A rare non-Texas hunting jeep with a full and raised rear seat.
"Original inline 4 cylinder (F134) engine, manual three speed transmission; all gears and drive ranges (2-hi, 4-hi, 4-low) work well with no issues.
Was 80% restored about two years ago; in good mechanical condition, but it has sat in a pasture for the last year and a half or so. Needs some TLC but still a great hunting jeep. Paint is still in decent shape but showing some rust here and there. No frame/underbody rust.
Electrical system has been converted to 12V, running a GM alternator. Needs some carburetor tuning, but starts and runs well.
Parts replaced about two years ago include: Brand new wiring harness Brake master cylinder Brake slave cylinders and brake shoes, all four wheels New struts Fuel tank, plumbing, filter and fuel pump Fuel level sensor Tail lights & reverse lights Battery and battery cables Rebuilt starter Oil pan gasket Front bucket seats Sunpro 4 gauge set (Temperature, oil pressure, fuel, voltage. Original speedometer works, but original fuel and temp gauges do not) All radiator/coolant lines brand new, radiator recently flushed and filled Recent oil change Transmission, transfer case and differential oil recently changed Recent carburetor rebuild"
(04/01/2011) This has a few updates.. It still needs to have the restoration finished.
"WILLYS FC150, 1959
The four-wheel drive FC-150 Forward Control Jeep has the cab situated well forward of the engine to provide more than six feet of cargo bed length despite the 81-inch wheelbase. Overall length was 147.5 inches, two inches shorter than the Nash Metropolitan and 38 inches shorter than a Chevrolet half-ton pickup. Classified as a 3/4-ton unit, though the chassis was basically that of a CJ-5 Jeep, the FC-150 was originally powered by the four-cylinder F-head Hurricane engine producing 75 horsepower and 114 pounds-feet of torque. It now has the 1985 Ford T-Bird fuel injected four-cylinder engine installed.
Replaced: Master Cylinder Wheel Studs Brake Parts Wiring Wheels (Custom Offset 16" Rims) Tires (BF Goodrich Mud Terrains, 5 each) Brake Lines (stainless steel/ Teflon lined) New Custom Body Mounts
Added:
Power Steering Gear Box Front Springs Front and Rear Shocks Custom Shock Mounts Custom 1 1/8" Diameter 8620 Alloy Drag Link, Tie Rod, and Front Track Bar New Gages, Switches, Turn Signal Lamps, and High Beam Lamps (in Dash) Accessory Relays/ Fuse Block Battery Control Module Military Electrical Connectors (for Dash)
Includes: New Custom Aluminum Radiator (not installed)"
Claus contacted me a little while back telling me he was from South Africa and asking if I'd be interested in seeing and sharing some pics of a CJ-2A he rebuilt. Absolutely, I responded. So, yesterday I received pics and a story of both his jeep and his brother's jeep, which you can see here. Thanks for sharing Claus!
Claus writes, "Its winter in the southern hemisphere and unfortunately this means wet weather for us folks in the Western Cape Area of South Africa. Sunny days are few in this time of year and I/we don’t plan many trips. It must be said that the nicest days are however also during the winter months – not too hot and no wind. All very positive aspects if you are day tripping with the old vehicles.
So now for the jeeps – There are not many flat fenders left in this part of the world – quite a few numbers of CJ2a were imported during the 1946-1949 for the purpose of farming. South Africa was also one of very few countries that ordered CJ2a’s in 1948 as Military vehicles. At that time the Union Defense Force (UDF) ordered 289 units, and these came in fact all standard from the factory in olive drap. Not many survived as they had to work hard on the farms or in service. Some that did continue to “exist” where built up as challenge vehicles and so the numbers decreased drastically. To date limited numbers are on the road – we don’t really have a vintage “jeep” club in the country so it is hard to tell how many are actually “alive”. It has however emerged that many people start to convert back to the original spec CJ’s which is nice.
I consider myself very lucky and after about 12 years of intensive searching, both here in South Africa as well as my home country Namibia, found a beautiful 1948 CJ2a in very good condition on a nearby farm. The Jeep stood for about 20 years on bricks in the owners shed so it has worked only for about 2/3 of its life and those must have been gentle years, because everything was still in very good condition. To top it all it had a complete PTO and monarch governor installed. The pto is currently off so I can restore it. I was also very fortunate to pick up a set of early WARN freewheel hubs (seen on the later pictures) So that in short is the story of my CJ2a. Attached are photos for reference.
