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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 .
The United States Transportation Museum in Virginia has a few jeeps. With a 50,000 square-foot building and four outdoor parks there’s plenty of space for vehicles of all types. I’m sure some of you have been here?
That’s a great early photo!
“WWII Ford Pygmy Pilot Vehicle during Test at Camp Holabird Jeep Orig Press Photo”
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That’s the most solid portion of the Burma Road I’ve ever seen.
“WWII Convoy of U.S. Jeeps on Narrow Supply Road to Burma Original Press Photo”
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Marc pointed out this history update over at Hemmings.
I didn’t know this early Belly Flopper was still around. It’s housed at the National Infantry Museum and Soldiers Center in Columbus, Georgia.
Read more about it at Foxtrot Alpha
This great photo was taken as part of Dick ‘n Debbie’s Travels.
Cool photo!
“1946 US Army 1st Cavalry Soldiers in Jeeps Parade Tokyo Japan Press Photo”
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Mark’s son Tom Smith has just authored a great article at jeeptruck.com about the Hoptown Pizza story. You can read it here:
http://jeeptruckstories.blogspot.com/2015/02/hopping-along-in-fc-dream.html
You might remember when I published a brief story about the owners last October when my wife happened upon them at a farmers market. At the time they thought their truck was cute, but didn’t realize it was called an FC Jeep. So my wife, now being an FC ‘expert’, explained what they owned. I do love my wife!
BTW, Ann says their pizza was great. As part of an email exchange I suggested they try to make it to the FC Roundup this year.
UPDATE: Paul Barry shared some photos of the truck shown below. The hamilton toy wrecker is cute.
Paul wrote, I kept asking about the tow truck. I guess the owners got tired of me asking and said if I wanted the tow truck I had to buy all the Willys stuff left over from the dealership. Shucks!
The story behind the truck is it was ordered from Toledo with a Canfield wrecker and was delivered in 1955 along with a new CJ-5. The truck arrived in red primer, as it was to be painted the yellow and blue AAA colors, the business was a AAA station since 1927. The pair of jeeps arrived very late at night and as was the custom the transport just dropped them off in front of the store. When morning came, only the CJ-5 was there, no tow truck to be found. I suppose phone calls were made and the truck was supposed to be right in front. Someone came into the station later that morning and said they saw a tow truck stuck in the riverbed back at the crossroads. So they took the old wrecker and recovered the new one In the Eel River (ed note Ferndale is just south of the Eel River). The local hooligans stole the truck and since it was delivered with only a couple gallons of fuel, ran out of gas while “wheeling” it.
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A Ferndale Willys dealer originally used this truck wrecker to tow disabled vehicles. He also used it as a customer demonstration vehicle.
According to a February 1956 article in Willys News This jeep owner was using a jeep-a-trencher to launch his pipeline business.
Charles shared pictures of this odd French vehicle called a Laffly.
A rare Willys Cargo-Personnel Carrier is about to undergo a restoration by the Ione Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West. This one is in pretty rough shape and sports the 6-226 Hurricane Motor. However, the running gear had already been gone through.
Information and specs beyond the brochure are difficult to find. Even good photos of them are rare. If anyone has any additional information on these, email Robert at buckydodle@yahoo.com.
Below are some pics of the jeep:
There must be some other photos of these Ferris Jeeps somewhere.
“Foreman sitting in his Willys Jeep at the Ferris Orange Groves on US 41 in Floral City, Florida. Card is unused.”
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This has some good Mitsubishi info on it.
“RARE ORIGINAL BROCHURE on the GASOLINE and DIESEL 4-WHEEL-DRIVE CJ-3B JEEP (Versions J3 (JC-3) and J-10 (JC-10) as well as the JEEP STATION WAGON (DELIVERY WAGON), FIRE ENGINE and 1/4-TON TRAILER, all built by MITSUBISHI in the 1960’s under license from WILLYS. Opens to approximately 16 by 21-Inches.”
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Another neat Mitsubishi brochure.
” RARE ORIGINAL BROCHURE on the GASOLINE and DIESEL 4-WHEEL-DRIVE CJ-3B JEEP built by MITSUBISHI in the 1960’s under license from WILLYS. Opens to approximately 17 by 18-Inches.”
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An article in the July 13, 1951, issue of the Toledo Blade reported on three kids who climbed the fence at Willys Overland and commandeered some jeeps.
The first jeep is was mounted on boxes to remind drivers to drive carefully.
And some misc pics:
I spotted this Amsterdam video with jeeps on this Facebook page. It shows a jeep helping manage traffic following WWII.
In July 1943 the Ordnance Department released a jeep to the Washington State College (now University) for farm testing. A year later the College produced a bulletin titled “The Jeep as a Farm Truck-Tractor for the Post-War Period.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a copy of that document online. But there’s a hard copy at the WSU library (which is only a couple hours from me). Anyone have copy of that?
