Many years ago I stopped by a neighbor’s farm, chatted awhile and then asked about the old Willys and ’36 Ford in his woods. I had known Gene for some time, he had been farming there when I was a youngster staying at Granddad’s farm, where we are today. He laughed, said I could have them no problem. I came back later with a jack and 20 feet of chain, used my tractor to pull the Willys out of the dirt, the rear tires still had air, the fronts were flat and in the ground, both rims rusted away. This was a major problem years later when the restoration work began, those original wheels are not easy to find, I had the hubcaps, I wanted everything original form in all respects. After much hunting we did find three, the extra is now the inside spare.
I found a usable 134 Go Devil out in South Dakota, gave it new rings and bearings, did a complete valve job in my farm shop, it runs like new, I re-wired everything including the overdrive system, welded in a new front floor and made new wood strips for the rear, I varnished them, then installed with stainless screws. We found exact headliner material at a place in Minneapolis, my wife Bonnie did all sewing including the nice brown Naugahyde seats, everything was repainted as when new, the wagon was finished. Gene is in his nineties now, is still able to drive for coffee in town so I drove the Willys there, he came and saw it again after 40 years, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He has since seen his ’36 Ford completely restored also, it was worth all the work just to see the tears, his reminiscing, telling of days gone by.
We use the car almost every day, it’s great for hauling items, going for groceries or just a nice easy drive through the country. It turns heads everywhere we go, in a parking lot at Menard’s recently two gals came running, shouting “We want THAT CAR!” We have other cars also but the Willys is the most unique.
Update: To continue my story, in June we headed our Wagon the 80 miles toward St. Paul and the big ‘Back to the Fifties” bash at the fair grounds (12,000 cars) but the rear end went bad on the way, we had to get trailered back home. I pulled the unit out later, took it apart, gears were bad, bearings not good either, lucky a guy gave me a ’50 Studebaker rear end, a Dana 23 the same so took that apart, used those parts to fix mine. Setting up a Dana correct is not easy but we got it done, I was able to get a new pinion shaft seal at our local auto parts’, this completed the job and we’ll soon have it bolted back on the springs, back on the road again and next year we will have the Wagon at the fifties, I’ve never seen one there so it will be very unique for all to see.
Also, the Stude’ gears are 4.1 to one, this will make for better traveling in overdrive on busy freeways.