1942 GPW “Willys?” Jeep – Posted 10/3/25 – Updates (10/6/2025)
(10/3/2025)
I am not as attached to this thing as some people seem to think I should be. Even though I have a sorta/kinda story about it. We owned a country grocery and general store, and we worked year around. Only days we closed the store were Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. New Years was only to take inventory for the tax man. We generally were in the store every day until an hour two after closing time working. When I was about 8 years old my dad gave me a socket set for Christmas. I thought something along the lines of, “That’s nice, but I only have to put together so many bicycles.”
It is for sale, but you may still enjoy the read.
The next day back at the store my dad took me out back, pointed me at an engine and said, take it all apart, and sort the part out on some cardboard boxes.” I couldn’t break the head bolts, but my dad showed me how to use a cheater bar to do it. 6 feet of water pipe on the handle of my ratchet did the trick. I took it all apart (the engine).
My dad made this thing functional in the early 70s. For several years it was his daily driver, (about 1/4 mile between our house and our store grocery) and his hunting and prospecting rig. He did a lot more prospecting than hunting, but the only fair gold find we ever ran across was on a game refuge so we couldn’t work it. I’m sure I couldn’t find it today if somebody held a gun to my head.
Anyway, sometime in the 80s he quit driving it. I seem to recall he said something about water in the transfer case. He picked up a new Bronco in 1982 and quit driving the Jeep much after that. Still have the Bronco. It’s the rig I’m more likely to turn back into a working truck personally, but for now my ’24 F250 FX4 gets me down the mild trails I need to get down most times. I’d like to get the Bronco back on the trail to save my truck for truck things.
Before anybody says, “You should keep that and fix it up.” No I should sell it and use the cash to effectuate repairs on buildings so I can sell property and pad my mom’s bank account. I’ve got it posted for sale a few places, and I’ll probably make a post here in the for sale section. I’m not particularly attached to it. If I wasn’t taking care of my mom I “might” keep it, but probably not.
According to JABJEEP over on the OldWilly’sForum it’s probably a GPW (1942 Ford Jeep). Has the Inverted U front cross member, says GPW XXX XXX on the title, and I can make out W XXX XXX on the frame, but the title says Willys. The numbers match. It has the steering pivot on the axle so it’s likely the year on the title is correct. With a number on the flat above the water pump starting with MC its likely an M38 Willys engine. Not an original Ford engine.
I am about to start tinkering on it, but my hope is it gets sold before I get to far into it. I have NOT turned the motor. I made of point to take care not to turn it over even by accident. I made sure it was in neutral before dragging it up on the trailer with its four flats (hard flat) tires. It’s been sitting about 40 years, and I don’t want to risk cracking a ring and scoring a cylinder. The oil lines crumbled to a fell off when I touched them looking for numbers on the engine, so I ordered new oil lines before doing anything. After I get the new oil lines on I’ll soak the rings with some sort of magic sauce. Probably acetone and ATF mixed 50:50. That seems to be the concoction most shade tree mechanics favor over the new formula of Marvel Mystery Oil. After I get it turning over I’ll give it an oil change, and spin the engine to get some compression readings, but as they say, “It ran when it was parked.” Oil lines first because I don’t want to spray oil (oil looks good on the stick) all over the engine bay or dump dirt into the open ends when I blow all the dirt out of the spark plug vallys before pulling them out.
I was going to pull the wheels the other day and go get anything cheap to throw on the rims to make it a little easier to move around, but it has wheel locks on it. Yesterday I picked up a universal set of wheel lock keys and a set of wheel lock defeat tools. Hopefully I can get them off without destroying the studs. I’ve been pretty busy. Taking care of my chores, taking care of my mom, and trying to run a business all take time. Today I spent the morning at a doctor’s appointment with my mom and I spent most of the afternoon creating a rough tutorial video for a customer. No, I’m not a content creature. I’m a manufacturer, but sometimes its impractical for customers to send me everything I need to make what they need. Anyway, I might have just enough time to put that Jeep up on blocks and brutalize those wheel locks yet today.
That hard top is right out of the Sears & Roebuck Jeep Parts catalog. The instructions for it were in the glove box along with an insurance card that expired in 1985. The windshield is not correct. I remember that much.
My dad was attached to this thing. My mom told me he turned down an offer to sell (long after it was parked) an offer for ten grand. I think that was personal attachment. Not real value. I suspect to the right person this might be worth around 6 or 7 thousand. I am asking $6500 as is at the moment. I will tinker with it as I have time between my chores, taking care of my mom, and running my business. The more I do of course the higher will be the minimum offer I might consider. I do have clear title and for the right offer can sign it over on the spot.
UPDATE: (10/6/2025)
Removing the wheels for new/used roll arounds. (Okay, first off, don’t waste your money on the Habor Freight master set or the Harbor Freight locking lug removal kit. The “master” set doesn’t look like it fits anything, and the locking lug removal kit looks useful, but didn’t fit the locking lug nuts. Too small. Total waste of money. I did get the locking lug nuts off. I drove an oversized impact socket over it with a BFH. One of them came off right away. The next one took a while. I didn’t know or maybe didn’t remember the driver’s side has left hand lug bolts. In fact, it’s been a very long time since I worked on ANYTHING with left hand lug bolts. Front wheels are off. The lugs actually look good, and bright. Nuts came off pretty easy for having been on there for 40 years. I think one impacted all the way off, but it wasn’t bad. I probably could have taken it off by hand if I had to.
Its cooling down in Arizona, but its still warm out there. I decided I’d have a sip of water before taking off the rears.
Then it will be time to head off to one of the shade tree tire shops to see if one of them has a set of good used takeoffs of a similar size to put back on. I was going to put a cheap set of new tires on it, but they are really just for rolling the Jeep around in the yard, so I don’t have to drag it.