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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 .
Mike shared this unusual looking electric vehicle that seems to have been inspired by a jeep. It’s called a La Bagnole, which, according to the article, roughly translates to “Jalopy”.
This vehicle is intended to be a fun trail vehicle. It’s batteries are shaped like jerry cans.
Got to give credit to WWII Russians who had a bold dream of flying a tank. I can’t believe that didn’t work out, lol! Thanks to Bill for sharing this interesting bit of history.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221020-the-tank-that-could-fly-into-battle
This scale model of the A-40 shows the enormous size of the wings and tail in comparison to the small tank (Credit: The Tank Museum, Bovington)
Jason Pall posted a pic to Facebook of some 1960s Jeeper Jamboree dash tags. Even on California jeeps these aren’t seen too often.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jason Pall
UPDATE: This post was originally posted July 29, 2016:
I finally snagged this “Jeep Multi-Stop Truck” brochure off of eBay. It is only seven pages. There are no details provided about the chassis used, but it does use the F-head.
The date on this proposal is March 1960. The first ad I have for the FJ-3 is in 1961. My guess is that this may have been 1) a competing idea for a cheap delivery vehicle or 2) the basis for what was restyled as the FJ-3. That AM General made a version of the Multi-stop right after jeep’s general and Military product division was spun off (1971) into the AM General Corp likely isn’t a coincidence.
According to some magazines of the day, the FJ was considered a Multi-stop van, so the description was used, though I don’t believe it ever appeared in any advertising. For example, this 1959 article except from Google notes the following, “office requirements for pickup and delivery of mail on multi – stop routes . The Fleetvan ” Jeep ” trucks , equipped with automatic transmissions , will feature compact cargo space , high maneuverability , maximum driver visibility ”
Roger Martin shared some pics from this past weekend’s Fall colors ride at Tar Hollow State Park in Ohio.
It’s a great excuse to enjoy the fall colors with fellow jeepers.
This documentation came from a friend. It accompanied a Sears Deluxe hardtop, though for some reason it shows the simpler hardtop instructions. Maybe the owner of this document lost the rest of the instructions? Either way, this might be useful to someone.
I bought this brochure off of eBay. I don’t remember seeing this version of a jeep camper brochure. The seller has one more for sale.
View all the information on eBay
See Part III | Start at Part I
This is the final summary from Randy and Carson’s coast-to-coast drive. Thanks to both of them for the inspirational journey and for sharing your photos along the way.
Here’s Randy’s summary of the trip:
“We made it😁 18 days and 7055 miles coast to coast and back in two 1951 open Willys jeeps. Average speed 48 mph Why? I don’t know, but it was fun! Sometime I’ll make a slideshow and post it. Thanks Melvin Petiet and Molly from Happy Trails 4×4 in Jacksonville for storing our tow rig while we were gone. They were also overlanding but we didn’t manage to cross paths. We did hook up with Cartotracks, warn, and Factor 55 for a run in Sand Hollow, and Boston Bob put us up for a night in Delta Colorado. Also thanks David Eilers for a great site ewillys.com.”
Back home on the beaches of Florida
Posted on Facebook by both Mario and Roberto, this WWII illustration pokes fun at the jeep for not making a good plane.
Somewhere on eWillys I had relayed the story I was told about an ex-WWII military mechanic who claimed that a few jeeps were tested as gliders in hopes they could be used to fly across the English Channel. While the experiment barely worked in the Southwest desert, it proved impractical over the channel due to the additional moisture in the air. I have so far been unable to verify these claims.
This single seater former mud racer has a variety of mods.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/528018095354935
“340 Buick emotor with a muncie 4 speed. Willys jeep not a Cherokee but has 460 rear ended gears and 540 front gear, mud racer. It runs and drives”
Thanks to John for sharing this one-of-a-kind low-mileage jeep: 1731 miles … just stop what you are doing and check out these pics! Sadly, no engine pics are included. This jeep will be auctioned October 14-15th. Thought it is listed as a 1952 model, the serial number puts this as a 1951 model.
