Willys Jeep Restoration | The Original SUV

[Music] hi everyone i'm bruce hitchen and welcome to center lane a while back we visited jelly bean auto crafters where they do some amazing resto mods one of the vehicles they were working on was a 1959 willys wagon this vehicle is being completely restored and modified to have a modern engine drivetrain and suspension along with a new paint job and interior to make the car look and run like new we're going to take a look at the car in a minute but i thought it would be interesting to find out more about the history of the willys now if you enjoy watching my channel then please be sure to like and share this video and subscribe to my channel the company we know today as jeep has routes that go all the way back to 1908 when john willis bought the overland automotive division of the standard wheel company and then renamed it willy's overland motor company in 1912. in fact up until 1918 willie's was one of the largest producers of cars in the u.s second only to ford over the next few years willie's acquired a number of other companies including fb stearns electric auto light the russell motor company curtis aeroplane and motor company and duesenberg while willie's enjoyed years of growth the company was plagued with labor issues and then it was hit very hard by the depression the bank appointed walter chrysler to save the company and as a result many of the company's assets were sold in 1926 willie's overland introduced a new line of small low-priced cars named the whippet these cars appealed to budget-conscious recession-weary buyers in the following years the company continued to falter until 1940 when the u.s military issued a tender for a small general purpose vehicle the army invited manufacturers to bid on production but willies bantam and ford were the only ones to respond and they all produce prototypes bantam's solution was the model 40 brc ford had the model gp short for government pygmy and willie's produced the willy's quad well willie's eventually won out and was awarded the lucrative contract by that time it was called the willys m.a but it soon became known simply as jeep it's thought that the jeep name came as a result of slurring the letters g and p together to sound like jeep willy's overland ended up building over 368 000 of these vehicles and ford built another 277 000 of them under license from willie's after the war willie's trademarked the jeep name and turned it into an off-road utility vehicle by launching the first cj-5 in 1953 the company was sold to kaiser motors and became willy's motors incorporated and marketed itself as the world's largest maker of four-wheel drive vehicles in the 50s and 60s willies continued to innovate and developed both military and civilian models creating larger more comfortable vehicles with improved engines axles and transmissions models included a cab over truck that came in various configurations a soft top jeepster the willys arrow compact sedan and the willy's wagon in 1963 the company dropped the willy's name in favor of kaiser jeep and introduced the jeep wagoneer gladiator trucks a fleet van and a variety of other models then in 1970 the company was sold to american motors during the 70s the company introduced many of the models we're familiar with today including the jeep cherokee renegade and the cj-7 in 1987 chrysler bought amc and the jeep brand continues to thrive today with a line of off-road capable vehicles that combine utility and luxury as i mentioned earlier jelly bean auto crafters has been working on a complete top-to-bottom resto mod of a classic 1959 willys utility wagon this vehicle is really the grandfather of today's sport utility vehicles it's perfect for shuttling around a large family with a ton of gear and it's combined with great off-road 4x4 capabilities ewald penner is going to tell us about the amazing transformation of this american classic this is a 1959 wheelies it's a four-wheel drive originally would have been a four cylinder uh four-speed manual transmission typically it would be a family event wagon you know with some kids they want to go off-roading that kind of stuff maybe their cabin the woods that sort of thing it would also double up as the work vehicle as well and so it's really handy for for people in that generation in the late 50s early 60s i have something like this the client's a great client he's got a great vision for the vehicle um modern technology modern drive modern reliability that sort of thing and what he wanted to have is something that looks stock with with the exception of the wheels and then have something they could take up to his cabin just like somebody would have way back in the day and uh but he wanted to have modern power modern reliability and uh modern suspension naturally and we've accomplished that on this truck when the vehicle came in it was in really rough shape there was some dense rust that hadn't been well cared for it was a four by four after all um i had the vision with a client wanted for it was awesome because it's really nice condition with modern type paint on it modern wheels and modern drive there was considerable amount of metal work needed on the vehicle a straightening and also patch panel that sort of thing and we ended up building a firewall because we went with a 5.7 hemi so it's got modern fuel injection modern reliability modern power we made no exterior modeling modification so it's exactly the way it was from factory um it has a five-speed manual transmission it has air lockers so you got switches on your dashboard to turn the pauses on that sort of thing five-speed manual transmission aluminum radiator all that stuff so here the ride ability on this vehicle will be will be very good one of the things we did as well was to get a more comfortable ride back then these springs were really short and they kind of had a tractor type ride um but with more of a modern ride we chose a bit of longer suspension longer springs into it so what we did is we ended up lengthening the frame about six inches that gave us room to put a longer leaf spring into it that gives us a modern type of a ride um soft goes over bumps well yet it still carries a lot of weight at the same time by extending the frame forward and gave us enough room to put a 12 000 pound winch in as well um with the winch on there if he ever does get stuck he can get himself unstuck pretty basically and uh in doing so we extended the factory panel this is the factory panel here but we stand that out by six inches as well we made it look as if it was all still original along with the bumper the overriders and all those sorts of things getting a 5.7 hemi into where a four cylinder was before is it's not an easy task we do a lot of engine replacements that sort of thing upgrades this one here was very small engine bay as you can see it's very narrow