Shane’s on the left and Mr. eWillys is on the right of the pic.
My cousin and I took a break from painting, hanging ceiling lights, cleaning up her yard and more (oh so much more) to visit Shane just north of Richmond, Virginia, yesterday. He is a long-time reader who jeeped using 80s/90s jeeps, before jumping into the vintage market with a relatively cheap CJ-3A. He told us how surprised he was at how much he enjoyed driving the old rig. Unfortunately, the jeep was later stolen, but by then he was hooked. So, a little while later he bought his second vintage jeep, a 1942 GPW.
What appeared to be a GPW in good condition turned out to be a jeep with problems that Shane didn’t spot until he got it home (I think most of us can related to that at one time or another). At first Shane bought individual parts , but over time he started buying jeep projects from which he could get some parts. That led him to begin reselling MB and GPW parts.
Apart from the WWII jeeps, he’s acquired a CJ-6 project that he hopes to complete at some point. He also continues to look for WWII parts, including the following items (email him if you think he you have something he needs donovanshanemiller @ gmail.com … no spaces around the @):
Top bow body brackets
Side grab handles
Two reflectors(Corcoran Brown bezel, Grotelite No. 100 lens)
Mirror and arm
Stamped pintle
Blackout light bulb assembly
Axe head bottom bracket(4 hole)
One windshield to hood block
Oil can to firewall bracket
Spare tire carrier and foot
Skid plate
There were a couple of interesting tidbits that we learned from Shane. He explained that there are a lot of 1942 GPWs around the country, because a large number of them were shipped for early military training, while many of the Willys MBs went to North Africa. Anyone have further insights into this?
Additionally, we learned that there was a big auction of brand new, unissued surplus 1945 GPWs sold in 1946 out of Ohio by the military, so it isn’t uncommon to run across 1945s with 1946 titles and bills of sale in that region. Anyone else seen this pattern?
Thanks again to Shane for taking the time to show us his place. Here’s some photos of some of his jeeps:
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