My wife and I bought our first home in 2014, which sits on approximately 2 acres of land (most of which is in the front yard.) Our driveway is almost 200 ft long and includes a very large parking area, making the total paved area about 12,000 square feet. The first time it snowed I used my trusty vintage Montgomery Ward snow blower to clear the driveway and it took nearly 3 hours. I knew at that moment I needed a better solution.
I suffered through a few more snow storms before Spring arrived and then started considering other options for snow removal. I looked into an ATV with a plow, but the price was astronomical. None of my vintage tractors weighed enough to push large amounts of snow, and a tractor-mounted snow blower generally does not do well in wet snow conditions like we often get here in upstate NY. I grudgingly decided to look for an old plow truck figuring it would be fairly easy to find an old beat-up one for around $1,000 since they didn’t need to be street legal or look pretty. Combing through classifieds and Facebook Marketplace ads produced some decent results, but none that piqued my interest because of course I wanted something unique. Then I got a tip from a friend about an old Jeep…
I love Jeeps. I spent 10 years driving a Jeep at my long-time summer job at Murphy's Driving Range in Saratoga Springs, NY. Our golf ball picker was a caged 1975 Jeep CJ5 which was used by the postal service (so the steering wheel was on the passenger side.) My late uncle Joe also owned an awesome CJ7, so I really liked the idea of having one. My friend told me he had seen an old white Jeep sitting in the weeds with a for sale sign on it at a greenhouse about 10 miles from our house, so I hopped on one of my vintage motorcycles and headed over to check it out. At the greenhouse I found a man named Don who was futzing with the cobbled wiring harness of a vintage Ford tractor trying to get it started. When I asked him about the Jeep for sale, he told me that it had belonged to a late friend of his and that it had spent most of its life as a plow truck at a camp near Sacandaga Lake. He said it would run and drive but likely needed a tune-up and some other work. I’d never seen an early Jeep like this one, which was a 1951 CJ3A.
Editors Note: If you’re wondering why Jeep and “Willys” are used interchangeably in this story, here’s why: During World War II, Willys-Overland Motor Company was contracted to build military Jeeps. After the war, Willys-Overland shifted into civilian markets and started what became known as the Civilian Jeep (CJ) line with their first model - the CJ2A - in 1945. After gaining popularity amongst off-road civilian enthusiasts, in 1949 the CJ3A was introduced. The company produced over 132,000 CJ3As by the end of its run in 1953, and the shortened “Willys” became commonplace.
As I looked the Willys over, the more I found I really liked its traditional flat fenders, military styling, and utilitarian look. What I didn’t like was that the entire thing was painted with white latex house paint. And I mean everything: the wheels, the tires, the frame, the plow… everything. The interior wasn’t much better as it was painted with brown latex house paint. The original seats were missing and there was a 5 gallon bucket for a seat. The original gas tank (which is supposed to sit under the seats) was missing and an outboard boat tank had been fitted into the bed for fuel storage. Other things I noted were numerous oil leaks, cut wires, cracked tires, and a fair amount of missing parts.
Don started the Jeep and let me drive it around the greenhouse. It ran very poorly (like 2 out of 4 cylinders poorly) and didn't stop, but it did shift through the gears. The transfer case shifted ok and the plow went up and down, so I figured it was worth a shot. I tried to negotiate (of course) but Don was firm on his asking price of $1,000, so we shook hands and the Willys was mine. (With plow rates at $100-ish per snow storm, I’d have made my money back if I used it 10 times.) Now I just had to figure out how to get it home…
It wasn’t street legal, and even if it was it wouldn't survive a 10-mile road trip. It was too big to fit on any trailer I had access to, and towing it home seemed like a bad idea since the steering box had tons of play. In fact, the play was so bad that I could turn the steering wheel nearly half a revolution before the front wheels would even move. Luckily, our neighbor is a landscaper and had a large two axle dump trailer. After some quick measurements I confirmed that the Jeep would fit (by mere inches) so off we went to the greenhouse. After coaxing the Willys to start with a shot of ether, I slowly drove it into the trailer, careful not to crash (since it had no brakes) and left it in gear so it wouldn't roll out as we drove home. The ride back was uneventful, and once in the driveway, I unloaded it and backed it into the garage.
When I purchased the Jeep, Don gave me a thick folder full of paperwork and service records for it, dating back until the early 1970s. The Jeep had been well cared for and it appeared that the original six thousand something miles on the odometer was indeed accurate based on inspection records. Most old Jeeps suffer frame rot due to salt on public roads, but this was plowing a private drive where salt wasn’t used, so the frame and floor were in decent condition. Combing through the records also indicated that the original flathead 134 cubic inch straight 4-cylinder engine (nicknamed “Go Devil”) had been replaced with a F-head 134 cubic inch “Hurricane” inline-4 engine from a 1953 CJ3B “High Hood” Willys. (The difference between the two motors is that the Go Devil was a flathead motor and the Hurricane is an OHV (overhead valve) motor, which is slightly taller.) The engine swap explained the large pronounced hood scoop as they needed clearance for the air cleaner on the taller motor.
