Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Willys mystery
I was skipping through an old Greek movie on Youtube, hoping to see some hot '60s babes**. No luck, but found something almost as interesting.
The movie had two of these cars in a dumb chase scene. They're strange chimeras. Not proper Willys as seen from the side, but extremely Willys on the front. The grille and hood are shaped to resemble the Willys pickup and Station Wagon, but they're not actually the same sheet metal. (I owned a Willys pickup once, so I know the shapes.) Universal Jeeps never had this front end. The back part looks more like Jeepster than Universal Jeep, but it's closer to the length of a Jeep. Neither fish nor fowl.
Tried googling. Nothing so far. "Greek Jeep" leads to a surprising number of Jeep fans and Jeep clubs in modern Greece, but no Greek version or Greek equivalent of the old Jeep. Looked at various Soviet jeep-like cars, but no match there either. Was this a conversion kit? If so, it was never popular in US.
** Cinematic footnote: If you want to see real 60s-style women portrayed realistically in film, look at Greek, Turkish, or Egyptian movies from those years. I don't know why real women were so accurately represented in that end of the Mediterranean, but I do know why you won't find them in American or Western Euro movies. For completely non-mysterious reasons, Western moviemakers were solely interested in interactions among males. They tossed in a few nominal females who looked more like boys (eg Mia Farrow), again for completely non-mysterious reasons. On rare occasions the late lamented Karen Black was allowed to play an actual-looking woman, but her character was a hopelessly stupid imbecile, again for completely non-mysterious reasons.
= = = = =
Later: A different Greek movie shows this Willys station wagon.
Unlike the confused Jeepoid above, this car appears to be 'correct' except for the doorhandles, which are just like the Jeepster doorhandles of the chimera. Leads me to believe there must have been a Greek Willys plant, or possibly a large dealer who did his own conversions. But I don't know why you'd want to modify only the doorhandles!
¶ 5:33 PM 
The movie had two of these cars in a dumb chase scene. They're strange chimeras. Not proper Willys as seen from the side, but extremely Willys on the front. The grille and hood are shaped to resemble the Willys pickup and Station Wagon, but they're not actually the same sheet metal. (I owned a Willys pickup once, so I know the shapes.) Universal Jeeps never had this front end. The back part looks more like Jeepster than Universal Jeep, but it's closer to the length of a Jeep. Neither fish nor fowl.
Tried googling. Nothing so far. "Greek Jeep" leads to a surprising number of Jeep fans and Jeep clubs in modern Greece, but no Greek version or Greek equivalent of the old Jeep. Looked at various Soviet jeep-like cars, but no match there either. Was this a conversion kit? If so, it was never popular in US.
** Cinematic footnote: If you want to see real 60s-style women portrayed realistically in film, look at Greek, Turkish, or Egyptian movies from those years. I don't know why real women were so accurately represented in that end of the Mediterranean, but I do know why you won't find them in American or Western Euro movies. For completely non-mysterious reasons, Western moviemakers were solely interested in interactions among males. They tossed in a few nominal females who looked more like boys (eg Mia Farrow), again for completely non-mysterious reasons. On rare occasions the late lamented Karen Black was allowed to play an actual-looking woman, but her character was a hopelessly stupid imbecile, again for completely non-mysterious reasons.
= = = = =
Later: A different Greek movie shows this Willys station wagon.
Unlike the confused Jeepoid above, this car appears to be 'correct' except for the doorhandles, which are just like the Jeepster doorhandles of the chimera. Leads me to believe there must have been a Greek Willys plant, or possibly a large dealer who did his own conversions. But I don't know why you'd want to modify only the doorhandles!
¶ 5:33 PM
