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1966 Jeep News Volume 12 Number 4

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Well folks, this is the last issue of the big batch of Willys News and Jeep News periodicals that I purchased back in December. From my perspective, it was great to have dependable, easy to produce, interesting content available to post for such a long period. I also am glad to be documenting this type of stuff, as it hasn’t been well-documented (to my knowledge) on the internet to-date. I don’t really have much else in the queue document-wise, but obviously there *should* be ongoing updates about the FC rebuild.

Coinciding with this last issue, the weather here has warmed with highs in the low 60s, which gives me much better weather to work on the FC; it also forces me to juggle that effort with the need to work on the pasture, ready the irrigation systems, and prep the lawn and garden for the growing seasons. Given Ann is still slowly getting better, but still has setbacks physically, this will mostly fall on me. So, updates may slow like they did this time last year.

The eight-page 1966 Jeep News Volume 12 Number 4 announces on page one that KJC would be sponsoring two major golf games. This continues the KJC’s movements into shifting the jeep vehicles away from their utilitarian and agrarian roots, towards family, luxury and fun. That doesn’t mean there was no utilitarian promotion, as page two reported that KJC officials contacted one thousand mosquito abatement administrators to promote the jeeps. Curiously, next to that utilitarian article are three photos of jeeps on the beach with young adults and surfboards.

Page three goes international, with announcements from Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and India. Page four and five provide stories of travel. Page four published a travel piece to Alaska in a Wagoneer by Bill Thomas, who was a travel editor for The Cincinnati Enquirer. Page five showcases a report by Charles R. Meyer, a freelance writer from New York, who took his family on a trip to Nova Scotia in a camper-equipped Gladiator.

Pages six and seven contain a variety of photos and captions, including the announcement of the Rat Patrol series. Page eight highlighted a different show, noting the success of Daktari.
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Roberto Flores’ Latest Work: FC-170

• CATEGORIES: Artists/Drawings, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Roberto recently completed this commissioned FC-170 illustration. Here’s his website.

robert-flores-fc170-commision

You can view some of his illustrative processes in this accompanying video:

 
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September 1965 Jeep Service and Parts News

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This four-page September 1965 Jeep Service and Parts News includes, on the last page, a list of all models and their Vehicle prefix, which is handy given the scarcity of records for this time period. There’s also a short blurb on page three about how the cross pieces under the hood of a Wagoneer could short out the alternator!

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Mid to Late 1940s Willys-Overland Dealer Pencil

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This early jeep pencil has the J logo, which wasn’t corporately used past early 1946, so I’d say this is *likely* from 1945 or 1946.

View all the information on eBay

“WILLYS-CARS, TRUCKS & JEEP/MASSEY-HARRIS *Henry L. Oldham Imp. Co*Blackwell, OK”
This is a rare pencil from early the post WWII era. The printing is slightly faded but well readable being the type of pencil it is.”

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Scott’s “TTT” Tiny Trash Truck

• CATEGORIES: Builds, Features, Fire/Police/Industry Vehicles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Cowboy shared this photo from Scott Ingram, who built a Tiny Trash Truck out of an old DJ-5 (Scott operates a garbage collection firm in Paris, Illinois). I don’t see an obvious seat, so this may only be for show. That’s something I’ve never seen done with a DJ-5.

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September 1966 Eastern European Caravan

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Event, Features, Magazine • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: More information on the goal of Kaiser-Jeep’s 1966 Eastern European Caravan. This article was published on page 7 of the May 14, 1966, issue of International Commerce, a US Department of Commerce Weekly magazine. In it, the Commerce Department’s ostensible goal was as an “imaginative technique to promote U.S. Exports”, as part to the U.S. Government’s continuing effort to promote East-West Trade. It’s possible the trip was underwritten in some form (cash or government favors or both) to encourage Kaiser-Jeep to participate.

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This September 1966 Four Wheeler Magazine article describes the scene when the Kaiser-Jeep sponsored Eastern European Caravan crossed into (then) Czechoslovakia, as a line of restored and refurbed jeeps awaited them. Remember, that no new parts had even available to these die-hard jeep fans since 1946, making their rebuilds even more remarkable. The Prague Jeep Club alone had more than 300 jeeps and 400 members.

The 1966 Jeep News Volume 12 Number 3 has more information.

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1966 Jeep News Volume 12 Number 3

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

The eight-page issue of the 1966 Jeep News Volume 12 Number 3 began with the 1966 Caravan of Jeeps organized by Kaiser Jeep to introduce the jeeps to Eastern European countries (See the next post about a story in the September 1966 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine at the surprise awaiting the caravan in Czechoslovakia).

Page two shows a photo that went viral, in today’s slang, of a Harvey Schaible in a V-8 powered jeep that flew into the air at the top of a hill climb that was part of a Play Day weekend with multiple local clubs attending the event. Page three contains various stories, including a good photo of a TWA-branded airport jeep. Pages four and five continue the story of the Eastern European Caravan.

Page six has fascinating story about the use of 2WD DJ-3As and DJ-5s RHD vehicles (the DJ-5 having been launched in 1966), some converted to automatic transmissions, for use as spay vehicles.

