YouTuber Rescues Rare 1952 Willys-Jeep from His Dad’s Barn
Old Willys-Jeep surprisingly still in good shape despite 30 years of dust and chicken droppings.
The video above comes from the Stoney Ridge Farmer YouTube channel and it takes us along as Josh (aka Stoney Ridge Farmer) goes to pick up his dad’s old 1952 Willys Jeep. The father is looking to clear out some space around the homestead, so Josh purchased the antique Jeep, an old Bronco and an old tractor, but in this episode, the goal is to free the Willy’s from the old barn where it has been sitting for at least 30 years.
Freeing the ‘52
The first step of pulling the 1952 Willy’s Jeep from the barn is moving everything else around the vehicle, including a large piece of farm machinery. Once the father-and-son duo have gotten that shuffled out of the way, they almost had a clear line from the door to the antique Willys. They would have to maneuver the Jeep around one of the support posts for the barn by lifting the front end with the tractor, but first, Josh had to see if the decades-old tires would hold air.
Airing Up the Tires
The first tire doesn’t look too bad and not surprisingly, it holds air. The same is true of the second tire as well, with the 40-year old inner tube slowly accepted the air needed to get the Jeep rolling. When he gets to the third tire, it looks pretty sketchy but remarkably, the tire holds air even though the valve stem appears to be failing.
Finally, he tackles the roughest of the tires. At first, air seems to be escaping the tire around the rim and through the many dry-rot cracks, but after a few seconds, the fourth tire is full and ready to roll. This exercise really speaks volumes of the quality of the tires and the inner tubes from 30 to 40 years ago, as a modern tire wouldn’t stand a chance in these conditions.
Time for the Tractor
Once Josh had filled all four tires and the 1952 Willys was rolling, dad came in with the tractor and a chain, and the process of pulling the Jeep out of the barn began. The first obstacle was the support post for the barn and the vehicle would end up sliding along that piece of wood on its way to freedom after Josh moved a stack of bricks preventing the front end from swinging out towards the door.
However, once the Jeep was past the post and the bricks, it was headed towards the open door with only the tractor keeping the vehicle from rolling out and down the hill. Since there were no brakes, Josh wasn’t comfortable trying to pull it down the hill with dad’s tractor, so he pulled the trusty second gen Dodge Ram up to the pull bar and towed the antique Jeep out of the barn and up the hill to freedom.
The video ends with a closer look at the 1952 Willys Jeep in the sunlight, exposing 30 plus years of dust and chicken poop, as well as plenty of damage. This will certainly be a time intensive project, but the results of driving his dad’s old Jeep will surely be worth the effort.
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