Don was asked to share pics of his 1961 wagon. It sure looks great! He included a photo of an earlier jeep as well. He’s owned 19 jeeps over the past 35 years. He’s currently working on a 1962 truck. I’d say he’s got a serious case of the Willys sickness!
Features Research Archives
Smokey and Tonka Jeep on eBay
I found both an ad for the Smokey and Tonka Jeep and an actual Jeep and Smokey.
1. Ad for Smokey and Jeep (If the museum has this ad, I didn’t see it).
View all the information on eBay
2. Jeep with Smokey (seems a bit much given the wear?)
1960(?) Porcelaine Nassau Surrey Jeep Model on eBay
Can’t be too many of these around? This one is located in France. I suspect this is newer than 1960.
There’s another version of the 1960 Nassau Surrey for sale on Amazon and mentioned on the CJ-3B Page (scroll down to Newer Toys).
“Très beau modèle en porcelaine, en 3 dimensions, à l’échelle 1/200 environ (24 mm de long, 11 mm de large et 14 mm de hauteur)”
1960 Jeep & RCA 501 Computer Ad on eBay
This is such an odd ad. The ad compares the Jeep to the RCA 501 computer that does bookkeeping and more. I wonder how long this joint campaign lasted.
Day 6 – Fri. Apr. 17th: Art Fair in Alamogordo, NM
<– Day 5 – Thu. Apr. 16th: Meth and Science | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 7 – Sat. Apr. 18th: No Scum Allowed –>
Thursday night I came down with a light cold (or something), so I took it easy yesterday. By the evening I felt good enough to join Ann and her uncle Fred for a visit Alamogordo’s art fair. Fred is president of Otero County’s STEM program. He and his wife are also deeply involved in First Robotics and judge robotic competitions all over the country. As leader of Otero Stem, Fred organized a demonstration at the local art fair. It gave the kids a chance to show off the their robots to the public, while Fred and the other leaders introduced STEM to many parents who attended the fair.
While we were at the fair, Smokey Bear stopped by for a visit. Why would Smoke Bear be attending the event? Smokey is/was a local bear, but I’ll save that for a later update.
<– Day 5 – Thu. Apr. 16th: Meth and Science | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 7 – Sat. Apr. 18th: No Scum Allowed –>
1943 Press Photo of Kids Penny Collection on eBay
Neat photo!
943 Press Photo Boys Clubs Collect Pennies to Buy a Jeep For the Army
This is an original press photo. Photo measures 9 x 7.25inches. Photo is dated 01-21-1943.”
CJ-3A in Cuba
Mini-jeep Body Fort Lupton, CO **SOLD**
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $650.
Not to scale, but still might make someone a fun project. Thanks to Roy for spotting this one.
“I have an unusual project for you!
hand built or homemade mini jeep body….
this is all steel and is 36″ wide by 68″ long
great start to a custom build, put this on a lawn tractor or use atv components for a true 4wd build.
Imagine the time this took to build, unknown history, possibly from lakeside or elitchs???”
1968 Jeepster Commando Buckeye, AZ **SOLD**
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $8500.
“For Sale 1968 Jeep Jeepster Willys Commando freshly restored, super clean inside and out. This Jeep has the CJ5 front clip conversion, which gives it more of the traditional Jeep look. It has the 3.8 liter 225 cubic inch V6 and manual transmission, runs and drives well. It has high back Jeep wrangler seats, front seats have sliders, front passenger folds forward, rear seats folds down and folds forward. It has new 16″ Ion wheels, matte black and machined finish and 305-70-16 (33×12.50-16) Toyo MT tires which are about 50% or better tread.
The radio does not work, and there is a tow bar installed on the front bumper. We do have and are not including a top with the Jeep, we don’t have one, it has always been stored in our garage. The next owner can modify as they choose, add a roll cage and a soft top, or find and install a factory hard top. This Jeep has much more room than a CJ5, and would make a great beach cruiser, dune rider, or just to have up your cabin for hunting and fishing. Clear AZ title signed and notarized, located in Buckeye, AZ 85326. Shipping is the responsibility of the buyer, we may be able to assist in locating a carrier or possibly deliver for an additional fee.”
