Here’s a simple, unusual postcard with a jeep-like vehicle.
Features Research Archives
1954 Utility Ambulance Brochures
The first brochure, Form W-230-5, is the domestic brochure. The second brochure, Form SX-230-4, was released by the Willys-Overland Export Company.
There are small differences between the two brochures on both the front and back pages. The interior pages are the same.
Form SX-230-4:
1954 4WD Ambulance Brochures
The first brochure, Form W-228-5, is the domestic brochure. The second brochure, Form SX-228-4, was released by the Willys-Overland Export Company.
There are small differences between the brochures on three of the four pages.
Form SX-228-4:
CJ-2A Brochure & Price List on eBay
Maury spotted this pair. The price list is pretty interesting. Here’s another CJ-2A price list example.
Pink Sands Paddy Wagon Postcard on eBay
No pic of the backside of this postcard from the Bahamas, presumably the pink sands area. I had no luck searching for more info on the web.
View all the information on eBay
“Jeep called the Pink Sands Paddy Wagon. Card in very good condition. Free shipping.”
1956 News Photo Introducing the FC-150
This photo and caption was published in the December 13, 1956, Madera Daily News-Tribune.
Baldwin ‘Jeep’ Loader Brochure
This brochure was available via eBay at some point. The images are from worth point. Cool brochure! You can see other loaders and images at this Farm Collector page.
Here’s a brochure posted back in 2013 of a 1948 Baldwin brochure:
1954 Sedan Delivery Brochure
This is the Willys-Overland Export Corporation version of this style of brochure, form SX-227-4:
Domestic version of brochure, Form W-227-5 (images from eBay):
1955 Station Wagon Brochure
1955 Station Wagon brochure form W-221-5 (see W-221-4, predecessor to this brochure):
1955 Jeep Vehicles and Equipment Cut Costs Brochure
This 24 page brochure is labeled form W-992-5. An article about the brochure was published in May 1955 issue of the Willys Dealer News.
1954 No Matter What You Grow for Profit Brochure
1953 Ben Eastman Fruit Basket Post Card on eBay
Maury spotted this unusual postcard. The starting auction price is a crazy $39.95, but it’s a pretty cool postcard none-the-less.
View all the information on eBay
“Wow! This is a wonderful vintage 1953 postmarked postcard. Scene shows a view of the Big Flowing Orange and Ben Eastman Family on a Jeep at their Citrus Stand in Sebring, FLA. Postcard is in very good condition with some light wear and is postally used.”
1947 Jeep Or Tractor Brochure
Here’s a brochure (Form 471A10) that I missed on eBay last year (and that I’ve never seen).
Text from eBay ad: “This listing is for a Rare Vintage 1947 Universal Jeep Book titled Jeeps or Tractors in the Farm Plan. This booklet is 17 pages, measures 8×10, made in USA, form 471A10. This book compares using a tractor to a Jeep on the farm. The item “RARE Vintage 1947 Willys Jeep or Tractor Brochure Farm Plowing Comparison Book”” (from this page)
Willys Courtesy Sign New Jersey $675
I’m not sure how much these signs run these days.
https://southjersey.craigslist.org/atq/d/paulsboro-willys-sign/7053326937.html
“From the 40s! 8 out of ten in quality! We have had this for decades! 675 dollars or best offer.”
Old Novak Catalog Cover
UPDATE: The location has been identified as “Oceano Dunes SVRA a state park located by Pismo Beach Cal. It is not as open to day as it was back then”.
Ted shared this catalog cover from an ancient Novak catalog.
1954 CJ-5 Fire Engine Brochure
December 1954 Kaiser Willys Booster News
1954 1-Ton Truck Brochure
UPDATE: The early version of this brochure (form SD-203-4) can be found here.
This form W-203-5 was part of the 1954 family of brochures.
1954 Cargo Personnel Carrier Brochure
1954 Willys Overland 4-Wheel-Drive Brochure
This 24 page brochure, W-1772, is a little large for my scanner, so I’d put off scanning it. A few days ago I was investigating various large format scanning strategies (bigger than 12″x9″). Below is a test of some free IOS software from Evernote. It’s not perfect, but it sure was quick and I could see using this software when going over old documents at a library, stuff where time is more important than performance.