it's very short we have to modify the firewall a little bit because we want the better weight distribution to the back um but everything else is extremely tight we have to plan out and design exactly where everything went where the power steering reservoir was going to be where the ultra air filter would be how the radar holes were going to go all those things uh make sure that i'm still clear past the booster uh we added that in clear opacity steering linkages make sure the exhaust wouldn't rattle on the frame all the clearances would be there and at the same time make sure there's enough airflow through that the engine isn't going to retain the heat in the engine bay it has to be able to flow through just like a little regular car not overheat the factory wheelies it has a very basic basic dashboard basic interior because they're a basic truck um with this client wanting a more high-end more modern type of a vehicle we took some artistic liberties and some design changes that still are in keeping with what wheelies had originally for example this here is factory this is all stock with the exception of the panel this here is all stock so this is all original up to here but the speedometer was here and it went back down again so you had the same type of indent as you have here out on this side as well so went out and back in again the trouble with that is now you got the speedometer here um there's not enough room for gauges so we end up making the dashboard a little bigger keep it flat with us being such a special vehicle it's kind of like a bespoke suit so we did we had the client come and sit in the seat um he showed us exactly where we want the pedal so these pedals are exactly where he needs them for his feet uh where exactly we want the shifter to be the park brake the steering wheel all these things are exactly what the client needs once this was done we then laid out with us where the gauges should be he came back in again and sat in the seat and looked at it so now he can see through the steering wheel you can see all the gauges totally clear there's no interruption there so if you're driving and you can glance down all the gauges are totally visible for them to make it look a little nicer and spruce it up a little bit it looked a little bland to have this all flat so we ended up putting building a panel along here this is a custom panel but it looks like it's something that could have come in a 59 wheelies and we put all the numbers in here this is for the audio so when he wants to turn the stereo on it operates off his office phone um he got all the controls right there your heaters all kind of stuff and we use knobs on here that are in keeping with the style of the vehicle as well these little little ribs in here mimic what's on the outside of the body these ribs on the out to the body so we have those in here as well to kind of bring the interior and the exterior together and we put a couple grooves at the bottom and one at the top just kind of break it up a bit more and we put the body color into there as well so it looks as if it's all an original piece if somebody didn't know any better this would be to them would be 100 factory but for a bit of comfort we put tilt steering in as well so this goes up and down so if he's on a long trip he wants to change that or somebody else wants to drive it sort of a thing it can be adjusted for them as well originally this seat would have been would have been two seats there was a smaller seat on the driver's side and then the the rest of it was on the passenger side so you could fit two small people on the on the passenger and one small person on the on the driver's side i'm not sure why they made that configuration because the front seat was actually opposite of that but uh i'm sure they had their reasons what we ended up doing was putting a full back on it and a full bottom as well it gives it a cleaner look and it's actually more comfortable the way we did put the foam in there um when you sit back and it actually hugs around you just like a bucket seat does but it's still a bent seat and so it's really comfortable we also put the lap belt as well um this way if you ever on an accident you're being retained a whole lot better than what would be what's my factory one unique thing about this vehicle is the way that the tailgate is held from going down too far typically you'll have a chain a strap and that sort of thing but what really decided to do was have these metal brackets that are kind of kind of two bars put together so as you move it up and down they automatically fold down and they're out of your way you don't get the you don't get the rattling and the the clanging of the chain so it's a much quieter system the license plate bracket is an interesting piece uh when you're driving along typically your your license plate is here your light is shining on it as you put the tailgate down this item automatically comes down like this here so if you want to see that you'll see it goes down originally this truck didn't have any carpet in the back it was more basic so the floor in the back here was very similar to the tailgate how it goes up and down this is when you're putting material on it you're only resting on the upper portions being more of a luxury model like a modern suv we put carpet on it and we put wood strips on the wood strips themselves are identical to the factory they've been restored just like the factory ones were and uh they actually carry on just like the factory ones did as well but on top of the carpet this way you have the the the look of the carpet the sound deadening of it the warmth of the carpet but you don't have the we don't you don't have the rattle of the other metal and we also added an extra rib on the side to give it a bit better look and uh by the differential there'll be a little different configuration there as well just to give it a more of a modern look as well well that's a look at how this mid-century classic is being brought back to its former glory and opening a new chapter in the life of this important american icon thanks to ewol penner for showing us the car and everyone at jellybean for your commitment to excellence until next week thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: CENTER LANE

Views: 93,121

Keywords: History of the Willys Jeep, willys jeep wagoneer, willys jeep wagon, history of the jeep, willys suv, willys suv restoration, willys 4x4 restomod, restoring a willys jeep, willys restomods, kaiser willys, Kaiser willys jeep, willys wagoneer, original willys 4x4, willys utility wagon restomods, willys utility wagon, jeep wagoneer restoration, Willys wagon, Jellybean autocrafters, willys jeep, willys mb, willys mb jeep restoration, willys jeep restoration, willys mb jeep

Id: NI4gOIrh7rY

Length: 13min 17sec (797 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021