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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 .
From a Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations comes a 1950 report that includes this unusual wood chipper possibly developed by the Fitchburg Engineering Corporation (?).
In this article by Lesley Panilla, Alexander Wetmore Stands Next to a Jeep at Rio Las Tablas, Panama, 1948. “After a number of visits, correspondence in the collection indicates that Wetmore was using the same Jeep during successive visits. Eventually they painted SM-INS in the front bumper marking it for Smithsonian Institution use (see SIA2008-3201).”
UPDATE: Well, it seems I’ve used up all of ‘tonight’ and am already working on tomorrow, so I will wait til the morning for additional posts. Ann and I made it to Kanab, Ut, tonight and celebrated with a local dinner. Now we are spending a romantic evening in bed — she on her iPad and me on my computer — well, it works for us 🙂 … Ann thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!
I just couldn’t resist posting this one pic tonight. I’m not sure why Steve drove all the way from California just to read a book, but I can’t fault his choice in them!
(From Earlier) Nope, no April fools .. more posts later tonight. We will be hitting no-service areas soon as we leave Flagstaff . . . well that and it’s officially Ann’s birthday today. I’d better pay attention to her so that she’ll keep accompanying me on these trips!
I’m not sure if this is an April Fool’s picture or just some fool posing with a purse. I’d like to claim alcohol was involved, but, sadly, nope, that’s just me with Ann’s purse trying to make her laugh. I should have checked to make sure her camera was still in the bag. Behind me is Bernie’s Custom FC with some beautiful custom work, which I will share later. We are just about packed to start our journey northward.
Just one update tonight as we are tired from a fun filled day at the FC Roundup. As we were heading back to Jesse’s from dinner we took to the highway for a few miles. Now, I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d be heading down the Interstate in Phoenix at night in a FC Tour Jeep full of people, let alone traveling at over 60mph and passing other vehicles! For Ann and I it was a perfect ending to a great weekend! More pics and info tomorrow.
Here’s what it looks like at 56MPH in a Tour Jeep with Craig driving (we hit 63MPH at one point), his wife recording the speed and my better half taking a photo. I don’t remember all those lights, but then I was looking out the side as we passed other vehicles. Maybe we hit warp speed and I just wasn’t paying attention? Jason reached 67MPH in his FC Tour Jeep, perhaps setting a new land speed record for Tour Jeeps!?!
Ann and I had a wonderful time at day 1 of the FC Roundup. It was great to match faces with names of people I have corresponded with for years. We spent the start of our visit with Glenn and Colin discussing some of the unusual history of Willys Overland they uncovered recently.
From Left to right is Colin, me and Glenn
As Glenn had to take off, we soon found ourselves on a quick tour of Phoenix in Jason’s FC Tour Jeep. Our quick tour turned into a rollicking ride through Phoenix as its citizens tried to figure out what kind of vehicle was ferrying this crazy group of people. Without hills or dales to wander, we stuck to city streets, waving at all the people who were waving back at us. Canadian Dave was at the helm, navigating the roads of Phoenix like any true Canadian would do … very politely. He didn’t cause a single person to flip us off.
Pretty soon we got thirsty, so we tried to hunt down a Sonic Burger. Unsuccessful on our own, Jason had an opportunity to ask “Big Willy”, a guy next to us wearing a “Big Willy” shirt, if he knew where the closest Sonic Burger place was. Big Willy responded with a point of his finger to our right. Unsure if Big Willy was being accurate or just trying to get rid of us so he could continue driving in traffic, we followed his directions and found the cold drinks we sought.
After our cold drinks, instead of going back to Jesse’s house and the roundup, we soon found ourselves traveling to the airport to pick up Vance. I jumped in to ride shotgun so I could provided directions to the airport; however, my phone’s GPS failed me in our hour of need. Fortunately, Jason’s navigation came through and we found the airport. Now, if you’ve never ridden an FC Tour Jeep through a set of airport terminals, I can highly suggest it. People were smiling and waving … I’ve never seen so many happy people at the airport!!
Eventually, we made our way back to Jesse’s (after a bathroom stop at Valero). After hanging out there for a little while, we all piled into FCs for a trip to dinner. Ann and I jumped back into Jason’s FC. This time, instead of Canadian Dave driving, Jason took the wheel and drove us over to a motel to pick up one more rider before heading to dinner. As we innocently pulled up to the door of the motel, Jason honked the FC’s horn. It just so happened at that moment a woman was walking forty feet or so in front of the FC. The honk startled the woman.
Hearing that honk, the woman’s dog leapt forward, causing the woman to jerk forward too. The woman thought the honk was for her, so she turned around and gave us the look of death. Then, she gave us the one-fingered salute. Yes, it took Jason only a few minutes of driving to have someone flip us off. She might not have been very happy with us (she would flip us off a second time, too), but she made us laugh all the way to dinner.
More form the Round up tomorrow ….
I ran across a story on G503 about the creation of a Nuffield Airborne Jeep in Australia. The details of the build are great!
