Interview Brandon McGilvray
Tune in to the Jeep Talk Show’s Friday interview with Brandon MGilvray, where he showcases his impressive 1946 Willys build. Brandon brought this classic Jeep to this year’s Toledo Jeep Fest, where Chris and Nicky G had the chance to meet him and even sit in his restored 1946 Jeep! Don’t miss this episode filled with nostalgia, craftsmanship, and Jeep passion.
Hi, this is Tony with the Jeep Talk Show and this is our Friday interview episode. Hang in there and chat with you in a bit. From around the world or from your city and sometimes just down the street. Howdy neighbor. It’s the Jeep Talk Show Interview.
Uh, he’ll boys and girls, it’s time for another Jeep talk show interview. And tonight we’re going to be talking with, uh, Brandon, you know, Brandon had the unfortunate situation of meeting Chris and Nikki G out at Toledo. Jeep Fest. He got to talking to them and they did a live segment sitting in his 46. Uh, Willis, is it a Willis or a Willys?
Well, the proper term is Willis, but everyone calls him the Willys.
Well, that’s how it’s kind of, that’s kind of how it’s spelled. Right. So it makes sense. Uh, and I tell this quite often, I got, uh, I got the proper pronunciation in my head because of, uh, different strokes. Uh, what you talking about Willis. So I know that that the Willis is the Willis Jeep. So, uh, so, uh, they did a short interview with you, uh, with you out there at Toledo, Toledo Jeep Fest. We haven’t published that yet on our YouTube, but we will be, uh, and asked you if you would be interested in, in an interview on the show. And that’s of course, why you’re here today. I currently have, or I should say, uh, Brandon currently has a 46 Willis, uh, and is working on a 76 CJ seven. And I believe you said it was a renegade, right?
That is correct.
That is correct. The, uh, the old fashioned renegades.
So have you had anything, any Jeep other than these two Jeeps?
No. So the 46 was a barn find up by the Detroit airport.
Um, that was about six years ago that I ended up finding that and, um, fell in love with the Jeeps. I, you know, it’s hard to, uh, I’m just still trying to figure that out. Why I fell in love with them. Um, being prior military, my whole family background was in the military and seeing one of those old military Jeeps in the history behind it, wanted me to. Find one and see what I could do with it.
Now I think these things, these things are just wonderful. Uh, and I guess the thing that surprised me the most about it, but it does make sense because they were military Jeeps and you got to transport these things to, you know, to overseas, whether it be, uh, in the, the orient or, uh, in, uh, in Europe, but they’re so tiny. They’re about the size of a golf cart. And I was really surprised by that. Uh, just how small they are. And even though they’re small, do you have a problem finding a place to store it? I’m sure you don’t park it outside.
No. So I, I have a, uh, a pole barn, um, where both Jeeps are at. And, uh, so I spend most of my free time.
There’s a always, there’s always something to do to them. And one of these years I might finish the 76.
So, um, the, uh, the 46 that you had, what kind of shape was it in? I can’t, I gotta imagine there was a few things that needed to be done to it.
Yeah, there, there was quite a bit. So when I found it, it was pretty much, uh, sitting on the rims, uh, in a barn
with probably, uh, seven foot of weeds and mulch and topsoil grown all around it. So the, that task of digging that out and bringing it home, um, is, is how it was how it all started.
Were you, was this a, uh, a donation or did you have to buy it?
No. So I ended up, I actually found it on marketplace. Oh, right. Yeah.
So it was ready to go. They had, they had it up on marketplace and it was ready to go. You just had to dig it out.
You just had to dig it out. It was good to go. Price was right. So yeah, I ended up purchasing off marketplace. Um, and then, you know, went up and retrieved it, got it home in a driveway. And then I looked at it and I asked myself, what in the world did I just do? Oh, yeah. Um, but the good part about it was, is, you know, it was no, when you’re restoring something, it’s, you’re not going to get it done overnight.
Um, so there was a lot of, uh, learning, a lot of cleaning and then, uh, ran into some snags, you know, I’ve never owned a Jeep before. So there was a good friend of mine named Tim Tomlinson. He’s probably one of the most educated individuals I’ve ever been around when it comes to the old Jeeps. And, uh, so we got together and talked a little bit and I asked him, I says, Hey, what do you, what do you think? And he says, well, let’s take a look at it. And then, uh, next thing you know, a few months later, uh, we finally, finally fired it up and got it running.
Oh, really? So did you have to like put some stuff in the cylinders to break it free? Did you get on the front where you could, you know, turn it over manually?
No. So actually when we put a battery in it, a six volt, uh, and, and so we’ll, let’s see what happens, it actually turned over and somebody must have originally, right. Originally started wanting to get it restored or lost interest.
So when we had a turnover wouldn’t start.
So we basically went through the whole motor, um,
from top to bottom, uh, you know, what needed to replace, we replaced. So a little bit shy of almost a complete overhaul, but everything was there and we were able to get going with what we had.
So you actually took the head off, took the oil pan off, went through all that or.
Yeah. Oil pan head, uh, valves, all that, uh, fun stuff.
Did you find something that was a direct result of it not starting before or it was just listed to get this thing cleaned up and then we’ll, we’ll try starting it.
