Thursday,
January
4th,
2024
~ Sent to us by Ellen & James Harris
I am writing this on behalf of my husband Jim. It’s a long story and the road to how we got here, Kaiser Willys has been an instrumental part of making this dream come true.
Jim grew up camping in the Sierras with his family, they would drive out to the woods in his dads 1942 Willys. He always wanted one. He hoped he would get his dads, but they gave it away to a stranger.
In 2000 we were driving to visit friends in Bend Oregon, on Hwy 97 there was a 1942 Willys for sale on the side of the road. I took the number and bought it (as a surprise) I had no idea what I was buying. it took me 6 months to pay the guy off ($2700). We drove up and I surprised him! It was a 42 Ford, a conversion and the owner had modified it with a V8 from a Thunderbird. It shook the whole Jeep every time we drove it. We kept it but wanted to put a 4 cylinder flathead on it. It was a military Jeep, and our dream was to restore it to its original glory.
We found a man with 2 Jeeps in pieces on a trailer in 2009. He had the flathead motor we wanted. But he said we would have to buy the whole trailer for $2300. We did.
Mind you Jim is a carpenter NOT a mechanic, and we rent, so we have had to move these various Jeeps in their many forms numerous times around Sonoma County (Where we live).
Jims’s brother-in-law was a great mechanic, and he rebuilt the motor for us. He was going to help us restore the 42 Ford, but he sadly passed away from lung cancer. So we had the trailer with 2 Jeeps a 52 and a 48 in parts now being stored on a friend’s dairy.
So, one of Jim’s friends was a mechanic, and in a week, he had taken the whole thing apart. Sadly a few weeks later this man literally went crazy and ended up in jail. So, now we had our Jeep in a million parts.
We then had to move again and had nowhere to store these parts, meanwhile in 2017 Jim was diagnosed with NSC lung cancer, stage 4. He was devastated and depressed. we ended up bringing all the Jeeps to an old friend who is a retired plumber and mechanic. Thinking we would just sell the parts online.
Meanwhile Jims supervisor at his work, (Novo Construction) heard about our Jeep dilemma, they wanted Jim to have that Willys of his dreams. We looked online, very pricey.
Then one day Pat (the friend who was storing the Jeeps) called and had Jim com over. He had been going through the parts and managed to get the 1948 put together, though it still needed a TON of new parts. Jims’s supervisor, Mike, heard what we were doing and told us to buy the parts, he would pay for them. So, starting in 2020 that is what they did. We got your catalog, and I would call or order them online. By 2022, it was running, still in need of some fine tuning though.
We took it to camp up in Lake Tahoe and though it broke down, we found a great mechanic Eric Griffin who worked on it last fall for us. We left it up there all winter at a friend’s place as by the time he was done; they had an epic winter of many feet of snow.
We were able to drive it at camp this year. It has been a 20+ year project that started with a dream and all I wanted was my dying husband to be able to drive his Willys. We gave the 58 to Pat for his work on the 48. We still have the 42 Ford in a million pieces in boxes, as we still dream of bringing it back to its glory.
Foot note: the other amazing part of this story is about the registration. So, we had this 1948 Jeep, no pink slip. We found both license plates for it sitting in it. I called the CA DMV, it was during Covid, and the lady was so nice to me. She told me what to do, and the last owner had indeed put a Non-Op on it! I managed to get a new pink slip and register it for $465. I had to write a few letters and find the last owner, but ironically that nice lady helped find them!
“That is our Willys story. You guys have been a huge part of it. A big shout out to Mike, I have spoken with him a few times. He is helpful and so nice!”
- James Harris - 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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