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A Reader Files a report from Thailand .. sort of …..

August 11, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Features, MB, Reader Stories This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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A reader named Bob was vacationing in Thailand when he spotted this pair of nicely restored MBs (one is a slat grille). An intrepid reporter, Bob captured the jeeps on video (download the video here — 11MB) which shows closeups of both jeeps and with a still image (seen below).  He also talked briefly with the owner, Pete, who has two blotspot websites devoted to his Jeeps (the 1941 slat grille MB & the 1944 MB & Video of both Jeeps by Pete).  Thanks for sharing Bob!

Bob filed this report, “I just came across these MB’s on the side of the road, as I was touring the island on a motorbike.   I’m sorry I don’t have much info about Pete. I met him in the small bar across the street ( see in video with balloons across the front ) and we talked a little about the Jeeps.  Pete emigrated to Thailand from the UK.  He’s a really nice guy with a Thai wife and some kids.  He claims you cannot import any of these Jeeps to Thailand anymore.  I’m not sure if it is because of the Left Hand Drive or not.  He said they are very valuable there too – worth over 1,000,000 Baht each ($31000 USD).”

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Willys Jeep driven around Killymoon Castle in Northern Ireland

August 10, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Randy forwarded me this video about a recreation of a 1943 drive in a Willys Jeep around Killymoon Castle, Cookstown, Northern Ireland.  The folks at the Wartimeliving History Association helped make this video. The video is dedicated to the men of the 505th regimental combat team 82nd Airborne Division United States Army, Stationed in Cookstown Northern Ireland 9th December 1943 to 13th February.  I don’t have any history about the original drive.

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Original Bobcat Ad – and Bobcat Examples

August 9, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features, Tires and Rims • TAGS: , . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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As I have mentioned a few times, I grew up in the Wandering Willys Jeep Club.  In 1971, the club lead an effort to record all the members from Clubs in Region one of the PNW4WDA, their names, addresses, phone number,  jeep types, jeep names, their jobs, and assorted other info.  As far as I know, this was the first and last directory of its type created.

One of my favorite finds in the directory was an early Ad for Bobcat Fiberglass bodies, complete with the watermark logo of a bobcat (which I didn’t notice until I scanned the ad). Below is the Ad with owner Fred Weis listed as the contact person.  Apparently, sometime later Bobcat products were owned by H.C. Van Wagner, as shown by this business card embedded in one of my fenders (yes it is still there).

Below is the original Ad, followed by a later business card. One interesting bit of info is that I haven’t seen any Bobcat CJ-3B bodies (that I know of).

Here are some Bobcat Products:

This is supposed to be the first Bobcat body produced:

Here is an example of a raised hood:

Here’s a body .. note the wide rim around the rear edge of the body.  Also, the step doesn’t cut in to the body at the end and there are no drain holes by the step. (similar to mine)

Here’s an example of the body that I purchased, which was a light body racer.
“Note the much wider edge (maybe 2” wide).  This body was hacked up a little bit,
but hopefully cleaned up nicely for the guy who purchased it:

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You Know We are in a Recession When ….

August 9, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Kevin forwarded this to me (note the generator is sitting on a carrier behind the jeep) …

“The owner said to fix his factory installed a/c unit would cost more than the Jeep was worth…He had the generator for his work and used scap 2×4’s and screws from the job site,.. went to Brandsmart and bought the AC Unit for $88.00.”

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The 135 MPH Jeep Test

August 8, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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As I mentioned a couple days ago, a reader named Dave spotted this article and wanted to share it with readers.  The article published in the 1960 edition of All American Word follows the All American Engineering Company Testing the air drop of a jeep by a pallet rather than via a parachute.  To test this concept, the AAE built a special vehicle to mimic the landing of a jeep atop a pallet at speeds of 135mph.  As you can see, the test was successful (at least the one captured in the photos).

Dave writes,”I was in Georgetown, DE recently which is a small town on the DelMarVa peninsula, and I ran across this very interesting use for a VEC CJ2A! I think it might fit your recent “museum” series of posts and I’m sure that your eagle-eyed readers will immediately recognize the historical relevance of this column shift speed demon! Apparently, this was a precursor to what is now known as LAPES or the Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System which is still taught, practiced and used today by our Military for forward area resupply missions. I watched C130 crews practice this (with varying levels of success)! at Whiteman AFB in western Missouri in the late 80’s. Fortunately by that point they were only destroying HMMWVs and military pickup trucks! The 8 of 10 or so operations that were succesful were really cool and you could certainly see the advantages of this type of operation.”

Click on the link below to see some closeups

Continue reading →

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Prunedale, Ca $600

August 6, 2010 • CATEGORIES: CJ-2A, Features, Unusual This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $600.

This is how NOT to stretch the front of the jeep to accomodate a longer frame ….

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Paul Spots the Ultimate Radio Flyer

August 5, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Features, Unusual This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Just a couple updates tonight.  The kids have me sufficiently worn out, so I’ll wait until tomorrow to add some listings.

Paul sent this awesome pic of the most unique radio flyer I have ever seen.  Paul reports from Alaska, “Sunday, August first, I went to an outdoor car show even though the weather forecast predicted heavy rainfall.  Naturally, with the low lying gray clouds and the expected rain the turnout was less than in years past but with the summer season drawing to a close there were still quite a few interesting cars, trucks and motorcycles but what caught my eye wasn’t any one of these.  I’ve attached a picture of this impressive ehicle, just looking at the picture causes me to grin and when I watched it being driven down the road to the show I about fell over I was laughing so hard.”

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Santa favors the Willys MA over the Red Sleigh

July 23, 2010 • CATEGORIES: Bantam-FordGP-WillysMA-EarlyJPs, Features, Library Collections, Old Images • TAGS: . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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UPDATE:  Brendan noted that this is indeed a LOC image. Here is a link to this image and others http://www.history.army.mil/photos/Holiday/wwii.htm.

I suspect it was just easier to stick the tree in the MA rather than his sleigh?  It’s a great pic.  I found this during an image search, but I could not locate the source.  It looks like a Library of Congress type of image.  If anyone knows of the source, please let me know so I can properly credit it.

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