Jeep Hobby Leads To Willys Parts Business

Jeep Hobby Leads To Willys Parts Business SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 31-1-39 Finding a way to get rid of extra parts only made sense for Harry Sheets. With four vintage Willys Jeeps restored and 12 to 15 more sitting around, he had plenty of extra parts. When he ran across a website where he could post parts for sale, he jumped at it. "I was always bringing home dead Jeeps that had no chance of being restored that I would pick up for $50 to $75 each," explains Sheets. "I started posting parts on the website, and the business just exploded. I had no idea there were so many people rebuilding and repairing their own Jeeps." Business was so good that Sheets ended up quitting his job and opening Midwest Willys. In his new career, he buys and sells original Willys parts at home, at trade shows and via the internet. He recommends the Willys Tech Board website -www.willystech.com/parts/board.shtml - for repair information. While new and reproduction parts are often available for old cars and trucks like the Willys Jeep, preference is often given to original parts. Lonny Deweesey is a customer and a friend of Sheets. He has restored two farm Jeeps and an Empire farm tractor made with Willys parts in the late 1940's. "If I can find a good quality old part, I would prefer it," says Deweesey. "Most of the time, it is of better quality than the new stuff. Harry is a good source. I give him a list of the parts I am hunting for, and he just hollers when he runs across it." Finding one or two parts needed are an advantage to working with Midwest Willys and other parts businesses. Like Sheets with his multiple Jeeps for parts, Deweesey often buys old vehicles just for a part or two. Then they sit until another collector comes along who needs a part or two and buys what's left. "The hunt is 90 percent of the fun," says Deweesey. "I recently ran across a plow I had been looking for at an auction. It was a Newgren plow but, like other farm implements made for Jeep, it had a special tag that identified it." Deweesey bought the single bottom plow for his farm Jeeps. Both are outfitted with 3-pt. hitches. One has a side-mounted sicklebar and a rear mounted cut-off or buzz saw. The other has the plow mounted on it. Sheets carries thousands of parts and is always on the lookout for rare parts such as the 3-pt. hitches favored for farm Jeeps like Deweesey has. Currently, he says he has 25 "dead" Jeeps sitting outside his parts warehouse. As they are broken down to the frame, their components will join those that pack the shelves in his 34 by 30-ft. parts building. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Midwest Willys, 3708 S. 100 E., Crawfordsville, Ind. 47933 (ph 765 362-2247; josheets@ tctc.com).

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