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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. This section used to be split into jeeps, parts and other categories, but recent changes to eBay will require this information to be recoded.
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 .
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)
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.”
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.
These images of Form W-229-5 are from Troxel.
Here’s the complete newspaper for the December 1954 issue of the Kaiser Willys Booster News.
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.
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.
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.”
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:
Willys-Overland Export brochure is on the left, while the standard brochure for Willys Motors is on the right.
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.
