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Welcome to eWillys.com, a website for vintage jeep enthusiasts. I update this website nearly every day with jeep deals, jeep history, interesting reader projects, jeep related info, and more.
These quick searches can help you find things on eBay. People list in the wrong categories all the time, so don't be surprised to see brochures in the parts area for example.
The links to posts below show jeeps grouped by models, condition, and other ways. Some of these jeeps are for sale and others have been sold. If you are unsure whether a vehicle is still for sale or not, email me at d [at] ewillys.com for more info.
There are plenty of interesting, unusual, historic and surprising stories related to Jeeps and their owners. In addition, some of these features have nothing to do with jeeps. This link will display all featured stories starting from the latest.
Looking for parts and not sure where to go? There are a variety of large and small new and used parts sellers both online and offline.
Importantly, the allure of buying a project jeep can be romantic. The reality of restoring a jeep can be quite different, expensive and overwhelming without the right tools and resources. So, tread carefully when purchasing a "project". If you have any concerns about buying a vintage jeep, or run across a scam, feel free to contact me for help, comments or concerns .
I have been going through a whole two stuffed Willys Motors Equipment Books and documents as part of trying to organize the stuff I’ve purchased recently. I was surprised I hadn’t noticed this Warn manual when I first when through the books. I suspect (hope) I find some other cool items. This brochure has a form number of SR-456-4, which possibly means it was produced in April of 1956, but this is a version 4 of the manual.
Bill shared this link to the seller of a variety of posters. I’ve bought some of his rare items off of eBay. I’d spring for the 5 Great Willys Values poster if it wasn’t ripped. I’ve only run across one other.
https://hartford.craigslist.org/atq/d/middletown-vintage-original-ww2-and/7617596731.html
“WORLD WAR 2 ORIGINAL POSTERS, AND MANY WILLYS JEEP RELATED POSTERS.
PRICES VARIED ACCORDING TO AGE, SIZE, AND CONTENT.
ALL POSTERS AND RELATED JEEP ITEMS ARE ORIGINALS AND IN GOOD SHAPE.
SOME ARE FRAMED AND SOME ARE NOT.
SOME OF THE SIZES OF THE ITEMS ARE LISTING IN THE PHOTOS ON A PIECE OF PAPER ON THE ITEM.
PRICES RANGE FROM $800.00 TO $20.00
WHEN RESPONDING PLEASE INCLUDE A PHONE NUMBER TO DISCUSS POSTERS OR RESPONSE WILL BE DELETED.”
UPDATE: This was previously published August 25, 2013.
This and other testimonials are from 1946 and were combined into a sales binder used by Willys Overland salesman.
This particular testimonial is by Davis Farm Contracting, Company, of Albany, Georgia.
This press release package is currently at $29.50 with three days to go. It’s unclear if this is a complete press kit or a partial one (seems partial to me given there is only one photo). The date on the photo suggests this kit may have been release September 16, 1959.
What’s interesting to me is that the 2-page document on the left is one of the few documents create by Willys Motors that explains that the new Surrey is the name of the model released domestically and that the Gala is the export name, though no explanation is given for the difference.
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Here is the document I mentioned. See the last sentence on the second page for the link between the Surreys and Galas>
This is caption for the photo. Note the date at the lower left hand corner 9 16 59.
This unusual jeep dealers point-award’s catalog on eBay has a buy-it-now price of $39.99. It’s an unusual item for sure. My understanding is that dealers (or sales folks?) earned points in various ways that they could redeem for items in the catalog. There’s a pretty extensive choice of items!
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“HERE IS A REALLY COOL AND QUITE RARE FIND!!
THIS IS A 1964 WILLYS JEEP DEALERS FAVORITE SPORTS CATALOG OF AWARDS…AN INCENTIVE PROMO FROM THE KAISER JEEP CORPORATION TO THE TOP DEALERSHIPS!! THIS LARGE ISSUE COMES IN THE ORIGINAL ENVELOPE ADDRESSED TO: MR. SIMON REDNOR FROM REDNOR & RAINEAR AUTO SALES OF TRENTON, NEW JERSEY…
THE ENVELOPE SHOWS AGE/USE WEAR, ALONG WITH SOME HAND WRITTEN PENCIL NUMBER TOTALS ON THE BACKSIDE..THE CATALOG
FEATURES SOME REALLY COOL MID CENTURY MODERN GIFTWARE, COOKWARE, SMALL & LARGE APPLIANCES, FURNITURE, WATCHES, JEWELRY, TOYS, GARDENING, CLOTHES AND MORE!!
