Me and My Jeep, 1963

Post your jeep photos, Pre or Post restoration. Bragging Photos etc. Also LIFE jeep photos.
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bazza46
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Me and My Jeep, 1963

Post by bazza46 » Sun Dec 26, 2021 4:53 pm

I'd just finished my High School exams and was going for a nice drive in the backblocks of Sydney (now a sprawling urban maze).
I was still learning the quirks of the jeep.
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Me and my jeep 1963.jpg
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt"..Bertrand Russell


70th Division
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Re: Me and My Jeep, 1963

Post by 70th Division » Sun Dec 26, 2021 5:12 pm

Hello Bazza,

Wow that is an awesome picture of you and your Jeep back in the good old days !!!
Beautiful 😃😃😃😃😃 !!!

I can only imagine how much the wilderness has changed today .

Do you still have your Jeep ?

It looks brand new still in 1963 !!

Best Regards,
Ray

bazza46
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Re: Me and My Jeep, 1963

Post by bazza46 » Mon Dec 27, 2021 1:51 pm

Hi Ray,
My jeep looks brand new because I had just in the last week ,painted it O.D. It was in fairly good condition when I got it ,with the exception of some rust in the step areas and behind the rear reflector. I'd welded that up. It was also a house paint green , so I changed that. But in 1963 it was only 20 years old.
That paddock now is all housing,as far as the eye can see. I recently went out that way to see my sister's old house, and find some places where I'd driven the jeep, but I got completely lost, as everything was so different.
I do still have that jeep, but it's had a few different paint jobs over the years. For a while I t was Aussie Army Bronze green (picture),during the Vietnam War era, I painted it matt jungle O.D with paint "souvenir'ed from the army by my brother. It's still that colour.(picture)
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IMG_8297_zps3b9646be.jpg
IMG_5087v_zps5bb17e5f.jpg
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt"..Bertrand Russell

70th Division
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Re: Me and My Jeep, 1963

Post by 70th Division » Tue Dec 28, 2021 3:29 pm

Hello Bazza,

Beautiful that you still have her !!

Great picture of You and The Jeep, it looks like both of you have held up very well since 1963 !!!!
It must be so nice having had the same jeep , with so many memories and adventures with in over the years.
I am amazed at how development has created new towns all over Florida , and the US.
I imagine you have seen quite some changes, and even more in recent years.

I am sure it seems like yesterday, when you first got your jeep 😁😁😁 !

How did you first find it and get it ?

You are in an elite group, having kept your jeep all these wonderful years since then.

I still have my first jeep, I got in 1987. Still haven't restored it, but I shall. It has great meaning to me, and many memories.
It is an August 45 MB.

I have a few more jeeps and vehicles now on the restoration list, and I am working as fast as I can to get them done 😁😁😁

I want to thank you for your help on my 43 GPW project, it is much appreciated !!

Here is a picture of my basically unrestored 1942 GPW.
I scraped some paint off and found the name Red Rose over the wheel wells. I was happy to discover that and the original USA numbers.
I did some floor hole repairs where a farmer torched out holes for a pto. I also added a front bumper to replace the pipe that was welded on to the gusetts .
Resized_20210530_143243.jpeg
Resized_20210504_202627.jpeg

Best Regards,
Ray

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Re: Me and My Jeep, 1963

Post by FredRG » Mon Jan 03, 2022 4:53 pm

Cool photo! Awesome Jeep

bazza46
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Re: Me and My Jeep, 1963

Post by bazza46 » Tue Jan 04, 2022 2:01 pm

Hi Ray,
That's a great original condition jeep you have. That's how I like them best.
I got my jeep in 63 from the classified ads in the Sydney Morning Herald. I'd always wanted a jeep for some reason. As a kid, I made a model jeep from tinplate from canned fruit tins.(picture) I collected pictures of jeeps from all sources I could find, including many wartime National Geographics magazines (Which I still have). I was lucky in that my parents didn't mind me wanting a jeep, and my dad supplied the cost.It was advertised on a Saturday, and I wanted to go look at it straight away, since it was cheaper than all others I had seen. But the owner( a timber milling company) said that one of their employees had taken it home that day. So I had to come back on Sunday. I was anxious to see it on Sunday, but my dad goes to Church Sunday morning, so it would have to wait till the afternoon till he could inspect it. I couldn't wait till then, as I felt it would be gone by then. So me and my brother took ten pounds with us ($20) as a deposit and drove out to see it.
It was painted a sort of green, but looked O.K. The guy said,"do you want to take a drive test ?" We said, Yes, please!", "But we don't know how to drive it". He said, "I'll drive it,then".
Well, surrounding the timber yard was railway workshops,surrounded by open ground, crisscrossed by erosion gullies deep and wide enough to swallow a truck, with 45 degree angled sides. He proceeded to throw the vehicle down the sides of one, up the other side, engine screaming, tyres spinning for grip. I thought that the jeep might fall over backwards on one of the slopes. Never having been in a vehicle doing these acrobatics before, we were amazed, to say the least. We were convinced that this was the vehicle. I said to my brother, " Bugger Dad, Let's get this"

Back at the yard,The seller said that another potential buyer, a dealer, was interested in it so we'd have to pay for it today if we wanted it.I said "we'll take it" and put the ten pounds down. But the guy wanted cash right then, but was willing to hold it if we could raise the money that afternoon. (price was 275 pounds-$550, or about AU$4500 in today's money. I found a phone booth and phoned my dad and asked if he could come with the money.
Luckily, he said "Yes". He was an old time Depression era man and always kept a fair bit of money in the house, so he didn't have any trouble scrounging up the cash.
He had originally said that he should inspect it to see if it was all right, but we were so desperate to get it that we told him it was in great condition.
When he arrived, he looked at it and agreed that it was O.K. and handed the guy the cash.Got the rego papers and left, feeling so good that we finally had a jeep. My dad drove it home, with me as passenger, and my brother drove his own car.I don't think I have ever felt happier than on that day- my own jeep! I never did have to pay my dad back, as he said "Don't worry about that".Funnily, the odometer crossed the 99,999 mile mark on the way home, so I'd know exactly how far I'd driven it without calculations. And as it turned out,I drove it over 20,000 miles the first year I had it, and 100,000 miles by 1971.
The following January, I went to uni and became a teacher, and on graduation, was sent to outback N.S.W. not knowing that the Education Department, knowing I had a jeep, would be fine for those places with minimal roads! (Picture)
Attachments
IMG_3826small.jpg
Caroona 1964.jpg
Me at Caroona Mission,1968
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt"..Bertrand Russell

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Re: Me and My Jeep, 1963

Post by sjalbert » Wed Jan 05, 2022 4:45 am

Great story. I bought my Jeep my first year in college (1985) :)
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JAB
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Re: Me and My Jeep, 1963

Post by JAB » Wed Jan 05, 2022 8:31 am

I love these stories! Thanks for sharing! I got my first jeep during my senior year in high school in 1976 and got it stuck in an industrial park on the way home! I was within sight of a freeway and all sorts of folks drove down to us around out of curiosity to try to pull me out. I guy with a 4WD Chevy Malibu/Chevell conversion pulled me out right after another guy (I think with a Bronco) broke the hook off of his chain trying. One of my friends found the hook in the mud after the guy left and I still have it today on the end of a chain I use for dragging logs or whatever.
-Jeff

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