Yeah. So everything was good. Well, so the answer to your question, it was the timing chain. That’s what led us to believe that somebody started to redo it because everything was in such good shape that the timing was on 180 degrees off.
Oh, okay.
Years. Yeah.
And then of course, trying to break something free that’s been sitting in the same spot. You know, that’s a, some knuckle busters. We’ll leave it at that.
So how does it run? Uh, now is it, is it a good solid runner or do you need to little do a little more to it?
No. So, uh, once we got it running, I mean, knock on wood to this date. So it’s been up and going. Now this was my third Jeep fest with it.
Um, and you drove it out there or.
Yeah. Well, I trailer to downtown Toledo.
Okay.
I live out in a Curtis, which is about, you know, about a 20 minute ride to downtown.
I’m a trailer and then, uh, I was in the, you know, rode in the parade with, with the Jeep. It ran great run. I mean, it really runs good.
And, uh, I mean, I would think these things are, are, uh, no pun intended bulletproof or designed to be bulletproof. So you haven’t had any overheating issues or, uh, any, I mean, it’s a manual transmission, so you shouldn’t have any transmission issues per se.
Yeah. No, no, no, and actually I’m surprised, um, because I don’t know if Chris told you it was almost a hundred degrees. Jeep.
Oh my goodness. No.
And, uh, you know, being hemmed in and traffic, you know, never got over 180.
Um, zero, zero issues with it.
Um,
did it come with AC? Were you able to run the AC while you were there?
Oh yeah. Yes. Yeah. Ran the AC, um, at the remote start. So, you know, automatic shut off and you stopped.
So it’s got the, it’s got the pin code. So in case somebody tries to carjack you, it will stop running, right?
It’s amazing. It really is amazing from where we were with our, just a vehicle to get people around to where we are now. It’s almost like whenever the, the, the cell phones first came out, they were making, to make calls, dammit, not to play games and do all this other stuff that it does, and it’s kind of the same thing with the Jeeps because they were built for, they were purpose built to get men around on the battlefield.
That is correct. Uh, and even back then they didn’t know it. Like you were just saying about today’s, uh, Jeeps, it came with today. It has anti theft on it. It’s got a three on the tree transmission.
And so, you know, it’s not many, I mean, I’m sure quite a few know how to drive three on a tree, but today’s day and age, you
know, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that. I thought it was on the floor. I don’t know a lot about the old Jeeps. I’m more of a 1990s and forward Jeep person. Uh, and that’s one of the reasons why I said, I asked you where you keep it, because I think it’d be so much fun to have one of these things and just, you know, drive around on, is it street legal? Can you drive it on the street?
Yeah, it’s street legal. I have the historical plate on it. Um, we kind of live out in the country, so I have a lot of farm fields and country roads so we can put the windshield down and one of my daughters will get in with me or my wife and we’ll just go for a cruise. Pretty cool.
So what is the, do you know the history of this Jeep? Was it, uh, was it, uh, I would assume it wasn’t in Europe or in the, uh, Asian, uh, theater, uh, it must’ve been a, uh, a homegrown, uh, Jeep that never left the, uh, left the States.
Yeah. So we weren’t able to narrow all that down. I have a couple of buddies that were saying, you know, it was close because it’s a, it’s an early, um, 46. I think it was number 320 something, um, looking at the, the Vintags.
Um,
so I don’t, Dan, it was not overseas. I know that much. Um, and early, early 46 when they were making a transition from, you know, the war to being coming to civilian Jeep.
Now, uh, what, what, what, what, what little I know about these Jeeps is that, uh, they were originally built by, was it, uh, Kaiser and then, and Ford, uh, and, uh, so, so who made this one? This would be a Kaiser.
Correct. Okay.
Yep. Kaiser Willys. Um, it, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s something to, like you said, they’re small, compact, but when you get up to them, it’s like, how cool are these little, Oh yeah. These little Jeeps.
Well, it’s a, it’s absolutely a piece of history. I mean, even if it wasn’t, yeah, even if it wasn’t used in Europe or whatever to, to push Hitler into the water, it was still, uh, one of the vehicles that was built, uh, as part of, uh, the United States war effort. And certainly, I mean, the old joke is, uh, my, uh, my Jeep won a war. Your Honda mows my grass. So it’s, it’s, it’s one of those things that you, you have to be proud of. Nobody likes war. Nobody likes death. But if you, if you got to do something, you might as well do it well and do it right in the machines that we built, uh, help, uh, make us, uh, the, uh, the Victor in that situation.
Yeah, absolutely. And, and it’s funny you say that, uh, you know, my daughter, she likes the new Broncos that are out and, uh, me being a, you know, Jeep nut, I always remind her, just remember who won the war.
So it was the Jeep.
The Broncos are pretty, I mean, uh, so are Cadillacs, uh, but, uh, I know, I know I’d rather had to take a Jeep off road.
Yeah. It’s, um, and this little, and that’s your part too. This little thing will go anywhere you want it to go.
Now, this is the, I don’t have any pictures in front of me, so I want to ask you some dumb questions. Uh, this one does not, I mean, the, the, the year didn’t have a roll bar, but have you put one on or are you planning on putting one on? I mean, I can see where it is keeping it as close to original as possible or completely original would be the way to go. But if you’re going to take it off road, uh, but you know, it would be kind of rough on the head.
