1945 Ford Jeep

[fdxboy]

This guy I work with is comming out with me this weekend to FR42 this Sunday (the trip is posted on azvjc) and he told me he is bringing his 1945 Ford Jeep. My knowledge of really old school Jeeps is limited. Is this accurate or is he mistaken???

Thanks,

Mike

[k7mto]

Quick Army & Civilian Jeep History Timeline
1908 John North Willys buys the Overland Automotive Division of Standard Wheel Company.
1912 John North Willys renames it Willys-Overland Motor Company.
1936 Willys-Overland Motors Inc. is created after coming out of bankruptcy following the Great Depression.
1940 First prototypes jeeps are produced by Bantam, Willys, Ford.
1941 Bantam jeep production ends.
1941 Willys MB production starts.
1942 Ford GPW production starts.
1942 Bantam jeep trailer production starts.
1945 Ford GPW production ends.
1945 Willys-Overland begins producing the Civilian Jeep (CJ) line, when it introduces the CJ2A model.
1946 Willys Jeep Wagon production starts.
1946 Bantam civilian jeep trailer production starts.
1947 Willys Jeep Truck Production starts.
1948 Willys Jeepster production starts.
1949 CJ3A production starts.
1950 Willys M-38 production starts.
1952 Willys M-38A1 production starts.
1952 Willys CJ3B production starts.
1953 Bantam civilian jeep trailer production ends. Bantam goes out of business.
1953 Willys-Overland bought by Henry J. Kaiser and is renamed Willys Motors Inc.
1954 CJ5 production starts..
1960 M-151 production starts.
1963 Willys becomes Kaiser-Jeep Corporation
1965 Kaiser-Jeep discontinues production of Willys wagons & trucks, retiring the Willys name with the line.
1970 Kaiser (Kaiser-Jeep) is bought by American Motors Corp. (AMC) and becomes Jeep Corporation.
1971 Jeep Corp.'s General Products Division spins off to become AM General Corp.
1983 AM General sold to LVT Corp.
1987 AMC bought by Chrysler Corporation.
1998 Chrysler purchased by Daimler-Benz AG. becoming DaimlerChrysler Corp. (moments later, thousands of WWII US Dead rolled over in their graves).

[JamesT]

http://www.m38a1.com/images/History/Herb_GPW.jpg

Ford GPW
Years Produced: Late 1941-Mid 1945
No of Units: 281,578
Willys recognized the fact early on that production capability was limited to meet the contract numbers specified. So Willys sub-contracted with Ford to build the MB under license agreement with Ford Motor Co. These units built by Ford, known as the GPW for Government, 80 inch wheelbase, were almost identical except for a few distinct differences. First, most of the bolt heads included a script "F". Secondly, the tailgate area was embossed with Ford in script. These were the early models before the government disallowed the practice of free advertising.

Have fun & take some pics.

[Sedona Jeep School]

Awesome picture, James. And Matt, thanks for the corporate timeline--I haven't seen it laid out so clearly before (copy, paste, save).

For a scripted history of Jeep models, I like this page: http://jeepin.com/history.shtml

Happy trails!