PLUS THE VACTION SPOTS!!…THE CATALOG IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION WITH SOME NORMAL AGE WEAR & THAT OLD PAPER SMELL..A WONDERFUL ADDITION TO YOUR WILLYS JEEP COLLECTION OR MID CENTURY MODERN COLLECTION!!”
UPDATE: This was originally published Aug 30, 2013.
Famous barnstormer and racing pilot Roscoe Turner endorsed the jeep in this 1946 letter.
UPDATE: It’s been almost nine years since I posted a series of Testimonials to the early jeeps that were part of a very rare early sales book. Most, but not all, included images. A friend of mine shared them with me. You can see them all here: http://www.ewillys.com/tag/1946-testimonials/
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Originally Posted September 16, 2013:
Here are several examples from Police Departments from the sales book:
And from New York City:
Cool bit of info, but the price is steep! I especially like the flier.
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“For sale is a vintage Pulaski Highway Motors, Willy’s Jeep Dealer, license plate topper, sales brochures and sales invoices. The topper has great color and graphics. The topper is 9 1/2″ x 3″. The papers are a nice piece of history.”
I ran across one of these manuals, then a search led to other years of this brochure. Below is information from eBay on the 1961, 1963, 1965 and 1966 manuals:
1) 1961 This is a COPY of the Bendix Radio Service Manual for Willys Motors (but at least it shows the pages) (or there is this original version for much more):
I thought I would score this incredibly rare July 24, 1946, Willys-Overland Press Release packet for the ‘Jeep” Station Wagon so I could share its contents with everyone, but $302 wasn’t high enough (it sold for $308). So, congrats to the winner. I did win a few other cool items though.
It’s construction and elements is similar to the previous year’s CJ-2A Press Release packet, documented here: http://www.ewillys.com/tag/1945-07-21-press-release-kit/?orderby=date&order=ASC&more=1
This documentation came from a friend. It accompanied a Sears Deluxe hardtop, though for some reason it shows the simpler hardtop instructions. Maybe the owner of this document lost the rest of the instructions? Either way, this might be useful to someone.
Later model Dualmatic-style-Free-Lock hubs. The name was originally part of the Free-Lock Hub Corporation
Ann’s longtime friend invited me to look at a jeep yesterday that they just inherited from her uncle. They were confused about the model, so hoped I could identify it.
From the front, the jeep was clearly an early M-38A1 (turned out to be a 1953), with the hinged grille and early fenders. The dash was also correct, the correct large hole fuel inlet, and it had the early M-38A1 cowl with screws. However, it also had a tail gate that didn’t appear added. The body itself was in great shape, yet the body wasn’t mounted using all the holes, in fact some holes were missing. The cowl also lacked both the “JEEP” stamps along the side of the cowl AND the passenger side indent common for M-38A1 bodies.
Thankfully, the uncle had kept receipts, one of which was an invoice for a replacement body. Aha, that’s why it did not have JEEP or WILLYs stamped anywhere.
But, more interesting to me than the jeep, was that another document they had was an original set of instructions for Free-Lock hubs (more on Free-Lock Hubs), the style that looks just like the Dualmatic hubs. This is the first time I’ve been able to document that at some point Free Lock branded hubs were made exactly the same as Dualmatic hubs.
As you can see in the two images below, we have basically the same set of instructions for both hubs, with one that is labeled Free-Lock and the other Dualmatic. The Dualmatic is dated “8-28-74”, which the Free-Lock has hand written instructions, which I believe indicates the Free-Lock hub instructions were from an earlier date.
Free-Lock document:
Dualmatic document:
These two pics show a few more details, including that there are two sets of screws on opposite sides of the hub.
I missed out on this 16 page very rare Jeep Station Sedan Demonstration Manual on eBay. I wonder if they produced similar documents for other models. Thankfully, the seller posted photos of each page.
I spotted this concept vehicle document on eBay. It was so unusual, I thought I’d snag it. Each of the pages is within plastic, which seemed strange, too (see first pic). Anyone have more information on this? Note the use of the Corvair engine and other parts.
The shape of the car seems similar to that of a Studebaker Avanti (sold a few years earlier) or the later American Motors Corp’s concept AMX-GT, built prior to the merger between AMC and Kaiser-Jeep.
Each page of document is bound within plastic, making it much thicker than it needs to be.