Link to g503 story: http://www.g503.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=188540
You can view another Nuffield Gutty on my post about lightweight jeeps.
R&P4WD has now joined as a sponsor, so many thanks to them!
You can locate them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/RP4WD or visit their website at http://www.r-p4wd.com.
I found this picture of Henry J Kaiser sitting in this jeep, but I can’t tell what kind of jeep it is. It looks like a cross between a flatfender (front) and M151 (rear). I am wondering if it was a prototype of some sort. Anyone recognize it? Note the four bolt rims.
UPDATE: We are all ready for tomorrow. Can’t wait to meet everyone!
FC and FleetVan Owners,
Once again I am reminding everyone that this is your invitation, to an event dedicated to the rescue and recreation of Jeep Forward Control and FleetVan vehicles and their owners. Your attendance, as Owners, is the most important part of our event. We have added the invitation to FJ3 – FJ6, Jeep Fleet Vans, these are Forward driven as well. There is no charge to this event and we have a raffle of donated FC related parts and products. Please Donate what you can to the free raffle, if you have something that you think someone might want for there FC or FleetVan, then we need it here. All donated FC-Related items are appreciated for the Saturday raffle.
2012 event T-shirts, the embroidered logo, pocket shirts and hats are again coming back and are always available.
Hot dogs, chips, beans on Saturday and anytime refreshments will be free anytime. Also on display that are available will be some new FC products. Your FC-vehicles, in what ever stage of completion they are in: authentic show total restoration, original unrestored, farm, snow plow, tractor, dune buggy, street rod, restored daily driver, repowered, not running, chassis, rusted, wrecked, good, bad or ugly, all FCs, literature, photos, parts of FCs, will be welcome. This is a large gathering of only FC and FleetVan Jeeps, these vehicles are on display, but without judging or awards.
Nearby Hotels are filling fast see the websites
http://www.comfortinn.com/hotel-phoenix-arizona-AZ824
http://www.daysinn.com/DaysInn/control/Booking/property_info?propertyId=06311&as_srp=SP2&cid=carat_search-Days_Inn&variant=
Here are a few last minute details:
We will be driving as a group in FCs to breakfast every morning and also to Dinner some of the nights.
Parking on my property is for FCs / FleetVans only, no exceptions.
Absolutely no smoking near the vehicles, the vehicles on display have vented gas caps.
A smoking area will be provided away from Vehicles.
I love all Children and Dogs, but this event is about FCs, at my house, I will (I have had to) ask people to leave, if you come here with any animal that is not on a leash at your side, Small Children must also be near there parents at all times.
All vehicles on display have owners, please have respect of other peoples property, do not open any doors or sit in anyone’s vehicle, without the owner being present.
It is unfortunate that the fuel prices continue to increase and causing some grief to all of us. I am very grateful to all of you, that are bringing vehicles from far away. I am also grateful to know about all the continued efforts, that some of you have done, that will be bringing new vehicles this year.
Thank You
http://www.thefcconnection.com/2012_fc_roundup_information.htm
Colin alerted to this: Production Assistant for Burn Notice Brandy Maruschak is hoping to locate a pink Willys Surrey in South Florida for sometime between April 4 and April 12, 2012. They only need the vehicle for two days. The script specifically calls for a pink one. If you have a pink Willys Surrey, email me and I will forward Brandy’s information.
Ann and I arrived in Mesa, Arizona, yesterday after a night of camping at Natural Bridges National Monument and a long day of driving through the desert. After a couple of margaritas and the ‘chuletas con chile rojo’ from Nandos last night, I was done for the day. So, rather than updates last night, look for some some updates in a few hours after I catch up on email. In the mean time, enjoy a few of the pics we took on our way through Utah.
On Tuesday one our first stops of the day was at Goblin Valley State Park. If you’ve ever seen the movie Galaxy Quest, then you’ve seen some footage of this unique park.
As Ann and I walked around the park, we spotted an opportunity for our own unique photo op.
After spending the night at Natural Bridges National Monument, we spent two hours touring the park. We didn’t see another car or hiker the entire time. I joked that I had rented the park for Ann for the entire morning. At Natural Bridges we hiked down to the oldest of the three bridges, Owachomo, and shot this photo.
Here is an iconic shot at Monument Valley. I always thought this was in Northern Arizona. It turns out it is just south of Mexican Hat, Utah, and just north of the Arizona Border.
Here’s are three postcards with jeeps by Sgt Dave Breger at postcard collectors.
On the left the caption reads, “I would hafta deliver a message to the Colonel when his orderly is sick”. On the right it reads, “‘Should bars! Get your lieutenant’s shoulder bars here.'”
At the bottom of this card it reads “He wants to ride in front. He’s getting carsick back here.”
Someone created this magnet from a vintage Tonka Toy ad. It can be purchased at ETSY.
