WILLYS CJ2A (JEEP) - AR-16-86 (1946)

When going past that location, this jeep, fully equipped, caught the attention of Miguel Nunes and that's how his father acquired it.

The engine was damaged and the car was not running, which certainly led to its dismissal from the American base.

Initially, in the early 1980s, the family carried out a small reparation to the car body and installed a diesel engine, allowing for the car to remain in use until 1992.

At that time, Miguel Nunes decided to carry out a thorough restoration, which took about 10 years. During this period, he acquired a lot of new material in the United States of America, India, Germany and France.

Through a friend who lived in Chicago, he bought another Willys in the USA, which was impossible to be restored but was all intact. The car was dismantled and the parts sent to Madeira, which allowed him to repair the original engine.

The restoration was completed in 2002 and, since then, only routine maintenance has been carried out.

It is one of the first cars of this series and was built in March 1946, after the end of the Second World War.
With excess new parts in stock, from the previous model - the Willys MB (1941-45), the Willys Overland factory chose to use this surplus in the first CJs. These units are thus a mixture of MB material with other parts designed for the new model.
These rarer CJ2A are called VEC (very early civilian), by Jeep fans.
Of these first units, many were sold to the American army, for administrative functions.

This CJ2A, which was brought from the American Air Base Laje, in the Azores, probably comes from that group.
The 1945 Willys Jeep was the world's first mass-produced civilian all-wheel drive Jeep.
In 1944, Willys-Overland, one of the two main military Jeep manufacturers of World War II, built the first prototypes for a commercial version - the CJ, short for "civilian Jeep". From then on, all CJ Jeeps had a separate body and frame, rigid axles with front and rear springs, a tapered nose with flared mud-guards and a retrieving windshield. They could be driven without doors. In addition, almost all had four-wheel drive systems, with a choice of high and low gears, and open car bodies with removable hard or soft tops.

After remaining in production through a variety of model numbers and various mother companies, the Jeep CJ line officially ended in 1986.
More than 1.5 million CJ Jeeps were built, maintaining the same basic car body style for 45 years since the Jeep had first appeared. CJs have been described as probably the most successful utility vehicle ever made.
The Jeep CJ-7 was replaced in 1987 by the similar looking Jeep Wrangler.

The similar model, the DJ "Dispatcher", was introduced in 1956 as a two-wheel drive version with open, fabric or closed steel car body on both the left and right sides, for hotels, resorts, police and later the US Postal Service.
After the CJ-1 and CJ-2, the lessons learnt from the latter led to the development of the first full production CJ, the 1945-1949 Willys-Overland CJ-2A, or Universal Jeep.
The CJ-2A looked a lot like a civilised MB with a rear door and a side-mounted spare wheel. A distinct difference between the MB and the CJ-2A is in the grilles of the two vehicles. The MB had recessed headlamps and nine-slot grilles, while the CJ-2A had larger, slightly protruding headlights recessed into a seven-slot grille.
Production of the CJ-2A began on July 17, 1945, sharing production time with the MB.
The MB style floating rear axle was fitted, until serial number 13453. Once depleted, the CJ got a stronger Dana/Spicer Model 41. Sometimes the use of MB parts was due to strikes by suppliers, such as Autolite.
Because Willys produced few in-house parts and relied heavily on suppliers, it was vulnerable to strikes, which were common after the war.

As the CJ-2A was primarily designed for agricultural, livestock and industrial use, the original CJ-2As only came with a driver's seat and side mirror. But a wide variety of options were available, such as front passenger seat, rear seat, centre rear view mirror, soft top, front PTO, rear PTO, pulley drive, capstan winch, regulator, rear hydraulic lift, windshield wipers, snowplough, welder, generator, lawnmower, heavy-duty springs, dual vacuum wipers (original CJ-2A's were equipped with a manual wiper on the passenger side and a vacuum wiper on the driver's side ), dual taillights (the originals had a taillight on the driver side and a reflector on the passenger side), warm weather radiator, driveshaft guards, heater, side steps and radiator brush guard.

The CJ-2As were produced in bright colour combinations which, in a way, symbolized the hope and promise of post-war America.
True to their intended purpose, the combinations also resembled those used by the most popular farm equipment manufacturers of the day.
From 1945 to mid-1946, CJ-2As were only available in two colour combinations: Pasture Green with Autumn Yellow wheels and Harvest Tan with Sunset Red wheels. Others were introduced later.
A total of 214,760 CJ-2As were produced. Due to the use of military production parts in the early CJ-2A and the many changes made during its initial production, restorers and collectors refer to CJ-2As, until serial number 34,530, as "Very Old Civilian" and from mid-1946 to mid-1947 as "Old Civilian". Only minor changes were made after the mid-1947 models.
 

Datasheet
Year: 1946
Brand: Willys
Model: CJ2A
Country: United States of America
License plate: MD-85-99
Engine: ...
Gearbox: ...