In the summer of 2013, my dad Willie came across this 1953 Willys CJ-3A Jeep in Aitkin, Minnesota at an auction viewing. Since he was not able to attend the auction, he asked his brother-law Larry to bid on the Jeep for him.
On the following Saturday, the auctioneer started the bidding on the Jeep and Larry began the bidding process. At the same time a person on the phone was also putting in their bid against Larry. The price started going up, which the bidder on the phone stalled with the next bid. The auctioneer asked the person on the phone “Willie” do you want to raise to the next bid? When the auctioneer called out Willies name, Larry discovered he had been bidding against Willie in which drove up his own price (Willie forgot he asked Larry to bid for him). Happy to say Willie did win the bid and purchased the Jeep (for more than he hoped to pay for it).
Willie was very excited he won the bid and quickly drove from Valley City, North Dakota to Aitkin, Minnesota to pick up and haul home his new toy. Willie unloaded the Jeep into his workshop and quickly started tinkering around with it. His plan was to restore the Jeep and drive it in the Valley in the Rally days in Valley City, ND. Well time passed and Willie kept tinkering with it. In the summer of 2018 Willie had a stroke and was not physically able to work on the Jeep anymore.
In the Summer of 2022 Willie’s son Kevin picked up the Jeep and hauled it back to Isle, Minnesota to begin the restoration process. The intent was to have the Jeep restored and proudly drive Willie in the Rally in the Valley days parade the summer of 2023. Sadly, Willie passed away October of 2022.
Kevin completed restoring the Jeep the spring of 2025. On June 14th of 2025 his son Kevin and Willie’s great grandkids proudly drove the Jeep in the Rally in the Valley parade. I am sure Willie was watching down smiling and saying, “they did it”.
This Jeep was restored using several products from Kaiser Willy’s including new tub, all new brakes lines and master cylinder, water pump and radiator, all new wiring harness and lights. Clutch and flywheel, new muffler system, new electrical gauges.
The Jeep runs great and has 81,000 miles on it.
Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – Kevin Dallmann
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