my bf has a '52 Willys CJ3-a he's working on. It's one his shop class restored back in the 90's in high school. The shop teacher died in '97 and his widow soon moved out of state. Everyone figured the Jeep was long gone until she tracked down my boyfriend last summer and said "it's yours, if you want it". She didn't have a place to keep it anymore and wanted it returned to the students who would really appreciate and take care of it, rather than sell it to a stranger. Although it had been sitting in a garage for ages, we had it running the next day. Got a few mechanical tweaks to fix (supension is worn out) then it's on to repairing the few bad spots in the body. Not looking to do a full-on restoration, just keep 'er running and looking as close to the way the teacher wanted it as possible

the military did not use this model Jeep. The shop teacher attended a military academy and just painted it up army-style. The "serial numbers" actually stand for Columbia Military Academy '56 (year of his graduation).