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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 .
This Kelly brochure provides a good closeup on how the tire carrier mounted to the rear of the jeep. You can see that it bolted to both tailgate hinges and to the center. (view more rear tire carriers/jerry can carriers here)
This set of Kayline Soft Top brochures cover Kayline’s Delux Quality, Kaylux Quality, and Convertible soft tops. These brochures also suggest that, as of 1958, Kayline was not working with Kelly Manufacturing yet.
These brochures from the mid-1970s highlight the Ski/Luggage racks offered by Kayline. The top brochure also shows Kayline’s ‘Sunliner’ soft top, which features windows on the top’s roof to let in light and improve visibility.
This brochure page included actually swatches of the denim used in making Tan and Blue tops. I have a tan Kayline Denim convertible top, but have not compared the swatch to the top yet.
UPDATE: This 2012 post has been updated to reflect the existence of two different Sta-Bar Kits.
Two different manufactures (were there any others?) offered stabilizing kits that were meant to reduce some of the horizontal shifting that can occur when using a rear lift.
Here’s a detail look at a Monroe 3pt Hitch without a stabilizer hit.
The Roper Manufacturing Company out of Zanesville, Ohio, manufactured a set of bars that pivoted on special vertical plates attached to the ends of the PTO bar and attached to the lower links as highlighted below:
Here’s the Roper Sta-Bar Kit brochure:
The Green Manufacturing Company’s Green Star-Bar Kit has bars that appear to attach to the outside of the lower links in a similar manner to the Roper kit. I can’t tell how the kit attaches to the PTO bar or how that might differ from the Roper setup. The pricing shows it was slightly less expensive than the Roper Sta-Bar Kit.
Givnethe camera, his *might* be a press photo crew of some sort? The square appearing gas tank suggests this might be an early MB. For some reason, the seller thinks this photo is a “Original 1910’s WWI Photo”, which would indeed be a rare photo, lol.
View all the information on eBay
“Vintage Original 1910’s WWI PRESS PHOTO
Size – 8 x 10 inches”
Only a few posts for Wednesday. I’ve begun re-organizing some of our older trips (Southwest Spring FC Roundup 2013 trip for example) to make navigating the pages easier. It turned out to be much more work than I’d planned, as I hadn’t gotten the hang yet of traveling and documenting a trip. My goal is to get them all organized in one section of the site … So, just a few updates for today.
If you want to see (or re-see) our 2013 Southwest trip, here it is:
http://www.ewillys.com/2013/03/18/2013-marchapril-trip-to-the-fc-roundup-and-the-southwest/
April 1, 2013, Cathedral Valley, Capital Reef National Park, Utah
A few years ago Mark Smith published this great video about Craig’s tour jeep. Somehow I missed seeing it. They are really fun to ride around town.
Mark Smith (JeepTruck.com) and Drew Norman (The Jeep Farm) teamed up again for another video:
UPDATE: Was on eBay.
This oddity was auctioned on eBay in 2020. It’s a neat piece for the right person; I haven’t decided it I’m the right person or not yet.
“A splendid advertising promotion for a Factory-funded contest between dealers to sell Kaiser Jeep products. 7 1/4″ x 7 1/2″, slick illustrated paper with a very thin record of the same size, typical of a 45-RPM record – but in this case meant to be played at 33 1/3-RPM.
Jeep Sales Circus contest – undated;
Prepared under the Kaiser Jeep name – inaugurated 1963;
Kaiser Jeep address uses the Postal Code (Toledo 1, Ohio) which was discontinued in 1963 with the inauguration of Zip Codes;
Dealers could win points with each Jeep sale or with Jeep parts, Accessories sales;
No discussion about what you’d win;
Kaiser sponsorship of The Greatest Show on Earth” TV program – ABC-TV – the series ran for one year, 1963-1964.
A splendid and very uncommon sales promotion. Note – a glued strip attached the record to the brochure – directions called for the cover to be folded under the record and the back cover, and played on your record player in that format – the brochure and the record all show the center hole drill. This record was detached from the glued strip.”
This April 30, 1950, ad in the Evening Star is another example of Willys-Overland seemingly targeting the same demographic for both vehicles. And that seems to be a reasonable approach. I haven’t investigated how often the company did this in their advertising yet.
