A Bomb & A Willy Jeep

You never know when you may actually have a “bomb” in the building….or at least that is the case at my house. I will give you the full story as you read on …..

This is the story of taking a “little something” and making it into something “great”. This is the tale of the Little Willy Jeep (1946 to be exact)

The hubs decided that he would take this little jeep off the hands of our friend Jimmy. I had seen the jeep at Jimmy’s place when i passed by and it was AWFUL. It had been at a deer lease for a very long time and it had not been lovingly take care of to say the least.

This poor little jeep had a makeshift top and an awful awful paint job and was “filthy” – but it was cheap, it was a project and that was right up our alley. We got the little jeep home and the transformation began. The hubs always has a theme in his head and when he gets a project and this one as going to have a patriotic theme. Here we go…..

At this point the “rats and their nest were gone”. The ugly top and all that “mess” was gone and we were down to the bare bones.

Let me back track just a second…. he likes to work in the shop late and I am an early to bed kind of girl. He spends a lot of time out there doing what ever it is guys do. I had not seen the jeep in a while and when i did go out there i was shocked at the progress that was being made. It truly looked as though it was not the same jeep – even in this striped down condition, I was impressed already.

On a side note: He had bought a “bomb” from a antique dealer here in town a while back and it had been laying out by the shop for a while now. It also had seen its better days and thank goodness it had been detonated and was not “live”. But it was REAL. He had in his mind that this bomb was going to be part of this little jeep and I was concerned in more ways than one, but I have learned to just “roll with it“.

He steadily worked on the little jeep and it was steadily coming back to life. The paint was a huge improvement and it also had it’s stars and name put back on. It was beginning to really take shape now.

It has been painted and cleaned up really good. Its little engine has been repaired and its tires have been replaced.

The little jeep was being brought back to life. The “bomb” has been painted red, white & blue (and it looks cool). The little jeep is purring like a kitten. Now the fun part of getting that really pretty bomb on top of that really pretty jeep without destroying everything around it. That darn bomb is HEAVY. We looked like the “two stogies” out there trying to do that. He had made a frame for the bomb to set on and we had the tractor and were were trying to get that sucker in just the right spot on top of that jeep. We prayed it would not move so that he could get it secured and strapped on there. The only thing I could do was pray and be prepared to run if something went wrong. FINALLY, the bomb is set and the next step gets to begin. The final little touch……are you ready – read on…..

Now the last step was the mannequin slash soldier. We had this mannequin from someplace, she was a pretty little girly girl and we were going to attempt to make this our “soldier”. Have you ever attempted to make a girl mannequin into a tough soldier, it isn’t an easy feat. We went to army surplus stores and shops. We bought all kinds of goodies and dressed this mannequin up. Is she perfect – heck no!!! I have to say that we were pretty funny and we did raise some eyebrows when they ask us what we were doing. I guess one of the funniest sights of this dressing adventure would have been us trying to get that prissy little mannequin’s dainty little feet into those combat boots. We twisted and we turned, we even used a screw gun and by jiggers she/he has boots on. We got her/he all dressed up and we have all the goodies on the jeep. Helmets, old gas cans, even a machine gun. Our Flag is flying high and we have a cute little Willy to take to our parades.

The little Willy is not perfect but it was a fun restoration. We have taken it to parades and driven it around and it does turn some heads. It has the original engine (which is rare to find in these) and it is such a conversation piece to those veterans and their families that have used these in times of war.

One of the most rewarding things of this project is that we did it together. Yes, he had the vision but included me with the decorations and the privilege of dressing the soldier (eye roll). Either way, we had fun and it is a wonderful addition to our collection.