Yeah. Yeah. So everything, it does not have a roll bar, but it is completely all original.
Um, you know, we got it going with what I had being a written, like I said, all the Vintags are on it and it’s legit. Everything was, you know, verified that this is, this is how it came up. The showroom floor at the old Jeep plant or Toledo.
That’s cool. And, and you know, it was built in Toledo, right?
Correct. And that was another thing that, you know, a lot living in Toledo and the history, the military history, myself being in the military family background of military is it’s like, boy, this how it all kind of came together.
It is cool. Yeah.
So you get that and then having something, you know, that, that old, right
where you live in, you know, in your back door, that’s pretty cool.
Now, I don’t know if this is true or not. I suspect that if you’re in Toledo, you might see a few number of these World War II Jeeps, uh, do you, how unusual is it to have one? Cause I would imagine that you can gauge by the number of looks or questions that you get, especially if you take it to the grocery store or something, I could, I could well imagine you could grab a crowd from, you know, one to five people and all asking, you know, how, where’d you get this? How’d you do this? That type of stuff.
Yeah, definitely. Um, there’s, there’s quite a few, I shouldn’t say quite a few, but they’re around that Toledo area.
Do you ever pass one?
You know, a special wave.
Yeah. I, you know, I have passed them. And then I would say there’s probably.
That I’ve seen maybe four or five and the individuals, I personally don’t know them, but I’ve seen their same year, Willie’s Jeep that was like a, you know,
frame off restoration and they’re absolutely gorgeous. Yeah. You know, I don’t have the budget to do that. So I just kept it original and worked with what I had.
And it turns out good because even like you said, when I go anywhere in it, it just, it’s like a magnet.
So, you know, hopefully when I’m that age, I have the same influence, you know? Yeah. Um, 80 years old and I’m still running down the road.
So let’s, let’s go back to the, the, the rebuild of the fixing it up so that you could actually use it. Now, obviously you needed new tires. Uh, I have not looked for it specifically, but I do think that they are, uh, period, uh, specific replica tires that you could put on there. Is that the direction you went with that? Or did you go with more modern day tires?
No, I did it. I went with the non-directional, uh, military tire.
Um, basically took it back to what it was on it when it came off the assembly line, um, with the tires, uh, spare tire, uh, you know,
the tags, all that good stuff, uh, is, is all where it needs to be. And like I said, you know, original.
Now, have you ever been pulled over by a, uh, an officer that just wanted to get, get a good look at it?
I have not.
That’s happened to me and my ex J and I figure if my ex J is, yeah, is no to, well, I was doing 20 over, but all he wanted to do was talk about the ex J.
So, uh, but, uh, but, uh, I know if people are that excited about an ex J, they’ve got to be excited about a military Jeep, especially, uh, one that was built back up because I mean, you can buy these things restored, but I don’t think generally that’s what people do. I think people buy them and restore them themselves because I mean, of course, the fun and getting one that’s just ready to go. I mean, it’s like buying one off the showroom floor, uh, modern day Jeep off the showroom floor. It’s exciting. It’s wonderful. But I think that if you have an older Jeep like this, it’s like, yeah, I had to work on this. You may not have done a frame off restoration, but you had to put some, uh, some elbow grease into it.
Oh yeah. Tongue, tongue of elbow grease. Um,
I think the whole start to finish was probably a little over two years.
Um, to get it to where it’s at now. Um, and everywhere from getting the seats reupholstered, the cushions came with it, the, I
bet you those really rough after all that dirt.
Yeah. That, uh, you know, the, the seat frames were rusted, had those sandblasted stuff that I could sandblast and repaint was sandblasted and repainted, but some of it, if you were to sandblasted, there would probably be nothing left of it. Um,
so like just some light sanding to get it again, like I said, keeping it, keeping it original, not kind of, uh, taken away, you know, putting that you can easily put a new tub on them, new fenders on them and windshield and then yes, it’s going to look 10 times better, but it’s not original.
Right.
So I wanted to keep it.
You mentioned the tub. How was the condition of the tub? Did you have any rust through? Did you, I mean, surely you had to repaint it, but, um, was there much work on the, any of the sheet metal? How, what, how, what shape was it in?
I would give it a, probably a five out of a 10. Um, there were, there was some, I wouldn’t say, you know, completely gone, but some, some rust spots that once sanded up and painted kind of blended in, but I, obviously they’re still there, but they, you know, it cleaned up pretty well. And I apologize. I will definitely get, I thought Chris took a bunch of pictures, but if not, I will get some over to you. So, so you’re able to, he probably did.
Uh, I just don’t have them in front of me right now. So, um, uh, yeah,
cool.
So, so, so this is, so this is interesting. So you still have the, the rust, um, uh, the holes and stuff in there. You just painted it, uh, to, to, to clean it up a little bit.
Yep. Sanded it down and then, uh, primed every, everything was primed and then, and then repainted with the olive drab paint paint coat.
I’ve never used it, but I’ve heard repeatedly about people using, uh, POR, uh,
for the rust is, uh, is that something that you did to kind of convert that rust into something that’s not rust?
No, I did not use that. I just went, uh, old school with, with the sandpaper primer. I didn’t use any, any filler. I mean, there’s some holes.
Bondo doesn’t sound right on this Jeep.
