I watched the video this afternoon. I love how simple they were. He mentioned how cheap they were back then, something like $100 bucks. I got a chuckle when he said something about "If you had one of these and a couple of Hershey bars and some nylons, you were it!".

After WWII two of my uncles bought Jeeps, a Jeepster and I think a Commander-type thing but still in the 1950's. They both served in the Navy.

My father never wanted to see a Jeep again. He served in the Army.

In my HS motorhead days, several of my buddies offered me Jeeps of various models for free. All I had to do was tow them off the property they were abandoned on. I declined. Last June I bought one for 45K.
My, how times have changed!

I recall seeing them advertised in the back of Popular Mechanics in the early 1960's along with surplus rifles and other good stuff. I can't remember the price but Jay said $100 which sounds about right.

The Germans utilized motorcycles (some with sidecars) for courier and other duties. The US did too but to a much lesser extent after finding Jeeps were far more useful and probably no more expensive once Henry Ford started cranking them out.

I seem to recall there was a TV commercial in the late 60s advertising these surplus Jeeps.
Some guy was shown driving up a dirt hill. The announcer was saying something like, "Sure these will need a little work..."

I got my military driver's license with jeep endorsement and would occasionally drive it out in the field and let my driver ride shotgun.

We had to take a special jeep safety class as they were prone to rolling if you weren't careful.

My grandfather had one of these on the farm back in the 50's and 60's. Fun to scoot around in but it was rough riding. The seats up front were okay but those in the back were awful. My dad and uncle got rid of it after my grandfather passed. They were World War II vets and had enough of Jeeps in the war.

Did you see the price of gasoline and diesel and the 10:42 mark?

Jay Leno is a treasure! I really enjoyed that segment and although I've never owned a Jeep, there is a definite mystique to them!

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Fun to scoot around in but it was rough riding.

Sitting in the back you were right over the rear axle. If you hit a bump at speed you likely went flying.

The Jeep I drove in Vietnam was made by Ford, but a more current model. The purpose of the tire tread was to confuse the enemy as to which direction you were driving.

Mine’s a 1945 and has the M1-Garand rack on the dash, but not the antenna or thing hanging off the steering column. His exhaust isn’t stock.

When I was in my teens and early twenties my dad and uncle shared a WW2 era jeep. They used it for Elk hunting in Colorado. I drove it around our property and surrounding gravel roads as often as I could. I pulled several 4 Runners and 4x4 trucks out of some bad situations.
One of my favorite memories is driving it down out of the mountains during a snowstorm because the roads were too dangerous to tow it.
It had a non synchronized transmission, so if you didn’t perform a perfect shift, which was often, you got a horrible grind.
Man, I miss that jeep.

Besides Jeeps, Ford, after the bugs were worked out, was turning out a B-24 bomber roughly every hour.

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Originally posted by sigspecops:

It had a non synchronized transmission, so if you didn’t perform a perfect shift, which was often, you got a horrible grind.
Man, I miss that jeep.

The ole "double clutch"

When my dad was 15 or so, his father died. He took over his father's gas station/machine shop just outside Death Valley to support the family. He got an emergency drivers license went to an Army auction and bought two jeeps for $50. Canibalized one to get the other running. That was his first car.

Great vid. I had no idea Ford made any of those.

Back in the 70's my dad and uncles worked at a large factory they were a part of a group of co workers who were going to do a group buy of some surplus jeeps in crates. They were planning on getting a couple each but the deal fell thru for some reason or another, what a bummer that was.