1953 Willys Jeep CJ-3B
1953 Willys Jeep CJ-3B
Here is a unique story of a guy who bought this 1953 Willys Jeep CJ-3B with a 1947 Kevin-Skill Kustom Kamper in tow that the family had used for vacations ever since he was a very little boy.
As he grew he learnt to drive the Jeep, and how to service and fix it. Then when the time was right he bought it from his father and now continues to use it for his vacations.
Their vacations were different to most people’s, they went on roads and tracks that most people would never go on, certainly on ones that a car would never make it. Their philosophy was when going on vacation just go wherever you want, roads don’t matter.
Obviously from its appearance this Jeep has been well looked after and it certainly travelled nicely.
The camper too is a credit to its owner, I gather from the video it has been restored, and with a family of 3 on vacation I expect there would have been a tent or similar included as well. For one person though – ideal.
Some history on the Willys Jeep: I don’t know how many combined of both the military and civilian style Jeeps Willys would have made but if wasnt over a million it would be very close to it. 363,000 odd MB models were produced for WW2 alone, then there was the Korean war, followed by the Vietnam war and all the while civilian sales kept on adding up.
Over time there were several civilian versions produced based on the military model. The CJ-3B is one, CJ standing for ‘Civilian Jeep’ with the first named the CJ-3A. The military model was labelled MB.
Ford had tried to sue Willys over the use of the name Jeep but they lost out on this allowing Willys to register Jeep as its own trademark. Willys went to the public in 1945 with the civilian Jeep and over the years many improvements and alterations were made, with licences being issued allowing interested manufacturers in other countries to legally manufacture the Jeep.
In 1987 the Jeep became part of AMC.
Source : http://www.kaiserwillys.com/about_willys_jeep_vehicles_history_specs
Special thanks to Petrolicious for this video, screen shots are from the video also.
An available extra was a third headlight that swiveled with the front wheels, see it on this Jeep.
More links to interesting Willys Jeep posts:
http://4x4jpnews.com/1950-willys-jeep-cvj-3a/
http://4x4jpnews.com/1961-willys-jeep-wagon/
http://4x4jpnews.com/willys-jeep-vs-jd-gator/