It does. You know, like I said, I hope that I look as good as it does when I’m 80 plus years old, so it, I mean, shows its age, but it’s, it’s solid as that makes.
Well, as I recall the little video that, uh, we did in your Jeep, Chris and Nikki G did the Jeep looks great. I didn’t see anything on it that looked like it had rust holes or really anything. And it, uh, it really looked nice. So, um, was there, uh, was there any indication? I don’t remember if you had like the military, uh, number on it or not. Uh, but, uh, if so, was that the original one or, or did you just come up with something or there’s not one on there?
Yeah, there is one on there. Uh, what I put back on it was what was on the title that I had. So, yep, it’s not, uh, you know, a true army number of that Jeep, but I saw it. What, what I did put on it was on, what was on the title.
Now, um, I don’t know if, uh, maybe only some of the, some of the vehicles were radio vehicles where they had the antenna on it. Does yours have, uh, the, the whip antenna on there?
No. And I want to say that those started in 45,
uh, as when those, they had those on, but I do not have the original. I did not have an original. But antenna,
is that anything that you’re interested in doing to try to give it the, uh, I mean, I know you want to keep it, uh, original and I don’t know if it originally had that on there, so the answer may be no, you don’t want to add that. I think those, those earnings are cool. It, this looks very, um, you know, I actually, I’m thinking of, uh, the desert rat series. Uh, uh, I think that’s the name of the show that I used to watch where they were out there in the desert fighting Rommel and you’d see him come running over there and you see those big antennas, the slap in the hell out of everybody.
Yeah. No, no, I don’t think I’ll do that, but after this Jeep Fest and for how hot it was, I think there’s definitely going to be a canopy top was going to probably with this winter’s, uh,
project. Yeah, I can see that canopy on it. And, uh, away Chris and Nikki G will get sunburned next year.
Oh, well, this, this is perfect. We needed the light to highlight them in the video. So no top was good. Sometimes no top is better. Um, so, uh, did you get much interaction from folks? I would imagine there was quite a few, uh, older Jeeps out there, but did you get much interaction from the folks that were, uh, um, um, milling around?
Oh, I mean, it’s, uh, it’s crazy how something that small, that old and not in the, you know, the, the, in the history of it, it’s everyone stops and looks at it, everyone stops and looks at it. The best part, what I like about having it down there at Jeep Fest is how many, the day, you know, just make these little kids day when they, they, they stopped by, look at it, mom and dad, look at this Jeep. And then we’re usually sitting there watching and then you go out there and say, Hey, feel free to get a picture in it. Put your son or daughter up in there. And it’s just like, they’re seeing the little kids eyes light up as, as what I get to throw out of, you know, I’m being able to sit in something that has that much history.
So, um, it’s not to be negative towards people, but kind of a informative type thing, you may not care, but it always bothered me. Uh, and I always do this whenever I’m out at something like this, I just don’t go up and put my hand on things. Um, this is somebody else’s property and especially something that old, they’ve put some time and effort into it. And I don’t want to get my, my oily hands just there. They’re clean, but they still have the oil and stuff on them on the, on the paint or the windshield or whatever. And I’ve seen some people just take their kid and go sit them in there or put them on the edge to take a picture. And I think it’s very rude, uh, to do that without permission. Did you, did you see any of that while you were out there?
You know, that’s a, that’s a good point. Um, I don’t know if it’s like all the Jeep community. I don’t know if they all would probably feel the same way, probably would feel the same way. I have not had that happen. Um, I’ve had a lot stop in front of it and take their picture in front of it, but haven’t really done any, anything of destruction or something that might hurt the Jeep without, you know, asking first.
Well, you know, you can come out from a store and, uh, have people sitting on your truck, you know, the tailgate down, sitting on your truck. And it’s like, who the hell do you think you are? And it just really surprises me. Uh, I went to an air show one time and there was an F 16. It was a number of years ago. There was an F 16 flying around doing stunts and stuff. Came back, landed at the, uh, the air base and rolled over, uh, into the area where the, the public was so public could get an up close look and mind you, there was afterburner and all kinds of crap going on during this thing. And then literally 30 minutes after he landed, uh, people were sticking their head and the tail end of that jet. I mean, literally sticking their head in the back end of it and touching it. And I was just really surprised. I mean, that’s a multimillion dollar aircraft. And I know you’re excited about it. Uh, hell, when I went to the, uh, the Smithsonian, the air and space museum, there was a V two that I could have reached out and touch. I didn’t do it. I’m not going to be one of those people that’s going to be touching this stuff. I could see it. I was there occupying the same space. Uh, I would have loved to have, you know, just felt it and touched it, but there’s no way I’m going to do that. Uh, I walked in and the Voyager, I think it’s Voyager, the one that did the, uh, uh, nonstop non refueled flight around the world. Uh, it was hanging at the entrance. Yeah, it was hanging at the entrance. And all I had to do was just do this and I could have touched the bottom of it. Didn’t do it. So that’s the reason why I ask is because you have to have respect for things, especially the older things, especially the things that are, uh, so history changing, I think that you need to not be one of those people that is going. It even just running your hand on it is a slight bit of sanding that whenever, you know, 45,000 other people do it. You know, anyway, off the soapbox. Yeah. Off the soapbox.
But that’s, I totally agree. I mean, you, you are a hundred percent correct.
