Fleetvan Shows That Jeep History Just Never Gets Old, Does It?

Restored ’63 Willys Fleetvan is another reminder of the brand’s longstanding and unique appeal.

There’s just something about the history of Jeep that always manages to keep us intrigued.

Sometimes, it can be tough to nail down exactly what it is about the brand’s legacy that continues to pique our interest because there’s always so many new things to discover about the nameplate. After all, Jeep does have more than 75 years of amazing history under its belt. Highlighting that legacy has actually become a core part of who we are here at JK-Forum. Yet from time to time, we even find ourselves taken aback by some interesting Jeep find.

Take, for example, the popularity of the Willys-Jeep Fleetvans. What? Didn’t know they were a big thing? Yep, apparently so, as we learned after stumbling on a story in New Castle News about a ‘63 model that’s been restored for an episode of the Velocity’s reality TV show, FantomWorks.

This particular Willys-Jeep Fleetvan is the pride and joy of Ron and Valerie Patton of Edinburg, Pennsylvania. FantomWorks started restoring the Jeep in 2016 and was drawn to the Willys Fleetvan because of its rarity, according to New Castle News.

But one of the most interesting points in the original post lies in the origin of the Willys-Jeep Fleetvans. As the story goes, the U.S. Post Office bought more than 6,000 of the Jeep vehicles. Willys touted the Fleetvan in a 1961 advertisement as “the most economical walk-in delivery van you can buy.”

Digging a little deeper into the Fleetvan, we discovered that there’s even a Facebook page devoted solely to the Jeeps. The page only has 325 followers, but we get the sense that’s only because few people know about the vintage vehicle. Maybe the upcoming Velocity episode will give the Fleetvan the rightful exposure it deserves.