It’s hard to resist these Mitsubishi Jeep wagons at the best of times, but this one was really drop dead gorgeous. The two-tone paintwork, the ample chrome, the interior – it was almost looking like a real ‘60s survivor. But looks can be deceiving, especially when they make a good first impression.
And how could one not get a good first impression when staring at this bright and jolly Jeep face? Seven slots of iconic!
And this is one of the few Jeeps where the rear end almost matches the front. Bumtastic!
I wrote up another one of these last year. It was black with a white roof and a bit less pristine / over-restored than this one, but if you want the low-down on the whole Mitsu-Jeep tie-up, do click on that post. I won’t bother with the historical background here.
Just a brief recap then: the Mitsubishi Jeep 4-door wagon started life in 1961 and changed remarkable little until production stopped in 1983. One major overhaul occurred in 1970, when the J30 became J36 and had a few noticeable changes, such as free-standing turn signals and a new steering wheel. The photo above illustrates what a stock J36 looked like in the ‘70s.
Circa 1980, the J36 got one last relatively big change: the two wipers moved over a bit and got a third colleague. And that’s what our Jeep has, so it’s clearly a late model. No amount of whitewall tyres and aftermarket chromed turn signals could alter that.
The whitewalls are a bit much (and a bit suspect), but the rest isn’t too bad. The two-tone is stock – most civilian J36s came off the production line looking like this. Very nice. The other extras, such as the old-style fog lamps, I could take or leave, but they don’t detract from the whole experience.
That interior sure was sweet, too. The huge ugly hi-fi/radio aside, everything looks fine. Well, actually, that steering wheel was taken from a J30, though those usually had a full horn ring, not a half like this one does. Looks like there is an extra (aftermarket?) HVAC in here as well.
I hadn’t photographed the rear quarters in my previous post about these 4-door Jeeps, which is an unforgivable oversight on my part. After all, the extra doors are this Mitsu Jeep’s main claim to fame, so it should be incumbent upon any CContributor worth his soy sauce to show where those door lead. Fixed now.
Unless I find an early-model J30 (i.e. from the ‘60s) that is ready, willing and able to be photographed, I doubt I will hit another one of these Jeeps again. For one thing, they’re not too common (though I have seen more than my fair share), and for another, I doubt any can top this and the black one I caught last year. Maybe a complete wreck would be interesting to document, just to see what they’re like underneath…
As it stands though, I’ll let the Jeep wagons escape my net for the foreseeable future. The Mitsubishi I really want to catch now is a first generation Debonair. I’ve seen about four or five now, but I’ve never been able to find one standing still. One day, one day…
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1981 Mitsubishi Jeep J36 – Six Doors And Three Wipers Ago…, by T87
CC Follow-Up: Jeep Station Wagon by Mitsubishi, by Dave Skinner
It’s really “too” nice, especially with the fairly aggressive street tread on the whitewalls. I mean, look at the paint inside the fenderwell in the last picture. Even a brand new car off the showroom floor, once driven home, is almost unlikely to look that clean there.
Amazing that this was still produced after 1980 (and may likely be newer still as you noted), it looks more like a late ’50’s item.
Duncan Imports currently has several of these for sale in the US. The idea of a 4 door Willys wagon is appealing as is the parallel universe aspect. That said there are several things I would buy first starting with a Citroen wagon.
I am jealous that the Japanese got to do without the awful bumpers we were saddled with.
It’s one of those things in auto history that will forever seem strange – why one country could enact such bizarre legislation as to require those. Yeah, I’ve read the history, and while can I agree in principle with the reasoning behind it, but surely there were better ways……
I’m a bit curious what prompted that comment, since light trucks were exempt. Our 1980 Jeep Wagoneer was still wearing pretty much the same bumpers as in 1963. Or am I missing something?
I started reading this thinking this was going to be a retro-rebuild in the spirit of a Land Cruiser FJ or something, but it’s actually the real thing.
Surely, quite a find, even by T87 standards?
Can I assume this is what really morphed into the Filipino Jeepney – which seemed to me to be half Jeep half Mitsubishi Fuso?
This is how innovation SHOULD happen. Every single change is careful, slow, and an unquestionable improvement over the original. For instance, the original had fashionable push-button doorhandles on the inside, copied from the Continental. Bad idea. Hard to use, hard to find. Mitsubishi went back to ordinary 50s doorhandles. The dash is the same overall shape as the original, plus padding, plus a nice high-level shelf to hold purses or books.
A lovely find. And lovely to look at, though I’m thinking that white lower body colour would be grossly impractical if you took it (shudder!) off-road…
Ive seen one or two of these they must have arrived during the early boom of used imports, it was open slather for a long time before safety rules were introduced but that was age based so it didnt really work.
I have to confess – and no, not because of the Catholic upbringing alleluia, alleluia, amen – that this is pretty irresistable, or in this guise, pretty and irresistable, despite it likely being as much fun to motor about in as a slow rock suspended by rocks with a rock for an engine. (Nothing against rocks, you understand, well, unless they’re hurled at one, in which case I hold my neighbor’s body against them, but I am digressifying).
The whitewalls are more like white fig-leaves – presumably covering the shame of blackwalls, why, they need a confessional – than they are whitewalls proper, as they are of the stick-on variety. Hereabouts, they’re referred to as flappers, I guess because on motoring, that’s just what these tucked-into-the-rim adornments of tackiness do, though that’s not their sin here. The venal visual in the pics is that this olde worlde bus needs tyres from the era of itself, namely, gigantic-sidewalled clogs such as the period photos show. Then, and only if the flappy bits were proportioned accordingly, would the whitesides be any good. As it is, this lovely old tart here looks like she’s teetering on castors from Liberace.
Hi Guys
Where can I buy parts for this model in the Middle East or any South Asian Country?
I have an old Jeep with me and trying to restore it.
Thanks