emailNeed to contact me and don't have my email? Click on email button.
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 .
Sebastian shared this video from Colombia that shows some jeeps undergoing repair. I’m a little surprised to see the guy spray painting the jeep without a mask.
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $4500.
Will need restoration.
“Has been in the attic of the Willy’s Jeep Dealership building (northern Kentucky) since it was taken off the front of the building for a new sign in the 1960’s. One end is attached to the building and this bullnose sign protrudes out. Sign is in very, very good condition for having been up in that corner 50+ years. Needs restored. Body is galvanized metal with about 95% of the original neon glass still present; no dents or holes in the metal can at all; bottom of can is just as good as the rest. See all photos to appreciate the rarity and good condition… This sign even still has the hanging cables still present. Transformers are inside. Measures about 6ft x 15″ deep x about 30″ high….probably weighs about 150 pounds. Local Pick up only; unboxed. We are about an hour south of Indianapolis and about 2.5hrs north of Louisville…we are close to Bloomington Indiana, a mile from Indiana Hwy 37. Seller will not ship. Call or text, …no emails answered.”
The St. Petersburg Times published this article in 1942 about the war bond drive. Purchases of bonds got the chance to ride in a jeep.
Merlin published a report on the 9th Annual Mason Dixon Willys Jeep Show and Gettysburg Tour this past weekend.
The bottom illustration goes graphic to make a point.
“13 x 18 inch original poster from the US Army Safety Program, printed in 1948. Folded in half as issued. VG condition. Shows a graphic jeep wreck.”
View all the information on eBay
Photo Credit: T. Anthony Bell & the Hopewell News
I ran across this article that shares Lee Holland’s efforts to replicate a working WWII motor pool. The building’s interior was organized based on actual motor pool plans. You can learn all about it at the Hopewell News: http://www.hopewellnews.com/article_7861.shtml
For those not on Facebook’s Austin Bantam Society’s page, you missed some great photos from BRC75, the seventieth anniversary of the original Bantam BRC. Bill Spear discusses the Bantam’s origins on this post. Both photos below were taken at one of the group’s event at the U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum.
Here’s an unusual photo of a Bantam BRC-60 dressed in white.
“1942- U.S. Army peep and other vehicles with all-white camouflage during experiments conducted at Fort Brady for combat in winter conditions.”
View all the information on eBay
UPDATE: Mystery solved. I found a couple brochures about this top. They were published in a 1947ish Willys Overland Equipment Book (thanks to Jon for letting me scan that particular folder). The suicide doors were original to this top. Examples of The Boston Top below:
he first two photos show Spencer Landers’ top on two different jeeps.
Close up of the corners.
These photos show more examples of the top:
The Netherlands firm of H.C.L. Sieberg began selling jeeps in 1946 after acquiring 1400 jeeps from an army depot. The firm bought an additional 1000 jeeps. In May of 1946 Director L.F.J. Mählmeijer visited Toledo to secure an agreement for supply Sieberg with parts. Sieberg got permission to import four CJ-2As, called the “peace jeep” in the Netherlands, for demonstration purposes. It was an uphill battle, but overtime, the government allowed the company to import more jeeps for agricultural purposes.
Below are some examples of Sieberg brochures printed in Dutch. Thanks to Charles for sharing these photos. The photos and the history was published at conam.info in Dutch. You can read an english translated version of the page here.
The photo below appeared in a 1958 article from the Spokesman-Review. The article below comes from a November 29, 1956 article in the Toledo Blade that announced the FC’s introduction.
This photo and article was published in the August 29, 1957, issue of the Reading Eagle from Reading, Pennsylvania. It looks to be a CJ-2. It sounds like it has been refurbished into a brush fire-fighting jeep. The article indicates this would be called Jeep No. 11, yet it is labeled Jeep No. 1.
Colin bought a Hickey aluminum cylinder head to modify his 1960 Surrey, but ran into some problems with it. Below he describes the changes he made, the problems he encountered, and his current solution. Thanks for sharing Colin!
I started a hop-up project on our Surrey that involved the installation of a 1950s Nick Hickey aluminum cylinder head for the L-134. That morphed into the fabrication of a dual carb setup using two intake manifolds with a balance tube an F Head exhaust manifold that a very good friend, Steve Mason, and I fabricated out of an old manifold supplied by Jim Sullivan.
The first issue was the two new Weber carbs. They were supposed to be synchronized and jetted the sam, but weren’t. That led to the rear carb dumping extra fuel into #s 3&4, resulting in a blown head gasket which dumped coolant into those cylinders.
Hickey head top and bottom.
Took it all apart, rejetted the carbs and had the head resurfaced. I finished buttoning everything up and fired it up. adjusted the carbs slightly, running smooth, then noticed coolant in the #2 spark plug recess. Shut it off, pulled all plugs, could see coolant in #2, and steam coming from what must be a crack in the threads.
When I had the engine running previously I did not have water pooling in the plug basins. Upon looking at the plugs, the electrodes indicated the possibility of them coming in contact with the valves. Took a very hi intensity flashlight and looked into the cylinders and at least two of the valves I saw the imprint of the electrode on the valves.
