My Love for Willys Jeeps Began When I was 9 Years Old

I bought this GPW 25 years ago and have worked on it, painted it, and then parked it in the shed. My nephews drove it around some but it has mostly just sit. It has a few bullet holes in it. I’m not sure when they got there, war or not. I bought a 1953 just for the windshield because the original was bad. My love for Willys Jeeps began when I was 9 years old hunting with my dad. Two Willys drove by us, a red one and a white one both had V-8s in them and from then, I was fascinated. I said “Pop I’m going to have a Willys Jeep one day”. Well I was around 20 years old at a hunting club talking about them and a older gentleman said that he had one in the shed. I asked him if he wanted to sell it. He looked over and asked his son if he wanted to sell the jeep. The son said “might as well”. The father mentioned that it’s only been cranked one time in the last 15-18 years but he knew the engine wasn’t stuck because he would spin the fan ever so often. That was fine with me I had a V-8 on my mind. I asked what he wanted for it. He said that I needed to come and look at it, but I knew that I wanted it. He said to his son Ronnie how about $250.00, he said yea and come take it. I got a roll back to go with me when we got home and picked it up. I had them just drop it in the yard as I told Pop I’m going to clean out a place in the shop to put it. Next thing I hear as I cleaned out the shop was Dad driving it down the yard to the shop (an old battery and a milk jug of gas was all it took.) That is where I (we) started working on it. Now I’m working on it by myself, the memories are tough at times but great. RIP Pop.