I might also try one of those new overhead. portable book scanners, though some of these require your computer to provide Admin access, which is a little suspicious (especially since a couple users noted that the unit was causing communications to occur to China).
Anyway, once I get a large format scanner, I’ll get some better scans of this one.
1945 Willys Jeep Newspaper West Brookfield, MA $25
Not in perfect shape, but a reasonable price.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/799775637112471/
“Rare hard to find mailer newspaper to advertise the first CJ.”
The 1954 KW Logo
INTEGRATING KAISER MOTORS WITH WILLYS MOTORS:
As mentioned in the 1955 testimony by Edgar Kaiser, initially when Kaiser purchased the Willys-Overlands assets, Kaiser Industries operated it as a separate automotive company called Willys Motors, an entity distinct from the other automotive company Kaiser Motors. Part of the reason for this was that both organizations had separate plants, Kaiser in Michigan (at Willow Run) and Willys in Toledo, and separate sales and distribution systems.
Step one of the integration was to blend the sales and marketing teams of Kaiser and Willys. Later, in early 1954, the Willow plant was shut down and manufacturing was moved to Toledo. By early 1955, most of the integration of Kaiser Motors into Willys Motors had been complete (I don’t know if Kaiser motors existed after that).
As a part of the integration strategy, and perhaps to bring cars, jeeps and truck under one umbrella logo, the marketing team introduced the Kaiser Willys name and the KW logo. These appear on a variety of brochures and documents from 1954, but pretty much disappear by early 1955. Here’s an example of the sales and dealers’ newspaper, the Kaiser Willys News. It features both the logo and the dual name:
But by early 1955, this KW and Kaiser disappears, replaced by just Willys and the W logo:
Maury found this good example of Kaiser Willys coupled with the KW on a service manual. It also labels the sales division as the Kaiser Willys Sales Division.
In terms of brochures, here’s an early 1954 version of a CJ-3B brochure with the KW:
Here are the later 1954 versions of this same brochure, with the one on the left intended for the Willys-Overland Export Company, while the one on the right was marketed by the Willys Motors, Inc. Gone is KW and Kaiser Willys, though Willys and the W-O logo reappear on the Export brochure:
Here’s another somewhat common brochure that I hadn’t dated until yesterday. That’s because it didn’t register with me that this brochure has both a KW logo and a KW-form number (KW-1706). It’s the Farm Power Brochure that extolled the virtues of four wheel drive and it’s practicality on the farm. I’ll just show the first and last images here. The full brochure can be seen in the post below.
There are quite a few examples of the KW and Kaiser Willys logos on documents. However, by 1955, those logos were mostly removed in favor of ‘Jeep’ and Willys.
Tomorrow, we’ll visit the initial attempts to harmonize sales brochures across models.
October 1954 Kaiser Willys News
iI’ve shared some of the pics and captions, but now I can take some okay scans (not great, just okay) of the full pages. This has the KW logo, the Kaiser Willys branding, and a mention of the Kaiser-Willys Dealers and Salesmen.
1948 A Report On Jeep in Conservation on eBay
UPDATE: Here’s another version of the 24-page “A Report on The Universal Jeep in Conservation” available on eBay. You can view all the pages of the report here. It’s priced at $29.95.
Hubcap Branding by Willys Overland/Willys Motors
For decades car makers have used hubcaps as a way to promote their brands, so it’s not surprising that Willys-Overland and Willys Motors also did that, specifically with W-Os and Ws. Now, I’m most definitely no hubcap expert, but I’ll take a stab at this anyway based on some Google searches (what could go wrong with that?).
In Willys-Overland’s case, one of the earliest examples of the W-O branding appearing on a hubcap was this 1932/1933 Overland 8-88s:
By 1939 (possibly earlier), the Willys-Overland sedan was sporting a more familiar arrangement, a large W over a broken O:
Based on that hubcap, we can also date the original version of this sign, which pops up on the internet quite frequently, to the late 1930s:
In 1940, Willys changed it up to show WILLYS in all caps:
For the 1941 Willys Americar, the company created a much fancier hubcap: