Gary Collins' 1949 Willys 2x4 Pickup

A Jeeper may be retired, but you are never a retired Jeeper.

What does a Jeep enthusiast do for fun in retirement? Well, he works on Jeeps, of course! And in the case of Gary Collins, he buys a 1949 Willys to create a little family of Jeeps with his 1951 Willys and little green 2-A.

Here Gary tells us all about his latest addition:

I bought this truck from a lady in Missouri and the truck came from Arkansas. She had a "Willys friend" that helped her get the truck running and some of the mechanicals then lost interest when her friend moved away. The truck had a lot of surface rust, but no major rot-through other than some pin holes in the floor boards. I had to redo all the normal things, brakes, put turn signals on, re-wired most of the truck, ring job, and connecting rod bearings since it smoked real bad. I also switched front ends with a '48 2x4 with the I-beam front that I already had. The king pins were worn real bad in her truck.

As you already know, I am a big fan of the flat-nose trucks and I had many parts up in the loft of my garage to interchange with some of this trucks parts including hood badges, front (4) emblem, etc. I also sprung for some re-chromed bumpers and a reproduction hood spear from Carl Walck. We chassis-savered the frame and bedlinered her also.

As it stands now, I have two pretty nice flat-nose trucks. There's one modified (red truck) and one stock with the little L head. There aren't too many of these little 2x4's out there and this is the first I have seen with the three speed on the floor instead of on the column. I also had all new glass cut with all new rubber and complete door seals, and more.

Top speed is around 38-40 Mph and I'm sort of suspicious that it could have the 6:17 gears in it. Some of the early 2x4 trucks and wagons had the lower gears. Will have to check some day by marking the drive shaft and tire while up on the floor jack. If I ever do another truck it will be for someone else. (My wife says two is enough.)

The Missouri truck took me almost 6 months to complete and she has already won in the local Fouth of July car show for People's Choice in the trucks group. All of the comments I got about her were that these are non-existent at all the car shows and so, so different. What a great way to spend my retirement!

I thought I'd send a pic of Mom, Pop and Baby Willys. Mom, of course, being the '49 2x4. Pop, the '51 4x4 (with the flat-nose front) 305 sbc with rebuilt 700r-4 with the 208 case, new driveshafts, etc. And last but not least, Wudy the little green 2-A.

You may remember Gary from an article we did a while back featuring his 1949 Willys!

Click the link below to read all about it:

http://www.jeeptruck.com/articles/art012/index.html


Thank you, Gary, for sharing your beautiful Willys trucks with us!

Editor: Rebecca J. Decker, writer and web developer for JeepTruck.com


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