CJ2A since 2001, and have been getting information from the 2A page for a long time now. I have found the discussions on this site very helpful to get my car repaired and interesting to read. Thank you all for this great page.

I was first exposed to the jeep world when I was a young boy, going on trips and hunting with my father and brother (pictured below in 1966 with a 3A). In those days, jeeps were the only vehicles that would take you to hunting grounds.



In 2001 I bought my own 2A and reconnected with my boyhood memories. It has been a joy to share this part of my life with my wife and kids, and make the acquaintance of fellow enthusiasts. Below you'll see my 2A along with my daily driver, TJ.



Thank you all,
Costas
A friend in the market is better than money in the purse.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote snave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb. 2019 at 10:31pm
When SE Kansas 46 CJ mentioned he bought a new frame from someone on Kansas City, I was pretty sure I knew whom he was talking about. Joe Friday is correct it was Mid America Auto Parts. I have a good "wheelin" buddy named Ron Istas who worked there over forty years ago. Originally American Auto parts they started business in KC sometime before WW2. Details and time lines are sketchy but they may have had something to do with airplane parts or supplies. Remember KC also produced Jeeps during the war effort. A steel plant was converted and they produced as far I know GPWs. The building was known for years after as the old "Ford building". 
American most likely saw the hand writing on the wall and when the war ended they procured massive amounts of Government surplus. The most popular of these was of course Jeep parts. The company was owned by the Glaser (hope I spelled that right) family. They were located down on 18th street in the heart of KC. They soon took on other vendors who produced Jeep aftermarket parts. They were a huge mail order business before it was popular. Ron says he shipped Jeep parts all over the US and abroad.
Ron worked for them for around ten years. National Auto parts out of Barstow CA purchased them and evidently renamed to suit the KC area. Thus became Mid America Auto Parts. 
Since I was raised near KC I have been to the old store. (still American at that time) A small city counter behind a large unseen warehouse was manned by an old boy named Jerry Levy. Cramped and dingy it was almost out of an old movie. You could walk in, ask for a part, Jerry would reach back behind him, bring out the part and give you the price then and there. Took longer to write this than be on your way. They had a "code" on the bins that gave the counter men pricing as they picked it up. (story for another time) 
Ron worked for them a while after the buyout. They moved down the street to newer modern type building. Sometime around the mid nineties they closed up shop. 
The following comes more from Bridog than my old memory. A disbursement company was clearing out the warehouse. Brian caught wind of it and that "leftover parts" were cheap. Brian and me went there one afternoon and perused what was left of Mid America. Two complete flat fender bodies hung over the entryway inside. They were complete from grill to tailgate. He thinks they were priced around $1,200.00 or so. Cheap even then. He found some certain Dana gears that allowed him to build two complete Dana twenty cases using the Bronco gear giving him a 2.46 setup. 
There wasn't much left but I remember a huge amount of leaf springs, gears and other stuff. Most of it still in protective wrapping. 
Sorry for straying off "thread" but Mid America helped motivate a lot of future Jeepers by being a huge source of parts nearby. The mid west location made availability possible. 

Thanks for listening.

Fuzz
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Joe Friday Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Feb. 2019 at 12:41am
Thanks Fuzz.

I suspect the bodies were ACME brand, and hanging in the high bay on the west end. I recall a 3A and a 3B.

The showroom was on the South side, and the back wall had framed copies of the original Sessions paintings used in the Jeep Ads (featured in Fred Coldwells All American Wonder)

That's actually where I got the idea to collect one of each and frame them.

If that American Auto Parts was a franchise of Gulf and Western before they converted to Big A Auto parts, the world is getting smaller. My brother Craig was the region manager that closed the location and shipped back the inventory.

Edited by Joe Friday - 18 Feb. 2019 at 12:43am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote snave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Feb. 2019 at 1:14am
Keith sounds like you have been there. I never bought from the "new store'. The old store was a "trip". I would have been in my late teens when i picked up some stuff at American. My boss's Saturn overdrive came from there. If I remember the "layout' of the new store was as you say. 
As I write this I realize that these Jeeps we now treasure  were only 20 to 25 years old at the time. 
Don't know about the American to later auto parts stores. Ron said the family sold out and he moved on few years later. Regardless it is a small world when it comes to these little Jeeps. I imagine many of the page members ordered stuff from there. 

Still a neat thread!
Fuzz
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rick G Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Feb. 2019 at 6:29am
It was the summer of 1975.  I was 6 years old and my family and I were living in Durango, Colorado.  My Dad worked for Telluride Iron Works and he got off pretty early in the afternoons so we were always up in the mountains sightseeing and just enjoy where we lived.  Up 'til then, we rode around in Dad's 1970 Chevy pickup (which I so wish I had now).  One day we were driving out towards Hermosa Park and spied this green and white 1955 Willys Wagon for sale.  I suppose Dad knew about it and that's probably why we headed out that way.  I don't know how much he settled on, but I knew the next day we went back out there to pick it up.  I thought it was a cool old vehicle; the smell, the sound of that Super Hurricane and the whine of the T90 hooked me for life.

It was another year later before Dad actually let me drive it. He put it in low range and I just putted around a field because I didn't know how to shift gears yet, actually I couldn't really even reach the pedals.  I could reach the gas pedal because I wore a steel brace on my leg (like Forest Gump) and it was about 4" longer than my actual leg.  Anyhow, from that day on, I have been a Willys guy.  I just loved the look and capability of the Willys.  As soon as I would get out of school each day, I would head out to the Willys Wagon and practice shifting gears as best as I could.  Awwhhh, I can still remember the smell of the inside of that old Willys....

In the summer of 1989, I became the immensely proud owner of Gus.  He was all original, except for having an old thin coat of oxidized green paint, wagon wheel spokers, and a new set of Pathfinder retreads (which stayed on him until 2014).  I keep saying I'll get around to documenting Gus' transformation on here, but I'm too busy working on him or driving him to actually sit down and post all the pics along the way.  Maybe this year...

Here's my Dad, me, and the Willys Wagon in November 1977.


Here's me, my uncle (Dad's brother), and the Willys Wagon on the same day as the previous pic.  

Well, that's the Willys story for me.  I've been blessed to have known and enjoyed the coolest vehicle in America, nay the World, since 1975.  My dad has owned just about every Willys model, except the original Jeepster, he even owned a Mighty Mite for a while.  For me, I can't imagine life without at least one Willys jeep...
1947 CJ2a #119929    "Gus"
1951 CJ3a #451-GB1-24268   “Newt”

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ol' Unreliable Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Feb. 2019 at 3:35am
November '77 huh Rick?  That was the year and month I got out of the Navy... heck, yer just a pup!  LOL
There's a reason it's called Ol' Unreliable
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