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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 .
No date on this photo of Joseph K. Brown checking this 1952/early 1953 M-38A1. There’s a possibility that this could be Joseph K. Brown who served in the Korean War and died in 2013.
View all the information on eBay
“Press Photo Joseph Brown checks the motor of a jeep for the workout. This is an original press photo. Sgt. 1/c Joseph K. Brown checks the motor of a jeep in preparation for the workout during the three-day exercises.Photo measures 10 x 8.25inches. Photo is dated –none.”
UPDATE: SOLD. Joe in Mesa snagged this one.
This Oglesby model is missing the trailer and the windshield. The front bumper is broke as well. But, it’s only $29.99 (with $15 shipping) or less with the Make Offer option. Bidding ends at 4:19PST today.
“Vintage 1950’s Oglesby Cast Aluminum Willy’s Jeep . Condition is Used. Shipping priority need a little dusting has bumper damage on the corners missing windshield has paint loss hub caps little loose but can be fix it rolls great sold as is”
Mark shared this article about bumper ropes by Gene Olsen, who also sells ropes he makes through various dealers including Army Jeep Parts.
http://warjeeps.com/articles/BumperRope/WJBumperRopeArticle.html
I can’t imagine there is much value here. I’ve never seen one of these. Looks home made.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1375313335985314/
“Wooden and metal Jeep for sale. I don’t know much about it due to receiving it as a debt payment. I am open to offers.”
UPDATE: A reader named Jim actually served on the USS Slater. He spotted this post from 2013 and had some insights into the real history behind the USS Slater jeep:
I was pursuing the many facets of ewillys when I found a page with our jeep (the USS Slater jeep) ! I got a good laugh when I got to the last picture of it (the plaque).
This is why:
First, this is our jeep a number of years ago in a parade.
Way back when, some “idiot” member of the board thought it would be an idea to auction off the jeep. No one knew what happened to it after that. Then, several years ago I went on a hunt for it. I found it! Where? The Chrysler Traveling Museum”! Apparently, the auction winner had sold it. (to a museum?)
Then, in the picture on eWillys I see on the plaque (last pic below) where it says “This particular vehicle was owned by the US Navy and served on the USS Slater”(during Korea).
Well just to correct their version of history, during the Korean War the Slater had already been given to Greece where she served for the next 45 years in the Hellenic Navy! DE’s (Destroyer Escorts) did not usually have jeeps. because they couldn’t fit them onboard!
My search for the jeep got me to Chrysler and I emailed them. Not that I would expect them to give it back, but…. Then I get this email back:
The funny thing is all this is happening just months after the posting on your site in October of 2013! I especially like how a so-called “historian” believed how it came to be!
Well, according to this letter they were still touring the country in 2014 (which answers your “where is it now” question from 2013)!
When I am finished with my jeep and she is all lettered up as the USS Slater jeep, I think Chrysler may have a little competition!
Ciao for now,
Jim
==========================
Originally Published 2013:
Joe shot these photos back in May of 2005. He writes, “I visited this DiamlerChrysler Corp. traveling exhibit in Virginia Beach, VA back in 2005, photographed it and posted the story on the G503.com website back then. (when the ewillys.com concept was but a dream for sometime in the future.) I’ve included the link for you to read as background and to share with your readers. I found the follow-up comments by other G503 members the most interesting based on their expert knowledge/experience of the subject.”
Anyone know if they still run the traveling exhibit?
http://g503.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=61931
UPDATE: This post has been updated with more pics. Also, there is currently a Kelly Hub brochure on eBay.
In May of 1957, DA Ruben L. Beck filed a patent for a new hub design. Beck was a dreamer and like many dreamers, some saw him a genius while others thought him just plain crazy. Beck’s goal was to create a simple, but effective, four-wheel-drive hub.
Beck had already made an early impact in the jeep world, when he founded D.L. Beck Manfucaturing in Middleport, Ohio, a company that made hardtops (see Beck hardtop history here).
Beck sold his hardtop company to Hubert A. Kelly, in the 1950s but Beck and Kelly remained in contact. The date of the sale, thought once to be 1951, is less clear after this document hit eBay in 2014. It indicates Beck was still selling hardtops in 1954.
No matter when the sale occurred, Hubert took control. It wasn’t long after the patent filing that Mike Kelly, Hubert Kelly’s descendent, remembered seeing the hubs for the first time. He thought that was about 1958. I asked that he review the patent and Mike sent me the following notes:
“The Kelly Self Locking Hub I knew a was little different than the one pictured in the patent drawing. The housing was larger in diameter and had reliefs milled along the outside to allow clearance for the mounting bolts. The internal parts looked very similar to what I remember. I’m pretty sure the final Kelly product was a Beck design. I don’t recall anyone else working on it.
