Website Finds, The John Jennison MB Conversion

Today I want to introduce a new section of This-Old-Jeep.com. How many websites have I and you and many other jeep fans Googled just in search of the random relatively unknown jeep photo? Now, I don’t mean the usual places like the CJ3B Page or G503,  and though while they are incredible sources of information, I mean the small little known sites that often contain random photos that you may never have before seen. Sometimes they are as simple as an photo of a GI standing by his MB on someones family genealogy site, but other times they are surprising and unique. I’ve stumbled across so many of them that I decided to create this new section dedicated to stuff that can be found online. None of this belongs to me and so of course I don’t own any of the rights to the photos. So please view and use these only as they are meant to be used, as entertainment or as the jumping off point for your own research. Please attribute the proper (original) sources for any of these if you re-publish them. I will also list the original urls to all of the photos. And of course, please don’t lift them for any commercial use. I’ve always considered anything that you can find online as fair game, but within fair boundaries and that doesn’t include straight reproduction. I think that when you post anything online that you should have a reasonable expectation that it won’t be abused.

That having been said, here you go! I’m grouping everything into folders according to the sites that they have come from if there are alot from one source. Random one shot grabs will be grouped into a miscellaneous folder eventually. The first grouping is of a number of photos of really great station wagon conversions of surplus MBs. The work was done by an Australian engineer by the name of John Jennison who had many passions, among them early racing cars, motorcycles, designing and created speed boats, these MBs and the first caravans (tow behind campers for we non-Aussies...) in Australia starting in the late 1930’s. The jeep photos can be found here and alot more info and photos on his tear drop caravans can be found here and here. The original site, vintagecaravans appears to be an Australian forum dedicated to the art of caravanning. The wagons were a great unexpected treat for me as I am really getting into conversions of MBs and early civilian CJs. The wagons looked like beautiful, stretched woodys that eventually evolved into an elegant rounded fender car.

Come back next week for lots more! If I can find the time though I may post more in the next day or two as well.

The This-Old-Jeep.com 2012 Calendar- December

Merry Christmas from This-Old-Jeep.com! For the December 2012 page of the This-Old-Jeep.com calendar we have an old homemade photo card. I wish that I knew the history behind this family, the Hartley’s. The only clue that I have is that it came from Colorado. The photo was taken and then clipped out around the Hartleys and then probably reproduced through taking another photo of it and then included in their holiday cards. And I believe that its a Willys MA from the unique shape of the circular headlight guards. As always please contact me if you have any further info on the Hartleys @ thisoldjeepdotcom@gmail.com.

I hope that this has been a great day for one and all and that you all have the opportunity to cherish time with your family and friends today! From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

They’re Not Rationing The Christmas Spirit!

From the pages of Collier’s in December 1942, a mere 70 years ago an ad definitively showed that Santa has more helpers at his disposal than elves and reindeer. From the looks of it Santa has a Ford GP to help deliver those presents to boys and girls around the world. I wonder if he has had many more jeeps in his stable over the years?

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas Eve and I hope that you are spending it with your family and friends. I’ll be back tomorrow for a short Christmas special- the December page of the This-Old-Jeep.com 2012 calendar which is still available along with the 2013 (and even the 2011 one...) calendar featuring all new photos! I’m also going to be starting a whole new feature of This-Old-Jeep.com for the new year, so stay tuned and come back for more!

A Jeep By Any Other Name

A jeep by any other name, would it still be considered a jeep? Hmmm... ever since the jeep first became known to the general public, the name and its origin and what it was attributed to has been a subject hotly debated by everyone. It is generally well known that the comic strip and cartoon hero, Popeye may have been lent the name ‘jeep’ to the jeep. The ‘Eugene the jeep’ in Popeye was a strange looking magical creature seemingly capable of going anywhere via inter-dimensional travel. Some say that this ability to go anywhere may have perfectly paralleled the military jeep’s capabilities. Or ‘jeep’ may have originated in a slurring of the ‘G’ (Government use...) and the ‘P’ (standing for an 80 inch wheelbase vehicle...) in the Ford GPW. There are a few other interesting uses shown in this Wordorigins.org article such as ‘jeep’ as slang for a naive, inexperienced person that was seen in a 1938 Saturday Evening Post article. It also seems to have been slang for any untried or tested military vehicle or gadget.

