My 1974 CJ5 with Factory Fiberglass Body. True or False?

by John

I have a 1974 Jeep CJ5 that I found in a barn we are renting. It has a factory fiberglass body.

That Jeep was used in the AMC plant to transport engineers etc. around the plant. The guy that had it has been dead for at least twenty years. His wife told me her brother got it when he retired as an engineer from the plant and gave it to them to go hunting in.

Her brother said they had six like this one that they were testing to see how the body, etc. would work. But Jeep (AMC) didn't like the idea because the fiberglass bodies were too costly. Can this be true?

You have to understand the information that I'm getting is from a little ninety year old lady. Her husband and brother have both been dead for maybe twenty five years. I knew these people being I'm fifty seven.

This old Jeep had been sitting in this old tractor shed since the owner died. It took me a year to get the wife to sell it to me.

The deal was I gave her two thousand dollars and when I got it running I had to take her for a ride. So that is what I did.

So now my five Granddaughters take it to car shows. Nothing has been changed on it except at one time they put a Cherry Bomb muffler on it. It is all original.

The elderly lady also told me that they (Jeep) didn't use fiberglass bodies because they cost too much, and because the bodies that they had made were from the same company that Chevy was using to make Corvette bodies, and Chevy didn't want AMC making fiberglass bodies.

How much of this is true I don't know. The only thing I can say is my five Granddaughters love their old Jeep and that makes me happy.


Larry's Comment: John, I am not aware of a factory fiberglass body on a production Jeep CJ5 as a prototype or experimental design. With that said, some of the inner workings at AMC/Jeep in those days may have only been witnessed by those working in the plant, and of course the executives in charge.

If anyone has any specific knowledge of these Jeep CJ5 fiberglass bodies from the factory...please put a "comment" below and cite your source(s) if you have them. Thanks