Photo1: My Jeep when purchased
Photo2: My Jeep during a short day trip on a nice summer day in the Swartland district. (It just fits so perfectly into the landscape – water reservoir and windmill)
Photo3: My Jeep with new 10 piece canvas top ordered from New Life Canvas in USA
Thanks to Roger Martin for sharing this unusual vehicle. The buy-it-now price on this highly modified GPW/truck is $14,995. I'm not clear how the seller arrived at the price, but the vehicle itself is a whimsical item that seems to need some work.
"This is a very special vehicle I found a few months ago that came from a ranch in eastern Montana. Perhaps some handy rancher wanted a Jeep pickup before Jeep ever offered one. Perhaps he could not afford or justify the cost of one and decided to build one from a WW II Jeep, an extra WW II Jeep frame, an early Dodge pickup cab and the front of an as of yet unknown early steel pickup box.
This truck appears to have a chassis made out of a pair of WW II Jeep chassis that were cut off and butt welded together in the center to make a chassis that has a wheelbase just over 2 feet longer at 105-1/2". That is 25-1/2" longer than the stock WW II Jeep chassis that has an 80" wheelbase. Someone then added a cab from a 1933 to early 1935 Dodge pickup or 1-1/2 ton truck so they would have some weather protection from the sometimes wild weather here in Montana.
What really impressed me about this truck the moment I first saw it is the amount of work some reasonably skilled craftsman went to to build a 4 wheel drive pickup out a tiny WW II Jeep. I have seen literally hundreds of WW II and later Jeeps in my life so far that have had cabs added to the original Jeep body but I have never seen one that had a pickup or truck cab installed on it like this truck has. Add to that the fact that the cab on this truck has the very attrractive backward opening "suicide" doors from the early 1930's and one has a very special vehicle.
Not only was a completely different cab installed on this "stretched" Jeep chassis, but that cab was subjected to some very interesting modifications. The most obvious modification is the very special rounded cowl that adapted the cowl of the Dodge cab to the back of the flat Jeep cowl right bvehind the Jeep hood. I am very sure that that cowl adapter was not hand formed but I have not yet figured out what that specially formed piece of sheet metal may have been used on originally.
Please also notice the very significant fact that the as of yet unknown Jeep builder adapted a "V" windshield to the front of the Dodge cab that originally came with a flat whidshield. I have yet to figure out what vehicle that "V" windshield originally came in. Please help me here if you possibly can. Another modification to the Dodge truck cab would be the fact that it has a steel insert in the top of the roof rather than the original fabric roof that it came with when new. I have seen hundreds of Model A Ford and other similar vehicles from the 20's and 30's that had similar steel roofs installed when the original fabrick roofs went bad.
The front half of the frame appears to be from the Ford GPW Jeep because of the hat shaped stamped steel front crossmember rather than the tube type front crossmember that was used on the Willys MB. I have not yet looked for a serial number on the left frame rail near the steering gear where it would be on a Ford GPW. The center of the 3 tags on the glove box door indicates that the front of the body on this gem came from a Ford GPW. It has the serial number of 96596 stamped into it. I have not yet looked for any of the parts on this vehicle that might have the Ford script "F" stamped on them indicating that Ford made them.
The rear _________ of the what appears to be pickup box is actually the back of the WW II Jeep body tub that never had a tailgate. They then added the front ___________ of a pickup box to the front the Jeep body tub to make a pickup box that measures __________ long. There is a tiny wrecker boom made from 2 pieces of _____________ pipe in the back of the box. A ___________ electric winch is attached to the top of the wrecker boom. This wrecker boom is obviously too light to lift the front of a vehicle so I am completely baffled as to what it might have been used for. I have to wonder if it was used to lift an 80 pound or so bale of hay that might have been fed to cattle. Please let me know if you have any idea what this "mini-wrecker" was ever used for.
As you can see in the photo of the engine compartment, the engine in this vehicle is from a post WW II Jeep because of the "JEEP" markings on the top of the cylinder head. I suppose the original WW II Jeep engine became tired at some point and was replaced with a later Jeep engine. I have had the engine running and it does not smoke or make unusual noises. It runs a bit rough so I suspect itn needs a carburetor rebuild and perhaps an igniton tune up. The clutch is stuck and will not release so that will need soom attention too. Otherwise the brakes work and the truck drives fairly well at lower speeds. I never took it out on the highway and do not intend to.