But wherever it came from, I have seen many examples of the word ‘jeep’ as a ubiquitous reference to just about any military vehicle from a 2 1/2 ton 6X6 to gliders to tanks. But in my Popular Mechanics searches I’ve uncovered a few that I had never  seen before. From a super-heavy tractor and trailer hauler, a ‘snow-jeep’ on caterpillar treads (that was still being used in 1948 well after Willys had successfully filed for trademarked use of the name ‘jeep.’) and a ‘harbor jeep’ tug used after the Normandy invasion these were unique. As well as the ‘jeep’ there other designations as the ‘peep’ and the ‘beep.’ The ‘beep’ was a three wheeled motor scooter used for courier purposes as seen in one of the articles dating from 1942.

Of course, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, the jeep, an idea whose time had come, had imitators from the 1948 Land Rover Series 1 to a  two wheel drive Japanese scout car. As under-gunned as it was compared to the MB, the Japanese version did have some features that would be now considered forward thinking including side curtains, a small V2 engine, a hydraulic steering stabilizer and front coil springs. You can look at what I found right here.

Come back the next couple of weeks when I’ll be cruising through more Popular Mechanic articles in an effort to polish off what I have for the moment before starting something new for the New Year. There is also the December page for theThis-Old-Jeep.com 2012 calendar to show off and while you can still buy it, the 2013 calendar is also available with 12 new never before seen photos. Its still not too late to check out the This-Old-Jeep.com Zazzle marketplace for that perfect gift for the jeep lover in your family. From new holiday cards and ornaments to new tee shirt designs and more you’ll find something that you or a friend would love for Xmas! See you next week!

Those Ads In The Back Of Popular Mechanics

Like the ads in the back of comic books back in the day, the back pages of Popular Mechanics and Science carried a ton of ads for all manners of fantastical things. Some that you would see were seemingly come-ons for military surplus and the requisite jeeps for sale in a crate and some were for add-ons or modifications for the newly surplus MBs that were cropping up all over the place as well as the new CJ. Now you could find everything from scale models of the famous MB to reconditioned L-Heads from J.C. Whitney for under 200 bucks. Also note the proliferation of ads for PTOs, do it yourself dually kits and surplus items like jerry cans. But now you also had new retailers who were specializing in jeeps like the famous Berg’s of Chicago who carried a full line of jeeps and parts for them. 

Apparently he was located on the south side of Chicago in a not so nice area of town, but had an extensive, though crowded selection of jeeps and parts. An old press photo shows customers pouring over what many of us would drool over today, Ford GPs and the rarest of the rare Bantam BRC-40 and yes, BRC-60s! At the time they were just work trucks and scrap parts, but wow! Berg’s wasn’t the only one in the business as the 1949 ad for American Auto Parts in Kansas City shows. MB tops for under $40! 

So, check out the new section of the Pop Mech/Sci Ad section where I’ll be adding new ads soon. Thanks for hanging in there last week as well. I’m not sure what I’ll be moving onto next week, maybe some new post-war Popular Mechanics stuff or maybe something else! In the meanwhile check out the This-Old-Jeep.com Zazzle marketplace. I’ve created lots of new things for you and the jeep lover in your life from new ornaments, holiday cards, mugs, t-shirts and the all-new 2013 This-Old-Jeep.com calendar! There’s still plenty of time to get stuff in time for Xmas! Come back for next week for more from the wide world of This Old Jeep!

