Juan showing his grandson a CJ-3B. Juan is passing on the joy of jeeps.
Juan shared this neat story about restoring a pedal jeep for his grandson Francisco. The email was written in Spanish, so I translated it as best as I could.
Juan writes, I am pleased to talk to you about something incredible that happened to me. A few days ago a jeep friend, Alejandro Galvan, messaged me, telling me that there was a pedal jeep for sale in acoatepec bazaar. They were selling a pedal jeep like the one my parents gave me when I was almost two years old.
The next day my brother and I went to see it. We bought it, cleaned it and compared it with a photo of my toy jeep from 60 years ago. We were surprised to discover that it is identical, except for a few modifications such as different tires tires and a windshield. I plan to ask the person who sold me if they know the source. Maybe there’ s a chance it was originally my very own toy. How amazing that would be!
Since my grandson just turned on year old and it was his Catholic baptism, we gave it to him. To my great astonishment, when my grandson saw it I could see in his eyes the joy. After the celebration, my brother and myself began restoring it to look like my pedal jeep. I’m very pleased with the way it turned out. Warmest regards from Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico.
BEFORE RESTORATION: You can see the photos of Juan’s original pedal jeep in the photos in the first picture.
AFTER RESTORATION: (I wish I’d had one of those as a kid!)
