Features Research Archives

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“New” Al-Toy Truck

• CATEGORIES: Features, toys This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Barney nots that this may be the original paint color. That makes me happier!

This was the first chance I had at getting an Al-Toy truck, so I snagged it off ebay in the last few seconds. It seems pretty original, other than the phone number on the side. The truck has a great weight and is slightly longer than the jeeps.

Here it is pictured with my 2 CJ-2A Al-Toys:

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1962 TV Commercial For ‘Jeep’

• CATEGORIES: Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Chris shared this footage from a 1962 ‘Jeep’ Commercial hosted at Indiana University’s Media Collections Online.

The commercial’s summary: A man receives a distress call from someone stuck on the side of a cliff. The man race across difficult terrain in his Jeep. The man rescues the person from cliff by using the winch on his Jeep

Here’s the link: https://media.dlib.indiana.edu/media_objects/cz30qc90p

 
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FC-150 Narrow-Track Video (& For Sale)

• CATEGORIES: FC150-FC170-M677, Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Mike shared this video of Steve Magnante’s close look at an FC-150 in a junkyard. There’s some parts value. For information on buying this vehicle, send email to: paulcrosiervt @ gmail.com (remove spaces around the @).

 
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1957ish Wagon Brochure on eBay

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

The starting price on the auction for this brochure is $30 (plus $10 shipping). This multi-page brochure isn’t one I’ve seen before, so likely pretty rare. I’m dating this at around 1957 dude to the round-blue jeep sign in the last image.

View all the information on eBay

“THIS AUCTION IS FOR A WILLYS JEEP BROCHURE TITLED: “THE DOUBLE-DUTY FAMILY CAR”
FEATURES THE WILLYS JEEP STATION WAGON MODEL.
ORIGINAL – NOT A REPRODUCTION.
IN GOOD CONDITION. GOOD COLOR AND GRAPHICS
8 PAGES.
CONTAINS COST SAVINGS INFORMATION, , CARGO SPECIFICATIONS, UTILITY, ENGINE CHOICES, VEHICLE SPECIFICATIONS.”
1957ish-willys-wagon-brochure2-lores 1957ish-willys-wagon-brochure3-lores 1957ish-willys-wagon-brochure4-lores 1957ish-willys-wagon-brochure5-lores

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Dec 1974 – Jan 1975 Jeep News

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

This issue is easily dated.

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Wagon Model Carved From Wood Block (+ Video)

• CATEGORIES: Artists/Drawings, Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Here’s a video of the artist at work:

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Homeskoold Customs on Facebook shared this really cool carving of a wagon emerging from an old post. The artist claims not to be a woodworker, but he is most definitely at artist!

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=489893496631750&set=a.412736887680745

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Odd MB Shared on FB

• CATEGORIES: Features, MB, Unusual • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Roger Martin spotted this unusual 3B on Facebook. There are only two images included, so there is limited info about it. That said, I’m leaning towards this being a home-brew rather than a prototype.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=6613665795327673&set=pcb.1838648579838287

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1940s Wood Commodities Corp Wooden Jeep on eBay

• CATEGORIES: Features, Models, toys This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Roger Martin shared this WWII wood jeep for sale. The lettering is in good shape and the bottom still has the manufacturer’s sticker. But, it’s currently priced at $150.

View all the information on eBay

“1940s Vintage WW2 Willys Jeep WD 63, Wood Commodities Corp W. D. 63 Wooden Toy.
Original WW2 vintage Willys Jeep wooden toy.
By Wood Commodities Corporation.
Marked “W. D. 63″.
Produced during a time when metal was being converted to the war effort.
Measures approximately 10″ long.
This vintage toy is in very good condition with minor wear.
No significant flaws. Just normal edge wear.”

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1974 Winter (Jan-Feb?) Jeep News

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

This 1974 Winter issue of Jeep News may have been the Jan-Feb 1974 issue.

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Racer Update

• CATEGORIES: Builds, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Once the water got fixed (found a retired local plumber who still does small jobs and did previous work on our house, so that worked great), I returned to the cage.

The front “loops” have been bent and added, along with a top and mid cross bar. I also added one side bar, with the other almost ready to spot-weld in place. Unfortunately, I ran out of materials, so I need to get a couple more tubes.

As you can see below, I found a seat placement I like. My head rests just below the top of the seat, so plenty of room for a helmet. Now, I just have to figure out how I want to mount them. I was going to weld in the seat frames, but I think I am going to bolt them. This will make it 1) easier to install the floor pan and 2) allow me to change up the seats/position if I’m unhappy with how it feels.

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Oct-Nov 1974 Jeep News

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

Here’s another Jeep News. This one has the months, but not year. I used some article details to estimate it is from 1974.

1974-oct-nov-jeep-news1 1974-oct-nov-jeep-news2-3 1974-oct-nov-jeep-news4-5 1974-oct-nov-jeep-news6-7 1974-oct-nov-jeep-news8-9 1974-oct-nov-jeep-news10-11 1974-oct-nov-jeep-news12

 
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CJ-2A Al-Toy on eBay ($50)

• CATEGORIES: Features, toys This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This buy-it-now CJ-2A Al-toy isn’t perfect and has some funky tires, but looks like a good price.

