In late 1939 to early 1940 the US government put out to tender a call to design a light four wheel drive vehicle to US Army specifications. The Bantam Car Company came up with the concept that would ultimately become the Jeep as we now it.

It was decided that the Bantam Car Company was too small to produce the numbers of jeeps required so Bantam's design was given to Willys Overland to produce.

After Pearl Harbour and America's entry to World War 2, the demand for jeeps increased and Ford Motor Company was engaged as a second supplier of the jeep.

Between 1941 and 1945 Willys and Ford built about 700,000 of the vehicle.

Both vehicles were almost identical. The main difference is that the front cross member on a Willys is tubular - the Ford cross member is an inverted U section.

All of the Ford nuts and bolts have a script F marked on them, as do most of the panels and frame assembley.


Sarge the Jeep.
 
Owned by Frank Vella.

It was July 1996 that I had bought my Jeep. I had been looking for a few weeks & everyone that I had enquired about was either out of my price range or had engine modifications or had been converted to right hand drive.

My wife, 2 young kids and I travelled to Orbost, Victoria, to look at this one, advertised in the Trading Post as rough.

The engine was worn, it used lots of oil, the gearbox and transfer case were also worn and noisey.

The asking price was a bit high for it,s condition, but it drove ok (It needed a lot of work and money to get it to it's present state).

The owner had now dropped the price by $1000. I suggested to my wife that we should go back to the motel and think about it a bit more. She then suggested that we offer the owner a few thousand dollars less again, I said to her "you tell him that, I'm not making a fool out of myself) and he accepted her figure and threw in heaps of spares.

It has now been 12.5 years and it's just about complete a new engine, gearbox, transfer case & lots of body accessories have been added. The next thing it needs is 4 Combat Rims and then just running maintenance to keep it going .
 
Vehicle - Willys MB Jeep.
Year - 1944.
Country - USA. Toledo,Ohio.(Max Klingers home town--M A S H )
War History - I was told that it may have been on a base on the Cape York Penninsula QLD. I'm currently trying to research the correct history.


Willys Overland Jeep: Specifications.

soft-top, 2+2 seats, what doors?
loa: 132", 
width: 62", 
height: 52" (steering wheel) - 72" (soft top), 
weight: 2400 (unladen)
GVM: 3200lbs nominally
2199cc petrol 4-cyls, 2 valves/cyl, side-valve
bore: 79.4mm, stroke: 111mm, c.r.: 6.48:1
transmission: 3-speed, 2-speed transfer case, part-time 4WD
suspension: beam-leaf/beam-leaf, brakes: drum/drum
tyres: 6.00x16