Newbie looking for help identifying Willys year

[setsenod]

Hey all, glad to be here. I am a Colorado native who enjoys the outdoors, especially fly fishing. I recently purchased my first Willys Jeep. I have had CJ5 and 7’s before but always wanted a Willys.
The one I purchased is titled as a ‘54, but after going through a bunch of searches and identification tools, it does not seem like it is a ‘54 and I am struggling to figure out the true year or confirm that it is a ‘54, so I can get the right parts to restore it. It has the gas cap under the seat, a rear mounted tire, rear tool cubbies at the back of the wheel well and alpine tools on the driver side. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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Thanks!

[LarrBeard]

Do you have a picture of the serial plate? We could work back from a serial number.

[setsenod]

I bought it last weekend and I pick it up this Saturday, so I will double check but it looked like it was removed fro the stereo. Let me know if there are other markings I can look at and take pictures of when i get it in my garage.
Thanks!

[gmwillys]

Welcome setsenod,

Looks like you have a body of a MB '41-'45 by the driver's side tool indents, the fuel tank fill location and the rear fender tool compartments. The grill is from a later year.

[setsenod]

Awesome. Thank you so much for the help. At the grills easily interchangeable and is it worth changing or do you think I should just restore as is? That also makes the windshield incorrect time frame too correct?

[gmwillys]

In my opinion, I would change the grill to an MB style. The big difference is how the headlights mount. On your grill, the headlights are mounted in a bucket that is affixed to the grill face. The MB grill, the headlights are mounted behind the grill, on a swivel. The WWII grill was set up so that the headlights could be turned around toward the interior of the engine bay. This was thought of for two reasons, one being as a blackout configuration so that the lights weren't accidentally turned on when operating at night, the second was to aid in repair of anything under the hood at night. Both were not terribly effective, but it was kept as a design throughout the war effort. Another difference in the two grills was that bellow the marker lights on a civilian Jeep were mounted to the exterior of the grill, (1948 and newer) while the MB grills had the black out marker lights mounted to the interior of the grill. The early CJ2As kept the same design until '48.

As far as the windshield, the one on yours is a CJ3A style with the single pain of glass. The MB windshields were two individual frames that could be pushed open for ventilation. The MB windshield is significantly shorter then the 2A and 3A windshields, and a common middle ground is to use a 2A windshield. This gains you around 3" of overall height, so us taller drivers are protected, and offers better visibility through the glass instead of over the top. If you are planning to keep the top installed, I would keep it as is.

[setsenod]

Thank you. Great info on the 3A windshield. I’ll definitely be going for the extra gain in height. Not keeping the top so will probably sell it and the windshield to help pay for some of the restore costs.
Thanks again.

[gmwillys]

When you go to sell the top, place a free add with eWillys.com. This will get you exposure to a nationwide audience of Willys minded folks. There is gobs of information on this site as well, for just about any subject related to Willys.

http://www.ewillys.com/

[setsenod]

You rule! Thanks!