These Internal Jeep Pictures And Sketches From A Flea Market Seem To Show Jeep Considering A Murano Cross Cab-Like Car

Last year, David showed us some remarkable sketches of Jeep ZJ Cherokee design development, sketches found by a Detroit-area reader who discovered the drawings for sale at a flea market. Well, as it says in either the the Bible (Book of Galifracians, 16:33) or maybe John Tesh’s autobiography (they’re remarkably similar works), “the market of fleas provides.” This time, the flea market has provided some really fascinating stuff, in the form of some fascinating internal design drawings and renderings from Willys/Jeep.

There’s a lot that was there (seen and photographed by our own Bishop), so I’m going to just dole some of these interesting things out in little chunks, and today I want to show you a particularly fascinating Jeep that never came to be, something that feels a lot like a ’60s version of the infamous Nissan Murano Cross Cab, but actually has a pretty firm precedent in Jeep history.

These drawings come from the estate of Joseph Papai, who was a well-known and accomplished automotive designer who happens to have also been the source of the ZJ Cherokee sketches we wrote about before. However in this case, unlike the ZJ, I don’t believe Papai was directly involved with the design, as Papai wasn’t involved with Jeep/AMC until the 1980s, and these sketches are from the early 1960s.

These are extremely interesting sketches and renderings for a number of reasons, not the least of which is when they seem to be done. The date on this photograph of what may be a fiberglass model is November 8, 1961; the styling of the front end is quite clearly the exact same as Brooks Steven’s famous design for the Jeep Wagoneer, released to market in 1962, as a 1963 model, I believe.

In fact, the front door appears to be the same, along with hood, front fenders, and, really, pretty much all of the body up to the B-pillar, where the rear door is lost in favor of a shorter rear with a trunk, and, of course, a convertible top.

Here’s what looks like either the same or another fiberglass model, this time from the rear; you can see the original ribbed Wagoneer taillights used here, too:

This doesn’t feel like something that the Wagoneer was adapted into after the fact; this seems like something that was being developed alongside the four-door SUV/wagon-style Jeep Wagoneer that we all know today.

To our younger readers, this sort of SUV-turned-into-a-strange-and-kinda-fussy-convertible may remind them of something like a Nissan Murano Cross Cab, but the truth is that Willys/Jeep has had a long history with taking rugged off-roaders and turning them into charming if mildly silly and overdone convertible cars of leisure. Remember the Jeepster?

The first generation Jeepster, from 1948, started as a way of repackaging wartime-style Jeeps as something people sick of war may like, so they were slathered in chrome and painted in nice pastels and had whitewalls slapped on, and sold as a good time on four wheels.

Later, there was a re-birth of the Jeepster in 1967, this time known as the Jeepster Convertible or Jeepster Commando, but following basically the same formula: civilize an off-roader with lots of chrome and color and a silly continental tire kit:

Of course, our pictures here date from a good six years before the Commando-based revived Jeepster came out! Look at these earlier sketches, from August 1961:

These sketches seem to predate the finalization of a lot of Wagoneer design details, as it differes pretty significantly in a lot of body lines and details. Details and trim are substantially different, too; for example, this sketch shows a different taillight treatment than what would come to be used on the production Wagoneer, which were what we saw on the models from three months later in the pictures above.

The spare tire here also seems to have some sort of cover over it, and no provision to open any sort of trunk at the rear, like a massive, butchier early Nash Metropolitan.

The sketch above seems to have come between the August sketches and November models, as it shows body panels closer to what the final Wagoneer ones looked like, as well as in details like the taillights. Are those reverse lamps below them, or some sort of step? Maybe both? And what are those leather straps for?

I think what we’re seeing here are designs for adapting the then brand-new Wagoneer into a re-born Jeepster, something that would not happen with the introduction of the Wagoneer, but would get revived, in quite different Jeep Commando form, in 1967, as we mentioned above. But it looks like Willys was seriously considering bringing the Jeepster concept back much sooner!

These pictures and sketches – and so very much more – are being sold by Mike Tafralian, and if you’re interested in them or knowing what other treasures he’s got, then you can email him here. There’s so much fascinating stuff, it’ll make you wonder why there’s no dedicated Jeep museum around.

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