Where there's a Willys …
Jeepster a reminder of past generations
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Dan Kearney drives his restored Jeepster while in Center Rutland on Monday. Vyto Starinskas / Rutland Herald |
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By Tom Haley STAFF WRITER - Published: July 23, 2009
Those who know Proctor's Dan Kearney are not surprised the Center Rutland used car dealer still has his first car and went to great lengths to have that 1948 Willys Jeepster restored.
Kearney has always had a preservationist's heart. His appreciation for an earlier era was evident a few years back, when he was impressed that NASCAR driver Dave Marcis was still running his operation on a shoestring budget. Marcis was driving on what was called the Winston Cup Series at the time, the big leagues of stock car racing where teams had multimillion dollar budgets and were fortified by generous corporate sponsors. Marcis hung in there and ran with the big names with the astronomical budgets until he retired in 2002.
Kearney was so taken by the way Marcis was competing with a low-budget operation that he sent him some Vermont maple syrup.
He embraces his first car in the same way.
It was in 1959 when Kearney's father spent $150 on the 11-year-old Jeepster.
It wasn't exactly the car of Dan's dreams at the time. He envisioned himself driving to school in a cool car like a Ford or Mercury, the vehicle of choice for his friends while growing up in Cedar Grove, N.J. Picture a scene of pulling up to Arnold's hamburger joint in the "Happy Days" TV show.
Dan told his father he didn't want to drive the Jeepster to school. His father's reply was that he could take the bus.
Needless to say, Dan drove his Jeepster, and it served him well through high school and his college days in Boston.
He moved to Vermont in 1965 and used the car off and on until the fall of 1967. It went in the garage and never came out until 2003.
The same nostalgia that had Kearney enamored of Marcis and his old-fashioned way compelled him to restore his first car. Ernie Larose, who has an auto repair shop near his own used-car store, did the engine and mechanical work. Gary Stone did the body work in Wells and Kearney was able to get some parts from a Jeepster dealer back in New Jersey.
Today it is a thing of beauty, causing heads to turn when he showcases it in Rutland's Halloween parade and Proctor's Memorial Day parade, or simply takes it out to do an errand.
The car was the subject of a story in a Hemmings Motor News magazine. It also graced the cover in a different issue of that publication.
Kearney spent $425 to restore the steering wheel alone.
You would never know there were "eight to 10 dead mice in it" when it finally came out of the garage following its long hiatus.
"Not very many people can say they have their first car," Kearney said.
Certainly not when they are 67 years old and had to bring the car back to life after 36 years of storage.
But for Dan Kearney it was worth the expense and the time.
He feels it is special that his parents, grandparents, wife and grandchildren have all been in the car. It is a connection to generations and a symbol of various milestones in his lifetime.
Cost of restoring the steering wheel: $425.
Cost of the car, used, in 1959: $150
A trip to the bank on a Saturday morning and seeing the heads turn and marvel at the spiffy yellow Jeepster: Priceless.
tom.haley@rutlandherald.com
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