PARKERSBURG - For Evan Meyerriecks and Paul McIntyre, almost a year's worth of work restoring two vintage vehicles are rewarded with a cross-country journey from Virginia to California and back.
They began their journey Tuesday from Leesburg, Va., driving a pair of 1948 Willys Jeep CJ-2As, also called Flatfenders for the way the fenders are a flat piece of steel across the front rather than wrapping around the front.
Last year they made a cross country trip in a rented van. Meyerriecks, 22, acquired his van earlier and McIntyre, 20, got his from the same person in Virginia where it was sitting in a field. He said it didn't run and it had to be pulled out of the field and was rebuilt. From January until June they spent many hours refurbishing the old Jeep to get back on the road. When they were not working on their Jeeps, McIntyre worked as a bicycle mechanic and Meyerriecks worked as a machinist.
"We spent many hours, sometimes until 3 or 4 a.m., working on it," McIntyre said.
Meyerriecks said the Jeeps they are driving are the first ones made for the civilian market by Willys, the original owners, after World War II and they are not the same as those produced during the war.
"These were made for use on farms, not the streets," Meyerriecks said. "Mine has a four cylinder engine that produces 62 horsepower and his has a V-6 with 350 horsepower."
Overall they each have $5,000 to $6,000 invested in their Jeeps.
Meyerriecks said their drive through West Virginia on U.S. 50 was slow at times as the 62-horsepower Jeep struggled to make it up some of the steeper hills.
Although his Jeep is not from World War II his has a connection to the war.
"The engine was from one that was part of the D-Day invasion," he said.
In McIntyre's Willys the engine was made by the second owner of the Jeeps, Kaiser - Jeep. He said it was a Buick design Kaiser bought and manufactured and then sold back to General Motors after the Jeep line was sold in 1970 to American Motors, the owner of the Jeep until AMC was bought by the Chrysler Corp. in the late 1980s.
McIntyre and Meyerriecks said the ride in the Jeeps is not comfortable.
"They bounce a lot and the seats are hard," Meyerriecks said.
"They are not about to challenge BMW and Mercedes Benz as the ride of comfort," McIntyre said.
Meyerriecks said the Jeeps average about 16 to 18 miles a gallon of gasoline.
"These Jeeps are all steel and wood," he said. "It'd be nice if they got better mileage."
On their return trip they will stop in Toledo, where Jeeps are still manufactured. There they will meet Chrysler LLC officials.
Meyerriecks said they are taking donations for the trip. He said they have been given money from members of CJ owner's clubs and even from people they have met. He said National Geographic Travel magazine is one of the sponsors.
Meyerriecks said they ran into some mechanical problems in Maryland. McIntyre said when they stopped where they could get the part they needed they were helped along by the kindness of a stranger.
"This guy let us use his land to camp on, provided us a shower and let us use his Internet connection," he said.
Meyerriecks and McIntyre said they will be back to Virginia in about a month. McIntyre said he has to back by Aug 18. to begin his college classes in Virginia.
