A CJ-3B Bought in 1957 and Now Restored For More Family Memories

My dad bought this CJ-3B in 1957. He use to drive it from Chicago (where he worked) to Northern Wisconsin (where the family lived) every other weekend. Two lane road, 45 MPH canvas 1/2 cab, no heater till he was able to move. Odometer cable broke in 1961 with 47,000 miles on it. I remember him dropping the front end through the ice plowing off an ice skating rink on Trude Lake in Mercer WI when I was about 5. We would use it to drag a trailer full of garbage cans to the dump once a week and have to shag the bears away before you could grab a can, run it down into the dump, empty it and try and make it back to the Jeep before the bears came back. Good memories.

I inherited it in 2002 and have been planning and saving up for the restoration since. I hauled it from Wisconsin to Arizona in 2005 and finally got started on it about two years ago. The body was shot, frame needed loving, what wasn’t wore out was rusted out. Pretty much replaced everything from where the tires meet the road to where the sky meets the top of the windshield frame. Rebuilt the front end, rear end, trans, transfer, wiring. New tires, wheels, body except the grill, that is Dad’s. Kaiser Willys was instrumental, answered all my dumb questions, if something wasn’t right they would make it right. Its been a real good experience. Can’t complain about anything.

Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – Randall Baldauf

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