Day 5 – Thu. Apr. 16th: Meth and Science
<– Day 4 – Wed. Apr. 15th: Salmon and Subway | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 6 – Fri. Apr. 17th: Art Fair in Alamogordo, NM –>
For years I”d read and heard about the television series Breaking Bad. This past summer, lacking any good TV, Ann and I decided to watch the episode’s pilot to see if we’d enjoy it. We were hooked from the very beginning. Within a couple weeks we watched the entire six-year series. In case you haven’t seen it, the show is about an Albuquerue science teacher named Walter White who feels forced to produce meth to save his family’s finances. If you haven’t watched the show and don’t want to know the ending, leave the post now!
With that background in mind, our first item of business was to find the real gravestone marker for the mythical Walter White. The headstone was initially put into a real cemetary, but some reasonable complaints caused it to be moved to a small strip mall. When we arrived at the mall, the location of the headstone wasn’t obvious. We had to look around before spotting it in an outdoor alcove. Ann was particularly pleased, because this was her idea.
There are both guide-tours and self-guided tours of Breaking Bad film sites in Albuquerque. You can learn all kinds of things here.
Following that quick stop we headed to the touristy area of old town Albuquerque. Anchored by a church established in 1702, the area is typical of New Mexican town squares. In the center is a square bordered on all sides by a road with shops/restaurants lining the road. I was surprised to see that the square was much quieter and subdued than the square in Santa Fe (or it was on this day).
Perhaps the most striking difference between the Santa Fe and Albuquerque shops are the proliferation of Break Bad memorabilia. There were also some Better Caul Saul shirts as well, the prequel to Breaking Bad.
Roberto’s Newest Illustrations
Roberto Flores forwarded these two illustrations with some background information. Great as always!
Here are a couple of pics of my newest commissioned order cartoons for the “Jambo Jeep 2015” meeting. This is a classic jeep and 4×4 held each year at Navarre, where I live. From some years ago, the crew which organized this meeting ordered me some artwork, as cartoons or logos. This year, they have asked me to draw the logo too (I would try to find some pics of it) and these 2 cartoons. One shows a fully restored WW2 US Army Dodge WC51, with markings of the famous 101st AB division “Screaming Eagles”. His owner is posing next to it and dressed with the airborne division uniform. Also, you could see his girlfriend at the background and some architecture from the village in which they live, Murla, at Alicante, on the Mediterranean coast.
The other “violet” Willys jeep is a Spanish Viasa one modified to look as an US flatfender by his owner, who appears too at the drawing, posing with all his family. Also, I have drawn some well known monuments and so of their village, Almacelles, at Catalonia.
Day 4 – Wed. Apr. 15th: Salmon and Subway
<– Day 3 – Tues. Apr. 14th: Winds and more Winds | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 5 – Thu. Apr. 16th: Meth and Science –>
Today was a breather day. Our simple goal was to make the four hour drive from Durango south to Albuquerque. Without anything planned, we let chance be our guide.
It turned out ‘chance’ liked jeeps on this day. On our way out of Durango we saw a flat fender, a cj-5, and a beautifully rusted truck (orange-red patina). Unfortunately, we were on a two-lane busy road with no pull-offs. All we could do was shout to one another, ‘there’s another jeep!”
After taking a wrong turn in Cortez, we found ourselves in Farmington, New Mexico, where we spotted two unusual vehicles. The first reminded me of a Tour FC with it’s white and red top.
The second was a limoseum parked out front of Farmington’s museum.
Despite the cool car, we didn’t go inside the museum. Instead, we got back on track and headed east for Bloomfield. That’s where we saw the strangest sign: SALMON RUINS. As you can imagine, we didn’t expect to find any salmon bones, carcasses or ruins in New Mexico. So, naturally, we had to investigate.
