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May 1954 Kaiser Willys News Vol. 1 No. 4

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features, Magazine • TAGS: , , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: I obtained a copy of this Kaiser Willys News, Volume 1, Number 4, off of ebay. Previously, all I had was a low resolution copy. This issue includes stories and photos about the Yakima Ridge Runners (last page).

Page 1 covers sales contents. Page two includes a short article about how a jeep won a road race in Las Vegas, but a search of vintage newspapers did not yield any more information. Page three is unusual in its description of the efforts to encourage wives to support their husband’s sales efforts.

Page 4 and 5 covers sales tips. Page 6 has an interesting diagram of an automatic transmission tools board, with enough detail to recreate it for a museum.

Page 7 includes a story with some details that might help someone recreate the 1954 Cavalcade of jeeps. As mentioned before, page 8 covers the Yakima Ridge Runners, among other stories.

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March 1954 Kaiser Willys News Vol 1 No 2

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: I only had small ebay pics of this issue for years, but I was finally able to win a copy off of eBay. Plus, at the bottom is a notebook that must have been given out at the Hotel Astor event pictured on the top front page. I expect there is a Vol 1, No 1 issue out there somewhere, but I don’t have any pics of it yet. 

You’ll notice this issue focuses primarily on the Willys cars, though there are two photos of a CJ-3B. Give the Willys-asset purchase was begun only nine months earlier, maybe the execs were still figuring out how they wanted to talk about the 4WD related vehicles?

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Note book from February 1954 meeting. Other than the front page, it’s a series of lined-pages for taking notes.

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The K And K Mower or The Jeep Mower Bar

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Documents, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: I’d never seen this brochure before finding it on eBay. This is part of what was a vast vintage jeep doc and toy collection in New England. I’ve bought a few cool things from him. 

As for a date on this four-page brochure, I’d say, given the patent date of 1948, that this brochure might have also been printed in 1948, especially given the CJ-2A. My guess is that Mr. Keyser didn’t make enough money to warrant any future reproductions of it. But, that’s only a guess.

While I’ve always called this a K and K mower (that’s the manufacturer), the brochure and data tag describes it as a Jeep Mower Bar (see pics at very bottom).

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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 17, 2019: In February of 1948 Allan Keyser filed a patent for a side mower. It appears this became the design for the K And K Manufacturing Company’s Mower as seen in the brochures at bottom. You can view other early mowing apparatuses here. Interesting that this came out of Colorado. I wouldn’t have guessed it.

“This invention relates to a mower attachment for the presently popular small, four-wheel drive, automotive vehicles popularly known as jeeps, and has for its principal object the provision of means whereby a mower bar can be quickly and easily attached to, or detached from, the vehicle so that it will be easily visible and easily controlled by the driver of the vehicle.

Another object of the invention is to provide highly efficient means whereby the angle of attack of a mower bar may be adjusted to suit the desires of the user and the requirements of the particular crop being harvested.”

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March 1959 Willys-Overland Export Gala Brochures

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features, International • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: I bought the Spanish version of this brochure off of eBay, so I’m adding it to this post. The Spanish version is Forma H1-3-59.

I won this rare early (first) Gala Brochure off of eBay. It is Form H1-3-59. The marketing document appears aimed at resorts and other tourist businesses. Interestingly, it appears conceptual in scope and doesn’t show any of the actual models available, other than what Las Brisas had done with DJ-3As. Note that on the back page it encourages interested parties to write to “Gala Plan, Willys Export Corp., Toledo 1, Ohio, U.S.A.”

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