View all the information on eBay

“1 PIECE CAST METAL JEEP AND UNBRANDED. VERY HEAVY. ITS AWESOME. HAS METAL STEERING WHEEL AND COLUME. Has custom ERTL wheels and tires. Look closely at pictures because this is the item you will get.”

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Unusual Willys Jeep Service Decal and Postcard

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

These two odd items with popped up on eBay. One is a Willys Jeep service postcard and the other is a Willys Jeep service decal. Both are related to Rednor and Rainear, a Willys dealer in the Trenton, New Jersey, area. The decal has already sold, but the postcard is still for sale.

This decal has already sold:

rednor-decal-jeep-willys

This post card is still available on eBay:

postcard-willys-jeep-service1 postcard-willys-jeep-service2

 
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Two Bars Forward, One Backward, and A Leak

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

A couple days ago I bent the front passenger side loop. All was well until the very last (bottom) bend. For the passenger side it would have been okay where it is, but for the driver’s side I felt the bar would be better if it angled more quickly once under the dash so it gave more clearance for the clutch foot.

So, after much hemming and hawing, I bent the driver’s side differently. That turned out better, which meant redoing the passenger side.

You can see a comparison of them below. It’s tough to visualize where the floor/firewall will be, but the sheet metal gives a rough idea.

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Once I get the passenger loop done, the remaining bars ought to be completed more quickly.

However, before I could do that Thursday night we discovered a leak underneath the bathroom of our master bedroom. Ugh. We don’t know when it actually broke, but Thursday night, we could hear a strange noise in the bathroom. Of course, we were about ready for bed, which meant getting re-dressed and dropping into our crawl space where I shut off the water to our house. Friday morning I crawled the length of the house, where I discovered where the water was falling on the plastic. The actual break was in the insulation, but I didn’t locate it. I’d rather get a pro to deal with it.

So, we are house-camping again. On the upside, we tried out the shower in our shop for the first time. It turns out, it works great!

We have a plumber (highly recommended and the uncle of our neighbor) coming tomorrow to look at it, as I’d rather not work with the copper pipe. I want to get it done quickly and get it done right … I got a cage to finish!

 
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Winter 1974 Jeep News

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This issue of Jeep News is printed with Winter 1974 on it, but I think that refers to Jan/-Feb of 74 rather than Nov-Dec 74 and Jan 75. There are other issues (to be posted) that cover that time period.
1974-Jan-feb-winter-jeep-news-pg1 1974-Jan-feb-winter-jeep-news-pg-2-3 1974-winter-possibly-jan1974-jeep-news-pg-4-5

1974-Jan-feb-winter-jeep-news-pg-6-7

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Jan 2023 MVCC Arizona Military Vehicle Show

• CATEGORIES: Event, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: The event is today and tomorrow!

Joe in Mesa shared this event flyer for the 32nd annual Arizona Military Vehicle Show in Phoenix, Arizona, January 28th-29th, 2023.

2023-AMVCC-Show-flyer

 
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1967 Kaiser Jeep Military 6×6 Brochure on eBay

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

This Kaiser Jeep brochure features 6×6 rigs. The seller has eight of them.

View all the information on eBay

“1967 Kaiser Jeep Heavy Duty 6×6 Fold Out Sales Brochure.”

1967-kaiser-jeep-military-brochure7 1967-kaiser-jeep-military-brochure8 1967-kaiser-jeep-military-brochure3

 
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Jeep News Issues & the Fall of 1973 Issue

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

Thanks to Illinois Larry, I discovered that I had only posted one of my issues of the Jeep News from the 1970s. It’s not clear to Larry (who has 10 issues) or I (who have 14 issues) just how many were produced, but between our collection, there were at least 15 issues published.

Here’s an overview of covers of what I have, followed by a photo of what Larry has that I don’t. Strangely, many of these lack the published year, so figuring out when some of these issues were published is tricky:

1970s-jeep-news-issues-lores

This is the cover page from what we believe is Larry’s Winter Fall-Winter 1981-1982 issue.

1981-fall-winter-jeep-news-cover

FALL 1973 Issue: This is the earliest issue I have and may be one of the first ones, if not the first.


1973-fall-jeep-news-pg1 1973-fall-jeep-news-pg2-3 1973-fall-jeep-news-pg4-5

1973-fall-jeep-news-pg6-7

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More Cage Progress

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

On Sunday, I was able to tack together the basic structure of the rear portion of the cage. On Monday, I began work on the front portion.

Here’s a look a the back portion with the body sitting on the frame:

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There are still a number of small things to do to complete the rear portion (such as adding rear shock mounts, adding some corner supports, and, of course, welding all the connection points).

To properly calculate the two long side bars, which will run from the mid part of the frame back to the rear loop, I needed the body to be sitting on the frame.

Each side bar has four bends, so getting them both the same is a good challenge.