Willys Jeep Rally May 29 & 30 College Corner, OH
Rick wanted everyone to know that the Willys Jeep Rally will take place at Hueston Woods State Park in College Corner, Ohio on May 29 & 30, 2015.
Learn more here: http://www.mw-willysjeep.com/hueston-woods.aspx
Sea Foam Jeep Sticker
David discovered this sticker at his local auto shop: Mid County Auto in Capitola, California. He wrote, Have you seen these Sea Foam stickers? I was in my local auto parts / machinist and they gave me this sticker today. They told me that the local Sea Foam rep left them and since they know we’re GPW guys, the shop saved one for each of us. How cool is that? It’s about 4.5 by 7 inches. You can see the actual outline of the sticker on the scan; it’s not rectangular.
Day 3 – Tues. Apr. 14th: Winds and more Winds
<– Day 2 – Mon. Apr. 13th: Rocks, Tracks & Dusty Roads | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 4 – Wed. Apr. 15th: Salmon and Subway –>
Today we drove from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Durango, Colorado. Brisk winds hounded us over our entire route. At one point as we approached Moab a huge dust devil stacked with tumbleweeds blew across the road in front of us; what a spectacular site! I’m really glad it didn’t blow into us!!
Needless to say, the winds squashed any desire we had to jump out and take photos. Besides, we’ve capture the look and feel of this area, as well as the jeeps, during our 2013 trip when we photographed the CJ-2A on Ivan’s sign just south of Moab and the jeep that sits atop Hole in the Rock.
I’d pretty much given up on photos, but then we spotted two jeeps and a bunch of arrows. The winds had subsided, so we got some pics while the shooting was good.
The first jeep I spotted was this CJ-2A, which appeared to be a VEC. It sits off the Colorado State Highway 160 just east of Mesa Verde National Park (which we decided not to visit due to the winds and the fact that we’d both been there).
The next jeep we spotted was this CJ-2A in Manco, Colorado. It’s on the east side of town along the main street.
Day 2 – Mon. Apr. 13th: Rocks, Tracks & Dusty Roads
<– Day 1 – Sun. Apr. 12th: On the Road Again, Finally | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 3 – Tues. Apr. 14th: Winds and more Winds –>
Today’s goal was to drive from Twin Falls to Salt Lake City, which normally takes about 3 hours. I’ve traveled this route so many times that I mark my progress by familiar cracks in the road. And, every time I pass by a sign that announces the exit for City of Rocks, I tell myself I’m going to take that some day. Well, that ‘some’ day was today.
Knowing that at least some of the roads would be unpaved (turns out most were), I calculated the drive would be much longer than three hours. In fact, the drive took 9 hours, some of which included map checks, photo ops, and very short walks. I don’t advise doing this trip unless you have good maps. We lacked cell coverage for most of the day and there are very few helpful signs (not many roads either).
We took off about 8am from Twin Falls and drove east on I-84, before turning on State Highway 77. We quickly found ourselves following the old California Trail, a spur taken by wagon trains that left the Oregon Trail for California.
The first interesting town we encountered was Albion. Near the entrance to the town an old and abandoned Normal School loomed eerily by the road. We weren’t a bit surprised the a nearby sign boasted how spooky the place was. However, if this is your thing, you should check out this website.
When we got to the City of Rocks area, we stopped by the visitor’s center.
The ranger was friendly and helpful. She explained that travelers heading west on the California Trail found the City of Rocks a unique diversion from the long travels. Wagon trains would camp among the lower rocks. Several of the large rocks have carvings dating as far back as the 1840s.
As for rocks inside the visitors center, we didn’t find many. However, we did find this unexpected gem:
Day 1 – Sun. Apr. 12th: On the Road Again, Finally
<– Trip Overview | Day 2 – Mon. Apr. 13th: Rocks, Tracks & Dusty Roads –>
It took most of the morning, but I finally wrangled Ann into the jeep so we could get the heck out of Pasco. Our goal was to make it to Twin Falls, Idaho. It’s not much of a stretch (only 6+ hours), but we did have a specific place to visit: Shoshone Falls, a place I’ve been promising we’d see.
