1942 Willys MB - The Purchase

I purchased it as barely more than a rolling carcass with a blown motor and an otherwise original drive train. It did at least have one of the things I wanted for my trail rig – flat fenders! I found a used engine for it at a good price and was soon on my way to what I thought would be was going to be “The Cheap Jeep.” I was actually able to get it running and on the trail for a total investment of less than what I could’ve sold it for at the time. The days of being in the black are now long gone and I have accepted that I’ll never be able to sell it for what I have put into it. Not an uncommon scenario with Jeeps.

Oh well, I didn’t build it sell it. The Jeep has been the catalyst for many great camping and wheeling weekends with my family and friends with many more to come. It’s hard to put a price on good times and good memories.

As purchased	The transplant in process	The new (old) engine

The round tube front cross member is one way to tell an MB apart from the very similar Ford GPW. The Jeep was already set up with power steering. This is the first Jeep I've owned to have it and I'd never go without it again. It came with a Dana 27 front axle and Dana 44 rear axle with a Lincoln Locker. It also had a twin stick Dana 18 tranfercase and T90 tranny. All typical, for Jeeps of this vintage even though the original tranny would've been a T84. I believe that this '42 tub is actually sitting on a 1949 frame, in which case the original rear end was probably a Dana 41. A previous owner must have swapped in the stonger Dana 44 rear at some point, not that you could call a 10 spline tapered axle strong. The Willys is over 65 years old so I'm sure there have been lots of different parts interchanged through the years. The original engine would of course been a flat head four cylinder, not the Buick V6.