In August of 1944 the Spokesman Review published this article based on the information.
This CJ-5 is shown navigating a closed road in 1973.
“1973 Jeep Drives Through Washed Out Road Windsor Vermont Press Photo”
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UPDATE: Was on eBay. SOLD for $191.50.
” VERY WELL CARED FOR Vintage Structo Toys Fire Dept. No 26 Pumper Ride On Jeep Truck WITH RARE CRANK SIREN INTACT. This truck is about 25 1/2″ long and about 12 1/2″ tall.
There is some wear to the paint from age and some rusty areas on the wheels and body of the truck. The steering wheel turns easily and the wheels turn with it in same direction. Having the siren intact is VERY RARE (See other similar trucks, all sold without the siren!). The siren does crank and rattles, but may need cleaning after 50 years of storage! The truck says Fire Dept. No 26 on the top of the hood of the jeep and on the rear it says PUMPER. On the sides of the truck are painted on pictures of firemen hats; a fire extinguisher; and a shovel and axe.
It has been in our family since purchase in the ertly 1960’s. This truck is in used but very good original condition.”
Paul continues to make progress on his jeep. He received his tires and has made some custom stainless rim discs.
Paul’s new tires
TIRES:
He writes, “The New Tire Fairy arrived at the house today with eight brand new STA Super Traxion 6.50-16 tires along with eight new inner tubes for the little Willys. I’d been searching the internet for a vintage looking narrow tire with an aggressive tread design that would look good on the Willys so shortly after I discovered these tires I put my credit card to work and placed my order.
I wanted to replace the brand new but 30 year old tires on the Willys so that accounted for 5 tires and I needed 3 more tires for the military trailer (I want the trailer to have it’s own spare tire) so that’s why I bought eight. Shipping wasn’t too expensive since I wasn’t in a hurry and compared to Coker tire who wanted to ship their tires 2nd day air ($1,100 for the tires and an additional $900 for shipping) it was down right reasonable by Alaska standards.”
WHEEL DISCS:
In this photo he’s testing out the disc concept with poster board.
He writes, “I bought some poster board that was large enough to make full size mock ups of the stainless steel wheel covers I’m thinking of making to cover the plain steel wheels I’ll be using on the Willys. The six larger holes are 1 & 1/2 “ diameter and the smaller holes are 1 “ in diameter. I’ve made other discs, some with more holes and some with less holes on each disc in various patterns but I keep coming back to this design. It’s simple, the spacing of the holes is easy on my eyes and the wheel covers make the tires appear larger and more heavy duty.
Each hole will have a reinforcing ring fastened to the back side of the disc either by 1/8th inch diameter monel raised head style rivets or 3/16” dimeter stainless steel machine screws (the size of the machine screws used on the door just below the window). These doublers and rivets are for style only and not necessary for strength. Each disc will be attached to a wheel by six stainless machine screws and these screws will thread into steel mounts welded to the wheels.”
A completed disc.
“Above is the first wheel disc with the holes drilled and the rivets installed. I gave the plain disc a brushed finish to see what it would look like … I think it’s about as close as I can come to matching the body finish. These wheel discs need to be easy to clean and easy to touch up the finish so a mirror polished disc would require lots of maintenance to keep the metal shiny. I don’t have enough energy to keep up with the mirror finish.
I finished riveting the last two wheel discs today then I cut a hole thru the center of the front wheel disc slightly larger than the Warn hub so these discs could be test fitted to the wheels on the Willys. The tires on the Willys are still the old new ones and not the new, new ones I recently received since the steel wheels currently on the Willys have the wrong offset and will be replaced with the correct wheels in the near future. Anyway, I think these discs match the Willys much better than the aluminum wheels I was originally planning on using.”
The wheel discs attached. The discs came out a little darker, but that’s probably because of the angle. The discs are made of the same stainless as the rest of the jeep. These are the old tires, not the new ones.
UPDATE: **SOLD** $22.50. Was on eBay.
Here’s a radical jeep design!
“1945- Members of the 237th Medium Ordnance Maintenance Company in Hawaii shown with their “streamlined jeep” made from two wrecked jeeps, discarded chromium, and four “belly-type” auxiliary gas tanks discarded by the Air Force.”
This June 19, 1942, Milwaukee Journal article describes early farm jeep tests at the Auburn facility.
I’ve seen plenty of Marx Jeeps, but finding one with an original box is rare.
“Vintage MARX WILLYS JEEP Pressed Steel Toy Car + Box *EX* (USA) Neat and hard to find 11″ pressed steel Willys Jeep in original box. This toy would rate as the cleanest one I have ever seen except for the front grill area where I’m guessing the paint reacted and flaked off. Other than the grill issue this toy is bright and shiny as day one with a crisp and clean box to match. Good luck. NO RESERVE!”
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