And, uh, I mean, and like it happens.
Yeah.
And, but, you know,
well, it’s kind of a public service announcement too, is what I’m going here is like indirectly, indirectly telling people don’t do that shit.
Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. And then, you know, the Jeep communities is great. I mean, they, you know, you’re always going to have your bad apples, but for the most part, they, everyone looks out for one another when it comes to their Jeeps.
So, uh, the, the, the getting back to the, the restoration on it, was there, is there any damage to the vehicle other than the rust? Was there any dents, any dings and stuff? I mean, slight dings, this gives it, gives it personality. I mean, you can, you can say that was a from a panther tank or something that rammed it.
Nothing smashed up. We’ll go with things and bruises. How’s that sound?
Used. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, some, some character to it. Well, very cool. Now you are working on another one. And when I say working on, have you done anything to the, uh, the CJ seven yet?
You know, I’ll get you some, you know, yes, I have, uh, that was another, another right place, right time. Find, um,
needs a lot of work, but it’s once again, it’s all there.
So I have the 46 and then I found the 76.
So I’m kind of gradually working my way up to who knows what year I’ll stop at. You know, the 46 76.
So what’s that put me at 96 when next month’s I finished this one. So kind of keep going every 30 years.
So I know the color of the, the Willis is a, is green. And if it wasn’t, I’m sure you paint painted it OD green, uh, which I would think that that’s not a hard color to get, uh, to get the right color on there. Is it?
No.
So originally was green. Um, and I, um, you know, well, olive drab is what they call it. They had so many different ones on my loss. Yeah. The OD, um,
you know, there’s a lot of places that you can go get the paint, you know, the original paints and parts and all that stuff, but Kaiser Willys is where I usually get all of my parts or paints that I need.
Oh, nice.
So they have the paint as well.
Okay.
They do. Yeah, they do. So that’s a, and the good part, you pay a little bit more, you can shop around, but you, everything’s in stock. Usually when I call looking for something, I don’t know how you are, but when I call them on an order, something, I get pretty irritated when, Oh, this is backorder. This is backorder. Oh yeah. Every time I’ve called, they’ve had it. And in three days it’s at the front door.
Oh, that makes a big difference. I mean, I think Amazon Amazon got a spoil and I was going to tell you, anytime I try calling Amazon, they never answered a phone. So,
but I would imagine, I would imagine you don’t go to Amazon for these parts.
There, you know, you can find some, some parts on Amazon, but I have not ordered parts off of Amazon for it yet.
So I didn’t know about this site and perhaps our listeners, viewers haven’t either, uh, Kaiser Willys.com. Uh, K A I S E R W I L L Y S dot com. Kaiser Willys. Oh, I’m having a look at this for the first time. So, uh, nice little site, uh, leaf springs. Oh, it’s like the, uh, tires and wheels too. That’s neat.
Yeah.
There they are.
Oh, they even have an engine in here. New four cylinder engine, bear block, uh, fits 41 through 53 Jeep. Uh, and, uh, Willis with, uh, four, uh, 134 L engine only 47. 95.
That’s it only. Yep.
Uh, oh, they got cranks in here too. So, uh, yeah, I don’t know. I think it’s a lot of money for a crankshaft, but I haven’t bought one in years. Uh, like for a Chevrolet V8 or something. Um, so how were the leaf springs? I didn’t even think about that. How are the leaf springs that they, that they needed replacing or are they doing okay?
So the leaf springs did not need replaced. They were, I mean, obviously old.
Um, but the U bolts and all that stuff we took apart. Uh, Oh, that’s a good idea.
You don’t want that coming apart without inspecting it.
And then, and then put everything, uh,
somewhat get some of the chemicals and fluids we use to kind of absorb into it and bring it, bring it back to it’s, uh, somewhat of original form at that age.
So that, uh, that Jeep sitting out there in the hot sun, uh, how bad is it to drive once it’s gotten up to a hundred degrees? Is that, is it hot? Is the steering wheel hot? Is the seats hot? I would imagine you could burn yourself on that thing.
Yeah. So your calves and your hamstrings, uh, it feels like you’re in a sauna with all the heat coming through the firewall, because again, it goes back to, you know, like you said, almost a little in something a little bit bigger than a golf cart and, uh, you know, one little fan moving that, that hot air right back towards you, you know, going in that direction, it does get warm. I bet.
Well, this is neat. This is the other stuff I was wondering about. I wasn’t going to ask, but, uh, like I would imagine tail lights could be a very, uh, if he proposition on something that’s at all, depending on if it, if it was replaced and how long ago, but I see they’ve, uh, they’ve got tight tail, uh, tail light assemblies, uh, parking lot assemblies, side markers. Uh, Oh gosh, this, this is wonderful. I mean, this is a place you, I mean, I’m sure there’s others, but this is something that you can go to that, uh, really helps the process out. I mean, it doesn’t help your bank account out. I’m sure, but it takes, it takes away a lot of the time searching for these parts. Doesn’t it?
It does. And, and like I said earlier, it is great because you call them up. It’s in stock. It’s on the way to you. And yes, you can, there’s probably a bunch of other sites you can go to also. And I think I’ve tried, but it’s not in stock.
So with Kaiser Willys, I mean, I’ve never, I’ve always had good luck with them. And that’s why that’s, that’s my go-to place.