Since we’ve covered much of the Pasco to Idaho trip in past photos, we won’t bore you with them here — in fact, we didn’t take any of the drive. However, we did have some excitement, which happens whenever my wife drives. Once she is behind the wheel she just goes …. she doesn’t really pay too much attention to signs (though she does follow the speed limit). On more than one occasion she’s driven happily past an exit. This time, we came close to missing the exit, but fortunately I looked up from my eWillys updates just in time to avoid an unplanned detour. She add’s endless unpredictability to our adventures 🙂
We reached the city of Twin Falls just in time to get to Shoshone Falls State Park with some sun left. We’d never visited the park and found it a literal oasis in the desert. We snapped a few photos before quickly realizing our selfie tactics were rusty. We shall work to improve those, so don’t pan us too loudly for our narcissistic desire to self-photograph . . . we are just practicing! Here are a few practice shots at the falls:
As the sunset, we retired to our motel in Twin Falls.
Tomorrow we will veer off the interstate for our first foray to the City of Rocks, a little known gem in a remote part of southwest Idaho.
<– Trip Overview | Day 2 – Mon. Apr. 13th: Rocks, Tracks & Dusty Roads –>
Truck, Wagon, FC and Jeeps @ Classic Vehicles
Seth forwarded me a link to a website called Classic Vehicles. Among the offerings are a variety of Wagons, Wagoneers, Trucks, FCs, and other stuff. Most look like parts or restorations vehicles.
Kids Jeep Shirt at Cabella
Buz stumbled upon this jeep shirt for kids at Cabella’s. You can also order it online. I looked for adult sizes, but couldn’t find any.
June 1944 Photo of Jeep From France
This photo is part of an archive of letters from a Doctor named Greg Alexander to a woman named Wilma he met on a blind date during the war and (spoiler alert) married after he returned. Titled Letter’s to Wilma, the blog tracks Greg’s life as he enters the service, through D-Day, France and Germany. One of the interesting aspects is that jeep he was assigned when he reached France (see below). Anyone know what’s on the bumper? I assume the bar on the front was to carry stretchers? Note the jeep is named Wilma.
Here’s the blog: http://wwii-letters-to-wilma.blogspot.com
Sears CJ-2A Windshield Extension
Doug shared with me the windshield extension included by Sears when he purchased a soft top in 1971. So, if you see something similar, it was actually a third party modification!
He wrote, “Here are some pics of the windshield extension that came with the Sears full soft top that I purchased in approx. late 1979.I ordered the top for an MB/GPW, so it came with the extension. They sold the same top to fit a cj2a without using the extension. I remember going to a canvas/upholstery shop to have some help with the doors. For some reason I could not install the doors without some professional help. Can’t recall why.I got home late that night! I was 17 at the time.”
CJ-2A from Facebook
1944 Photo of the 200,000th MB on eBay
And who has this MB?
“1944- Ward Canaday, President of Willys-Overland, drives the 200,000 Jeep built in Toledo off the line on April 4, 1944. Mr. Canaday helped the company get a contract to make Jeeps during WWII, producing 363,000 of the total of 648,000 wartime Jeeps.”
1957 Photo of Ben Carlin’s Half Safe in Ditch on eBay
I don’t remember this photo in any of the Half Safe books.
“1957 Press Photo Tiburon Calif, Australian Ben Carlin drove amphibious jeep
This is an original press photo. Tiburon Calif, Australian Ben Carlin drove amphibious jeep around the worldPhoto measures 9.25 x 7.25inches. Photo is dated 12-03-1957.”
1950 Photo of Truck Carrying Milk Containers on eBay
I haven’t run across many truck-related press photos.
“1950 Press Photo Willys Overland 1/2 Ton Jeep Truck with Hurricane Engine
This is an original press photo. Photo measures 10 x 8.25inches. Photo is dated 3-23-1950.”