The Jeep By Sea, Air And Land, Part Three

Today brings us to the third part of the legendary jeep getting around through various methods during wartime. It wasn’t all out of the ordinary, sometimes the jeep was just plain on the ground doing what it did best as the most versatile vehicle of the Second World War. The jeep did just about anything from the day to day duties of serving as a portable litter for the wounded and providing transportation for medics as you’ll see in the “Medics In Dungarees” article to helping to provide training to GIs (though I don’t think that I’d like it myself.... riding in a jeep is one thing and learning to somersault and roll out of one moving at 40 mph is quite another...). In its day, the jeep was hauled by cable down cliff sides, travelled the Burma-Ledo road, helped clean up gas spills and a slat grill served as a model for its ‘stepchild’ powered by an icebox motor. Notice

the two small models sitting its hood as well. Pretty cool!

I still have a ton of PopMech and PopSci articles to go through and present here. Next week I’ll focus on some of the great little ads that were found in the back that advertised everything from replacement F-heads for cheap, to do-it-yourself duallies. For now you can find all of the above articles in the Miscellaneous section of the Popular Mechanics and Science Archive.

I hope that everyone had a fine Thanksgiving and are enjoying your Black Friday weekend. Now that the holiday season has officially begun, the This-Old-Jeep.com online marketplace has tons of deals and sales running through the weekend and into Cyber Monday. I’ve spent the past week going through and re-arranging the entire store, updating it, deleting duplicate products and improving the look of existing ones. I’ve also come out with three new t-shirt designs based on classic ads from the 40’s through the 60’s, new holiday ornaments and holiday cards. You can check out the store here and be sure to come back for more deals through tomorrow!

The Jeep By Sea, Air And Land, Part Two

Today we’re going to continue with the Popular Mechanics files with the next part of the jeep’s many ways in which it travelled and was used during and after the war. The ubiquitous land vehicle, the jeep that could get through and over nearly anything on land was also adept at getting through the air. In addition to needing to be gotten to areas throughout the world during wartime by sea, the jeep needed at times to be airlifted in. The most common way was through the use of a glider, such as during the airborne part of the Normandy D-Day invasion. Here is a link to a glider pilot of the 434th Troop Carrier Group’s tale of the D-Day invasion that makes for an interesting read. The gliders supported both the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions. But that wasn’t the extent of the jeep’s time aboard aircraft as you can find in the articles above. The jeep was transported via bombers as well as the Douglas C-74 Globemaster. The Globemaster was one of the military’s first uses of large transport aircraft and was used during the Berlin airlift up to the Korean War until they were de-commissioned in the mid-50’s.

The jeep also found a role at airbases and landing strips, such as the ‘Follow Me’ jeeps with their unique checkerboard pattern that was painted on their backs and used to help guide planes to parking spots or to the appropriate landing strip. The jeep was also used to ferry flight crews and to resupply planes. It literally was a vehicle of a thousand and one uses. Check out the rest of the PM articles and photos here.

Come back next week for the third part of the continuing search through the pages of Popular Mechanics magazine for the eternal jeep. And keep watching here for the new soon to be released t-shirt designs available through the This-Old-Jeep.com online Zazzle marketplace. I plan on releasing them Black Friday weekend or even on Thanksgiving day if I can find the time. The new 2013 calendar is also now available. All new never before seen photos of the jeep grace its pages. Check it out today!

Also, an update to last week’s November calendar photo in which I had spotted a unique setup on a CJ2-A of the spare tire being mounted on the driver’s side of the body.

        

My friend Roberto posted a few links on the This-Old-Jeep.com forum and informed me that they were a limited modification created by local DOT laws and referred to as ‘Leftys.’ Here is also a clipping that I found on the CJ2-A Page from a W-O service bulletin that explains its drawbacks and why it was later rescinded.

While researching this I also found out that not all stateside CJs were manufactured in Toledo. A small percentage (but still impressive, a total of 5% of all CJ3-As...) were produced in Maywood, California at a re-opened production plant to help make up for excess demand on the west coast. It began rolling 2As off the line in November 1947 and a year later, trucks and wagons as well. It churned out ‘West Coast’ CJs until 1954! You learn something new everyday!

Come back next week for more at the This-Old-Jeep.com page.