After LOTS of measurements, angle considerations, and design thoughts, I finally got around to bending the two most difficult angles on the side bar. Below you can see the passenger side bar temporarily in position, though the lower two bends haven’t been finished yet (next bend will direct the bar vertically at the dash, then the final bend will redirect the bar forward under the dash where it will attach to a still-to-be-added cross bar.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get as far as I’d hoped, because Ann had a bad migraine, so I had to take the dogs to the groomers (which they needed pretty badly, as bad weather forced us to cancel two previous appts over the past two months).

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I expect that by Friday I’ll have all the bars bent, positioned, and maybe even welded.

 
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1981 Spring & Summer Jeep News

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This 12-page Jeep News issue was a harder one for me to find. It includes a couple advertising inserts as well.

1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-1 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-2-3 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-4-5 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-6-7 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-8-9 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-10-11 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-12 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-insert4 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-insert3 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-insert2 1981-spring-summer-jeep-news-insert1

 
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More Progress, Despite The Great Cow Escape

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Bad cows …

I had big plans to work out early and get out to the shop. But, just as I finished my lifting, our neighbor Andrew texted me at 7:30am, “I got a text from my neighbor Dan Green. Your cows are in his pasture.”

Ugh. There went my early start in the shop.

We piled on clothes (below freezing this morning), loaded up the UTV, and headed over to Andrew’s fence line (the cows have been borrowing Andrew’s pasture). Sure enough, the cows had created a nice wide entrance in the wire fence.

The moment the cows heard our UTV, they recognized it was feeding time, so we lured six of them back to Andrews pasture. Of course, one dumb cow, our 7mo steer, couldn’t figure out how to get back through the fence, so, of course, he went over another part of the non-barbed wire fence, damaging it. Ugh.

Once at Andrew’s pasture, we wooed them over to our pasture with food and closed the access gate to Andrew’s place. With the cows grounded, we went to work on the fence.

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Thankfully, it didn’t take too long to fix the fence. I.believe our two mischievous 2yo steers (they become meat next month) were leaning over the fence to get some tall grass in Dan Green’s pasture, which caused the fence to collapse. Bad cows.

Now for the cage progress. I’ll skip the explanation (am tired) and just get straight to the pics. The big loop is completed, along with the back bars and the rear cross bar. Everything is, level, square, tacked-in-place, and ready for more bars.

There will be no work on Friday (quick trip to Seattle), but I plan to get back to it this weekend. I’ll add more bars for strength, then begin work on the front loop.

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Transport Motor Company (TMC) Brochure at Farm Jeep

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

Barry has posted on Farm Jeep a really cool and rare brochure with plenty of pics from the Transport Motor Company out of California. During the late 1940s they had a full line of jeep attachments, from Hydraulic lifts, to farm equipment, to fire fighter and sprayers and more.

View it all here: https://www.farmjeep.com/farm-jeep-parts/lifts/other-hydraulic-lifts/transport-motor-company-tmc-hydraulic-lift/

Here a list of the products TMC offered:
tmc-brochure

And, this shows a bucket:

tmc-brochure2

 
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Dirt Daily Video: Get an M-677 Running

• CATEGORIES: Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Hopefully, Fred is able to fulfill his New Years resolution this year.

 
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1966 Ford Bronco Commercial

• CATEGORIES: Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Roger Martin shared this classic Ford Bronco Commercial with me. I figured you folks would enjoy it, too.

 
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Getting the Bends (Correct)

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

More-months-than-I-care-to-think-about ago (about seven months I think), I bought a cheap Affordable Bender. When it arrived, I was less than impressed with the collar (see this post). So, I called them, only to learn that the collar was designed that way and should work fine (I believe they told me “Billions” of bends have been done with Affordable Benders, or something like that).

So, I decided to test the bender before sending it back; I hadn’t expected to wait 7 months to test it!

Yesterday, I mounted it to my metal work table and tested it with a 90 degree bend, one of two I need for the racer’s main loop (it’s the most difficult bend of the entire roll cage). The bender comes with a 90 degree die, so I was a little worried wether the bender would do a 90 degree bend.

First off, it didn’t take me long to miss my old bender, the one I built from plans: http://www.ewillys.com/2009/10/08/my-tube-bender-almost-done/. But, since I couldn’t access my plan (lock PDF with no password and the author of the PDF wouldn’t answer my emails), I had to buy this AFF bender.

Here are the results of the 90 degree bend .. as you can see, it stops short of a 90 degree bend:

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Ugh .. what It meant is that I had to force the 15′ tube through the collar a few inches so I could add an additional bend. While that worked, I bent it too far (I misread my level .. it went to 90 degrees which I missed, then started down to 88, so I thought it was at 88 and needed to go to 90. UGH .. had to start over).

Eventually, I got the hang of how to do a 90 degree bend with this and managed to create the loop below.

This pic shows the first 90 finished and I’m starting on the second.

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This shows the second 90 done. That is all the 90s I need, so the rest of the bends should be much easier.

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I still have two more bends on this loop (the bars are parallel, though don’t look that way in the pics), which I’ll complete tomorrow.

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