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Koenig Halftop Winnebago, IL **SOLD**

• CATEGORIES: Parts • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $750.

Glass needs replacing on cab.

“For Sale Sold AS IS is a vintage Koenig Iron Works half cab model i believe #555 for early CJ Style jeeps. We pulled this top off a 1948 willys jeep.. The Jeep it came off of is in fair shape but top is ready to be restored for your jeep project. These cabs were very well made. If you have questions about the cab please email me and I will try to get you the best answers I can. 1 window has glass that needs to be replaced on a door and the rear window as well. It does come with a neat Dietz Stop Brake light that have good value to them.”

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Kelly Half Cab Andover, NJ **SOLD**

• CATEGORIES: Parts • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $350.

Not many of these Kelly half cabs around.

“Kelly all steel half cab, currently on a 46 CJ2A nice shape, will include windshield, $350 or B/O,”

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1956 CJ-5 Tub & Meyer Half Cab Nursery, TX $650

• CATEGORIES: CJ5 • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Given the half cab, there could be value here.

“selling body only (frame is NOT for sale). it has the hanging pedal upgrade with hydrolic clutch and vaccume booster brakes, extra fuel tank also has very well built rear swinging tire and jerrycan holder. downside is the floorboard/firewall was butchered for a V8, but it comes with a wheelbarrow to fix it. these half cabs are hard to find this far south, i have almost all of it, things missing is one door glass is broke (it’s flat glass, easy fix) and i am missing the body side hinges (not hard to duplicate, pipe and pin deal). email your number and I’ll call you back.”

http://victoriatx.craigslist.org/pts/5667558617.html

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1947 CJ-2A Phelan, CA **SOLD**

• CATEGORIES: CJ-2A • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $2400.

It’s got the Worman-manufactured early half cab.

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“1947 Willys cj2a Factory half cab very very rare ! A link below will explain this cab. Floor is soild need rear quarter repairs, engine and trans are froze
$2200.00 with bill of sale $2800.00 if i find the pink slip.

Cash no checks no cashier’s check

If it’s listed it still for sale

This is the factory cab not aftermarket Sears, JC Whitney, Acme

UPDATE: I’ve been asked if this is a Worman MFG cab ,from my understanding wormans were the first aluminum Willys Factory contracted. Please click link below for explanation on this cab

Like most steel aftermarket hard tops, the Willys halfcab was much too heavy to casually remove and re-install, so many of these impressive half cabs have been scrapped, making this a rare and very desirable hard top.

https://www.cj3b.info/Hardtops/WillysHardtop.html

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Laurel C. Worman and the Worman Products for Early Jeeps

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE II: More history on the Worman company in the January 1948 issue of Wilys Overland Sales News.

UPDATE: This article appeared in the 2016 Winter edition of Dispatcher Magazine. The original of this was posted in October of 2106 as a series of notes, but is now updated with text from that article along with some additional photos.

Willys-Overland equipment manufacturers experienced a range of successes and failures. One of those who entered the market at the dawn of the CJ-2A to achieve the former was Laurel C. Worman, a businessman who created the first set of jeep hardtops for different applications, most sold under the brand Jee-Cab.

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Early Willys-Overland branded Laurel C. Worman built hardtop.

EARLY YEARS OF LAUREL C. WORMAN:
Laurel C. Worman was born in 1898 in Toledo, Ohio, to Ernest and Clara Worman. He was the younger of two children. The boy’s father Ernest was a self-made man, who developed a large hardwood lumber business, something Laurel must have watched with fascination. When he was old enough, Laurel married Muriel Florence Jackson. The pair had two sons, Ernest “Ernie” William and Lester Lee Worman. The couple later divorced. By 1940, Laurel had remarried a woman named Ruth.

Perhaps Laurel’s father’s entrepreneurial influence led him to become a self-made man himself. While his early employment history has yet to be unearthed, by 1941, Laurel was president of Packard Toledo, Inc. Well known in Toledo automotive circles, Laurel later that year became a northwestern Ohio distributor for the new Willys Americar. It may have been the car that interested him most, but more likely it was the potential of the jeep, which had garnered automotive interest for more than a year.

