I had always
wanted to own a Willy’s Jeep, but never really got round to buying one, I had
never really seen one, just at various shows, mainly military shows
I saw that
one of my friends had bought one; he seemed to be having a lot of fun in it
I decided
that it was time that I had a serious search for a decent one, so it was off to
various auction website (both military and civilian)
There were
plenty out there, but they were all very expensive, so I decided EBay was going
to be my best bet
It took a
couple of months before I found one, there were several in my price range, it
was a case of going to see them, test drive maybe, they were all over 70 years
old, some had been heavily modified, some had extras added, some were in awful
states, sometimes just a chassis or a body
Okay I didn’t
expect a pristine Jeep; I knew that it would have had repairs along the way
I never knew
that Ford built them either, I just thought it was Willy’s that built them
Ford bought
their mass productions skills to war
Anyway I
found a seller in Buxton, Derbyshire
Just
arranged a date to go see it
It was a
nice drive up there, very pretty country side
We arrived,
it was a dealer, had a bugger to park
Anyway I
went in; it was way back at the other side of the show room
There was no
way I would be going for a test drive in that, too many cars to move
Anne came in
to have a look, she was not impressed
I did all
the things a bloke should do, kicked the tyres, lifted the bonnet, turned on
the lights, crawled underneath it (TBH, I really didn’t have a clue, what I was
looking for or at)
There was no
rust, no oil leaks, it went into gear only 3 gears on these
It’s got a
funny layout, reverse is where first should be, 3rd gear is fine,
same as 4th gear
The steering
wheel is o the wrong side; I have never driven a left hooker before, well not
a manual anyway
I asked if I
could start it, he gave me this tiny key, not even on a fob
It’s got a
funny way of starting it, you put the key in, turn it on, then there is a
starter button on the floor, and it’s even got a manual choke and a throttle
cable
It stated
first time, a little blue smoke, no knocking or banging, no black clouds, it
sounded fine considering it’s a straight through exhaust
I went
through the gears, I could only move it a yard or so, backwards and forward
I crawled
back underneath it, just too see if the gear box and engine leaked, nope all
fine
I lifted the
bonnet, all looked good in there, even if it weren’t I wouldn’t have known
I turned it
off, now was the time to haggle
There had
been several others looking at it over the past weeks, but none had committed
to buy
It was up
for £16000; I made an offer of £13000, after a bit of teeth sucking, he said,
he give it to me for £14950 and would deliver it
Well I took
the offer, several reasons,
1, I had
never driven a left hooker before
2, It’s a long
way there (over 200 miles)
3, It would mean driving up there and back again
4, I didn’t know
what the Jeep did in the way of MPG
5, I didn’t know
if the Jeep was up to a journey like that
6, Anne wouldn’t
like a 400 mile round trip
All the
paper work was bought out
It had been
imported back in the 80’s
The gear box
had been rebuilt in the early 2000’s
All the
import papers said it had an owner in Texas (who had owned it since the 50’s
That was it,
5 bits of paper
I did a bank
transfer there and then, it was mine, all we had to do was arrange a delivery
date
He would
phone me
We started
back home, but took a few photos on the way home
Popi
2020-10-08
Derrick it it the same jeep I had seen you riding along with Ann several months back? The one you had a video posted on Facebook?
derrick241
2020-10-08
Hi Popi, yes it is, I am just writing this blog for myself, a reminder of the work I had done at the time
Travelling Tim
2020-10-08
Nice to hear from you, Derrick. Glad you are having a bit of fun in your new jeep. Are you going to wear a uniform when driving?
mmbcross
2020-10-08
I'm suitably impressed! It looks really great and in excellent condition considering its age. Who's older, you or the jeep? I actually owned an Aero Willys when I lived in Brazil. Nothing like your jeep though, it was a four door sedan.
Joyce Britton
2020-10-09
It looks great Derrick, have fun