Wow. So I don’t know what year it was, but, and not only recently found this out, but some of the, uh, the Willys or Willis’s, uh, the, the headlight, you could flip back inside where it would actually, um, you could, uh, take out a bolt and then it would flip into the engine bay. And I think they did that so that you could have light to work on the engine at night. Does, does yours do that? Mine does not. You know what I’m talking about? I’m not, uh, not having a bad dream or something, right?
I think I’ve seen a couple of pictures. I couldn’t tell you what model they were on, but I do remember reading, reading about that.
Cause it looks very confusing initially. And then you have to think about it for a second. Like why in the world would you want light in the engine bay? Oh, well, duh. So you can work on it.
All right. So I’m flipping and flopping back between these two Jeeps, but let’s go back to the Renegade. I was going to ask you what color is that? Or does it have a, a definite color to it?
Uh, I’m going to go with it. Does not have a definite color.
Some primer, some green, some blue, some red. So it’s a, it’s a, you know, a combination of, uh, of colors.
How are you going to handle the paint job on it? Are you going to have it professionally done? You got a rattle can it. Uh, what are you going to do?
Not, not rattle can in it. Um, it’s kind of why I like to, that’s why, you know,
live and learn type deal. Um, definitely not rattle can in it. Um, I’m going to try to spray it myself, kind of read a little bit, watch a little bit, you know, everybody’s YouTube certified, right?
Oh, absolutely. God, why would anybody take, you take a vehicle to be painted by somebody else when you can watch a YouTube video and do it.
Yep.
And, uh, see, I want to try to do that. And the best part about it is if I screw it up, then I just sand it down and start over, try again. So it goes back to, you know, not being in a rush and, you know, something I enjoy doing, and then I’ll be able to hopefully teach myself how to, uh, you know, spray and go to make-over or something, you know?
Yeah. So I like to say that, uh, I can do it myself. Uh, all I, all it’s going to do is take me three times. So the first time will suck. The second time will be a little better. And then the third won’t be perfect, but it’ll be acceptable.
Yeah. And that that’s exactly it. And, uh, like I said, I’m not in a rush. So, and what I mean, not in a rush to that it’s never going to get done. And is that it doesn’t look great. And I’ll just try it again.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s not a daily driver. It’s not something that you have to worry about getting you back and forth to work. Um, so, uh, that’s an interesting question. If you get this thing back and it’s road worthy and it’s sort of certainly, uh, capable of driving back and forth, uh, to places, uh, would you take this, uh, to your, uh, to your work or going to the store or maybe going out, uh, on a, a Friday or Saturday night to the movies.
Oh, you’re talking about the renegade. Yes.
Yeah. Absolutely.
Either one really, I’m thinking it would be the renegade, but hell, it could be the Willis as well.
Well, I, I drive the Willis when I can. I can tell you that riding in it for any distance is, uh, you can, you know, somewhat, you have to wear a mouth guard because it would knock it, rattle your teeth out. It’s a rough ride, but it’s fine. But yeah, but, uh, the renegade, yeah. Um, my plan is, is, uh, I have a, my oldest daughter is going to start driving here in another year or so. You know, and, uh, hopefully she’s actually been helping me work on it and, uh, get it up and running reliable, obviously safe. And then, uh, let her be able to drive around and enjoy it. And old old fashioned Jeep.
And I would say the 76 model is probably, I don’t know that I was necessarily looking at the, the renegades, but, um, uh, the 76 is, were probably the time I was getting interested in owning a Jeep. Um, and I think that I probably, it was probably around 77, 78, uh, when I got interested enough to actually look into, uh, what it would cost me for liability insurance and, uh, and the insurance rates were different for male and females back then, uh, and, uh, the insurance for me for a Jeep would have been $75 a month, which was a God awful amount of money, uh, for a 17, 18 year old. So I didn’t get a Jeep. Actually, I didn’t get a Jeep until, uh, 97, 98, uh, the 98 XJ is what I got. So, uh, I always thought it’d be fun to, uh, I don’t have any place to put it. That’s one of the reasons why I was asking you, where do you, where do you put this thing? Uh, I don’t have any place to put it, but I think it’d be a blast to have, um, uh, one of the, uh, one of the Jeeps that I was looking at driving around whenever I was 16, 17, 18 years old. I think it’d be fun to have that. I say that I’ve, uh, I’ve never even driven one or a road in one. It may not be, I don’t mind the rough ride. Uh, to me, that’s what a Jeep is. Uh,
I mean, it’s not, yeah, that’s right. It’s not meant to be a smooth ride. And I think that’s one of the things, and this is the kicker, I think for most Bronco owners where they talk about it’s such a great ride. Well, you just took it off the list for me because I don’t want an off-road vehicle that has a great ride.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, they are, they are, they are not a smooth ride, but
the Jeep. Oh, it’s, it was meant to take you to places to kill people, not, not to lull you to sleep as you’re getting there. You need to be sharp.
Driving.
So, all right. So, so right now the 46, so, uh, Willis, and I would say, I would dare to say that you’re not done with it because nobody’s ever done with a Jeep. Uh, but I’ll ask you that question. Are you done with it?
