Betsy Bashore

This is my GPW. From the frame number, we believe it was made in Dallas in April of 42. However, like so many wartime Jeeps, it’s a mix of years and even manufacturers. One of the earlier layers of paint had a number and crest on it – the body was blue at that point and the rims yellow so we knew it was Air Force. I was able to trace the crest to a radar battalion that was stationed in New England from 48-52. Of course the earliest paint on it was Army air corps OD, so I assume it lived most of its military life in New England serving at air bases.

Growing up I always wanted a Jeep but my father, with whom I worked on cars as a kid, wasn’t about to buy a Jeep in a crate, no matter how good the deal from the Government was. So I had to wait until I was in my 40s to acquire a ‘project Jeep’ and a ‘parts Jeep’. (I’m also involved in WWII living history and help run a large WWII event in NE Ohio, D-Day Conneaut… so a WWII Jeep is definitely a useful thing to have).

It took about two years and the help of several friends to make the project Jeep into ‘Speedy’. We call it ‘Speedy’ because for my WWII impression I shoot a Speed Graphic camera (picture attached). The project Jeep needed extensive body work, a lot of additional parts, a engine and transmission (like the big important parts!). I had also assumed that because I love history I would love working on a historical vehicle but I’m not much of a gear head and quickly found that I liked body work and electrical and not a whole lot else. That made for a bit longer project but it all came together and I learned a lot more about a vehicle than I’d planned to. Manuals and YouTube videos were invaluable and several steps along the way wouldn’t have been possible for us without those ever helpful government manuals.

Some of our hurdles weren’t necessarily our fault – after assembling everything, we couldn’t get the engine to turn over – and found out that the company that had rebuilt it had put some key parts in backward ????. That was remedied with a second rebuild and the help of a very knowledgeable friend.

We’ve also taken her on some pretty long drives – a hundred miles each way but haven’t gotten to do any of the long convoys or cross country drives but I’m hoping to get to do one of those in the near future.