Barry snagged this rare documents off of eBay, then posted it to share with everyone. It’s a great find!
https://www.farmjeep.com/2022/08/22/1953-cj3b-part-list-universal-and-farm-jeep/
UPDATE: To download the file, I clicked on the “download” (See red-highlighted square in the pic below). (or just click here ==> http://www.deilers.com/1946-texas-ag-test.pdf)
Ed spotted this PDF document (downloadable for free) that covers the agricultural testing of an early jeep. I don’t believe I’ve read this document (and don’t have time at the moment to go through it). So, let me know what you think.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=txa.tarb086630&view=1up&seq=3&skin=2021
This letter, written by PFC Carl W. Eklund in 1943, describes how he was lying under a plane, trying to get some rare rest, when a jeep ran over his legs just above the knees. The injuries weren’t very severe and he felt he’d be recovered after a few days of rest.
Carl went on to serve as an aircraft mechanic in North Africa, then in Italy. In 1945, he received an honorable discharge and returned to Texas. Unfortunately, his brother Rudolph, who was captured in Java in 1942, died in Burma in 1944 while still in captivity.
Carl was living in Kenedy, Texas, as of 1969. I could find no updates about him after that.
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Barry published three rare Newgren Lift Service Bulletins created in 1947 by the Newgren Company, sent to him by Keith Buckley. Learn more at Farmjeep.com.
https://www.farmjeep.com/newgren-service-bulletins-may-1947/
I received my second booster shop on Thursday, the result of which kept me hunkered down yesterday with a few chills and aches, so I took the time to scan the following document.
This unusual catalog from Miller Tools highlights tools specifically for Willys vehicles, both jeeps and automobiles. It is catalog F-618 printed in May of 1952. There are 92 pages in the book, including three order forms. I’ve broken it up into multiple sections for easy of downloading and zipped the PDFs together in one file (63mb), should you want to check it out. Unfortunately, my PDF management/editing apps don’t work under the newest Mac OS, which is another reason I didn’t combine them (have to locate a new PDF capable app). If you have a problem dealing with the zip file, then I can send you independent links for the various sections.
http://www.deilers.com/miller/1952-05-miller-tools-willys-overland-catalog.zip
Here are a few pages:
This pics show that the M-38A1, M-170, Trucks and Wagons are covered by the catalog. I can’t tell if it covered all models, including CJ-5s, CJ-6s, DJs, FJs, or other models.
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“Vintage 1962 AMC Willys Jeep Military & Utility Vehicle Parts Catalog & Price List. I know very little about this, I am selling it for a friend whose family member was a mechanic.
The large book is marked on the front Parts List / Price Catalog – American Motor Company.It appears to contain two separate books from 1962.
The first is for the Jeep Military M38AI Truck Utility (MD) & M170 Truck Ambulance (MDA) – approx. 116 pages Continue reading
Dave found and shared these photos of a Dualmatic hub box with an information sheet inside it.
I haven’t run across many Schramm generators for sale. I’m not sure how many are left. But, I imagine this booklet could be useful for someone.
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“WW II Portable Engine Driven Generator manual. WIllys jeep engine. This one book contains the Operations manual, maintenance manual and parts list. 64 pages total. size is 9″ x 6″. My favorite part is the price list, oil pump were listed for $5.50 for replacement cost while the entire engine block was $49.00! LOL You need this book for your MB/GPW or WWII manual collection.”
This is priced at $55. It is a mid-1950s Special Equipment binder into which someone put Willys Motors and Willys Export bulletins from 1957-1962.
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“Willys motors Inc. and Willys – Overland export corporation Toledo Ohio kaiser jeep corporation parts and accessories bulletins 1957 to 1962
Shop worn and notebook inside is dirty but pages good overall. – inside notebook cover shows wear, especially where the metal clasps and notebook edges hold the paper – paper pages in good condition- Readable no tears a lot of spotting on the edges yellowing of pages overall all intact and in good condition”
Thanks to Scott for scanning and sharing this rare set of instructions from a Jeep-A-Trench manual. I know there are a few of you who are interested in this.
It’s been a crazy couple months. Somewhere along the line I obtained copies of the March 1946 Semi-Annual Willys-Overland Report. I think this came from Barry’s Farmjeep site, but I couldn’t find it yesterday.
This report demonstrates that Willys-Overland was trying to lay the groundwork for two basic product lines: A Utility Line of vehicles and a Passenger Line of vehicles. The company also claimed that the passenger line vehicles would be introduced in 1947.
