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"Barn Find" Willys Pickup
I'm brand new to this forum, so I wanted to introduce myself. I grew up on farms and ranches in New Mexico, and Jeeps were always a part of my experience. I remember one CJ-5 in particular that we had that saw years of continuous duty checking and servicing all of our irrigation wells. It had a PTO with a pulley on the rear that we connected a wide belt to that ran to a matching pulley on the pump engine drive shaft so we could start the pump engine, as they had no electric engine starters. That Jeep ran for decades, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We also had a couple of FC-170 Forward Control trucks that we used on the ranch to haul just about anything, anywhere. I have fond memories as a kid of sitting on top of the engine cover in those trucks as there were only the two separate seats. Those trucks were real workhorses. After I was grown, my Dad bought a 53 Willys Station Wagon to drive on the ranch. I painted it for him and he drove it for many years.
I recently purchased a 1951 Willys Pickup that had been sitting for years in a field and want to get it in good running condition. Because the truck has been sitting outside with the windows down, the water, debris and dirt that collected in the floor boards has rusted them completely through, so I will be replacing them with repro pieces. Other than that and the two front bed stake pockets, there is very little rust on the truck (other than surface rust). However I do need a right rear fender, so if anyone knows of where I might find one, please let me know by contacting me at 575-616-9610 or berrytc@gmail.com.
The truck has a really nice overall "patina" and I'm thinking of leaving it the way I found it instead of stripping and painting it. My son and I have a company that makes "vintage" or "steampunk" lighting, furniture and decor parts, many of which have a rusted patina on them as well, so we thought the truck might make a neat advertisement for the business and should reflect that same look. What do you think? (I'll post some photos here soon). Have a great day.
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Model Year Identifications
As I was looking through the old papers on my '48, I discovered the original application for my Indiana title that had the vehicle serial number on it. (Indiana made me take the original plate off the vehicle for administrative humma-humma that doesn't matter 45 years later). The serial number on the vehicle put it about a hundred vehicles into the 1949 production year, but the two-piece seat and the cloth headliner mark it as a '48. Even at the factory things got a little out of whack, but back then people wanted a truck and they weren't really all that concerned about such small stuff as we pick on today.
The truck is at the shop right now (windshield leak), so I can't measure bolt circle radius right now.
