When the United States got involved in WWII in 1942, the US Department of Defense asked for bids from Ford, GM, Chrysler, and many other major manufacturing companies, for quotes to design and build a General Purpose Reconnaissance Vehicle. Ford was the first to produce a vehicle for tests and won the production contract. The DOD gave the Ford drawings to the Willys-Overland Company as a second source to ensure enough vehicles for the war could be produced. After the war ended, Henry Ford ( who was a pacifist anyway and did not want to get involved in the war at all, got overturned by then president Edsel Ford and head of all production, Charles Sorensen to make the vehicle ) was eager to get back to car, truck, and tractor production. Ford was not interested in making vehicles for the War Department anymore. But Willys needed a product to market so they kept the prints ( which they were later convicted in Federal Court guilty of claiming to have designed the GP ) and modified the vehicle as time went on, and continued to produce the vehicle, known simply as the "JEEP". Ironically, all FORD drawings used the GP prefix for parts related to the GP and Willys also kept them and decided to trademark the name JEEP. The engine used in the Ford GP was basically the same as the one used 9N production. And now you know the rest of the story...

Here's a copy of the original Ford Tool kit page for the "GP" (JEEP)-

...N-Owners should spot the sparkie tool O1A-17017-B

Tim Daley(MI)

It's interesting that tool number GP-17023 is called "Wrench - 6" crescent", rather than 6" adjustable. The name Crescent became generic early on, didn't it. When did the Crescent tool company invent that wrench design?

Jim,
May not have been generic, It may have actually been a Cresent...

All excellent information given for our history forum. I am looking for information on the tools specifically- who made them, what years, etc. The O1A-17017-B sparkie is the only one I have info on. ALL help greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Tim

Tim & Bruce,

Well, both of you are partially right. Not being a S/A here, but a subject I know a bit about, (I not only love and collect old farm tractors, but also old jeeps and military vehicles, and old Chevy trucks).

Ford Motor Co. did in fact build the GPW version of the WWII jeep, and Bantam was indeed the company that originally designed the jeeps. The contract to build the jeeps however, was awarded by the US Army Ordinance Department not only to Ford, but also to the Willys-Overland Co. of Toledo, OH. Bantam indeed lost out on major mfg. of the jeeps due to the inability to produce significant quantities of the vehicles, but built 2,675 overall; Bantam ended up building 1/4 ton jeep trailers, torpedo motors and fighter plane landing gear. Outside contractors eventually made some of the jeep items, such as the bodies (Amer. Central Mfg. Co. of Connersville, Ind.).

Manufacturing of the GPW's and MB's by both companies began in '41 and ended in '45 (Bantam produced some prototype slat-grills beginning in '40). Willys-Overland continued jeep production after the war with the introduction of the civillian model CJ2A beginning in '46.

The original order by the Army Quartermaster Corps. was to W/O on 23 July, '41 for 16,000 jeeps @ $739 a pop. On 10 Nov. '41, Ford was issued an order for 15,000 jeeps @ $973.34 a pop. The bodies, and drive train parts were interchangeable from both Ford and W/O, but the trim was different on each; Ford used their famous "F" marked bolts throughout the GPW's and there were a few other differences between the two.

In the end, W/O built a total of 362,841 (I'm fortunate enough to own a '42 MB in almost like-new condition) jeeps and Ford built a total of 281,448 jeeps for the WWII effort. Strangely, the life expentancy of a WWII jeep (in the battlefield) was only 90 days.

Another unique story about these jeeps is that they continued to be used during most of the Korean conflict, even though W/O had then built the M38 jeep beginning in mid '50, (I'm again fortunate to own a very nice '52 M38).

If you ever care to read the entire story, and view the various differences between the GPW and the MB, locate copies (there are two volumes) of the "ALL AMERICAN WONDER" by Ray Cowdery. If you'd care to view some nice old jeeps (GPW's and MB's), pull up www.bmmp.org and look at some our club member's military vehicles.

Larry Steed, Pres. - Bluebonnet Military Motor Pool

I believe it was Bantam who designed,built and tested the first Jeep.
After Congress was satisfied with the prototype testing the plans were submitted to Congress and the politicians figured that Bantam could not produce Jeeps fast enough to meet demand. Thusly Congress gave the plans to Ford and Bantam died in the ashes...
The link below has a bit more info as well. You can also find info on the web with "Bantam car" entered into the search bar.

• Link: http://www.butlercountyhistoricalsociety-pa.org/bantam.html