These pictures posted by William Oliver are dated December 2018. It’s nice to know that in sunny Southern California folks were still driving with their tops down. But then I don’t actually see any top to put up on this Jeepseter, so maybe this is its permanent status. There’s two things intriguing about this one. yes, mismatched fenders and windshield, which were likely replaced with donor items. But there’s one more thing:
It’s lacking the V6 emblem, which means this presumably came with the “Hurricane”F-134, the F-head version of the old Willys four engine that dated back to the 1930s or so. It was given an F-head in 1950 in order to increase its breathing and power, from 60hp to 75hp (gross).
That gave the little CJ Jeep a meaningful boost in the early 50s, but by 1966, when the Jeepster arrived on its longer 101″ wheelbase and heavier body, that was decidedly underpowered. Which explains why so many came with the Buick-sourced 225 inch “Dauntless’ V6. Kaiser bought the tooling for the V6 in 1967, and then sold it back to Buick in 1973.
The Jeepster was essentially a revival itself, as there was a Jeepster built from 1948-1950 with the same basic idea. But it was not very successful, hence its short life.
The Jeepster v.2 sold reasonably well, but then AMC ruined it in 1971 by stretching and restyling its nose in order to fit its inline six engines. That ruined its proportions and took away its iconic Jeep face, and sales drooped quickly, until it died just two years later in 1973. You wouldn’t see Jeep do that nowadays.
I’m not sure exactly where in Southern California it is, but the Jeepster was made for the beach.
I wonder how well these sold when compared to the International Scout, which seems to have been its target competition. I also wonder whether this one was originally equipped as the soft top roadster or the convertible with the quarter windows behind the front doors? There looks to be room for quarter windows, but Jeep probably made all of them that way, whether it came with the windows or not.
By 1966-67 this market was really starting to get crowded with the Bronco joining the crowd. I will admit that these Jeepsters are my favorite of the three to look at – there is a certain jauntiness to them that is lacking in the Ford & IH competition.
I thought these were fun. Too young to have owned one back in the day. Even Danny Thomas was impressed.
Just this saturday I passed one of these while driving towards St. Augustine. The one I saw was reasonably well restored, though not perfectly, maybe a better than nice daily driver. The couple driving it were in their late 60s early 70s and surprisingly there was no visible top. I could not imagine many women game enough to ride in an open car on a windy and overcast day.
I could see this Jeep attracting the attention of Johnathan Ward’s ICON for a retrofit.
https://www.icon4x4.com/
This doesn’t appear to be the proper ‘convertible’ version, which would have had retractable quarter windows, a folding/stowing top and a little trunk. Most likely it has/had the full length hard and/or soft top which are removable like any other CJ/Wrangler. From the snaps around the upper body line, it likely has had a soft top at some point. These could be had with half cab soft or hard tops too, for a proto-Scrambler.
Im wondering what’s up with the collapsed rollbar hoop. That looks like too big a diameter tubing for a softtop bow, which would mount on a bracket along the upper body rails.
Danny Thomas & the Jeepster both “out of Toledo” – that’s a great ad!
I think photo was taken in LA near Wilshire & La Brea.
As PaulChgo suggested, I took these pictures a few blocks from the Petersen Museum, just off of Wilshire. I really ought to start listing locations on my posts. I found this one on Google StreetView as well, the capture on there shows it with a roof over the cabin.
T.Rex!
Didn’t Continental spare + bumper to fit come with some “Fastback” top?
It seems to me there folks everywhere driving top down with an f-head and no Jeepster Commando in sight.
If I am not mistaken, the Jeepster was replaced by the original Cherokee in 1974. That first Cherokee was based on the Wagoneer/Gladiator full size jeep platform, and was basically the old Gladiator 2 door panel truck with 4 wheel drive, a back seat, and side windows. A good move, the original Cherokee was popular for many years. Of course, the second generation did even better.