The hubs were manufactured in Charleston West Virginia. We already had an large machine shop there on Broad St. So moving production from Ohio to West Virgina was only logical. I know the assembling the hubs could be “interesting” if you weren’t watching what you were doing. Putting the internal workings together with the ball bearings being under spring pressure woke up more than one man who wasn’t paying attention.”
This was taken shortly after the start (06/25/195) of the Korean War.
View all the information on eBay
“1950 Press Photo US patrol jeeps move along the Naktong River dike. This is an original press photo. South Korea — A U.S. patrol jeep moves along the dike of the Naktong River on the lookout for North Korean infiltration. First Cavalry patrols crossed the Naktong to assess damage done by a B-29 attack on Communist positions.Photo measures 9 x 7.25inches. Photo is dated 08-16-1950.”
This early Warn manual No. WD-255 sold on eBay for $36.20. My last bid was $35.20, so someone out there outbid me.
In 1949, Willys-Overland halved the number of ads in the Montana Farmer-Stockman from 1948’s eight ads to only four. This may underscore the financial issues Willys-Overland was facing.
The first ad was published January 15, 1949:
This unusual set of drawings highlight some Parkway Conversion details and some DJ-3A Hardtop details. Each sheet is 29″x18″. Asking price is $47.50.
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“”Jeep Model CJ-3A Dispatcher”, Plans for the Parkway Conversion Utility Delivery Vehicle canopy assembly and attachment, by the writers and illustrators of Willys-Overland Motors, Toledo, Ohio. No Copyright, but a 1956 date. Published by Jeep, Willys Motors, Toledo Ohio. NOT Ex-Library. Note – the photos you see are of these diagram sheets – no ‘Stock Photos’.
A tight firm clean set of three sheets, each 29″ x 18″, each detailing the assembly and attachment of these canopies to the Jeep CJ-3A vehicle of that day. clean and very well illustrated pages.
Sheet 1, illustrated with paragraphs of text, dated March 1958;
Sheet 2, Close-up with all dimensions including window dimensions and attachment detail;
Sheet 3, An Isometric view with attachment directions.
A splendid set of plans for that splendid old barn find or the Jeep Dispatcher passed down to you. Direct from a postwar Jeep dealer’s library. No dogears, No mustiness, No smoke smell. Splendid for the owner rebuilding that old find. We do try to describe them correctly – We want you back as a customer – hundreds of repeat customers.
A wonderful set of directions for the Mechanic, collector, historian, author. No names. Darkenings but no markings. NOT Ex-library. NOT Remainder-marked. We combine S&H on multiple purchases. Check out our eBay store – Navalperson 2 – Navalperson Books and More – 1,600 and more items waiting for you there. Buy with confidence – over 30,000 satisfied Internet buyers can’t be wrong!! Don’t let this one get by you – this is a marvelous Jeep find.”
Now that’s a load!
View all the information on eBay
“This Auction is for a 1940’s real photo travel trailer postcard of a Jeep pulling a trailer Good used condition ”
Seller’s asking price is $295. The contents are likely very similar to this one, which has been scanned and made available for free.
View all the information on eBay
“”Product Merchandising Manual” by the writers and illustrators of Willys Motors and Willys-Overland Export Corporation, Toledo Ohio. No Copyright information. Assembled and Published by Willys and the Jeep Division in the early 1950s – we make a presumption of 1955 based on the Jeep CJ-5 described herein., Presumed First Edition, NOT Ex-Library. No ISBN. Note – the photos you see are of this binder and sections no ‘Stock Photos’.
A tight firm clean binder containing Forty (I through XL) tabbed sections of promotion information for the Jeep dealer to sell Jeeps to the public. The purpose-made three-ring binder is deep blue/yellow-green lettered and decorated with the large Willys ‘W’, although the information is for Jeep. The binder is 11 1/2″ x 11 1/2″ if you count the big graceful curve of the 3 1/4″ spine. The hinges for the binder are separately hinged so the binder could hold additional information as developed by Willys and Jeep. The pages are 11″ x 8 1/2″ with 3/8″ color-coded plasticized tabs identifying the sections. Those sections, again, total 40. Continue reading
Mark Smith was the leader of the 1978 Jeep Expedition of the Americas (also known as the Expedicion de Las America), a 20,000-mile, 120 day odyssey that covered the Americas. Much of the trip was on roads, with the offloading of the the Darien Gap, the section of land between Colombia and Panama, the focus of the trip.
