Hello all! I am happy to be a part of this community. My 17year old son and I just picked up a 1957 Willy's truck that we plan to get running before next August. We live in Reno NV area and we have a huge old car week called Hot August nights that we plan to be in the parade. I will post some pictures soon.
We got it from the 2nd owner's son, his father passed 5 years ago and it had been sitting outside on the property. The title says 57 but looking into the serial numbers it shows to be a 56? I will have to do more research. The engine looks to be from a 53 (4cylander) but this last weekend we flushed everything out and cleaned it up....Engine started right up !
LarrBeard will be a big help here. Especially with the pickup trucks you could get a lot of prior year parts into a newer year truck right from the factory. If the Title says 1957 but the serial number indicates 1956 that is entirely possible. There are a few 1956's sold as 1957"s I am sure. As we now know for certain, the use of surplus parts in the Willys plant was common. The trucks weren't selling well and and times were tough. Willys moved components as required to build what they had on hand the most cost effective way. To compound that the only thing that is well documented is that Willys did not keep things well documented. I have read on one web site in particular where they feel Willys had great records and "never" let a vehicle out with the "other year parts". Unfortunately that is not the case. After a few chats with those who are still alive and articles written from and about the era, it is apparent things were running a bit "loose". Since many components interchange across many vehicles, you just don't know what you might find.
Yep, lots of parts crossed over years and even models. As BMorgil said, parts were used until the bins were empty.
Your 56 truck might have had a reissued 57 title - people go to court for that now. It is probably pretty accurate to say that Kaiser/Willys never threw away anything but a configuration record.