From Fishing Trips to Fresh Paint: The Story of Our 1949 Willys CJ-3A

Thanks to my wife Kathy and our son Graham for all the help and support on this project!

I never thought I would ever own a Jeep, much less a Willys.  My wife’s grandfather, Carroll Cook, traded a 1947 CJ-2A in 1951 at a local car dealership here in Canton, NC, for a 1949 Willys CJ-3A.  It was used as a daily driver and went on many hunting, fishing, and berry-picking trips up in the mountains here in Western North Carolina.  My father-in-law, Sherrill “Nook” Cook, got the Willys from his dad when he passed away.  He too took it on many fishing trips up in the mountains.  I met my wife in 1972, and that’s when I was introduced to the old Willys.  It was beginning to show signs of wear and was mostly driven locally to take the trash off and maybe a trip up Long Branch to get mayflies or raspberries.  My wife would drive it (when she had to) to the parking lot in town occasionally to meet up with her friends to go to the Community College they attended in the mid 1970’s.  I married my wife in 1977, and very little was thought or talked about the old Jeep. In the 2000s, the opportunity came for my wife and I to become the owners of the Jeep but to let my father-in-law continue to drive it.  

I decided when I retired I would give it a much-needed complete frame-off restoration with a new body too.  The engine had been rebuilt years earlier by Cotton Worley at the local NAPA parts store when they used to have a complete machine shop.  I retired in 2020 and started ordering parts from Kaiser Willys for the job.  In 2021, we took it completely apart and started the process.  Four years later, with a lot of parts and help from Mike, Jason, and the team there, the Willys is back on the road. We enjoy getting it out on the road and all the waves and smiles we get.

Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – by Weldon Clinard

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