Ann and I are packing our bags and preparing for our trip down to the FC Round Up tomorrow (Monday morning). We will be leaving Pasco around 6am and stopping in Boise to drop off some books (hopefully sell some at the coffee shop where I wrote a good portion of the book), grab some fries at the Boise Fry Company and some sourdough at the Boise COOP, and then head further south for Salt Lake where we will spend Monday night. Tuesday we will be heading through Utah and stopping somewhere near the Grand Canyon. We’ll be in Mesa Wednesday evening.
If you are along our path through I-84/I-15 let me know and we’ll see if we can swing by for a quick visit.
We just completed a few new t-shirts. It’s the Bantam design I’ve been playing with for a year. We bought some random shirts and tried the design with different colors. The picture below is pretty crappy, so use your imagination.
Mark from jeeptruck.com forwarded this press release.
“Jeep® and Mopar have teamed up once again to produce a selection of concept Jeep vehicles for the 46th annual Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah. The Jeep Mighty FC concept, Jeep J-12 concept and the Jeep Wrangler Apache are three of six new vehicles that will be shown to enthusiasts in Moab, March 31 – April 8. Look for more on all of these new vehicles later this month.”
Here are pics of the FC & J-12
I ran across this great photo taken by Thad Allton of the Rolls’ and their Bantam BRC and Bantam BRC-60. They were featured in the Topeka Capital-Journal article while attending the MPVA’s 2010 Annual Convention. The article includes a funny story about how Duncan warned Kim about his obsession with jeeps, only to find out she herself had a restored M-38A1. Clearly, it was love!
http://cjonline.com/news/local/2010-07-07/rare_world_war_ii_jeep_replicated
We often get to see Roberto’s Illustrations, but rarely Roberto himself. It seems he likes to paint himself as much as he does his canvases :-). Visit Roberto Flores at his website to see more.
This is a pic of me posing with another canvas in process!
The “dibujo-m38-uruguay-END.jpg” is another commissioned order drawn for an Uruguayan customer, and is a present for another fellow jeeper.
Here are two others just for fun:
I ran across a couple of kisses in/on a jeep. So, here they are:
This image isn’t in great shape, but captures the awkwardness of kissing in a jeep. I think this photo is from 1949? But could be 1944.
This picture comes from a post by Ransom Rings at Mentalfloss.com.
From the G503 site comes this image:
Mark’s brother spotted some jeep videos at Criticalpast.com.
I’ve never seen this rollover: http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675030113_army-jeep_test-driving_Ford-model-jeep_jeep-flips-over
Here is another video. I’ve seen just a small clip of this much longer version.
Here’s a good video of a Ford GP going up and down a hill:
NOTE: Nate needs NOS Amp and Temp Gauge for his new CJ-3A (or ones in good shape. If you have them, you can email him at bolducn20 [at] aol.com).
You might remember Nate’s last two rebuilds. Well, he managed to find a stock, solid CJ-3A in the Northeast. Kudos to him for that find. It looks great.
Nate’s Custom suspension Build
Nate’s Ideas
Nate’s Stock Build
(See all three of his jeeps in the bottom picture)
Nate writes, “Anyways, the one I picked up a month or so ago is truly a rare jeep for the northeast and one that I have been searching for. The body has very little rot, all the original wiring is intact and every thing works, lights, brake light, horn, and vacuum wiper. It runs great also. I had to do a little tinkering with it to get it running good, just as good as my ’53. It also has decent breaks now too. It was missing some parts that I located like a passenger hand wiper, battery hold down, matching ’49 license plates, one seat pan and a spare tire/carrier. I added the dualmatics.
Only things I need for it are two original gauges and it is back to 100% original. The ones I need are an amp and temp gauge. If anyone has both, please let me know.
We think it came from Tennesee. On the tailgate, very faintly it says “DAVIS HOLLOW SECURITY PATROL”. We researched that and there is a seasonal campground in Tennessee by that name. There were other places too, all down south. Someone at one time painted the entire thing, and I mean everything (even the grease) with the red primer. The original color was Luzon red which can be seen in many places. Makes me want to remove the primer to bring out the original paint. Even the frame is still black in a few places!”
John Barton’s book “John Barton’s Fleamarket Guide To MB and GPW Tools And Accesories” is now for sale at Lulu.com. The price of the book is $25. Proceeds from the book are going to John’s daughter’s college fund. If you have any questions about it, you can contact Merlin at merlin [at] HANSONMECHANICAL.COM.
Merlin writes, “This book was first written by John Barton in 2006. It is a review of all tools carried on the WW2 Jeeps and their varieties. This should be a great help while hunting for the correct tools for your WW2 MB or GPW.”
Buz forwarded a couple different images the other day.
This one is from the Los Angeles Times (pic #8) and shows a jeep among the auto train towards the internment camps in 1942. The caption to this picture indicates the trucks were stopped in the Mojave Desert on the way to the Manzanar Camp.
Driving this jeep is Earle Stanley Gardner, who was the writer of 80 Perry Mason Novels. Learn more about him here in this biography written by Jeff Marks.