Page seven reports on the use of jeeps to travel a portion of the Oregon Trail between Vale and Farewell Bend, Oregon. Some of this area would be passable by I-84 in 1975, but even today some of the original trail traveled in 1966 is still evident (see this map, which shows a partial area between Vale and Farewell Bend).

Page eight has multiple stories, including a photo and short report on Mr. Diamant and his family, who were traveling in a Gladiator Camper. There’s a longer story and a map of their travels here.

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April 1964 Jeep Service and Parts News

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This four-page issue of the April 1964 Jeep Service and Parts News includes an exploded view of the T-89 side-shift transmission. It also appears to have a useful side image of how the J-series gas pedal operates, along with how to make adjustments (I’m not familiar with them).

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1966 Jeep News Volume 12 Number 1

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

The eight-page Jeep News Volume 12 Number 1 kicked off 1966 with the news that sales increased 23% and, surprising to me, special equipment sales jumped almost 42%. Given the increase in Wagoneers and Gladiator sales, I would think the special equipment numbers would be falling, as I thought a shift was happening away from the notion of utility vehicles in favor of “fun” and family vehicles. I’d be curious to know what was driving those equipment sales.

Page two is mostly dealer news, while page three continues a page-one discussion of the anti-skid, safely and traction capabilities of the Wagoneer and Gladiator jeeps. Page four highlights the use of larger magazine images.

Page five goes international and includes an article about Mrs. Welthy H. Fisher, an 85-year-old literacy advocate, who raised funds for a Wagoneer-turned-traveling-library, which she used to deliver books to folks in India as part of a function of Literacy Village, a program she launched at age 73. From her photo, I’d never guess she was 85.

Page six features Sinclair Oil’s Wagoneer, which traveled with a touring exhibit featuring a flatbed trailer with nine large animatronic dinosaurs. I wonder whatever happened to those dinosaurs. Here is a pic of them floating down the Hudson River circa 1964:

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Page seven reported on the unexpected 4WD display at a Florida Airstream gathering of almost 1500 trailers. Mud had forced many of the trailers to be towed into the site via tractor, but the fact that Florida Outdoorsman John Wilhelm had a Wagoneer capable of puling his trailer into the site without issue seems to have spurred interest in his jeep. Page eight highlights the use of jeeps in Detroit Mine, something covered by Jeep News previously and other sources.

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Seats N Stuff

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

A big thanks to Craig Brockhaus for selling me some original FC-170 seats and his last electric wiper conversion unit, along with a few other parts. They arrived on Wednesday. The seats need some recovering and the set frames some blasting, but we planned to recover them in the same material that the bench seats will be covered, so we expect these are a good solution for us.

As for the electric wiper unit, yes the tour jeep is a convertible and we should rarely need wipers, but there have been times where I’ve driven through irrigation or other forms of water around here, so I figure it’s better to have working wipers than non working ones.

My hope is to use the stock bracket to mount the steering wheel, but I won’t know for sure until I can test-mount the tilt-steering wheel based on the seat position and dash. But, just having the stock bracket helps me estimate where to begin with the column mount options.

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Meanwhile, I am also moving as much of the wiring and other elements down to the frame so that when I have to pull the cab, it’s as simple as possible. The cab floors and some interior dog house elements could use some blasting, sanding and smoothing. But, that’s not something I want to tackle at this juncture. Mechanics, so it can be safely driven, and a new bed are the priority.

 
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July 1963 Jeep Service and Parts News

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

The July 1963 Jeep Service and Parts News page three includes some important tips about towing a jeep vehicle with an automatic transmission. Page four provides an exploded view of a Dana 20 transmission.

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October 1954 Comm and Jeep Sales Bltn Western Plow

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Documents, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

On October 28, 1954, Kaiser Willys announced the addition of The Western Duty Snow Plows to the Special Equipment line.

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Some Vintage of Photos of Folks w/ Jeeps

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Blaine spotted this thread on Curbsideclassic.com that shows some vintage photos of average folks and their jeeps.

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/vintage-snapshots-and-photography/vintage-snapshots-early-jeep-adopters/#comment-1776492

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1965 Jeep News Volume 11 Number 6

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This eight-page holiday  issue is the final issue of 1965 (only 6 issues produced). Page one introduces the first luxury Wagoneer, the Jeep Super Wagoneer. Page two highlights the growing demand for contract plowing. Page three continues the luxury wagon discussion, while also noting that parts can make an “attractive store display”; so, when you start hanging parts in the living room, just show your partner this article and how it can be actually attractive (good luck with that, lol).

Pages four and five share more on Gladiator and Wagoneer vehicles. Page six shows off an unusual display in Peru, while the new Kaiser Argentina Model 101 four-door jeep is depicted. Page seven shares news on the Afton Canyon excursion in Southern California, which is the first I’ve heard of this annual trip. It drew 398 vehicles in 1965.

Page eight includes a story on a New Jersey M-38 fire jeep. Also on the page is a photo of Col. Dave Harbour, an outdoor writer who drove his wagon 100,000 miles, being presented with a model jeep, but I can’t tell what kind of model it is.

