Jim forwarded me this great story of Harry, who is from Denmark. Thanks for sharing Jim and Best of Luck Harry! Here’s Jim’s remarks:
“I sold this 51 M38/CJ3A a few months ago on eBay to a very animated guy in Denmark named Harry. He showed up here in Durango a week ago to pick it up, saying he wanted to drive it to Dallas Texas (1000 miles!) and see a little of the country side. He turned out to be a really great guy; So, I invited him to stay here at the house and prep the jeep for the trip. We rode Harleys on a 300 mile loop through the Colorado mountains, ate, drank, laughed, learned some German and Danish, drank his home made honey wine, smoked a huge brisket for 16 hours, and drank rum around the bonfire at night swapping stories. After a couple days of lube, oil changes, collecting spare parts, tuning, etc, he jumped in last Friday and drove a nearly 60 year old, un-restored, stock, Willys jeep at 45 mph all the way to Dallas Texas in 3 days. I talked to him this morning. He said it ran great, the only failures being a coil and a starter solenoid. That’s pretty minor considering what could have gone wrong. He said he got terribly bored crossing the New Mexico desert, so he yelled at cows in Danish as he passed just for entertainment. Harry my new friend, I salute you, you are nuts, you are crazy, you are my kind of people, my hat is off to you!”
Yep thats my kind of people too !! Well done Harry !! Thanks, Jim !
I love that when I found this jeep it was a parts vehicle at best, filled with leaves, rats, hornets nest, crap and junk just over a year ago sitting in a backyard in Gilbert AZ. I told the owner, sell it to me, let me breath life back into it, its a crime to let it sit there and rot. Turns out the motor he said was “bad” was rebuilt at some point, it and all the running gear came back to life like it had a will of its own, ran great, strong, leaked nothing, quietly purred. Now look, its on its way halfway around the world to Denmark after some tinkering, some OD paint, a few new parts and a little TLC. I love it, one mans trash is another mans flat green, flat head, flat fendered machine to be loved and cherished. Ah but I wax sentimental, they are such neat little cars, have so much spirit, they were meant to be used and thrown away and yet here they are, some after nearly 70 years, they want to live, they want to run. Jim
Life without a willys in it just does’nt seem right!
A little update from Harry. The only failure in 1000+ miles was the coil, thought it had lost the starter solenoid but turned out to be just a loose battery cable. Way to go Harry! Jim