No, no, it’s one of those projects. I said, it’ll, it’ll never be, never be completed. There’s always something that you could get into and change. So, but yeah, no, it’ll, it’ll never be, like I said, this winter, hopefully we’ll dive into a canopy or just a, uh, Bimney top, you know, a OD colored,
uh, top for it, and then continue working on the 76. You know, another, another point that, uh, when you were looking at the Kaiser Willy’s webpage there and talking about that, the good part, the other part that I love about restoring these little Jeeps is that, you know, you hear everyone saying that I’m going to restore 68 Camaro and it’s 80 to a hundred thousand bucks if you’re going to do it, you know, a complete restoration of an old classic muscle car.
But these little Jeeps, when you look at some of the prices and stuff, it, it’s affordable and it’s, it makes it, you know, that much more enjoyable to be able to, to go out there and, you know, accomplish restoring something with that much history and, and time.
Yeah. The Camaros are neat, but nobody’s going to try to raise you in a, uh, a 46 a Jeep, I mean, I say that somebody’s going to pull up on you, but mostly, mostly speaking, they’re not going to be in, and you do that with your $6,800,000 Resto mod Camaro and you wrap it around a telephone pole or something. And if you walk away, you still have to deal with that beautiful rig that is now no longer a beautiful rig. So yeah.
Right. So it it’s, you know, they’re affordable and they’re fun. And, uh, the, uh, 46, you know, another thing, a lot of Jeepers have is like, they like to name their own vehicle, their own Jeep kind of comes up with kind of becomes part of the family type deal. So, uh, my wife, Kelly, my two girls, they, we came up with the name of Hank. So our little Willie’s name is Hank. Maybe a little Hank on the front windshield of them. And, uh, you know, there’s something that old and kind of they become part of the family, which is cool too.
So speaking of the windshield, how is the windshield? Does it look good? Did you have to replace it or it’s, it’s multi-pane, right? Is it two panes that go, go through the, they go on the windshield?
He did it. No, it’s, it’s one piece. Is it one piece? One piece, uh, uh, one piece and that that’s original, um, because, uh, no.
How does it look? Does it, does it look good? Is it clear or clear ish? I mean, I know you can fold it down, but
it’s clear, but if it’s hard to believe, someone would say that glass is showing its age, but Oh, they do.
It yellows.
Uh,
yellow, yeah. Maybe a little cloudy, but I mean, still, still very visible to look through.
Very, very cool. So, uh, I think you mentioned this already, uh, Toledo Jeep Fest. This was not your first year there with, uh, with Hank.
No, this was my third year. Um, I was fortunate enough. We have a dealership here. Uh, Grogan’s Dodge. Um, they’re a big sponsor of Toledo Jeep Fest. So they, they asked if I’d be interested in bringing the 46 out to ride with them with their, with their logo and stuff on it. So I did that. And that’s, you know, it’s pretty cool to be part of that. And, you know, so
how did they know about you? Was it from prior to lead Jeep Fest? Or do you have a relationship with, uh, with the dealership in some way?
Yeah. So the dealership, uh, I’m a, uh, also a commander at a local VFW, um, hall here in Toledo and they’re right next to the dealership. And a lot of them are members. So they do a lot of hand raising stuff with us. So built that relationship and, uh, it’s, it’s turned out pretty well. So when, when, when for everybody. So that’s how I was invited into that.
So very cool. Is there any kind of, uh, uh, and maybe, maybe that’s what, what you’re talking about. Is there any, uh, uh, Willis Jeep clubs, uh, in the area that you’re a part of? I mean, is it, uh, do you do more with your Jeep other than just, uh, take it to Toledo Jeep Fest? Actually, do you take it to more events? I don’t know of more events, but, uh, maybe there’s more events in Toledo that I’m not aware of.
No. So usually just Toledo Jeep Fest, um, as the only place I’ve really taken it. Um, I don’t know if you ever heard of a Reese across America. Sounds familiar.
They do a lot of, um, lay Reese on, um, veterans memorials, uh, during the Christmas time and they have car shows all over when they actually have one coming up that I actually thought I might go to. Uh, I haven’t decided yet, but that’s, that would be the only other one that I would really go to to help support that.
At a hundred degrees. I could, uh, I could see how that would curtail, uh, too many events, uh, going out there with an event.
No, no air conditioning.
Yeah. I figured you were going to recoil in anger. Uh, when I asked you about the AC and the, and the classic vehicle.
Right. I’m sure I’m not the first one to make the joke. All right. Well, I can’t ask you about your social media presence because you don’t have one, but you did tell me that you’re working on a YouTube. Uh, have you been doing videos at all during the restoration process of this? So you’ll have things to, uh, if people were interested in the rest restoration of the 46, do you have something that you’d be able to put up there?
So I have pictures, um, from starting, not a lot of pictures from start to finish with the 46, I am terrible with technology. Oh, okay. And, uh, my, my daughters can zip through these YouTubes and when, whatever else is out there. And, uh, I just find that, you know, you hear of all these famous YouTubers that are out there influencers. Yes. Yeah. So I’m like, boy, it goes back to me, uh, telling him, teaching myself how to, you know, spray a vehicle the right way and paint and trial and error. I’m going to try to, uh, try to figure out the YouTube channel here to the post some Jeep stuff, you know, and, uh, and try to see what I can do with that.
