Wednesday,
December
27th,
2023
~ Sent to us by Paul Hofer
I’m 56, work in the IT department of an insurance company in Vienna, and a very happily married and proud father of 2 cool boys.
I bought my 1957 CJ-3B as a student in 1990. The car was an absolute “heap of scraps” and the dealer almost gave it to me. As I knew nothing about car restoration, it took a lot of time and support from friends – but in 1992 the time had come and it was street legal. I was living in Vienna at the time – and the Jeep as a city car was the coolest thing for me – but only a few understood that. 🙂
Click on the images in the gallery below to see the full size
In 1998 I put the Jeep in a garage – and it stayed there until October 2022. My wife and children needed my attention during that time – and the Jeep hobby had to wait. Because as we all know: anyone who has an old Willys needs time. And that’s exactly what you don’t have as a young father. Now my children are almost grown up and I have time (and money) for me again. Of course, not driving for a long time didn’t do the CJ-3B any good and I had to renovate it for the second time.
In May 2023 I took part in a rally that took me from home (Vienna/Austria) to the Sahara in Morocco. I took the pictures during the tour. Since the car stood still for a long time – and we (my passenger and I) were not 100% sure whether the Willys will make the approx. 950km from Vienna/Austria to Genoa/Italy, a friend gave us the Willys and us with one Truck brought to Italy. There in Genoa we boarded a ship that brought us to Tangier Morocco. That’s where the rally started.
We traveled from the north along the Atlantic coast through Casablanca and Rabat, past Agadir and Essaouira, then South to El Aaiun, a city in the former country of Western Sahara, which is now part of Morocco. Then it went via Assa and Tata in the east of the country past the huge sand dunes of the Erg Chebbi and deep gorges of the Atlas Mountains to Fes and back north to Tangier. There again on the ferry and back to Genoa. After the Willys held up well except for a few “signs of wear and tear”, we drove home from Genoa on our own. The rally was not about speed – it was the experience and the shared adventure of all participants that was the focus here.
“The motto of the rally is: buy an old car with little horsepower – fix the essentials – and go on an adventure at the lowest possible cost.”
We were the only ones with an off-road scale – and were therefore able to ride all the off-road stages that were otherwise only intended for motorcyclists.
We drove 6200 km on the whole tour – and every km was a dream. In the last 20 years there have always been considerations of selling the old car – because the money in the family coffers was not just tight once. This adventure, unique to me, has generously rewarded me for renovating the Willys twice and always standing by him. And it certainly wasn’t the last big trip with a vehicle that is far more than just a car.
- Paul Hofer - 2023 Photo Contest Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – If you would like to share your Willys Jeep Story please send us a line. We’d love to meet your Jeep.
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