Has a a spasmodic dysphonia which comes and goes where he can’t talk. His dr said this is often found in Jewish family and Myers is a Jewish name. Gladys Myers told Tom Myers this on Aug 2, 2003


https://www.lancasterbee.com/articles/retired-lieu...res-1946-willys-jeep/

Retired Lt. Erin Myers has always enjoyed giving discarded objects a new life.
As a child, he would often be found rummaging through trash cans and dumpsters, searching for broken radios, shattered toys or damaged bicycles to repair.
“I would see how it worked and try to fix it. If I couldn’t get it to work, I at least learned what made it stay together and go,” said Myers.
He would also visit garage, estate and antique sales with his family on the weekends, routinely shopping at Super Flea before it was torn down in 2014. It was located at 2500 Walden Ave. in Cheektowaga, which is now a Walmart Supercenter.
“People would pull up, unpack their cars, put their stuff on a table and sell it,” said Myers. “If it was old and cool, we bought it.”
Myers’ treasure hunting slowed down when he began his career at the Lancaster Police Department as a patrolman in January 1989. He was promoted to lieutenant in March 2003 and worked long hours, sometimes under stressful conditions. Each day on the force was fulfilling, but off duty, he still craved the process of restoring unwanted items from the past.

Retired Lt. Erin Myers sits in his fully restored 1946 Willys Jeep. The Jeep — a Willys-Overland CJ-2A, or Universal Jeep — was modeled after the Willys MB, a military utility vehicle built for the Allied forces in World War II. Photo by Holly Lipka
Myers completed small projects here and there during his 29-year career, but when he retired in January 2018, he decided to dedicate his time to satisfying his creative need. For the next year and a half, Myers spent more than 2,000 hours fully restoring a 1946 Willys Jeep. He completed the meticulous restoration work last month.
“Every time I drive it, it’s kind of surreal,” said Myers. “I can’t believe I’m actually driving this thing around. It’s definitely an experience.”
Myers didn’t know what his project would be after retirement, but he definitely wasn’t looking to restore a Jeep; he never even thought of fixing an old vehicle.
“I have never had an old car or restored a car or even really worked on cars,” said Myers. “I was just driving around in the summer of 2017 and saw a Jeep in this gentleman’s garage. I stopped and talked to him, we became friends, and over the next three or four months he sold me a Jeep. It was just there, and I thought it was perfect; it was exactly something to occupy me during the transition into what my next stage in life is.”
In October 2017, Myers loaded the Jeep onto a trailer, towed it home and rolled it into his workshop — a wooden barn in his backyard that he built himself.
“It was covered in rust. I’m a big fan of WD-40, so I bought two gallons and doused the entire body. I let it penetrate, and soak, and start to get everything loosened up. Then I hand-sanded the entire body and smoothed it all out,” said Myers.
Next, he disassembled the Jeep to assess which parts worked and what needed to be upgraded or replaced.
“I wanted to maintain as much originality as I could,” said Myers. “I wanted it to be authentic.”

A 1946 advertisement features the Universal Jeep, the world’s first mass-produced civilian four-wheel-drive car.
He spent hours researching online, trying to find the correct parts. While researching, he discovered the Jeep’s monumental history.
He realized that his Jeep — a Willys-Overland CJ-2A, or Universal Jeep — was the world’s first mass-produced civilian four-wheel-drive car.

It was modeled after the Willys MB, a military utility vehicle built for the Allied forces in World War II. According to Automotive News, the MB towed anti-tank weapons and served as an ambulance on the battlefield, coming ashore on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
“After the war, these Jeeps were being shipped home and were sold as surplus,” said Myers. “Willys noticed that they were selling, and started making a model for civilians.”
Willys started preliminary tests on MBs as a postwar civilian vehicle as early as 1944. The first prototype was called the CJ-2 or “Civilian Jeep, Type 2,” as opposed to modified MBs that were called CJ-1s. After several modifications, the CJ-2A went into full production in 1945, according to Hagerty Insurance Agency.
The CJ-2A looked very similar to the wartime MB, but there were some noticeable changes to its appearance. The CJ-2A has larger headlights that are flush-mounted in a seven-slot grille; the MB had recessed headlights and nine-slot grilles.
A tailgate was added to the vehicle as well as a right-side-mounted spare tire. The fuel filler was also relocated to the outside of the body.
Under the hood, the CJ-2A continued to use a Willys L134 or “Go Devil” engine, or a four-cylinder flathead engine. While powered by the same engine, the T-84 transmission was replaced with a more powerful T-90, three-speed transmission.
Myers’ Jeep is considered a “very early civilian,” or VEC, CJ-2A with serial number 18450; Myers learned it was built around Feb. 12, 1946.
Up until serial number 38221, the CJ-2A only came in two colors — pasture green with autumn yellow wheels and harvest tan with sunset red wheels. The two colors were dropped later in 1946.
Myers’ Jeep is harvest tan with sunset red wheels, which look more like a pumpkin orange color.
“Everybody that I talked to said I couldn’t paint it over. They said they liked the patina look, so that’s what I went with. It’s still the original paint,” said Myers.
The earlier CJ-2As also had column shifts until changed to the floor at serial number 38221, which makes the vehicle “even more rare,” said Myers.
“Only the very earliest shift on the column. The military vehicles shift on the floor. When they were shifting on the column, the civilian market said the didn’t like it; they liked the floor shift, so [Willys] stopped it,” he said.
A total of 71,554 CJ-2As were built in 1946, and a total of 214,760 were produced. Realizing he obtained a VEC model, Myers was even more determined to keep the parts and body as original as possible.
The “Go Devil” engine needed to be rebuilt, and Klispie’s Automotive Machine Shop in Hamburg completed the necessary machine work that Myers couldn’t do himself. Myers also purchased another Jeep to furnish parts for the restoration and had a canvas half-top reproduced to match the original 1946 design.
The only part Myers modified was the brakes, from 9-inch drum brakes to 11-inch drum brakes.
“Only the purists would know that it’s not correct for this Jeep,” said Myers.
In total, Myers spent around $12,000 on the restoration. He said he’s sad that the project is over, and “loved working on it.”
“I really enjoyed doing it,” said Myers. “I loved hunting for the pieces I needed and learning about the history of it. I’m proud to have brought it back to life and on the road again.”