Want to salvage an old Willys wagon.

PaulK

PaulK

Gear Grinder
Sep 2, 2015
5
Nevada
First Name
Paul
Willys Model
  1. Wagon
Willys Year:
  1. Other
Hi all

I've wanted a Willys for years and I found one at an abandon mine. This place has been out of businesses for who knows how long, hidden away in the mountains. I was out wheeling and got to walking around the aria and there it was, laying on it's side, an old Willys wagon. Naturally I wanted to salvage it , getting it home would be no problem at all, but before I do, I want to know something about it. There isn't much left of the old girl as far as drive train goes or suspension either What I have is a body and chassis and rear springs. I'm thinking of getting a wreck from a junk yard and striping the mangled body down to the chassis and drive train and just putting my Willys over that. Does anyone have any suggestions of a 09 or later chassis that would fit under it?
I have a few pix of it.
https://40.media.tumblr.com/1c073c11e1005d11b097376f9e8681df/tumblr_nu2g3sZ4BO1s5zxsdo1_540.png


https://36.media.tumblr.com/deb499974f92f22166b5c44af6e38326/tumblr_nu2g2xpMea1s5zxsdo1_540.png

https://41.media.tumblr.com/ed31e4e8b2922b1bf83488f424f14c37/tumblr_nu2g4t9PCz1s5zxsdo1_540.png
 
Welcome from Colorado, Paul. K5 full sized Blazers will work under a Wagon. Do a search of vehicles with 104in wheelbases, they will work on the wagon. If the wheelbase is 105 or even 106, it will work on a wagon. Pivnic
 
In the third picture, it looks like the rear bumper is still there - it has the stamped "Willys" visible. If nothing else, save the bumper if it isn't too mangled.
 
I just sold a set of seats for $300. Cant go wrong go get it I'll take the bumper if it isn't bent up
 
I thought there was money laying there, I also know of a Willys pickup with a lot of body parts , chassis etc. The site with the wagon has another old truck about the same era with a flat head engine and transmission still in it, that aught to be worth a bit as well.
 
That looks a lot like one that used to be at a mine owned by a friend here in Arizona. Scrappers got it a few years ago along with a few other vehicles there.

Be careful of just dragging old cars in from mining sites. For instance, my friends mine is a patent mine which means private property which means that it is technically stealing. You may not get caught but then you may also get shot. It's not like dragging an old derelict from BLM or State Trust land.
 
Clyde said:
That looks a lot like one that used to be at a mine owned by a friend here in Arizona. Scrappers got it a few years ago along with a few other vehicles there.

Be careful of just dragging old cars in from mining sites. For instance, my friends mine is a patent mine which means private property which means that it is technically stealing. You may not get caught but then you may also get shot. It's not like dragging an old derelict from BLM or State Trust land.[/QUOTE

True, there are tons of belligerent red necks here and they honestly think they're the law, there's more than on incident of them harassing people on public lands that happen to be within a few miles of their property. The place isn't posted or fenced and there's no evidence it ever has been. I'll check the assessors parcel maps but that still won't keep me from getting shot, the fact is if Bubba decides he owns this or that piece of property public or not, he'll be just as likely to gun someone down. The old west never really died out out where I'm at. Fortunatly I've lived in the sticks all my life to and I know all Bubba's moves and his mentality. Her's what you have to do; I check the map, if I find out it's public land, then I STILL go in at night under the moon (preferably), load up my prize, hide it well under a tarp and trailer it out all under cover of darkness. That's how you have to work around here legal or not. But fortunately even Bubba and his shot gun can't watch vast stretches of empty land, there just isn't anyone out there for miles and chances are Bubba is three sheets to the wind in some bar. I've been doing this stuff for decades, I know which places to avoid, signs of upkeep on the roads, activity, how nice the nearest settlements are (if their neglected not many people are around and they probably have little ambition or interest). I can get the thing out but ya, there are some immature and vicious types just looking to put a notch on their gun. Essentially weather your steeling something like that or not, you sure better play it like you are if you want to stay healthy.
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This just sounds sketchy to me....even if it is on pubic land, doesn't mean that there isn't an active mine claimant.
 
elminero67 said:
This just sounds sketchy to me....even if it is on pubic land, doesn't mean that there isn't an active mine claimant.
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The place looks more like a ghost town than any active mine, it's been abandon for a long time. There's a lot of stuff up there , old buildings falling over etc. Not sure if anyone has any interest in it or not, the only way I know to check is assessors parcel maps but I'm not sure that would work with a mining claim.
 