The pair of front wheels and the spare are the original 16" Jeep style while the pair of rear wheels are later 15" Jeep wheels. The original WW II Jeep gas tank was relocated to the left front corner of the pickup box. It is leaking so I placed an extra red heavy steel gas tank in the box as you can see in these photos.
There are some small rust holes in the back of the cab and the cab floor but the bottoms of both doors look fine. There are a couple of tiny rust holes in the rear part of the box as well. This is not a gem due to it's condition but it definitely is due to it's uniqueness and heritage.
Most purist WW II vehicle collectors will not be interested in this very special vehicle but a few people like me appreciate customized vehicles like this. I know that if one took this to a Jeep or millitary vehicle show that it would get a lot of attention. I have seen many different cabs adapted to Jeeps in the last 50 years I have been interested in collecting vehicles. I would be willing to bet that there are no others out there with cabs that have the very stylish backward opening or "suicide" doors like this truck has.
If you have any idea what the front and sides of the pickup box on this truck are from please let me know. I do not presently have a title for this vehicle but I started the process of getting one here in Montana and should have it in 2 or 3 weeks or so.
Here's another M-38A1 with the extended rear. It looks to be a '52 or early 1953.
"I really hate to part with this project, but I just have too many. This is an original military type jeep but what makes it even more rare is that it was extended in the back like a scrambler for some special purpose. (not a cj6 because they were extended between the wheels and this one is extended in the back. As you can see it it has the military dash board, windsheild, front grill, cut out for battery box and heavy duty suspension and steering components. It looks like someone modified it at some point with a Buick Dauntless V6 225 and it ran when i parked it here.
It needs a new floor and i have another tub with a great floor that i was going to cut out and put in this one but never got around to it. This would be such a great head turner project with just some big tires and a great military type paint job or like with any jeep, whatever you can emagine. Call me to take a look at it. I garantee you will not find another one like this! Almost forgot. I have a half cab top for this thing so it could look like a pickup if you like."
(10/18/2012) This has a replacement body. It needs some more gauges.
"OVERALL GOOD CONDITION. .DEFINATLY NOT ORIGINAL .HAS A ROLL BAR ,BUCKET SEATS, AND A JEEP V6 [1966] ENGINE INSTALLED. ALSO HAS POWER STEERING. IN SEPTEMBER OF THIS YEAR THE TOP HALF OF THE ENGINE WAS REBUILT, WITH ALL NEW VALVES ,SEALS ETC, [ HAVE RECEIPT FROM ENGINE BUILDER FOR $ 2100.00]. ALSO HAD A NEW STARTER INSTALLED .THE EXHAUST HAS HEADERS AND A CHERRY BOMB MUFFLER SYSTEM WICH MAKES A LOUD BANGING SOUND LIKE A CHERY BOMB FIRE CRACKER WHEN YOU LET OFF OF THE GAS. THE TIRES ARE OVERSIEZED AND HIT THE INSIDE OF THE WHEEL WELLS IF YOU MAKE A VERY HARD TURN. THE FLOOR HAS A COUPLE OF INSPECTION PLATES MISSING. GAS TANK HAS A SMALL LEAK IF YOU FILL IT UP ALL THE WAY. .TITLED IN PENNSYLVANIA AS A ANTIQUE VEHICLE. ALSO COMES WITH A BRAND NEW TOW BAR AND LIGHTS.I BOUGHT THIS JEEP ON EBAY IN FEBRUARY OF THIS YEAR WHILE RECOVERING FROM A TOE AMPUTATION.SINCE THEN I HAVE HAD A BELOW THE KNEE LEG AMPUTATION AND HAVE NEVER DRIVEN THE JEEP. THE IDEA WES TO GO DIRT ROAD FOUR WHEELING AT OUR MOUNTAIN CABIN WITH THE GRANDKIDS. I WILL ASSIST IN SHIPPING LOGISTICS . LOCAL PICKUP IS BEST. QUESTIONS CAN BE ANSWERED BEFORE YOU BID / CALL 610-613-3036 EST.THANKS FOR LOOKING.."