The narrator in the movie notes, rather dramatically and erroneously, that the Gap had only been crossed once before by the British Army. In fact, the Darien Gap had been crossed at least once before in 1960 by a group in a Landrover and a Willys truck, the story of which was published in National Geographic and clearly titled “We Drove Panama’s Darien Gap“. Though Frank and Helen Schreider drove the entire length of the Americas in their SEEP, Tortuga, in 1954, one place they didn’t attempt to drive, but instead floated around, was the Darien Gap.
Fortunately for us, the 1978 trip was captured on video, so we can enjoy some of what they saw during their adventure. Vimeo currently has a twenty-seven minute video of the trip. It’s a little dated at times, but still interesting to watch:
This April 01, 1949, article by Jack Cady highlighted the effort of Lou Morris to deliver the mail in a CJ-2A navigating the Wild Horse Trail from Havre to Canada during Montana’s winter of 1949.
This ad appeared in the October 14, 1954, issue of Oregon’s Heppner Gazette Times. It includes an illustration of the new CJ-3B. It also shows that some KW logos appeared in newspaper ads for a short time.
This ad appeared the following week (October 21, 1954) in the same newspaper with similar elements.
In case anyone’s interested, Four Wheeler ran an article by Verne Simons about making seat covers.
https://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/body-chassis/cj-2a-seats/
This eBay auction features a set of Las Brisas Menus from 1973 that include images of pink DJ-3A Galas on the front.
View all the information on eBay
I bet this kid grew up to be an FC kind of guy. He looks very serious about jeeps!
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“You are bidding on a Nice Vintage Young Boy & 1957 Jeep FC-150/FC-170 Pickup Truck Decorated Crepe Streamers Photograph.
Very nice condition.
Great photo view showing young boy wearing suit & tie, posing beside classic 1957-1958 Jeep FC-150/FC-170 pickup truck. Decorated with crepe paper streamers & sign. Parked in front of church, possibly wedding event.
Border edge has processing/developer date stamp: 1/58 – Church sign has Aug 25, 1957 date.”
UPDATE: I mistakenly list a September 1949 Ad as a September 1948 ad. I removed that, so now there are only seven ads on this post.
Willys-Overland ran a series of Universal Jeep and Truck ads in the Montana Farmer-Stockman newspaper through 1948. The ads for the Universal Jeep focused on farming and ranching and appear most, but not all months (The paper is archived at the Library of Congress and appears to have been a bi-monthly publication). Below are seven ads I could find. In 1949, the number dropped to only 4 ads.
No February Ad
Someone on Facebook claimed that hood strips were a factory option, though without specificity as to which model of jeep in which time period such an option was offered. I was not aware of this option nor have I seen any documentation for such an option. Of course, I’ve seen plenty of jeeps for sale with hood strips, but never saw much consistency among the designs.
So, anyone know 1) were hood strips ever a factory option? 2) were they ever a dealer option? 3) were they ever featured as a special equipment option? 4) if any of these are true, does anyone have documentation?
Here’s an example of wood strips:
From the CJ-3B Page: https://www.cj3b.info/Tech/HoodProblems.html
Roger spotted this unusual toy with an etched-in jeep grille.
View all the information on eBay
“You’re getting the vintage wood folk art toy shown. 5″ red jeep. Nice overall condition”
This old package of Buckeye Silver Liquid Iron includes an endorsement by Willys Motors, Inc.
View all the information on eBay
“THIS AUCTION IS FOR ONE/1 USED RARE/VINTAGE ORIGINAL BOX CONTAINING BUCKEYE SILVER SHIELD LIQUID IRON TESTED & INDORSED BY WILLYS MOTORS.
MADE BY BUCKEYE PAINT AND CHEMICAL CORP. OF TOLEDO OHIO, ALSO HOME OF THE WILLYS JEEP.
ITS A 2 PART ADHESIVE AND FILLER. BOTH PARTS ARE IN THE BOX.
THE HARDENER IS STILL IN LIQUID FORM. THE LIQUID IRON LOOKS MORE OF A PASTE. I DID NOT OPEN EITHER ONE OF THE CONTAINERS.
GREAT GRAPHICS ON BOX. GREAT IMAGE OF A WILLYS JEEP CJ5.”
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $25.
This Moriarty Brothers (Manchester, CT) Willys Jeep Key Ring a neat little piece. Some history behind that dealership.
“estate sale find : vintage 1960’s Willys Jeep Keys I was told and leather clip key chain. Back side says Willy’s- Jeep , and front side says : Moriarty Brothers inc. Manchester Connecticut. Lincoln-mercury, Meteor-comet . Phone mitchel 3-5135.”
I purchased this cool booklet off of eBay. It has some great pics. I’ll share once it arrives.