Maury spotted these schematic drawings for sale of various Willys Jeep vehicles on eBay. Each appears to be 8.5″ x 11″.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/goodstuff013/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=
CJ-6:
WAGONS (several options … eBay):
A big thanks to Barney Goodwin (of Barneys Jeep Parts) for sending me this early edition of the Kaiser Willys News. This is issue #3. A couple interesting things about this issue. Perhaps the biggest curiosity is that there isn’t much related to jeeps in this issue, confirming that even by early 1954 there was still a lot of integration still going on. Issue #2, seen in the post below, also didn’t have much information related to jeeps. Volume 4 of the newspaper, which appeared in May (and can be seen below the #2 issue), had a few more jeep specific references.
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was on eBay. This is a March 1, 1954, issue of Kaiser Willys News (issue #2)
There is some jeep info in the newspaper, but mostly its about the cars.
This May 1954 issue of Kaiser Willys News is one I only have available in these smaller pics snagged off eBay back in 2013. There is a story about the Yakima ridge runners and the Jeep Rodeo, but it’s too small to read.
Here’s a shoutout to Barney for the Kaiser Willys Newspaper seen at top.
Not sure about the price, but a fun idea.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/490500534981786/
“1950’s Willys Showroom. 1/43 “O” scale. Homebuilt as shown. 2 vehicles included. Removeable roof to reveal detailed interior. Nice display piece OR use on your layout.Total footprint of model 17 1/2x 13″ $150. will consider delivery,local–no shipping. P.M. for cell and details”
I got a great deal on this hard-to-find Fire Truck brochure on eBay last week. This is form W-240-5.
This photo of a Bantam BRC-40 advertising for the Butler County, Pennsylvania, war chest is undated. It was posted to Facebook by the Butlers Standard Eight, a group the preserves early vehicle related information pertaining to Butler County.
This WWII photo of the Willys-Overland Factory was shared with me by a couple different folks and was being shared on Facebook. Jerry Huber remembers driving on that wooden platform seen in the upper left of the photo.
Jerry wrote, “It was basically a wooden ramp supported with steel that ran from ground level to the roof of the 5 story structure of the main building complex. There are some pics of the MB’s parked on the roof that are also pretty cool. I usually drove that ramp daily when I was at the Plant and often parked up there. Going up and down that ramp was truly like being in a “time tunnel”.”
UPDATE: In 2019 I posted a patent filed in September 28, 1946, for a “body attachment”. Yesterday, on an unrelated search, I discovered the names of the same parties, under a different lawyer, related to a patent filed a month earlier (August 12, 1946) for a “body extension” for a jeep. The second patent is more detailed (seen at bottom) than the early one. Both were approved on the same date: June 5, 1951. See most of the body extensions produced over the years in this post.
Filed August 12, 1946:
Attorney Roy Whittington assigned half this patent to William Isler and half, jointly, to Julius Negin and Ludwig Gaspar, the two who also filed the patent at bottom. The whys are likely lost to history.
PATENT DESCRIPTION: June 5, 1951 R. D. WHITTINGTON BODY EXTENSION FOR MOTOR VEHICLES Filed Aug. 12, 1946 A TTORNEY.
Patented June 5, 1951 BODY EXTENSION FOR MOTOR VEHICLES Roy D. Whittington, Belton, M0., assignor of onehalf to William Isler and one-half to Julius A. -Negin and Ludwig J. Gaspar, J r., jointly, all of Cleveland, Ohio Application August 12, 1946, Serial No. 690,019 3 Claims. (01. 296-28) The present invention relates to vehicle-construction, and particularly to commercial vehicles such as trucks and the like, and aims to provide a practical form of extension for the body portion of such vehicles.
The invention has special reference tothe commercial type of motor vehicles such as have been known generally as jeeps in the army service, and which has a body of limited proportions and some forms of which have .an endgate at the rear end of the body. 7
Accordingly an object of the invention is to provide an extension of the body structure of this type of vehiclein the form of an accessory unit which is adapted to be mounted in the manner of a replacement for the endgate of the .vehiclebody and to receive said engate as a supplemental attachment serving the endgate function for said accessory unit….
Patent filed September 28, 1946:
I can only guess that this design was used by Newgren, as I *think* it was the only firm that built a collapsable body extension. The only thing is that Newgren had double supports, while the patent only shows a single support underneath.
PATENT DESCRIPTION: ATTORNEY Patented June 5, 1951 BODY ATTACHMENT FOR JEEPS Julius A. Negin, East Cleveland, and Ludwig J.