So my theory is this:
I had the head resurfaced and in that process, the machine shop used an epoxy to smooth the surface indentations( corrosion?), and then did the resurface. The plugs I had used were nearly new from the original head. Those electrodes did not extend into the combustion chamber. The machine shop( guys who do a lot of work on Ford V8s with aluminum heads told me to get plugs with a slightly longer shank for better combustion. So I did. Only a small imperceptible difference in length.
Can’t say I ever tried this.
“You are bidding on an original press photo of Marvin Bud Ward Golfing Off Jeep Hood Dutch New Guinea WWII. Photo has waving due to too much glue being used to attach the information sheet onto the back of the photo. If the listing shows thin red and/or green lines, they are the result of a bad scan & the lines are NOT on the actual photo. Photo measures 7 x 9 inches and is dated 10/7/1944.”
View all the information on eBay
Unsure what points to stress when you sell your 1950 Jeep Wagon? The March 1950 Sales Builder noted 49 different items you could advertise. Thanks to Pascal for sharing this document!
The Smoky Mountain Jeep Club’s annual Boy Scout trip was reported on by Jeep News in 1966 through these three photos.
In 1966 the Jeep News Magazine reported on a 14,000 mile trip by Mr. And Mrs. J. Th. van Reijsen of the Netherlands.
Seth spotted this one.
“AAA Emergency Service U.S.A Automobile Club Jeep
Made in Japan 1960’s
Approx 5.5″ Long / 2.5″ Width / 3.0″ Hight
USED
Condition: some rust and age times may be observed. some light tin damages/smashes”
View all the information on eBay
The Diamant Family from Great Britain toured the United States during the summer of 1966 using a Jeep Gladiator. They saw quite a bit of the country and had a fantastic adventure.
Ann’s son Daniel exploring the London Mill area in Mosquito Gulch.
Making a long story short, Ann and I drove to Omaha (non stop for 24 hours) to retrieve her son Daniel. On our way back we decided to take a slightly scenic route (he’s never seen Colorado or Utah).
After all our driving on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we knew how those Pony Express riders felt as they raced across America! This was taken Wednesday evening at a rest stop near the board of Nebraska and Colorado.
With that in mind, we left Colorado Springs on Thursday on a northwest course to Alma. I then planned to head east over 13,000ft Mosquito Pass, drop into Leadville, and continue onward to I-70. Mosquito Pass sounded like it would be a harmless little pass, but we discovered the name belies the difficulty.
We started in Colorado Springs and drove west toward Grand Junction. I’d hoped to cut across Mosquito Pass.
Mosquito Pass’ history is as old as Leadville. It was built in 1877 for $25,000 by the president of the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Company to serve Leadville miners. The wagon road was desperately needed to bring in supplies from the Denver area and ferry smelted ore out of the Rockies. the road was crucial for Leadville’s transformation into a boomtown by the late 1870s. In 1879 my great great grandfather joined the crowd and built the Billing & Eilers smelter (which became the Arkansas Valley Smelter, the last smelter in Leadville).
In 1881 my then fifteen year old great grandfather Karl Eilers and two of his Denver friends decided it would be neat to visit Leadville. So, during the summer they hopped on some horses and rode the one-hundred-mile route. They traveled from Denver to Breckenridge, up over Hoosier Pass, and then over Mosquito Pass. How many kids get to do anything like that these days??
Leadville and the tales of my grandparents fill some of the pages of my newest book, so I wanted to make the journey over Mosquito Pass to see what they saw. Since the weather was perfect and the pass was open, I decided this was a great time to do it. I just didn’t know I needed a better 4×4 vehicle!
Started on the east side of the pass on CR 12.
This was one of several articles published about atomic tests and Willys vehicles. This article was published in the April 1955 issue of Willys News.
UPDATE II: This *might* have evolved into a scam. The seller agreed to sell to one buyer and provided directions to get the vehicle, but now is avoiding the buyer’s calls.
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $900
Here is an odd one I spotted on Facebook. It reminds me of Bob’s odd Jeepster-like vehicle.
“This is a very strange “Jeep like” vehicle that is not a Jeep. I was told that it was possibly a specialty vehicle built in the 60s and that it originally had a 4 or 6 cylinder engine that the previous salvage yard owner removed and sold. 2 wheel drive. No seats or top frame. It has full length curved metal running board fenders that Jeeps never had. It also has a center console that housed the shifter. It was originally painted a coral pink color so the possibility exists that it was a resort shuttle vehicle. It is NOT, repeat NOT, a Jeep Surrey model! They look nothing like this “thing”. No engine or transmission. I saved it from a salvage yard over 10 years ago. It has 14 inch “A.J. Foyt” mag wheels that probably are original. Rusty but restorable. Buy it for $900 firm, fix it up, and have the only one out there.”
On March 6, 1963, the Toledo Blade shared the news that Willys Overland was changing the name of its jeep division from Willys Motors to Kaiser Jeep.
Someone posted these photos from the Tennessee Museum of Aviation (Sevierville, Tennessee) on the G503 Facebook page. I didn’t get the guy’s name and the post is too old for me to locate him. Looks like a fair number of jeeps there. The CJ-3B originally from Stillwater, Oklahoma, might be the most interesting of all the vehicles. I wonder how it landed in Tennessee.