It's sometimes hard to know when an old car body transforms from a piece of junk that's an eyesore and a blight on a scenic natural landscape to a precious relic that is part of our public heritage.
 
My wife thinks my Willys is " a piece of junk that's an eyesore and a blight on a scenic natural landscape". Her choice of words are a lot less fancy, though and I can't repeat.
 
The Bureau of Land Management should be able to tell you if it is a patent mine or even has an active mining claim. If it is a patent mine it is private property and owned by some one somewhere. It could also be on private property even if it isn't a patent mine. Either of those two ways, removing anything is stealing.

I like most of the rural mines in Nevada because they are so intact as compared to the ones in Arizona. Here there are too many morons that cart away anything that they can get their hands on. For those of us that have been off road all our lives and like taking others out and showing them the wonder of these places it is a huge disappointment when the historic sites have been stripped of their relics and the structures vandalized or tore down.

My friend is a seventh generation Arizonan and I know at least four generations have been miners. He owns several patent mining claims and has placer and load claims on others. He has had equipment and relics come up missing and even buildings broken into and vandalized. He even caught and filmed two people removing Native American relics from an Indian ruin on one of his claims. He reported it to the authorities and they were arrested. That was a felony just for some old pottery and souvenirs.
 
ARLEN said:
My wife thinks my Willys is " a piece of junk that's an eyesore and a blight on a scenic natural landscape". Her choice of words are a lot less fancy, though and I can't repeat.
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LOL

Fortunately, my wife loves the old Willys. In fact, she'd love to have a pickup or flat bed, too. I was considering selling ours after getting it fixed up -- the truth is, it's too old, unreliable, slow, noisy, and bone-shaking to use other than for occasional special outings -- but she has forbidden it. Our first "date" was a drive someplace to get a soda in another Willys I had in college, and she's made me promise the first run in this one when it gets back on the road will be with her to get a soda.
 
Please, please don't just go out there and take stuff that doesn't belong to you.

The way to tell if it is an active mining claim is the use the LR2000 database. You'll need to know the township, range section and quarter section.

It is not the most intuitive database, and takes a while to get use to.

If there is no active claim, items abandoned on public lands for more than 90 days become property of BLM or whatever organization administers the land for the public.

If it is on an abandoned mining claim on public lands and you take it without permission, you can be charged with stealing government property. If it is part of an historic mining site it likely falls under the 1966 Historic Preservation act, again taking ANY artifacts from a historic site on public lands is a crime, possibly a felony.

Again, please don't plunder historic mining sites. If you want a Willys, there are always one for sale on CL.
 
I'm here in Florida, traveled a lot around and have owned lots of property in many places. What I often find when encountering someone helping themselves to oranges on the fringe of the property (don't really care, come ask I may point you to better fruit and we'll become friends) is the comment " I didn't know You owned this property". It seems that someone somewhere owns everything, still I have been sorrrrrrrrrely, tempted to pick up some abandoned stuff.
 
I have mixed feelings about a project like this. Obviously, if it's an active claim or private property, an old car body is off limits.

If it's on public land, it belongs to all of us, and I like to go out in the desert and visit old mine sites and see the stuff people left behind. It's part of the story of that place.

On the other hand, left alone, it's just going to get picked over and shot full of holes by yahoos who can't seem to resist shooting such relics until it looks like a sieve, and another old Willys that might have been given a new life in whole or in parts will be lost forever.
 
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