Got dads Willy’s jeep running after 53 years

[LittleRedFisherman]

Been restoring dad’s childhood Willy’s jeep  today was a big step in the right direction!  Dad rode my mom in this jeep when she was 10.  She’s now 72.  Dad said first thing he’s gonna do is take her for a spin again when it’s done.   Started a year ago with a bare frame.  Making some progress 

[BilletHead]

38 minutes ago, LittleRedFisherman said:

Been restoring dad’s childhood Willy’s jeep  today was a big step in the right direction!  Dad rode my mom in this jeep when she was 10.  She’s now 72.  Dad said first thing he’s gonna do is take her for a spin again when it’s done.   Started a year ago with a bare frame.  Making some progress 

IMG_1883.mov

                Outstanding! Love it

[jdmidwest]

Wait a minute, your Dad and Mom were together at 10 years old and driving.  Seems kinda young even for Arkansas.

[LittleRedFisherman]

1 hour ago, jdmidwest said:

Wait a minute, your Dad and Mom were together at 10 years old and driving.  Seems kinda young even for Arkansas.

Dad was 13 and mom was 10. They didn’t even date till they were in there mid 20s. She was visiting a neighbor with her parents, dad drove by and asked her if she wanted to take a spin.   He was driving tractors at 13 to as was I.  Just part of farm life especially back then.  You were taught to work and work young.  The story about mom was dad took her for a ride unbeknownst to her parents they threw a fit when they saw it,  the neighbor assured them that boy can handle that jeep they watched dad drive it all the time.  

[BilletHead]

4 hours ago, LittleRedFisherman said:

Dad was 13 and mom was 10. They didn’t even date till they were in there mid 20s. She was visiting a neighbor with her parents, dad drove by and asked her if she wanted to take a spin.   He was driving tractors at 13 to as was I.  Just part of farm life especially back then.  You were taught to work and work young.  The story about mom was dad took her for a ride unbeknownst to her parents they threw a fit when they saw it,  the neighbor assured them that boy can handle that jeep they watched dad drive it all the time.  

  That Jeep is part of an amazing love story I am betting. 

[fishinwrench]

11 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

Wait a minute, your Dad and Mom were together at 10 years old and driving.  Seems kinda young even for Arkansas.

 

Get in boys...... I'm fixin' to RUNNOFT ! 

[jdmidwest]

Nothing like a little clarity to bring focus to the original post...

I was driving stuff around the farm as soon as I could reach pedals too.  I did not get married until I was 30 though.

Keep updating the build.  Willy's were our first ATV's on the farm.  Dad and my 2 uncles had them and hit the log roads every weekend on trail rides.  I remember as a young kid, the roads on the hills at the farm property were a Sunday cruise I always enjoyed, especially the "rumpty, bumpty, hill" part.  It was the lane by the old house place that Dad was raised in.  It came out of the field, past the old hand hewn log barn that still remains today, thru a part of the old county road that went thru our place, and up the ridge past the foundations of the house, chicken house, brooder house, and hand dug well.

Now I ride it on my four wheeler and it does not seem nearly as impressive as it was in the ole Willy's with the front glass down.  We replaced them a few years later with VW dune buggies, Baja cut VW's, and a VW rail buggy.  And of course, trail bikes too.

[fishinwrench]

When I was a kid our neighbor had an old Willy's Jeep.   When we'd get a big snow he would tow 5-6 of us neighborhood kids around the streets of town on a big sled.  Man that was FUN ! 

A fella would go to jail for life ("endangering the welfare") if you did that NOW.   🙄

[BilletHead]

9 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

When I was a kid our neighbor had an old Willy's Jeep.   When we'd get a big snow he would tow 5-6 of us neighborhood kids around the streets of town on a big sled.  Man that was FUN ! 

A fella would go to jail for life ("endangering the welfare") if you did that NOW.   🙄

                  And we used to have a shotgun in a gun rack in the back window of our pickups at high school so we could hunt dove after school on the way home. 

[Flysmallie]

11 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

When I was a kid our neighbor had an old Willy's Jeep.   When we'd get a big snow he would tow 5-6 of us neighborhood kids around the streets of town on a big sled.  Man that was FUN ! 

A fella would go to jail for life ("endangering the welfare") if you did that NOW.   🙄

In high school one of our friends was a competitive water ski jumper. It didn't snow very often that far south in Oklahoma, but one freezing winter we got a few inches. In what had to be the coolest thing to see from the outside, we got pulled over by the police for pulling a skier behind a car. It's a good thing it was small town Oklahoma.