1951 Willys wagon - Dads toy It Runs and Drives now !!!

So......a few of you guys have liked the pics I've posted and asked about a build thread

Quick backstory

My Dad has owned this rig for some time now, 10-12 years maybe, and has never driven it, in it's somewhat current form it is actually 2 different wagons. A good friend of his, Jim, left him a 1962 when he passed away, it was completely original with only 8500 miles on the ticker. Unfortunately it had spent it's life pushing snow and then 25+years sitting in a field next to a shed. The rustbelt had done it's worst to it and most of the body from the floor to roof was Swiss cheese, despite it's condition Dad was excited to have it and immediately had his heart set on one day cruising it out on the beach to do some fishing .
Fast forward a few years, we came across a guy selling a 2wd 53 wagon, it was a non running project and he was moving out of state so it "had to go" . We went and looked at it, the body was much more solid then his 62, so after some haggeling and even waiting until a week before the seller had to move we picked it and an old Honda ATC up from the guy for $150 . Dad sold the 2wd complete chassis and drivetrain to someone who came all the way from SC to get it, and later decided that "original" was no longer something that would apply so the straight 6 and the rest of the power train were shipped also.
Some time went by, dad would work on it here and there, my brother and I would help when we could but we had both moved out, gotten married, started families etc. Dad talked me into getting back into construction /demolition and coming to work for him about 7 years ago, once things got settled (we moved our office and shop) and everything was running smoothly we decided to bring the Willys to work and when I wasn't out at a site or busy with maintenance I would work on it.

So that is the story in a nutshell, I will add in more details as we go

Dad is planning on retiring in the next year so this has become a "present" for him.



I'm going to try to find some early pictures of it tomorrow.



Found some old pics this was the 53 when dad bought it