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These photos came from a 1955 jeep family brochure introducing the CJ-5. What’s curious is that several photos show the shackles on the front springs located at the front (see the “mail carrier” photo). As most know, the earliest CJ-5s had shackles in the rear. So, I’m wondering if the CJ-5s in these photos were bodies put on CJ-3B chassis or whether they were prototype chassis.
Look at the grille and front edge of the hood differences.
Yeah, you are right. The grilles aren’t consistent between photos. Compare the “mail” grille, which is fairly close to the final product, to the “spraying” grille. The “spraying” grille headlights appear smaller and don’t press into the tines like the “mail” and production grilles did.
The more I look, I think the spraying jeep photo is an actual CJ-3B chassis with artist’s illustration body. The wheels and hubs look more authentic than the body.
These are all artist touch ups . Willys did the same with the cj3a using cj2a photos .
M38A1 which started earlier than the 5 had the shackles to the rear of front springs. I guess I have never seen a cj5 without shackles in the front.
Dave, you are correct.
I haven’t come across a good explanation for why the early CJ-5s used the reversed shackles or why they later changed. My guess is that Willys was simply using up M-38A1 frames and parts OR they didn’t get the frame tooling done in time for the initial CJ-5 run.
Terry,
The closer I looked at these, the more I thought the same thing. Fred Caldwell’s Preproduction CJ book has examples showing touch ups and inconsistencies in the marketing of the time as well. I would presume this was common across auto industry?
– Dave
The earliest CJ5 prototypes actually had Willys on the cowl and not Jeep. I forget the number that were built like that.
Bill
Bill: I did not know that.