3rd Annual Texas Willys Meet 2002

You couldn't have asked for a better day for the Willys Meet.  So far we have had perfect weather for each of out meets.  This meet took place on Dan Brauex's ranch just outside Burton Texas.

  I arrived at about 9 am and there were already several folks there.

These shots are of Captain Carl's and Dan Breaux's wagons.

Of course Merl showed up with his multi-toned CJ-2A.   For some reason there aren't more pictures here of this jeep, I'm not sure why.

  I feel bad.  This guy rolled in from Austin with a beautiful M-38A1.  This thing was wonderfully restored and many people spent hours looking this little jeep over.  The reason I feel bad is that I've lost his name. I know he was a member of a military vehicle preservation group. If anybody knows his name please let me know and I'll post it here.

    This 1957 Willys Sedan Delivery belongs to Luis Rodriguez and it was probably the farthest anybody came to attend.  He was from Rio Bravo Mexico.  As the day progressed we learned an interesting back road repair from Luis but that will wait for later.

Richard Sample arrived with his homemade Willys Ranch Wagon.  Richard has come to each of the Texas Willys Meets and his vehicle is always a big hit.

From left to right is my 62 Pickup, Luis Rodriguez's 57 Sedan Delivery, Rick Gray's 56 Pickup, Tom Jacoby's Parkway Conversion, and the unknown M-38A1.

The additions to this picture over the other are Richard Samples Ranch Wagon and Merl's CJ-2A

Once we were assembled with headed down the road to get ready for the Cotton Gin Festival Parade.

    These photos are of our Willys vehicles getting lined up to enter the Parade route.  And this is were Luis taught use a new trick.   At least it was new to us.  Luis' Sedan Delivery sprung a radiator leak on the way to the parade, and he had a pretty constant dribble coming from it.  He ran over to a local corner store and bought a dozen eggs.  Once the radiator had cooled enough to open he broke open several eggs and dropped their contents into the radiator.   Topped it off with water, put on the cap and fired it up.  It leaked for about 2 minutes than then sealed right up.  He was able to drive the entire parade route and back to the ranch without a leak and his temperature stayed normal.

 The parade was fun but was very slow and it used up almost 4 hours of our Willys time.  The general consensus was that we wouldn't do the parade again next year.  We will however, probably drive over to the starting area and check out the other cool rides in the parade.  Note that Captain Carl's rig is being towed back to the ranch from the parade.  Seems it died somewhere along the route and would not fire back up.

   I spent a little time walking around after the parade looking for Carl.   He disappeared and we didn't know at the time what had happened to him.  I know, I know, Carl's a grown man and doesn't need to be looked after, but sometimes as event coordinator I feel overly responsible for people. During my search (In which I failed to locate him) I stumbled onto this little CJ-2A.  He wasn't part of our group and I was unable to locate the owner.

     On the way back to the ranch,  my truck developed a nasty metal to metal grinding sound in the left front wheel.  This gave us a perfect opportunity to accomplish some in the yard repairs.  A quick disassembly revealed that all of the hub bolts had backed out and that one had vibrated all the way out.  Some quick wrenching soon had it all back together.

    Now that I had my problems fixed our attention was turned to Captain Carl's woes.  He and his son discovered that they had water in the gas from the wagon sitting for so long.  I seem to recall that they had it ready to go by the end of the day.

   Boys will be boys, men will be men, and most time the only difference is the price of their toys.  Tom Jacoby has a nice PTO driven wench on the front of is Parkway and somebody suggested it be tested out.  I moved my truck out in front of his wagon, set the e-brake and let him pull me across the yard.

  It is a sad thing to say but at the end of each Willys Meet we have to go home.  Hope to see you all at next year's meet.            

I waited way too long to post this meet so I may have made some mistakes.  If anybody has any corrections or inputs please contact me at rick48cj2a@satx.rr.com

Attendees  (Pleas let me know if I left anyone off)