Antique Cars and Projects

1950 Willys CJV-35/U

USMC Radio Jeep

This is a 1950 Willys CJV-35/U. They were 1000 of them made during 1950 for the Department of the Navy. Of these, there are about 29 know to still exist. They were used as a radio jeep by the USMC.

My father-in-law bought it from the Georgia Forestry Commission back in the early 1970's. You'll see the GFC color on some of the closeup photos of the engine compartment & dash. At some point the rear main seal started to leak. He let a high school shop class rebuild the motor. It hasn't run since. It's been in storage since probably 1975 or so.

The current plan is to "preserve" the jeep, not "restore" it. We're going to leave the Civilian top, roll bar & paint job. As we need parts, we'll replace the civilian with the correct military part.

The projects will be to:

  1. New tires
  2. Clean out the gas tank - I'm sure it's got at least some gunk in it
  3. New fuel lines
  4. Rebuild carbeurator or new carbeurator
  5. Get the engine running. I'd also like to install the parts to allow me to hand crank the engine. I've hand cranked my MB before & think it could really help when we try to get the engine running.
  6. Install new brake system. You can see the brake fluid has seeped from the wheel cylinders during the 15 years the jeep has been parked at this location.
  7. Install correct seats. The current seats don't allow a whole lot of space for your legs.We're going to leave the current rear seat in.
  8. Remove tow bar from front. We'll never tow the jeep, only trailer it, so there's no need for the tow bar.

 

Updates as of Sept 17, 2006

The CJV-35 has been up & running for the last couple years.. After a new exhaust system, new brakes, and a new wiring harness form Vintage Wiring of Maine, we were able to start using the jeep again. The jeep has been in two Griffin 4th of July Parades so far.

July 4th
Robin's CJV-35 is on the left in this photo from the 2005 4th of July parade.

You can see from the photo that we've replaced the Corvair seats with the correct CJ-3A seats. We've also gone from the 15" rims to 16" M38 rims with vintage style knobby tires from Coker Tire. The spare tire is still mounted on the side, like the CJ-3A. We don't intent to move it to the tailgate anytime soon. It's just too practical to use the tailgate & we haven't had any problems getting thru trails with the extra width.

July 4th

Antique Cars and Projects