About this time in 1941, Laurel C. Worman incorporated a company by the same name, under which he placed the Willys dealership. It was only one of several companies he would co-found. In December 1941, he went to Washington, D. C., as a dealer representative and gathered with other auto industry to reps to establish a ceiling on car prices, perhaps in anticipation of war. Four days after returning from his D. C. meeting, the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor.

The war doesn’t appear to have slowed Worman down. By 1942, he was placing ads in the Toledo Blade, arguing how “Willys Truck Owners Are Lucky!” Laurel noted that Willys-Overland had produced the most economical line of trucks. He told potential customers they would be well-served by the truck’s low use of gasoline and their rugged nature, two characteristics important for enduring war time challenges. Worman also made sure to note that Willys was the producer of the jeep, already famous by September of 1942.

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As an automotive dealer seemingly in the thick of things in Toledo during WWII, there’s no evidence he formed plans for any jeep equipment. But, as a Willys dealer in Toledo, he certainly would have stayed abreast of the CJ’s progress and must have saw potential in the jeep following the war.

THE CJ-2A ARRIVES:
When the CJ-2A was introduced to the public in July of 1945, options included a front soft top ($55) and rear soft top ($39). The first civilian hardtop half-cab, according to Fred Coldwell in his Preproduction Civilian Jeep book, didn’t go into production until the fall of 1945. Somewhere around that time, the Army asked Willys-Overland to design a full steel cab for the late 1945 MBs. The result was a stretched version of the half cab, but it never went into production. One probable reason was that steel was in short supply. Another reason was that they were heavy.

In August 1945, Worman invited prospective buyers to visit his dealership and see the new “Universal ‘Jeep’” for themselves. The amazing “4-in-1” vehicle was advertised as a light truck, a light tractor, a runabout, and a mobile power unit. But, it still lacked the comfort of a full cab, a fact that must have been apparent to Worman as he engaged customers and sold jeeps through ’45 and into ’46.

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Perhaps after hearing from dealers and customers that they’d prefer a hard top over the canvas front and rear tops, the Willys-Overland decided to contract with Laurel C. Worman to produce a line of hardtops. The hardtops would be made of aluminum, which, unlike steel, was amply available and light.

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1/2 Cab and Full Hardtop Santa Fe, NM No Price

• CATEGORIES: Parts • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Two different tops or sale: One is a full military ‘arctic’-style top and what looks to be a Sears-Allstate branded half cab.

https://farmington.craigslist.org/pts/d/santa-fe-older-willys-jeep-aluminum-cabs/7521499016.html

“I Have 2 older Willys jeep Cabs with doors , one is Aluminum , the other is a Galvanize Half Cab, not sure the years I think there are Early 50’s 800.00 OBO”

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Kelly Manufacturing’s Safari and 23-Series Tops

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: The September 1962 issue of Four Wheeler included a full page ad for its new hardtop and half-top designs. The magazine included both a full-page ad and a short article. Given this info, it looks like the top redesign was introduced during the summer of 1962.

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Originally Published July 7, 2020: Sometime in the early 1960s, Kelly Manufacturing altered the design of its angular full and half hardtops. The new tops eliminated some of the horizontal bevels and the flat back design for a slightly more elegant design; but, the tops did retain the angled top-side that was so recognizable (As I don’t have much knowledge on any interior changes, this post will stick to the major exterior differences) (See Kelly’s connection to Beck and Kemco and an early Kelly brochure) (Also see CJ-3B page Beck and Kelly histories)

Interestingly enough, Kelly branded the Flatfender  tops as 23-series, but not the CJ-5 tops. Here’s a 1962 Kelly brochure that highlights a wide variety of the rear-angled design for both the CJ-5 and the flatfenders, along with the model numbers:

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To make the differences more clear, let’s take a look at the early Kelly design (these early hardtops were also marketed by the Berg’s as JeepKing hardtops). Notice the horizontal bevels along the driver’s side rear and on the rear latch. Also note the flat vertical back of the hardtop.

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Koenig Hardtop Brochures

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE:  Thanks to Dave, we have some additional Koenig history: 

“The son of the founder built the company up into a successful business making winches, “truck bodies”, and other stuff. His name was Herbert Koenig and he died in 2011 at age 95. An obit mentions that Koenig Iron Works (of Houston) was sold in 1978, and is now known as “RKI” and makes truck equipment (in Houston). They are RKI-US.com. Nothing indicates they care about Jeeps anymore!

