Teenage owned '64 Utility Wagon in England!

RiekusThomsen

Knuckle Buster
Nov 21, 2016
4
United Kingdom
First Name
Riekus
Willys Model
  1. Wagon
Willys Year:
  1. 1962
Hello all!


I've been a member here for just about a week now after buying my Willys Wagon in what must be described as the most rushed, heart pounding, anxiety riddled and not so thought through (as if it even needed thought) purchase of my life! Being born and raised in England you may not expect this 19 year old to know so much about Willys Wagons or Willys in general but after a very special present on my tenth birthday of a small model Willys Wagon from Tintin (Belgian comic book series), I was hooked.

My family has always been into classic vehicles, and funnily enough my brother was lucky enough to buy a glass Willys Coupe sleeper project a couple of years ago. Whereas I had always been into Overlanding trucks, I ended up buying a Land Rover Series 2a (which would be the obvious choice for an Englishman and the closest I could get this side of the pond to my dream Willys) to fix up and ride to University...but that all changed just over a week ago when I found a Willys Wagon only 3 hours from where I live, and 2 hours from that moment a deal was struck, and I was the new owner. This Wagon being rare and relatively unknown especially in the UK actually seemed to work against it, and with what I thought was a small offer (of all my Student finance for the next 12 months which isn't much) the guy accepted and here we are, BARGIN. Not to say that this thing doesn't need work, but with a 283 Small block under the hood (or in the trunk more like for now) which has been recently sprayed and partially rebuilt, a disc brake kit, a MINT interior and a ton of spares it was the best deal in the world to me!

And just to top it off, it turns out this Wagon appears to have actually been imported into the UK in 1965! Now that leads me onto this question, does anybody have an idea of what the history of this very special Wagon is? The only thing I found out is that it's been lurking round the Portsmouth/Southampton for the last 20 years!

Now my plan is to finish off the Land Rover and sell it immediately, hopefully raising some money for a spray job! Welding is necessary as well but my father is thankfully a welder by profession so no issues there. And although fuel is expensive in England I'll still be sticking with the 283, apparently a lot of people over here wish to swap a 2.4L four cylinder diesel engines into these...which I'm not so keen on so I'll be avoiding that at all costs!

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Wow, now the forum has it's own personal wheeler dealer....Do you know Mike and Ed?
That coupe in the background was my teenage dream 50 years ago. Enjoy the project.
These are interesting vehicles. The V8 engine and upgraded brakes go together well.
Congratulations
 
Nice find, Riekus. Get us some pics of the interior when you can. Have fun and be sure to keep us up to date.
 
Good for you Reikus! Your enthusiasm is great to see. Keep a build album of it's progress for all to see. good luck with it!
 
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