Where are all the Willys?

nugilo

Sharpest Tool
Feb 6, 2010
289
Ann Arbor MI.
First Name
Nick
Willys Model
  1. Wagon
Willys Year:
  1. 1961
In the few years I have owned my wagon and through all my life of loving Jeeps, I've realized that I just haven't seen many wagons or trucks actually being driven on the road or even at car shows. I live about 45 miles from Toledo, the birthplace of these great vehicles and I can't remember the last time I saw one. They made hundreds of thousands of these vehicles in 17 years of production.... where are they all? Being in the rust belt, maybe most of the ones around here just disintegrated. Do any of you guys see them more often in other regions? Other thought was maybe they were used hard and not many survived. Seems like everyone who I talk to about mine or show it to says they have always loved them and seems many have stories of one in there family's past but hardly see them anymore, some even have said they have never seen one. Are most of them just gone or do you think they will slowly start to resurface as time passes? I love how unique my wagon is and that it will really grab peoples attention. I love a lot of old cars, especially many of the standard classic muscle cars, but how many camaros, mustangs, bel airs can you really see at a car show and stay intrigued? My Sedan Delivery will likely be the only Willys almost everywhere I go with it. That will be cool.
 
I live *near* a little town in south-central PA. There's one guy around here who has a pair of pickups that he uses as daily drivers, but those are the only ones I've seen on the road. I know where 2 "in progress" ones, besides mine, are and where there's one that I'm pretty sure would run with a little convincing. There's a guy out Saxton way that has a pickup for sale and a friend swears he's seen a Wagon up in Altoona but I've yet to run into it. Other than that, they're all rusting into the ground. I hate salt.
 
Until I got my 59, I had only ever seen one other wagon, sticking out of a barn beside the highway. There are a couple of trucks around and a rumor of a restored wagon, but I've never seen it.
 
I have seen a lot of wagons and trucks in north Idaho, but most are not drivers. I have seen a few actually moving over the years but it is pretty rare. I know I have seen old guys stop and walk around my wagon in the work parking lot at least twice.
 
As for as I know, I'm the only one that has one on the road now in the area that I live. I know of a couple of people who have them , but they have not been driven in many years. I've been driving mine for around 18 years now. I've always had one or two on the road for the past 35 years.
 
Never seen one been driven here in Australia yet although I know there are some around.
Saw a few on the road while in Argentina last year though which was cool to see. :)
 
I am fully understading of these posts. I've just registered my truck here in the Blue Mountains of Australia. I have had friends from the USA stay and say that they have never ever seen one before. Yet these are American classics! They must have had a pretty hard life.
Aussie John.
 
I'm doing my part to make sure the fine people of Colorado Springs will never be able to claim that they've never seen one. It is my daily driver and I drive it everywhere. On VERY rare occasion I'll see another wagon or PU on the road but they're few and far between.
 
here in central Maryland I recall only seeing one pickup, and a damned nice one it was. I cant recall the last time I saw a wagon, and aside from my garage I KNOW I've never seen another panel truck! Precisely why I bought it. :D
 
Around here, there aren't any either... Bobby Burns, famed mogul skier, used to a very nice black mid 50's wagon daily in the winter, with his skis in the back, but I haven't seen it for over a year. The only truck I've seen on the road was a well worn rig that looked like it was held together with bailing twine and duct tape. Haven't seen that for several years. Around these parts, there aren't rigs sitting around, so I've never seen one local that didn't run.

Last year I did a road trip north through Idaho and Montana to Glacier Nat'l Park. Saw two wagons and one truck in a thousand or so miles.

My theory is that these rigs were put to use, and worked hard until they were worn out. There don't seem to be many cream puffs that survived. Most seem to have been in hard labor and fixed by "farmer ingenuity" when something went wrong, resulting in lots of frankenstien assemblages.

Pete
 
I know there are a few projects around here. There is 1 I know of behind an 8 foot fence in storage and there is a primer panel wagon that I have seen running around once in awhile. There is also 1 I know of less than a mile from my house that only comes out when it's really really nice out.....
 
There are still a bunch around here in the PNW. I know of five other than my own within five miles, two of them appear to be drivers. Talked to the owner of a nice truck last week in front of safeway, told him about this forum but i don't think he was the computer type since I had to explain what a "forum" is.
I quick check on seattle craigslist shows 8 complete wagons or trucks for sale plus a few parts piles, portland Or. has 7 and a nice jeepster.
 
It's odd, I bought my wagon last summer, and then a friend told me he saw another just down the road when he attended his grandson's football game. Even wierder, I was returning home one night in my other vehicle and saw what must have been the same wagon, turning off of a side road that leads to my house (coming from a different direction.) So that is at least two road worthy wagons, within 10 miles or so of one another.

John
 
Way too many are sitting in fence rows and rusting away. They are out there, but many are getting to the point of no return.

My 1951 wagon was saved and restored before I bought it and my 46 CJ2a was in my uncle's barn before I bought it from him.
 
jnichols said:
There are still a bunch around here in the PNW. I know of five other than my own within five miles, two of them appear to be drivers. Talked to the owner of a nice truck last week in front of safeway, told him about this forum but i don't think he was the computer type since I had to explain what a "forum" is.
I quick check on seattle craigslist shows 8 complete wagons or trucks for sale plus a few parts piles, portland Or. has 7 and a nice jeepster.

Yep all the willys are in the NorthWest :cool: i know of a few locally, and always see alot more on our craigslist than anywhere else.
 
Around here I can't think of any offhand. Vermont road salt does a number on vehicles. They used to quite common when I was a kid. There was a guy who had a Willys boneyard, some storage trailers filled with parts, and a fully stocked parts dept. in his cellar. I think that all ended with a bad divorce.
 
ON THE OTHER HAND, there is always someone who starts with: "I know where there is another one of these".
Aussie John
 
Here in New England, most of the Willys's are well on their way back to Mother Nature (RUST), but on a recent trip from CT to New Hampshire to get a part for my wagon, we passed through the town of Brattleboro VT and i saw these, resting piecefully, all within a 5 mile radius

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Later...

Lee
 
Nugilo
Unfortunatly we haven't crossed paths, I live about 20 miles east of you. At the Telegraph cruise last year I saw 3 other wagons and 4 early CJ's. At the Michigan Ave cruise there was 1 besides mine. A few years ago I saw 2 Jeepsters at the thursday night car show at Depot Town in Ypsilanti.
When people see mine, most are eager to tell stories of the memory's they had of Willys wagons or Trucks. They all talk of a great work horse and how they "drove them till the wheels fell off", So I think most where just worked till it was time to scrap them.
 
Me thinks 1) they did get used hard and are now gone forever and 2) Not many people restore them to "show quality" and actually show them.. ( I did though ) :cheers:
 
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