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Parmley Body: One-Of-A-Kind?

Parmley body

In the early 1970’s, a Tom Parmley wreaked his CJ-5 and wanted to rebody his good chassis, at least that’s how the story goes. He created a fiberglass body that would accommodate wider tires, a dash box with more room, and a lower hood. Listed here on craigslist in Canton, Ohio, is this Parmley Jeep with a current high offer of $3,700. The owner is just taking offers and will post when he gets a higher one.

Parmley engine

Mr. Parmley’s daughter has told the owner that her father made about 30 of these kits. Having one with a top is rare and only a few were made with tops. There is no tag or title. The engine is a 225 Buick Dauntless V-6 with a Holley 4 barrel on a Offenhauser intake. The engine runs but there are no brakes. The car has been sitting in a pole barn for 35 years.

Parmley intr.

The fiberglass body is very well built according to the owner. It looks to be a decent built, but will need to be refreshed.

Parmley back seat

There is a back seat and a roll bar installed. We don’t think we would want to spend much time in that back seat.

Parmley right side

This truck is sitting on old bias 15 x 8 L60 tires that do hold air. The windshield is cracked but it is PPG glass, according to the owner, if they can get the number off the glass they can make a new one if they can’t find one. That won’t cost too much, will it? The owner was told that the windshield is the same as an early Dodge Dart. This maybe the only Parmley with a top available or left. If you want a one-of-a-kind, you may want to act on this.

Motor-on,
Robert

Comments

  1. Avatar photo Mike H.

    It’s cool in a “You’ll never see another one.” kind of way, but the seller seems to be an opportunist. Why pay those eBay fees when I can list it for free on the List of Craig and ask for higher offers? Beyond that he also has a very crude understanding of the English language and I suspect he has a problem with parasites as he mentions “mite” more than once in his ad.

    Poor bugger. . .

    Like 0
  2. Avatar photo Rich

    Put it back in the barn. Quite possibly the ugliest BF ever.

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    • Avatar photo francisco

      It’s a treasure. So why not bury it?

      Like 0
  3. Avatar photo Todd Zuercher

    I have vintage magazine articles with these in them but I’ve never seen one in the flesh.

    Like 0
  4. Avatar photo Chebby

    Papa Smurf might want it, not sure who else.

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  5. Avatar photo Walter Joy

    Saw it on Jalopnik and thought it’d make it on here

    Like 0
  6. Avatar photo John

    Hi Im John the owner of this Parmley. I cant believe how rude and crude some of you are with your comments. I guess everyone has an opinion. I will give you the story of the jeep and lack of title. It belonged to an old couple that was in there 90s. The man of the house was a big collector of tractors and jeeps of all years…shapes and sizes. In an unfortunate situation they both passed and a year after they passed there estate was settled and auctioned. They owned many farms and many many old vehicles. The action company listed all items including the parmley. They did not no what it was so they listed it as an AMC and that’s all they said about it. I seen the ad just as the auction was ending and it was not to far from my house so I booked down there to have a look at it and it was gone. The auctioneer said because they could not find the title as there was so many boxes of paper work and books and so on that it was to much hassle to look for. The executer of the estate gave the Parmley to a friend and neighbor for helping out. He drug it out of the barn and hid it in the woods until the auction was over. They gave ne his number and I went and looked at it the next day and made an offer. He declined but then called me a week later to come and get it. Now there was so many old jeeps at both auctions without titles that the actioners listed without checking for titles first. People came from many different states to bid and the other jeeps were sold to scrap dealers after the auction was over. It was a sad day for jeep enthusiast….those 2 days I guess because there was so much money brought in from farm land alone that a dozen old jeeps was not worth the time to look for the titles. So NO ITS NOT STOLEN!!

    People want to no why I am selling it. I did not no what it was . I thought it was possibly a George Barris car. It had that 60s 70s look to it so I thought buy first and ask questions later. I searched the web for pics of anything close. I thought that it mite be a prototype. Then I asked a local jeep parts dealer that has been into this for a lot of years and he said look up farmley or pomley or mabey parmley. And here we are. I have had many higher offers from all over the country but just a bunch of talkers. I did talk to Tom Parmleys daughter about it and she even wanted it but is in the middle of moving rite now and cant find the time. She is a real nice person and has a lot of info. I was told that to have one with a top is extremely rare and it mite be the only one to be found with the top. When I do sell it…she wants to no where it goes so to keep track.

    Like 1
    • Avatar photo Mark S

      Hi John I’m sorry to here that you have been offended by our harsh word on this site I can’t speak for others but I’m sure there was no personal attack intended. You must know however that sometimes people speek or in this case type without to much consideration for others, that does not make us bad people just normal people as we are all capable of speaking out. Know that I’ve said that John I have to say that from what I’ve seen from the pictures this is one ugly little truck, and if you can find a buyer for it cut your loses and sell. Because even though some of the others have been more blunt there still right, this is not worth much because it is not very desirable. The other thing you must remember rare does NOT always mean valuable. As for Goerge Barris most of his stuff was butt ugly too.

      Like 0
  7. Avatar photo John

    It has been pulled off Craig’s list!!…. So either it has sold or the owner is just miffed by our comments on one butt ugly jeep!

    Like 0

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