Also, a Danish guy seems to have a website named Koenigwinches.com and it seems he makes parts for Koenig winches.”

=========================

Original Post November 2019: 

koenig-hardtop-3-datatag

This is a good example of simple post that spun out of control. Initially, I wanted to look at some changes in Koenig’s CJ-5 hardtop model numbers over the years; But, that then expanded to a look at twenty years (or so) of brochures.

THE EARLY YEARS:

The timeline of the early Koenig brochures are pretty easy to identify based on the jeeps used. In later years, Koenig began using numbered ‘bulletins’ to identify brochures. At first, I thought the numbered bulletins should be ordered by ascending number, but after closer examination, I the later two digits of each bulletin number reflect the year of the brochure. As you will see, other brochure elements back this theory.

Before we start, you can find installation instructions for some Koenig hardtops here.

The earliest Koenig brochure I can find was published in an early Willys-Overland Equipment brochure (1949?). The models consisted of “Full Cab” and “Half Cab”. This brochure was included among a surprisingly large number of hardtop competitors’ brochures, including Worman tops, CarsonCraft tops, Boston Top tops, Sturdee tops, Porter & Reed tops, Body V7 Works tops, Blue Star tops, Lambert tops, Hills Custom Built tops and Meyers tops (which became sears tops and a company that was different from the one that produced later Meyer tops).

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This brochure circa 1949 showed half and full cabs on a CJ-3A:

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Blue Star Aluminum Tops

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Rooney77’s Blue Star Top for sale

UPDATE: This post from 2014 has been updated with additional brochure examples. See all the Blue Star hardtops documented thus far:

(From 2014) This Blue Star aluminum top was built by the Blue Manufacturing Company, founded in Kansas by Max Blue circa 1946. ‘Blue Star’ was the brand name used on several products he produced.  There’s some conflicting information, but it appears In 1946 Blue Manufacturing was building aluminum airline parts. About that time, as a hobby, Max began building aluminum boats. He also tried manufacturing and selling jeep hard tops.

Demand was so great for the boats that in 1948 he leased space and built boats full-time. Meanwhile, he either sold or abandoned the jeep top business altogether. Given only a few Blue Star tops have surfaced over the last few years, I imagine he didn’t sell too many of them.

However, Max was able to sell boats. By 1953 the company was building 1,000 boats a year. In July of 1953 he moved the company from Goddard, Kansas, to Miami, Oklahoma. There are various articles into 1960 that talk about the Blue Manufacturing Company. However, the company appears to have ceased boat production in 1964.

This brochure featuring a CJ-2A is the earliest example I have of this top. It was part of an early industrial equipment book.

1946-blue-star-hardtop-brochure

Here’s another example, this time with a CJ-3A:

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Here’s an ad that was featured on eBay.

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Here’s an example of the logo badge:

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Here is an example of the half tops:

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Actual top:

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Here are some photos of actual full hardtops:

blue-star-hardtop3 blue-star-hardtop2 blue-star-hardtop4During the summer of 2013 a seller on eBay had two jeeps with Blue Star tops for sale:

Jeep 1)

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Jeep 2)

1951-cj3a-twinvalley-mn01 1951-cj3a-twinvalley-mn02

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1943 Modified GPW Bozeman, MT **SOLD**

• CATEGORIES: GPW (Ford MB), Sedan-jeep, Unusual • TAGS: , , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was on eBay.

Thanks to Roger Martin for sharing this unusual vehicle. The buy-it-now price on this highly modified GPW/truck is $14,995. I’m not clear how the seller arrived at the price, but the vehicle itself is a whimsical item that seems to need some work.

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“This is a very special vehicle I found a few months ago that came from a ranch in eastern Montana. Perhaps some handy rancher wanted a Jeep pickup before Jeep ever offered one. Perhaps he could not afford or justify the cost of one and decided to build one from a WW II Jeep, an extra WW II Jeep frame, an early Dodge pickup cab and the front of an as of yet unknown early steel pickup box.

This truck appears to have a chassis made out of a pair of WW II Jeep chassis that were cut off and butt welded together in the center to make a chassis that has a wheelbase just over 2 feet longer at 105-1/2”. That is 25-1/2″ longer than the stock WW II Jeep chassis that has an 80″ wheelbase. Someone then added a cab from a 1933 to early 1935 Dodge pickup or 1-1/2 ton truck so they would have some weather protection from the sometimes wild weather here in Montana.