"Approximately three years ago my girlfriends father sold his mid-fifties Jeep CJ to a gentleman from somewhere in the central to the north end of New Hampshire or southern Maine. It was sold in Wolfeboro, NH and towed away to where ever.
The seller was a man named Richard and he has since passed away. His daughter, my girlfriend and soon-to-be fiance', has many great childhood memories connected to that vehicle and wishes to purchase it back. We are happy to offer a great profit to the seller if we can just locate him and get in contact. The physical and/or running condition of the Jeep is not important in any way - it just needs to be his Jeep.
It is as follows: - a 1955 Jeep Willys (looks a bit more modern - like a CJ - not the square fenders) - red faded paint - in very stock condition - snowplow mount on the front (or at least it had one....) - half cab hardtop without doors
*** Looks very similar to the Jeep pictured in the photo attached to this post but the hard top is different (it ends right behind the doors). VIN and Photos of the exact vehicle coming soon !!!! Have you seen this Jeep in or around your town? Do you have any information regarding its whereabouts? Possible reward for information leading to finding it. We are ready to make a deal immediately if we can track it down - please help."
Glenn has a friend working on a restoration of a Scheneker Backhoe. Due to the lack of information about these, he wondered if anyone out there in Willysland had any additional information about them. You can either comment or contact me if you want to email me (d@ewillys.com).
He writes, "A local friend is working on a '55 Willys Pickup with a Schnecker Iron Works BackHoe mounted on back. It looks just like the one in the Willys Special Equipment Catalog. We have been playing with this unit for several years and have never seen another.
We would like to communicate with anyone knowledgeable about these. Probably not many were built as it was not strong enough to take the beating.
As this is being dismantled, it is obvious that much rewelding was required after each use. Complete replacement of the frame is the only answer and a California pickup is here. Frame reinforcements were everywhere and we are trying to find any information as to what was done at the Buffalo Factory.
Somewhere there must be another of these in order for owners to compare notes. This is totally different from the Ottawa on the FC170 later in the 50's, and also different from the half cab FC170 shown in the current AACA Club Magazine "Antique Automobile" There are many special parts on this vehicle including heavy duty split rim 15" wheels and a banjo type rear end housing."
"Unmolested Survivor. All Original with aftermarket cab that is as old as the jeep. Would be a small job to restore. Just needs paint really but I like the current patina even better so I won't paint it if I keep it. Set up by a previous owner as a pig hunting jeep. Has gun racks, handle bar for rider in back etc. Tow bar works very well at freeway speeds. Starts quicker than my modern cars. Original 6 volt wiring. Running an 8 v battery which is one of the reasons it starts so easy. Original heater works great. Drives nice around town and legal for the freeway but it is slow. The dash info plate shows it will go 60 in 3rd gear high range ( and it will ) but it likes 50 mph a lot better. E brake not hooked up but I have it. Both fuel gauges read 1/2 when the tanks are full which I'm told can be fixed by adjusting the voltage. Everything else works. Locking front hubs, new military tires. It will practically climb a tree in low range 4x4. Gets tons of looks. Current reg, clean title in my name. Really fun jeep. I'm not hot to sell her but I have too many toys and my daughter is getting married so its time to let someone else have some fun. $5,900 obo CASH only - local pick up only."
This 1961 photo of a lengthened CJ-2A pest control jeep with a sprayer unit can be found in the Wyoming Digital Archives. Given CJ-2L's, those extended CJ-2As that appear to have been modified in Spokane and sometimes re-stamped as CJ-2L, were sold out of both Spokane and Montana (see ad examples at the bottom), it is highly probable this could have found its way from either location.
This particular jeep likely has a Porter-Reed aluminum half-cab.
This January 1953 ad seems the clearest in terms of a long-wheel-base CJ-2A. Other dealers in the Spokane and Missoula areas carried "lengthened", "extended" or "long-wheel-base" CJ-2As as well. I believe the 'extended' jeeps were likely ones with extended rears, though whether that meant a permanent extension or a bolt on extension is not clear to me.
Fields Motor Company was in Dishman, Washington, which has since been absorbed by suburban Spokane.
January 19, 1951, Spokesman Review
Here's an example from 1949. Sandifur Motors was profiled earlier this year:
December 11, 1949, Spokesman Review
Here's an example of one ad from 1951. Burhart was a dealer out of Spokane, Washington.
