011: Ed Lee & Son’s 1946 Willys CJ-2A & 1967 CJ-5 Jeeps
Mike,
Attached are a few photos of the Jeeps that you and yours have helped me renew and enjoy. The newer one is my 17 yr old son’s daily driver. The older one is mine for weekend excursions to the beach and other enjoyable places.
We started with a 54 M38A1 that quickly became more than my son and I could make a daily driver for him. He traded that old M38A1 for a 67 CJ-5. He and I spent several hours at ‘Granpa George’s’ in Palatka Fla looking for parts for the M38A1. Since I was advised to bring lots of patience and plenty of bug screen before visiting ‘Granpa George’, I was prepared for a day’s adventure. Unfortunately my son, in typical 15 year old fashion, he knew more than I and forgot his bug screen. Six hours and multiple bug bites later, he decided that he would rather have a CJ than the M38. When he asked if he could trade Jeep for Jeep, he received very important advice from me.. “It’s your Jeep son, do what you what, but don’t get us in trouble with your Mom.” He ended up trading and we have spent many wonderful hours making his Jeep ‘his’. As a junior in highschool, his classmates all drive newer, jacked up, 4×4’s from various foreign plants. He in turn drives a TRUE AMERICAN four wheel drive. Funny part is, that when his group of friends get together to use the four wheel drive in the mud of Florida, it seems that after the windshield is lowered, the friends always end up parking their newer foreign vehicles and riding in the kid’s Jeep. He says they enjoy the ‘safari’ drive. Windshield down, bugs and mud in your teeth.
My 46, the one I have been looking to own since my youth, was as most Jeep stories go, NOT something I was looking to buy when it found me. My brother called me one Monday morning to inform me that there was a new listing on Craigslist in DaytonaBeach for a jeep. A phone call to the number listed informed me that it was a 1946 CJ-5. I didn’t question the seller, just asked if I could see it. The seller agreed to meet me later that morning to view the jeep. When I arrived there was another potential buyer looking at the jeep. Knowing that what I was looking at was a CJ-2A in pretty good shape, and the other buyer didn’t know diddly about jeeps, I knew that I was taking this little baby home. Ended up giving the other buyer a $100.00 bill just to leave so I would be the only buyer. The seller couldn’t believe what I did, and sold me the jeep for a third of his asking price.
My son and I have spent many hours together ‘sticking one and breaking the other’ and then fixing both.
As my wife says, “If you didn’t take those out in the woods, they wouldn’t break.” To which my son replys, “But Mom, why else would we have these toys?”
Hope you enjoy the photos as much as we have enjoyed the experiences.
And thanks for helping me….CELEBRATE LIFE..
– Ed Lee
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