What really impressed me about this truck the moment I first saw it is the amount of work some reasonably skilled craftsman went to to build a 4 wheel drive pickup out a tiny WW II Jeep. I have seen literally hundreds of WW II and later Jeeps in my life so far that have had cabs added to the original Jeep body but I have never seen one that had a pickup or truck cab installed on it like this truck has. Add to that the fact that the cab on this truck has the very attrractive backward opening “suicide” doors from the early 1930’s and one has a very special vehicle.

Not only was a completely different cab installed on this “stretched” Jeep chassis, but that cab was subjected to some very interesting modifications. The most obvious modification is the very special rounded cowl that adapted the cowl of the Dodge cab to the back of the flat Jeep cowl right bvehind the Jeep hood. I am very sure that that cowl adapter was not hand formed but I have not yet figured out what that specially formed piece of sheet metal may have been used on originally.

Please also notice the very significant fact that the as of yet unknown Jeep builder adapted a “V” windshield to the front of the Dodge cab that originally came with a flat whidshield. I have yet to figure out what vehicle that “V” windshield originally came in. Please help me here if you possibly can. Another modification to the Dodge truck cab would be the fact that it has a steel insert in the top of the roof rather than the original fabric roof that it came with when new. I have seen hundreds of Model A Ford and other similar vehicles from the 20’s and 30’s that had similar steel roofs installed when the original fabrick roofs went bad.
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JeepKing Hardtops

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Another interesting item in the 1957 Berg’s Truck and Parts Co (Aka the King of Jeeps) Catalog was this “Jeep King” hardtop advertisement, for both half and full-size tops. It looks like it’s a private branding of the Beck (or Kemco) Jeep Cabs, because the door has the split window. As far as I know, that wasn’t available on the Kelly hardtops manufactured by Kelly Manufacturing (which is the company Kemco became).Also, the Kemco had the small window on the half cab, as does the Jeepking half cab.

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Koenig Jiffy Cab Instructions on eBay

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Here’s an instruction set for the Koenig Jibby Cab.

“original Non Color Folder , 8.5 x 11 Folded , 17 x 11 Unfolded , No Cars Shown , Installation Instructions For Jiffy Cabs , Models 520 Full And 525 Half For CJ-5 , And Models 620 Full And 525 Half For CJ-6”

View all the information on eBay

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Day 31 – Tue. May 12th: A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

<– Day 30 – Mon. May 11th: Three-nap Kind of Day | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 32 – Wed. May 13th: No Raining on Murphy’s Parade –>

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Jason Monday and I next to his M-677.

Our goal for Tuesday was to stay dry. It wasn’t easy to achieve, because it rained hard at times!

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As planned, we began the day with Tacos at Titas Taco House in Humble. Once again, they were awesome. This time I got to watch them make the corn tortillas. Their dough station sat just behind their serving station. They were pretty much rolling and cooking them as they served them. You can’t get any fresher than that!

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Front doors of the Texas Prison Museum.

With breakfast finished, we headed for the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville. Apparently, Huntsville is the prison city and for more than a half century hosted the prison rodeo. It was a big hit for the city economically and people from all over came to spectate. Even some stars arrived to participate. One of the more odd events was the Monday Grab. A bag of cash was strapped to the neck of a bull. The prisoner who could grab the money and hand it to an official won the money. We saw some video and it was a wild event! The rodeo ended in 1986.

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Inside the museum.

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Ann seemed to enjoy seeing me inside a cell.

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Dana 20 with Dana 18 gears rebuild

• CATEGORIES: Biscuit, Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

A couple weeks ago, after finally ordering and receiving my Bronco Dana 20 rear sliding gear, I got my Dana 20 with 2:46 ratio Dana 18 gears put together.  I decided to videotape the build and despite a few setbacks (such as trying to install the wrong dana 18 intermediate gear) I got everything together.

The video is hardly a complete document on how to rebuild a transfercase properly.  Clearly, I won’t be quitting my day job to go into TV!  However, I hope it’s educational and a little amusing.


A few related links:

This is a low resolution video, but is still 49mb.  It runs approx a half hour.