Some of the implements are unused!
https://www.broadarrowauctions.com/vehicles/tj22_124/1952-willys-cj-3a-jeep
“Chassis No. 451GB117583
This four-wheel-drive CJ-3A Jeep was ordered in January 1951 from Wiley Brothers and Lewis Packard-Willys of West Chester, Pennsylvania, by Arthur Knorr. A producer of Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater and the Miss US and Miss Universe pageants, Mr. Knorr would occasionally escape to his wife Ruth Gray’s family home on Halfmoon Valley Road near State College, Pennsylvania. The Jeep was ordered to support any and all possible maintenance needs on the Pennsylvania property. Accordingly it was outfitted with all the options, including a Ramsey cable winch, both front and rear tops with side curtains, floor mats, a hood lock, a radiator cover, and a heater/defroster – but also a dump trailer, power take-offs in front and rear, a pulley drive, and a hydraulic implement lift, running attachments that included a Timken buzz saw, grass cutter, ‘bush and bog harrow’, and hydraulic 6-foot snow plow!
Later model Dualmatic-style-Free-Lock hubs. The name was originally part of the Free-Lock Hub Corporation
Ann’s longtime friend invited me to look at a jeep yesterday that they just inherited from her uncle. They were confused about the model, so hoped I could identify it.
From the front, the jeep was clearly an early M-38A1 (turned out to be a 1953), with the hinged grille and early fenders. The dash was also correct, the correct large hole fuel inlet, and it had the early M-38A1 cowl with screws. However, it also had a tail gate that didn’t appear added. The body itself was in great shape, yet the body wasn’t mounted using all the holes, in fact some holes were missing. The cowl also lacked both the “JEEP” stamps along the side of the cowl AND the passenger side indent common for M-38A1 bodies.
Thankfully, the uncle had kept receipts, one of which was an invoice for a replacement body. Aha, that’s why it did not have JEEP or WILLYs stamped anywhere.
But, more interesting to me than the jeep, was that another document they had was an original set of instructions for Free-Lock hubs (more on Free-Lock Hubs), the style that looks just like the Dualmatic hubs. This is the first time I’ve been able to document that at some point Free Lock branded hubs were made exactly the same as Dualmatic hubs.
As you can see in the two images below, we have basically the same set of instructions for both hubs, with one that is labeled Free-Lock and the other Dualmatic. The Dualmatic is dated “8-28-74”, which the Free-Lock has hand written instructions, which I believe indicates the Free-Lock hub instructions were from an earlier date.
Free-Lock document:
Dualmatic document:
These two pics show a few more details, including that there are two sets of screws on opposite sides of the hub.
Maury shared this pretty rare Willys-Overland watch. Base don the design, I’d guess this is from the late 1940s. The seller describes this as a “dash clock”. He does listed other models of watches that look to be “dash clocks”, but to me this looks more like a pocket watch. Anyone know more about this item?
View all the information on eBay
“Up for auction is this vintage Willys automobile dash mounting clock. It is in great working condition! Wind up mechanism. I do not have the mounting bracket.
Measures 2 1/4″. Selling as shown”
I’ve never seen one of these. Is it a vintage item or was it produced more recently?
View all the information on eBay
As part of the continuing updates to our property, we’ve added some additional walkways. These serve three purposes. 1) We found that lots of dirt was being tracked into the bunkhouse, so that needed to be addressed; 2) the bunkhouse felt separate from the rest of the buildings and 3) we expect to replace the lean-to ‘barn’ to be replaced with an actual barn, so these walkways will help link everything together. So, we hoped extending the walkway would help incorporate the buildings.