Gaspar, Jr., Cleveland, Ohio, assignors of onehalf to William Isler, Cleveland, Ohio Application September 28, 1946, Serial No. 700,006
11 Claims. 1
This invention relates, as indicated, to body attachments for vehicles of the type known as Jeeps.
As is well known, this type of vehicle, which was developed and extensively used during World War II, is coming into general usage for commercial purposes, but its use for such purposes is somewhat limited on account of its body shape and dimensions.
Another factor which has inhibited the use of this type of vehicle for commercial purposes is the fact that the spare tire or spare wheel of the vehicle is conventionally carried at the side of and adjacent the rear end of the body of the vehicle, in which position, it is so remote from the plane defined by the wheels of the vehicle as to constitute a hazard, particularly when attempting to park the vehicle in city streets.
The present invention has as its primary object the provision of an attachment or extension for the body of a vehicle of this type, which attachment or extension materially increases the carrying capacity of the vehicle. Continue reading
UPDATE: This brochure originally appeared on eBay in 2013. This image recently popped up on Facebook along side an actual Jack. So, I’ve included that image with this 1956 Brochure:
“Year: 1956
Type: Original Print Ad
Grade: Very Fine ++
Authentication: Dual Certificates
Image: Two-Color
Approximate Size (inches): 7.75 x 11
Approximate Size (cm): 20 x 28
Description and Condition
This is an original 1956 two-color print ad for the Jeep-Jack, from the Blackhawk Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
UPDATE: Don makes some good points in his comment below as to why there might not be any MBs pictured.
The January 1942 issue of Scientific American included an article titled “Meet the Jeep”, one I’ve been waiting about 7 years to snag. For some reason, though MBs were already being produced, no images of the MB were included. Instead, the first image shows a Ford GP. The second photo shows a Bantam BRC-40 T2E1.
UPDATE II: This version of the Power-Lock brochure was posted to eWillys in May of 2023.
I hadn’t seen this version of the Cutlas Power-Lock brochure. Given the 1959 date, this is likely one of the earliest Power-Lock brochures. This brochure doesn’t not include a form number.
======================
UPDATE April 16, 2020: The bottom brochure examples show a brochure from 1958, probably Cutlas’ first one. You’ll note that the brochure (and the hub itself) was branded “Power-Lock”. However, the 1960 brochure (shown just below this text) lacks any “Power-Lock”branding. Perhaps someone else knows why, but I can find no reason why. Maybe there was some concern about whether the patent would be awarded? (It wasn’t awarded until 1962).
1960 Cutlas Hub Brochure:
============================
Originally posted Feb of 2019:
This Power-Lock was the first hub patented (1958), copyrighted (1958), and sold under the Cutlas brand. As I mention in my Free-Lock article, for reasons unknown, the president of Free-Lock became the president of Cutlas. Even more curious, the last two model of Free-Lock hubs were WL-57 and WL-58.
And, what was the Initial model of the first Cutlas hub you ask? That would be WL-6, shown below (1958 Cutlas Hub Brochure):
UPDATE: This was originally posted in 2012, but it’s worth a repost.
Dad never had an overdrive in his jeep, but did have this catalog (No. 1842). I suspect he built a few of these for Al Carroll.
I’ve attached a few random pictures below, but the PDF link includes all the pages and is downloadable to your computer.
http://www.ewillys.com/pdf/Warn-Overdrive-Parts-Catalog.pdf
I bought these two items off of eBay. If I understand correctly, these are mats, produced by the Congress Electrotype Company, were formed from an original engraving. They were then placed wrapped onto a cylinder with other mats to form a newspaper (or magazine?) page. A metal mold is then created from that, which is used to print the pages.
I had erroneously assumed when purchasing them that they would be thick, heavy metal plates (before I understood how the process worked), but they are actually extremely light and pliable. I assume these were extras, never used? They may be a paper mâché of some type (they are that light), which was one of the processes historically used, or something similar,
I’ve taken pics from above and at an angle to show the depth. I have to say that I’m not really sure these were worth buying, but I doubt many survived (these are the first I’ve ever seen anywhere).
This wagon ad is 10″ tall by 6″ wide:
I was able to locate an example of this ad, but it’s a poor example (If you have a newspapers.com subscription, you’ll be able to see it more clearly):
