'46 Willys CJ2a

[Chad]

So this morning my old man asked me if I wanted to go to an auction, he read a description of it from the paper and it said willys jeep, so i thought it would be cool to go see it.  Well we ended up taking turns driving it the 60 miles back to my house.  It cruised at about 47 mph most of the way.  Here are some pics of it.  I have a ton of questions about it.  But man is it fun to drive.  






(here you can see the Freedom Machine giving ole Willy a jealous snarl) any idea what those brackets on the side could be for??






It was pretty neat it came with a little photo album from the jeep was restored as well as a photocopy of the original owners manual, and sheet with a list of all the previous owners.







Well there she is.  I wanna change the fluids and the plugs then hopefully she'll be ready for the trails.  I have a lot of questions to ask about it but my father is trying to make he paid a fair price for it.  So I was wondering what you all think it is worth?

[Jeffy]

Looks like a nice example of a CJ-2A.

Those 'brackets' are for the softtop bows.  They attach to the body from the outside.

[lutzke21]

In my home state of Minnesota no less...

That is one sweet Willy's.  Congratulations!

Unless the "brackets" you mean are the ones for the shovel and axe...

[SMC4WD]

So lemme get this straight..   Out of the blue, your Dad says "let's go look at this rig", and the next thing you know, you're driving it home??  That's great!!  From the photo's you've shown, this Jeep is clean.  I hope whatever he paid for it was worth it.  It's investment and would love to have something like that, just to display.  

Congratulations to both of you.  It sure is prudy  

[Chad]

Yea it was not totally out of the blue though he been pissed that I took the freedom machine with me to college and he was looking into buying another Jeep.  His BMW sports wagon just doesn't do the trick for when he's hunting so he wanted a hunting rig, and I think the that old willys will be great on the ATV trails around my house.  The Jeep ended going for 7100 i thought that was a pretty good deal considering a new Polaris ATV costs around 6.

So the brackets on the outside are actually for a softtop, I definately have to get one of those i'm looking at the Tigertop by Besttop basically because its the only one i've been able to find so far.  I got alot more questions though, I    still don't even know how to put it in 4 wheel drive yet.  I think I have to put it into reverse or something first and back up.

[Beachbum]

Cool rig !!!!!!!!!!!  Definetly looks like a keeper to me.

[Jeffy]

You know one mod you might want to look into is a Saturn Overdrive.  I believe AA picked up the design after Warn stopped production.  With 4.88 or 5.38:1 gears in the axles you'r top speed should be 50mph.  With the Saturn you'll be able to do 55mph.  Douby you'd want to go much faster then that though.

Looks like it even had the original 6V system too.  They didn't splurge and get the passenger side wipers though.  I've seen the vacuum ones as well as the hand crank wipers.  Have you looked in the tool bin to see what's in there?  That's probably one of the first places those old Jeeps will rust from too.

I wouldn't beat it up too much.  Looks like it's a keepers as is or with a few mods.  I know Rick Pewe took a original '42 on the Rubicon a few years back.  Took some dings but made it.

[chardrc]

nice cj.. same year as my grandpas.. ya im surprized you could get it to styay at 47 without overdrive....

some hints and nice mods dfor these when you have the time and money is

power stearing
disk brakes
12volt power
if carb startes not working good there is a diferent 1 that we use

also with the stock oil filter it can starve 1 of the cilenders of oil when idleing so we made a custom 1 with a presure valve so it is bypased if there is low oil pressure..

that jeep lookes nice and has like no rust from whjat i saw..

ow ya and you can get headers for the 4banger that helpes alot but if you put in power strearing you have to custimize it..

ya this kinda got me alittle exsited and madfe my type more than  should have but ya hopefully we can help you with anyquestions.. especialy since ive personaly seen most of the cj2a and 3as inside and out.

[Chad]

I don't know what my old man has in mind for upgrades.  My neighbor wants to help me drop a 287 in their and I think disc brakes are a good idea because the breaks on that thing are awful.  I am still not so good at driving though, I am just not used to all its little quirks yet.  I still haven't put it into 4 wheel drive yet.  Chardc, do you have to do anything special to get your grandfather's into 4 wheel?  Like reverse or anything.  Their are two levers to the right of the shifter that engage the four wheel but I haven't messed with them yet.

Yea Jeffy I checked under the passenger seat into the tool bin, not a whole lot intheir just a jack  basically, but no rust thats good.  

Are the axles on their Dana 44?

[Jeffy]

I don't know what my old man has in mind for upgrades.  My neighbor wants to help me drop a 287 in their and I think disc brakes are a good idea because the breaks on that thing are awful.  I am still not so good at driving though, I am just not used to all its little quirks yet.  I still haven't put it into 4 wheel drive yet.  Chardc, do you have to do anything special to get your grandfather's into 4 wheel?  Like reverse or anything.  Their are two levers to the right of the shifter that engage the four wheel but I haven't messed with them yet.

Yea Jeffy I checked under the passenger seat into the tool bin, not a whole lot intheir just a jack  basically, but no rust thats good.  

Are the axles on their Dana 44?

Honestly I'm not sure if I'd convert the brakes.  It looks mostly original and it probably is if it's it was restored by a Jeeper.  The front is most likely a Spicer 25.  The rear is a Spicer 24-1.  If it was FF then it would be a 23-2 but I can see it's a tapered two-piece shaft.

[Liljeepz]

o man! Nice find!
I want a willys so bad!
I want to find a milatary one and restore it to what it use to be.. no mods!
That is how and why Jeep started....
Grats!

[Chad]

Anyone know anything about the tigertop by Besttop I am thinking about getting it for the Willys here's a picture of it let me know what you think of it and if you know of any other good tops for a willys



http://www.clemson4wheel.com/pc-515-71-tigertop-black.aspx

[Jeffy]

Well, they have been making those tops forever.  The only thing I'd be a bit worried is with Bestop's quality.  They seem to have dropped off since the late 90's.  Although I haven't had problems wiht ym Bikini, Duster or trail cover.  Then again you don't have much choice unless you can find a original setup.

[chardrc]

sorry for taking forever to reply.. (fprgot about this post i made) but for going into 4wheel drive you need to shift the lever that engages the front axel first then the lever that does high aND LOW... i havent driven it for over a year so i forgot which is which(look on the plate on the pasenger side dash to find out.. ) notheing realy special but soemtimes its a pain and you have to roal forawrd abit for the gears to aline corectly...

as far as disc brakes go.. if you ever go through mud and want to beable tostop within a half hour after goign through mud you need to lose the drumes(weve ran into eachother after bid mud puddles because of the old brakes.) and igf you rock crals atleast id want to beable to stop when going downhill or stoping for a while...

if you ahve anymore questions you can pm me for a faster response... always happey to help with old willys jeeps

[aw12345]

Took these in 1982 in the Ardennes Belgium. My cousin owns 2 restored ww2 willys and a slew of other ww2 trucks has 4 dodges. a GMC 2 Ford GTB's and2 halftracks talk about a collector

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/aartjestaartje/album/576460762365460143

Art