1921 Overland 4 cylinder Touring and 1930 Willys 6 cylinder Sedan

1921 Overland Touring  4 cylinder 

side view of the 1921 Overland Touring

Another front view of the 1921 Overland Touring

1921 Overland Badge

front view showing where the placement of the badge is on the 1921 Overland

1930 Willys 6 cylinder Sedan

rear view 1930 Willys Sedan

Side view of 1930 Willys Sedan

Willys Badge

Willys Overland Automobile Company History

When looking into the history of the Overland I found that Claude E Cox designed and built the first Overland’s and took the first test drive on February 12^th, 1903. With little or no money at all Cox’s would be initially financed by the Standard Wheel Company. Mr. Cox operated at the Standard Wheel Company’s plant which resided at 671 Ohio St., Terre Haute, Indiana and after a boiler explosion at the plant a year later Standard Wheel Company lost interest but Cox was able to buy the fledgling company for $8,000.

Cox realized he would need more money so he approached David M. Parry and on March 31^st, 1906  they created the Overland Automobile Company. Cox and Parry would incorporate the company with Fifty One percent of the share being owned by Parry and Cox would have Forty Nine percent of the shares. Parry made his fortune in manufacturing two wheel horse drawn carts; unfortunately a short but severe economic depression in 1907 would see Parry’s two wheel cart empire come crashing down around him, even to the extent of Parry losing his house.

Sometime during the spring/summer of 1907 the Overland Automobile Company had received and order for 500 cars from John N. Willys and a deposit of ten thousand dollars. When early fall came around he began to wonder why he had not began to received any of his cars, it was then that Mr. Willys decided to take a little trip to the factory and when he got to the company, he found that there were not any cars that were complete, just a few partially assembled ones. It also came to his attention that the company would not have enough money to pay the weeks wages let alone finish his order. It was then he decided to purchase controlling stock in the company. With some financial backing from friend from Elmira, he gained control of the Overland Automobile Company. He was able to keep the company out of bankruptcy thus keeping the company going.

 
Willys would go on to reorganize the company, he started by making important upgraded to the production facilities, a new factory would be built in the summer of 1908. Demands were beginning to exceed the capacity of both plants, even though production of the current Model 24 had totaled 465 vehicles that was ten times more than what they had done in 1907.

With sales soaring and production numbers up, the need for expansion became an important issue. In 1909, Willys would acquire the Marion Motor Car Company of Ohio. Then in September Willys bought the Pope plant in Toledo, Ohio. The Pope plant was huge and one of the more modern plant of the day. It proved to be a bargain at the cost of $285,000 because of the surplus material he was able to sell off.

 
Willys would reorganize and change the name of the company to Willys Overland Motors; the reorganization was done by using the Toledo plant as the empire capital. The Overland Model 38 was the first model to come out of the plant in Toledo. They would replace the epicyclic transmission with the Sliding gear transmissions replaced; this was an interesting fact when you consider that in1909 Ford would introduced the ever popular Model T, and it would use the epicyclic transmission right through to 1927.

 That same year Claude Cox would leave to follow a career in photography, he would also go on to obtaining patents on new instruments he would invent and new processes that he would create with his inventive and creative mind.
The Willys Overland facility in Indianapolis would be used for component assembly work only by 1911. The Willys Overland vehicles were growing in popularity and production figures reached 18,745 and this was compared to Fords production figures which were at 34,979 in the fall of 1911. With production up and sales figure moving up Willys Overland became the second largest producer of automobiles in 1912 only one other car company had more cars in production and that was Ford. Willys Overland would add the Garford plant in Elyria, Ohio in 1912; this helped keep Willys Overland in the second place position behind Ford until 1918.

Willys Overland offers many different cars the more expensive cars would carry the Willys badge and the lower costing brand would carry the badge of the Overland and by 1917 the consumers were offered the choice of Overland, Willys or Willys Knight depending on their budget and choice of engine sleeve valve or poppet valve. J.N. Willys preferred the Willys Knight over any other vehicles his plants produced, but he could see that the Overland’s cheaper poppet valve were his "bread and butter". There were many Overland models the car company offered, but it was the cheaper ones that sold in the higher volumes and this was even more evident during the war years 1914-1918. Sales margins were tight during the war years, but when a serious strikes that directly follow the war threatened to cripple the Willys Overland empire still fought to overcome the challenges. Whilst the Willys Knight vehicles proved the companies excellence at precision engineering it was the Overland line of vehicles that would put the company back on its feet.

Willys Overland produced a succession of 4 cylinder models which were designated 4, 4A, 91 and 91A - all on 100 inch wheelbases from 1920 - 1926. 1923would be another year Willys would introduce another 4 cylinder model designated Model 92, it would sit upon a 106 inch wheelbase many collector remember this as the Bird series. Red Birds had red bodies, Black Birds had black bodies and Blue Birds of course had blue body’s collector also know them simply as the Overland Four. The goal of the company was to sell the car for $500 to compete with the Ford Model T. Because of the war the prices for steel had increased along with the labor cost increase thus making it hard to compete with Ford so the cost for a 1920 would ended up at $845 or more.
The total combined production of the 4 cylinder models 4, 4A, 91, 91A and 92 over the August 1919 to May 1926 period amounted to some 642,000 vehicles. All of Willys Overland vehicles would use the Triplex 3 point cantilever spring system consisting of 2 quarter elliptic springs mounted at angles at both the front and rear of the car. However the 6 cylinder Model 93 would use a conventional semi elliptic springing.

 The 1921 model year Overland Four Touring car that is featured in the Schwanke Museum is a 4 door touring car. This model features rear wheel drive, courtesy of a front-mounted inline 4 cylinder engines with a capacity of 2.3 liters. It produces a maximum power output of 27.4 PS (27 bhp) (20.1 kW), which is transmitted to the wheels via a 3 speed manual transmission. The car sits on a wheelbase of 2540 mm.

also featured in the museum is a 1930 Willys 6 Cylinder Sedan

Below is a time line of the Overland and the Willys Overland motors

1906: Overland Automobile Company founded by Claude E. Cox
1908: John North Willys buys the Overland Automotive Division of Standard Wheel Company.
1912: John North Willys renames the Willys Overland Division to Willys-Overland Motor Company.
1936: Coming out of bankruptcy following the Great Depression, the company is reorganized as Willys-Overland Motors, Inc.
1940: Working from a Bantam Car Company design, Willys contracts to build military Jeeps for the war and produces about 360,000 vehicles by 1945.
1945: Willys-Overland begins producing the Civilian Jeep (CJ) line, with the introduction of the CJ2A model.
1946: Production begins on the Willys Jeep Wagon. Over 300,000 are manufactured between 1946 and 1965. Initially the all-steel wagons are only available in a burgundy and cream color scheme, the appearance of which suggested the "Woodie" wagon look typically found on wagons of this era. 1947 Production begins on the Willys Jeep Truck. From 1947 to 1965, more than 200,000 are manufactured.
1948: Production begins on the Willys Jeepster. Only 19,000 vehicles are manufactured from 1948 to 1950.

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