Well, I mean, even if you don’t have a lot of videos for the, for the Willis, you have, uh, this 76 CJ seven you’re going to be working on and you can take pictures and videos of that. And I guarantee you it will make the restoration process at least three times longer than it would have been otherwise because you’re stopping to shoot video.
Yeah. And I hope that I can call and you can teach me how to, how to edit them.
Oh, editing is easy and free software. So yeah, absolutely. Let’s reach out. All right. So we’re going to look forward to the, the YouTube channel. And, uh, for now, if you want to have a great look at this, uh, this, uh, uh, 46 Willis, uh, you can head over to, uh, to lead a Jeep Fest on their, their website, you can see some of the pictures that we have here on YouTube. And, uh,
we’ll, uh, I’ll go and grab some of those pictures that Chris took and sent to me and we’ll put it up in the post for this, uh, for this episode. Awesome. Awesome. Is there, I don’t know if, uh, if, if somebody wanted to contact you, um, uh, more information or more details on your, your bill or maybe getting involved in some of the stuff you’re involved in up there at Toledo, do you have a way of, uh, people contacting you and, and please, please, I understand that the answer is no, because you don’t want to be inundated. Yeah. But I just, but I just want to ask the question just in case.
Wow.
Actually, I think we had a lag there, uh, with my connection, uh, yeah. Unstable connection. What was it? What were you asking again, Tony?
Is there a way people can contact you? And again, if you don’t want them contacting you, it’s fine to say no.
You know, I do, I do want them to be able to contact me and it goes back to, I’m, I’m gonna, I’m gonna work hot and heavy to get this YouTube deal going and hopefully, uh, after this is, you know, isn’t the last time I talked to you and we keep in touch and, and, uh, we can, we can get some, maybe, uh, get back together again and I’ll, we’ll get some, I’ll get the info out there.
Okay. Good. So, uh, everybody, uh, just, uh, keep looking for, uh, the information from here on the show and, uh, when Brandon has his YouTube stuff up, uh, we’ll get him back on here and we’ll talk a little bit about it, uh, and, uh, let, let him, uh, tell you how he can, uh, you can reach out to him. Maybe, uh, if you’re in the Toledo area and never can tell you might be able to meet up with him someplace at one of the events, uh, or the, uh, the VFW hall that you were talking about Brandon. Thank you a lot for being with us here today. And again, thank you for letting us use your Jeep, uh, and, uh, put to a smelly guys, to smelly Jeep talk show guys, uh, sitting in your seat. Uh, we’re not going to pay for the fumigation bill. I’ve already mentioned that.
That’s all right. No, we’re good. It doesn’t have no doors. So we’re good. It’ll air out. All right, man. Thanks a lot.
All right, man. Thanks a lot for being with us today.
Hey, Tony, it was great meeting you. And again, thank you for the time and the opportunity and meeting Chris and Nikki G.
Hey, thanks again to Brandon McVillray for sharing his 1946 Jeep Willis Find and Build. What an amazing story. And we say this quite often on the show. Everybody has a story to tell. You don’t have to be selling project products. You don’t have to be a CEO of a multi-million dollar company. We’d love to talk to you. So reach out to us. Hey, coming up next week, Robbie Bryant of many things, as you’ll find out during the interview, but right now overland of America at overlandamerica.com. Check it out. It looks like it’s going to be a huge event that you’re going to want to be a part of. You know, I’m lucky to be part of the Jeep Talk Show community. Sometimes it’s sad because one of the family is having issues with their Jeep. Sometimes it’s exciting due to new equipment installation. And we all also like telling them what to buy. And then we get kind of live vicariously through them for buying the part that we told them to buy and installing it. So it’s, you know, you know how it is. It’s fun. You know, sometimes it’s exciting due to the new equipment. Uh, sometimes it’s exciting to listen to a Colorado Colorado trip being planned. And that’s kind of in progress right now. Uh, of course there are pictures when the, and stories when they get back from that trip. So most recently, a JTS family member is sharing with us a major event in his life. The creation of a product to sell to you. Cheapers Greg of official official use only is finally in the shipping phase of his JLJT door pockets, you know, those saggy nets. Well, this is a replacement that you heard us talking about it before. Uh, you know, it’s fun to hear about all the steps that Greg’s been going through. And you know, a lot of them make sense. You would think, well, this is, this is what you got to do to get this product out the door, but there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t know that happens that. This doesn’t make sense. You go, Oh, I didn’t think about that. So it’s neat to be able to live vicariously through Greg and maybe share a little bit in his success. Um, just, uh, you know, cause he’s a family member, a Jeep talk show community family member that is, uh, is doing good. And, uh, it makes us all feel happy for him. Uh, and we get to share in the experience.
So that’s a wrap for today’s episode of the cheap talk show. I want to give a big thank you to our special guests for joining us today and sharing their knowledge experience with the Jeep community. Remember we have five episodes a week and it’s understandable if you may have missed past episodes. I think, uh, Travis was complaining about, he can’t keep up. You don’t have to keep up. Let’s listen to the recent one. Uh, you can always find us on your favorite podcast platform or on our, our, on our website with over 1100 episodes. There is plenty of Jeep talk show to entertain you while driving to your destination, working out at the gym, mowing the grass or sitting out in the driveway, waiting for your unofficial use only door pockets to show up.
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