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January 1963 Jeep Service and Parts News

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This four-page issue of the January 1963 Jeep Service and Parts News focuses on the J-Series vehicles.

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1965 Jeep News Volume 11 Number 4

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This eight-page issue of the 1965 Jeep News volume 11 Number 4 begins with the Vigilante engine billboards, along with a strange story of a hardware merchant using pennies and dollars to buy a jeep only for the jeep dealer to return the favor and buy a washer and dryer from said merchant using pennies, but this time ones bathed in syrup and oil!

Page two contains various pics, while page three includes the story of a Jeepster that looked like new despite having been driven 332,800 miles! His rigorous attention to maintenance was key to his Jeepster’s great condition; it may not surprise you to learn that he worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I wonder what happened to that Kentucky-based jeep.

Page four showcases some international stories, while page five contains another story about Kent Frost and his southern Utah tours out of Monticello, Utah. Page six includes an article about the use of f-head engines in Miller’s Trailblazer welders, while page seven highlights Allen and Phyllis Ellis, who travelled extensively in Mexico in their 1959 CJ-5 (which may have been nicknamed El Osito, which apparently translates to ‘the bear’).  Page eight highlights the use of Wagoneers at the 1964-1965 New York City World’s Fair.

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FC Tour Jeep – Brake MC & Bracket & Other Details

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

My poor wife has been down with neck and shoulder spasms for the past two weeks, so time with the FC has been limited. She’s finally feeling a little better, though still unable to drive and do a variety of tasks. At least she has less pain.

In the meantime, I’ve been gathering/making what I have needed to assembling the dual-mc brake setup. The goal was to move the MC back between the brackets so that it is completely hidden under the dash using as many stock components as I could. I mostly followed Steve’s design, but mine is an 1/8inch wider to accommodate the nylon washers.

To the setup I’ve also added Chev brake light switch (left over from disassembly). I happened to have a leftover spring bolt with a zerk fitting that will allow me to apply grease to the brake pedal pivot if necessary (I am waiting to trim down the bolt in case I the end for smoother purpose, such as an extra anchor point of the steering column. To each side of the pedal pivot I’ve added two thin nylon washers which should reduce metal wear between the pivot and the brackets.

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I am unsure what direction I want the MC fluid tops to point. The reservoirs will likely hang on the firewall, but that’s TBD.
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December 1962 Jeep Service and Parts News

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This year ending December 1962 Jeep Service and Parts News includes an index page of 1962 topics. A short blurb on page two highlights the desire of some folks to switch their column shift DJ-3A to cane shift. The column shift as a novelty is neat, but it’s not something to be forced. It feels delicate (to me) when shifting. If I were driving the DJ on a regular basis, I would change it a cane shifter.

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Koenig-Branded Pocket Knife

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Barney Goodwin shared pics of this Koenig-branded knife he bought off of eBay. If you visit his shop in Ohio, you can see this plus other rare items in his shop’s display case.

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1945 Parts List for the Universal Four Wheel Drive Booklet

• CATEGORIES: Documents, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Branden scored on this rare, early 1945 print of a Parts List for the Universal Four Wheel Drive booklet. The use of the “J” logo so prominently is unusual. You can view my discussion of the “J” logo’s short history here.

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December 1954 Jeep-A-Trench Added to Spec Equip List

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Documents, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This December 20, 1954, Commercial and Jeep Sales Bulletin introduced the Auburn Jeep-A-Trench to the Willys Special Equipment Line. No brochure was included with this document (unless it was removed).

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May 1949 Salesbuilder

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This issue May 1949 Salesbuilder has seen some better days, but the info matters more to me than the condition. The cover boasts about “smooth” the new Jeepster is, but I never discovered what was so “smooth” about it, unless the company was referring to the new fabric top?

Most interesting to me was the pic on the last page, lower right. It shows the Palmer Dealership sitting right next to a Koenig sign, leading me to wonder if somehow the two businesses were related at some point? I knew both were out of Houston, but it never occurred to me that they might be connected.

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October 1954 Willys Adds Gran Hydraulic Lifter to Spec Equip List

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE III: This is a merge post, adding a nicer scan of the Commercial and Jeep Sales Bulletin, this one dated October 29, 1954, to the original Gran Hydraulic Lifter history post. This doc welcomes the Gran Hydraulic Lifter to the Willys Special Equipment list.

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More on Military DJ-5s

• CATEGORIES: DJ-5 & DJ-6, Features, Old Images This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Gayland shared these photos showing the military DJ-5s offered by AMC in the early 1970s. Time has tinted the images. The “brown” Army jeeps are actually OD green for the Army, while the Navy “white” jeeps may actually be haze gray.

US Army Jeep Photo:

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US Navy Jeep Photo:

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Rest of US Army photos:
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Refrigerant Tank Folk Art Jeep

• CATEGORIES: Features, Models This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Roger Martin spotted this unusual jeep made from longs and a refrigerant tank. It sold on Facebook for $55 in just a day.

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