Kaiser Willys Jeep of the Week: 612

612: Nicolas Mescia’s 1958 Willys CJ-5

The Jeep is a 1958 Willys CJ-5, bought by my father-in-law, Humberto, in 1979. Graciela (Humberto´s wife) and Carina, Mónica and Bettina (daughters), remember it arrived by train from Rivera (north of Uruguay) to Piriápolis (south) in a hot summer day. “It was vivid green, not a very nice color for a Jeep”, they all said. That´s why it was painted into a new green color (not military) to later become blue (color 32H-7270) the color in which I get to know it in 1991.

My father-in-law mainly used it during summer time in “Pinocho”, his real state agency, to carry mattresses and other staff needed by the clients. It never travelled far away from Piriápolis, but although the odometer is still working, it’s impossible to calculate how many kilometers it has. 

In those times, the typical long trip was to “The Camp” (El Campamento), that was a 3- or 4-days camp that my father-in-law did with his old-time friends. They used the camp to go fishing and hunting.

By October 2020, my father-in-law unfortunately died, and after one year in a garage, I asked my mother in-law, wife and sisters in-law if they were ok if I take care of the Jeep. After years of being practically out of use (280 km in 3 years) it needed to go through a basic checking and restoration.

First, we checked and changed mainly electric parts, horn, brake lights, head lights, intermittent. Then we did a few mechanical checking and improvement, and finally auto body repairs and painting. 

Besides that, I decided to change its tires and put some military type ones, and decided to take out the bonnet and doors, as they needed same repairing, so it will probably be used as it looks in the pictures during the next summer.

It still has its original hurricane motor F4-134, car ignition 6 volts, dynamo, brakes, 4 x 4, radiator, hand brake, etc. The only part that has been changed is the carburetor (it has a Checoslovakian Jikov).

The pictures shows part of the restauration process, and how it finally looks like.

Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – Nicolas Mescia

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