Another cool thing I discovered was that a lot of the body panels on the Jeep had been remade by someone with good sheet metal skills, which made sense since Don shared with me that his late friend was a tin worker. His metalworking skills were great; however, his body work left a lot to be desired. Large amounts of rubber caulking had been used to fill gaps in the metal as opposed to the correct method of using body filler and sanding it down. Why he chose to use house caulking I will never know…
My initial plan was to simply make the Jeep a reliable runner and driver for plow duty. I never planned to put it on the road because of the missing gas tank, the fact that it didn’t have any lights, and numerous other issues - like the missing seat. The fact that it was covered in ugly house paint and had silicone caulking along all the body joints made me think it would be too much work to make it street legal and presentable. Still, I needed it to push snow around so I did all the mechanical work over the summer to get it to start, run, stop, and drive smoothly and consistently. This included new brake cylinders and lines, replacing numerous control cables, changing all the fluids, fixing bad wiring, and rebuilding the carburetor. (If you've never worked on a single barrel Carter carb I highly recommend it. It's a joy to work on; incredibly simple and the parts are easy to find.) Also, since there were so many levers and knobs inside, I ordered a decal that showed the gear shift order and how to operate the transfer case.
Once I got the Willys mechanically up to snuff, I decided it needed a good 10-foot paint job. (I may not have brand new, nice shiny things…but I don't want things that I own to look like junk.) I also wanted to fit it with lights and turn signals and get it to the point where I could drive it down the street if I needed to. So I spent my summer nights doing body work. I filled dents, patched holes and removed all the old latex paint and window caulking. Once I was satisfied, I applied a forest green Rust-Oleum paint using a roller with surprisingly good results. (I chose that color because it’s pretty standard, so whenever it got a scratch I would be able to simply touch it up with a brush.)
After its new paint job, I fitted new snow tires onto the Jeep wheels that I'd sandblasted and repainted black. The larger, more aggressive snow tires on black wheels gave the it a nice off-road look and would provide better traction in the snow. I painted the entire frame black and complemented it by painting the plow red. I sourced a bench seat from a CJ5 to replace the bucket and did some interior work to make it presentable, including removing the boat gas tank and fitting a proper Willys tank under the seat.
With the Jeep now road-ready, I headed off to the DMV to get it registered, and waited patiently for winter…
When mother nature dropped enough snow to warrant a plow in early 2015, I finally got to use the Willys for the first time. To say I was surprised at its plowing ability would be an understatement - it moved the snow effortlessly! My only two complaints were that the lack of doors made it a bit cold, and the single small windshield wiper was basically useless. But the fact that I could now plow the entire driveway in 1 hour instead of 3 was worth it.
In 2017 we started doing some serious work around the yard, creating larger garden beds that needed both dirt and mulch, so I decided I wanted to build a loader attachment for the Willys. I went straight to my favorite source (Facebook Marketplace) and found an old tractor drag bucket about 45 minutes away that I was sure I could modify into a loader. When I got there, I was surprised at how big it was. I wasn’t sure my truck could handle it, but the guy was ready to part with it and picked it up with his fork lift and set it into the bed of my truck. This thing must have weighed 1,000lbs and I thought for sure my back tires were going to explode. The bump stops on my truck got a workout as I made the 40-mile trip up the Northway, but I made it home. As soon as I got into the driveway I took a Sawzall and cut off the drag bucket frame, which I didn’t need and was the bulk of the weight. With that gone, I was able to maneuver the bucket off the truck and into the garage.
I welded ears onto the bucket so I could attach it to the existing plow frame that was on the Jeep, and used quick connects so that I would be able to easily switch between the bucket and the plow. The hydraulic cylinder that lifted the plow also lifted the bucket, but only about 3 ft (so not enough to get anything off a truck, but it would scoop mulch off a pile.) In order to curl and uncurl the bucket, I mounted a winch to the plow frame and ran the winch wire to the top of the bucket. As the winch came in, it would pull the bucket upwards, causing it to curl. When the winch came out, the bucket would go down to unload whatever it was carrying. The winch was remote controlled from the cab (which was super fun) and altogether the lifting capacity was about 400lbs.
The bucket loader served us well for three years, and then I bought a 1967 Cub Cadet that had a much more efficient loader, so I sold it (the bucket, not the Jeep!)
As we embark upon the 11th year at our little slice of suburban country heaven, the Willys is still going strong. I started taking it to car shows during the offseason and everyone loves it! I stay local because it really is uncomfortable to drive, the steering box still has a massive amount of play, and the drum brakes don’t stop well. That being said, the utilitarian nature of Jeeps is extremely cool. I keep a hammer, crescent wrench, and a can of WD-40 as my repair kit - and that's usually all that I need. One time the rear U-joint failed while en route to a car show. Instead of calling for a tow, I simply disconnected the rear drive shaft entirely with the crescent wrench, threw it in the front seat, popped the Jeep into four-wheel drive and drove it the rest of the way -using only the front two wheels! Once at the car show I walked to the local auto parts store, got a new U-joint and changed it while still parked in my spot at the show. That’s not something you can do with your average vehicle.
In recent years, my two daughters started riding with me when I plow. They love hanging out with daddy in his Jeep! They think they are just riding along, but little do they know they are being trained… I'm looking forward to the day when they will plow the driveway, as I have no doubt the Willys I found in the weeds will still be going strong!
