Posted by Tim PloughNman Daley(MI) on December 22, 2007 at 09:50:41 [URL] [DELETE] :
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)
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