Friday, July 25, 2014

Is it a Jeep? A Willys? A Kaiser? Yes to all three!

EVERGREEN BLUE BEAUTY
Talk about running across a true rarity, especially in the perfect condition we see on display here! This is a 1962-1965 CJ2A (or more commonly Willys Jeep Truck, though it was first known as the Willys Kaiser-Jeep).
They were built between 1947-1965 with few changes other than the horizontal grill bars reducing in number from 5 to 3 in '53, and the split windshield becoming a single pane of glass in '62.
This hardy little trooper look eager and ready to climb into the deepest mountain forest for some thankless task, but here it is on the mean streets of Brooklyn. As you can see it is a living advertisement for a repair shop which explains it's phenomenal condition. Since it says "est 1959" on the rear side of the bed I suppose it's possible that this has been in the possession of the shop owners since new. The old-school phone number designation of EV4-4880 would corroborate this.
*I did some research and the EV stands for Evergreen, and was a Greenpoint exchange way back when. Today I would call this neighborhood East Williamsburg, but that's really splitting hairs.
There are colors called Peacock Blue in 1962, and Sierra Blue listed in 1963 that could be this shade, but with this many years gone by and looking so fresh it's probably just a handsome repaint. I love how it's 2-tone all over the place though; white sides, roof, bumpers, wheels, and side step, with the rest in blue. With that one bold chrome accent piece on the sides this thing looks like a toy!
The bed and tailgate are the sort of thing that would dissolve into rust with no replacements available anywhere, so it's lucky this is complete. The gas filler neck popping out of the passengers rear corner of the bed shows you how utilitarian this truck is; no need to hide anything behind a painted door. In fact, the entire taillight assembly is exposed and simply attached to the outside of the vehicle, as are the tailgate locking mechanism.
Sal & Mario must be proud of their little Jeep which is doing a fine job of making them look good. The fact that the bumper is a little worn is almost reassuring as it does seem that this gets used somewhat. However, this is further confirmation that if you want to park a car on the city streets without worrying about a ticket just leave the plates off and you'll be fine. This won't work in Manhattan with all the DOT & police tow trucks prowling for anything they can drag away, but in Brooklyn it means a cop has to stop what they're doing, call it in, and follow up so here it sits without issue.

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