You are likely unfamiliar with the Willys Jeep WWII J-8.  Constructed in an underground bunker in Los Alamos by the same scientists who constructed the Atomic Bombs (they needed something to do on their days off) during WWII, this unique piece of WWII history wasn’t released until decades later by the folks at Chrysler.  (ok, so I made that last bit up — hey, it will be April Fools on Thursday — but I didn’t make up this Ad).

“Custom World War II Willy’s Jeep Army Edition J-8 Lookalike. Why shell out over $50K+ for an authentic Military J8 that you cant drive on the road when u can get this 4 door version for tens of thousands less? ….”

http://providence.craigslist.org/ctd/1670239708.html

UPDATE: I called Steve (see below) and he had a perfect engine for me, a 1985 Buick 3.8L for only $199.  Unfortunately, I waited until Saturday to go see the engine and it was sold by then!  However, someone else responded to my Ad.  As part of a parts liquidation they bought, they have a pair of rebuilt heads that are exactly what I need.  So, this should work out perfectly (I should have them by Tuesday and will provide an update then). Hopefully, this resolves the issues with my engine!

(03/25/2010) I placed a I-need-heads-for-my-buick-v6 ad on Craigslist tonight.  I got responses right away. I also located an engine (and tranny) for $125, a brand new rebuild engine in Kennewick for $500, and a running engine in Tacoma for $100.  It’s been a good day for parts hunting!

Steve contacted me. He’s local (actually lives in Eagle, Id).  He’s liquidating a bunch of rebuild motors with new re-manufactured blocks.  They are all being sold for $199.  You can read more about these motors here: http://boise.craigslist.org/pts/1650718277.html
If you like something you see in that list, let me know and I’ll check it out.

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $550.

The seller has this as a ’46 and a military Jeep.  I think not.

“NICE OLD PROJECT. 1946 WILLYS MILITARY JEEP.SOME RUST IN BODY.DOESN’T RUN. CHEVY 4 CYL.4 WHEEL DRIVE. DUAL SHIFTERS. MILITARY TIRES.3 SPEED. NO TITLE. GOOD PROJECT. $550.00”

Yesterday I played basketball, like I do most days of the week.  Before we got started, one of my basketball chums asks me if I’ve had any major injuries from basketball, which is normally a segway for the other person to tell me about their injuries. Fortunately, he’s a likeable guy and I new he’d have a couple good stories.

So, I tell him that when I was 20 I had a major sprain on my left foot and when I was 40 I had a major sprain on my right foot.  Otherwise, I’ve had the normal jammed fingers and such, but nothing else major … I’ve been pretty lucky I tell him.

After he gives me the complete run down on his major scars and basketball-related deformities, he asks how old i am.  I tell him 44.  He says, that I don’t look that old.  I wasn’t surprised by that statement; I get that a lot.  And, it’s working out well now, but when I was younger, say 20, I looked about 11.  That wasn’t so good ….

I bring up my age because, back in the day, we used to have these vinyl things we called records.  Now, this was before iTunes, before iPods, before CDs,  before boom boxes and even before Sony Walkmans.

It is true, I actually remember the day my cousin, for his 16th birthday (I was 16 at the time too) got a Sony Walkman II for his birthday.  It was 1981.  These were high-end, expensive devices.

It was soooo cool!  You could put a cassette tape in it and listen to music through high quality ear phones.  It was wicked!  The sound was amazing!  I wouldn’t say I was green with envy or jealous beyond reason, but I sure would have liked to have gotten one of those myself.  Anyway, I digress ….

I bring all this up because Gerald emailed me this morning, asking me if I remembered a singer named C.W. McCall and his album Wolf Creek Pass? He asked me this because he had just ran across some Youtube videos of Wolf Creek Pass, which aren’t ‘video’s’ so much as they are ‘audios’.

You see, this was before MTV, too.  And, despite whatever propaganda you might have heard, God didn’t create MTV on the 7th day.  No, I might be old, but I’m not so old that I remember hearing a Big Bang, yet am old enough to remember the launch of MTV, which might not have been a big bang, but was accompanied by a lot of noise.

That was when they used to play music videos on MTV, all day and every day, 24/7. This was when we skipped the occasional high school class or two to go watch MTV — yes truly rebels without a cause.  Ok, as you have probably already guessed, I never ran with the Lost Boy crowd or anything close to it.

Now, I speak of all these music references as if I’m some kind of audiophile; but I confess to never have been cool or hip enough to own much music.  When records were cool, I only owned a few.  When cassette tapes were all the rage, I was still listening to dad’s 8 track  John Denver albums (all 2 of them) — and that was only on trips to Idaho, as the only 8 track tape player was in our motor home. Well, there was also the Paint Your Wagon 8 track tape as well, which I memorized and can still sing pretty well to this day.

Of course, now that 8 track tapes might actually be cool again, I no longer have any 8 track tapes; I no longer own any cassette tapes; I might have a total of 10 CDs; my 15 year old son not only owns, but knows more about 80s music now that I ever did; But, I still own one record, one piece of vinyl, carefully stored at my parents house — C.W. McCall’s Wolf Creek Pass in its original Cover.

I remember the evening dad brought it home.  This was the first, and last, music dad ever brought home for me.  If I remember correctly, he didn’t even buy it, but rather won it somehow.  I’d never heard of the album nor C.W., but dad said there was a song about four wheel drive on it, about jeeps.  I put it on the record player and, sure enough, it was as close to a Jeep song as I was likely going to get.  I played that album more times than it deserved, because, no offense to Mr. McCall, but it wasn’t really very good.  No matter, though, I enjoyed it — as did Gerald, who played the title song ‘Wolf Creek Pass’ at his wedding. Perhaps only then did Gerald’s wife really understand what she was in for!!

So, for your listening pleasure, Gerald and I present a couple of C.W. McCall’s songs:

Four Wheel Drive:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0461zognANQ

Classified:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wmhOFvMiOM

John spotted a flattie with an engine that has a serial number we don’t recognize.  You can see the pics below. As far as we both can tell, the engine should start with a “J” rather than a “V”.  Anyone know why?

If you like maps and history of the US, you’ll likely find this STATISTICAL ATLAS
OF THE NINTH CENSUS (1870) fascinating.  Even better, all the maps are available in 300 dpi (a 256mb download)!  It’s fun, in map-geek way, to see what cities were listed and which were left out (Ex … Olympia Wa shown, Seattle Wa not)

Below are a couple map examples.  Click on the map to get a higher resolution version. The first map shows a mapping of the woodlands.  At least in the western half of the US, with which I’m most familiar, I think that’s a pretty accurate assessment of how the woodlands appear today (though the trees are likely newer and shorter).

And here’s a geographical map:

I was looking for constublary pics, but instead came across this page full of restored old jeeps that were part of Bastogne’s 65th Anniversary Commemoration.

Here’s one pic.  There are many, many more at the US Militaria Forum:  http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=61626&st=0

A reader asked me the following “would the diffs from a 50’s willys truck bolt up to a jeep frame without modification?”  I didn’t know the answer off hand.  Anyone know?

Assume we are moving 50’s truck running gear to a pre 1970 cj-5, cj-3a, cj-3b, cj-2a …

Thanks,

– Dave