7/18/07
WILLYS Hood Lettering
7/18/07
The 4-Wheel Drive lettering worked out
great! Then I got to thinking... I had spent some time
cleaning up a picture I had taken of the WILLYS lettering that is
stamped on the hood sides, tailgate and windshield frame of the early
CJ's. Here's a picture of me standing next to my 1948 Willys way
back in 1978. The lettering can be seen on the side of the hood.
And another shot without the funny looking guy...
Maybe the eBay seller could make some lettering from the
graphic? So when I was completing my transaction online I wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From:
Paul M. Provencher
To:
arguin
Sent: Tuesday,
June 19, 2007 8:19 AM
Subject: RE:
Receipt for Your Payment
Just curious if you have
ever considered doing lettering that was metal-stamped on
the sides of hoods and early fold-down windscreens that says
"WILLYS" in that stenciled lettering?
I know it was never painted
on the early Jeeps but it would be fun on something like the
sides of the hood of my Wrangler:
ppro
I was pleased to receive a message back:
Hello,
I can do it no problem,i just need
to find a clean willys logo. We also own a 98 black TJ
maybe a will try those stickers on it.
btw your order is on the way since
Monday morning.
keep in touch
Marco
Wow! This was great. So I rummaged around my
hard drive and found the graphic I had retrieved. Here is a copy
of the photo before I cleaned it up:
I sent it to Marco and in a little while he wrote back
with a file attached:
Let me know what you think about the
photo.
Marco
This was definitely what I had in mind! So I wrote
back right away.
Hey that's
great! Of course as you know it would be a little
curved to follow the hood, but it gives a good idea of
how it might look.
Now on the
Willys, the lettering was on the lower edge of the hood
on the flat area so in order to do that on the TJ, the
lettering would need to be sized to fit there with
perhaps 1/2 - 3/4" each side to clear the style line on
the top and the bottom edge of the hood on the bottom.
See the attached image - I just moved the lettering to
where I would put it on my Jeep.
It would be
in the same vein as the RUBICON lettering but in the
style of the WILLYS stencil characters and of course say
"WILLYS".
Are you
thinking of making them?
I have
installed the lettering I purchased from you. It looks
great. I put the ones without the horizontal lines on
the back pretty much where they'd be on a CJ. I put the
other type on the passenger side up behind the front
fender on that flat area. I should have put them on a
black magnet so I could remove them or move them around
but I was so excited I didn't think of it until later.
I shall get
a photo to you soonest. Yesterday and today was given
over to replacing a power steering box, repainting the
winch plate and steering box skid plate, painting the
driving lights, re-installing the winch and sundries.
My hands are rough enough tonight to pass for a
mechanics hands. But I have a Camp Jeep pre-run on the
7th and won't have time next week so today was it!
Looking
forward to seeing what you might come up with on the
WILLYS lettering! If you do them I think I want black -
that would make it so they only show when the light hits
them just so!
ppro
Pretty soon Marco wrote back:
Greetings
I finally made some...a set is
on the way to your door!
Marco
I was very grateful. This was something I had been
thinking about for years. I always liked the WILLYS lettering on
the hood. I think if it wasn't too expensive, I would have it
stamped into the metal like the original, but for now this is a great
substitute!
I'm tempted to get some for the Commander...
The lettering is heavy-duty and very crisp. Marco
did a great job translating the graphic to vinyl. The image was
slightly off-center so the lettering was not perfectly square - he fixed
that too.
One thing I am expecting is for someone to come along and
say something like "Hey, that's not really a
2004
Jeep Wrangler WILLYS!". No, it's not, thank goodness...
With no disrespect to the many proud and deserving owners
of that special edition, that was not the effect I was going for.
Chrysler marketing put together an interesting tribute to the military
Jeeps of World War II. I captured for posterity the images on the
Macromedia presentation from the Jeep in case it disappears.
I was going for something
different. The military vehicles (with a few rare exceptions) did
not bear the manufacturer's mark on the body work. When the war
ended and Willys repurposed the Jeep and began selling the CJ-2A they
stamped "WILLYS" on all the major removable parts. My sticker is
in memory of the CJ-2A I owned and the original Jeep for civilians.
Plus I couldn't in good conscience put a "RUBICON" sticker on it - what
fun would that be?