This is one of the few tasks that we decided to hire a contractor to complete. Unfortunately, our calls to local contractors proved frustrating. We couldn’t get local folks to respond. Finally, Ann reached out to Wine Country Landscaping in Milton-Freewater, about an hour away. They gave us a free estimate and had great reviews. It’s a young company, but they are eager to grow, easy to work with, and did a great job. In fact, the guys repaired some concrete for free just to make everything look better, something they were not required to do.
At this rate, I see no reason we can’t hold some kind of jeep event next year. I’ll announce something by January.
Here are some pre-concrete photos. This first one shows the gravel in front of the shop, an annoyance when moving something with smaller wheels from the concrete to the asphalt. To the right of the shop is a form for the new propane tank pad.
After: The concrete now runs the northern side of the shop. The white building in back is a series of lean-tos that are super inefficient space wise. We will repurpose the lean-to materials in to a hay barn and shelter for the cows and a barn will replace the existing structure. To the right is the guesthouse.
A reader shared a rare look at a Willys Electric Light Plant, including the sleeves during cranking. In the pic below, the Willys Electric Light Plant is on the left and a rare Alamo (electric light plant?) is on the right.
Here is a video of the sleeve functioning:
Some more pics:
(<– See Part II of the road trip)
Over the past few days Randy and Carson made good time, yet saw plenty. From Yosemite, they traveled southeast until camping somewhere in Nevada.
The next morning, they drove to Las Vegas, Nevada, where they hit the Vegas strip. At some point, Carson broke a fan belt, so they got to spend more time than planned in Vegas.
Back on the road, they drove to Utah. There, they met up with Jake White and others to take the offroad trip to Toquerville Falls, Utah.
This model just sold on eBay for $108.51. At six inches long, it’s a good side. I was going to bid on this, and even set my alarm, but got too busy rendering 15lbs of pork fat into lard (we just had our pig butchered), so when my alarm went off to go to eBay, I turned it off, got distracted and forgot. Sigh. This is a cool one.
This unusual and rare booklet from 1946 offered marine-conversion kits from the Osco Motors Corp out of Philadelphia for standard engines from several manufacturers, including Willys-Overland. The were called “Convo-Kits”.
View all the information on eBay
“Vintage 1946 Booklet * Convo-Kits For Marine Conversion Of Ford And Jeep Motors .
Vintage Booklet – Has Lots Of Wear But Complete – From Osco Motors Corp. Philadelphia PA.
Measures App. 9 X 6 – 14 Pages .
Loc. A-39.”
Jerry’s father is selling this jeep he found in Wyoming (contact Jerry via FB — https://www.facebook.com/groups/18657808157/permalink/10160120357838158).
Jerry was told this was one of about a hundred that were built by an unknown company. I looked through my archives, but could not find anything exactly like this one. Anyone ever seen one like this?
For all the work that was done to create it, it seems possible that more were made. Jerry indicates that the body is galvanized. The entire top is custom, along with the fenders, and it looks like the work is reasonably good. The doors are suicide doors. The hood looks like an original part. The cowl and dash may be original, but the dash has been modified. The fan shroud is galvanized with an old electric fan.
If forced to guess, I’d say if several hundred were built, that they were older jeeps that were stripped and rebuilt. If all like this one, they were designed for colder and wetter climates (permanent hood, perm dash, and a perm heater blower), so I could imagine these would have been constructed out of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, or Northern Idaho.
Another theory is that if several hundred built, maybe they weren’t all built the same? Maybe some were more custom than others or more creative than others? That might explain some of the odd designs that we’ve seen over the years out of the northern Intermountain West? My assumption had been these were all home built, but perhaps not?
Ann and her son Daniel will be traveling to NY, Philly, and DC over the next two weeks, so I will be juggling animals, chores, and managing the completion of 200′ of new walkways. I suspect she will be having much more fun than I! This may also affect updates …
The purpose of the walkways is 1) to reduce the dirt tracked into the bunkhouse, 2) to better marry the bunkhouse and the rest of the buildings together, 3) to make an access path for mowers/UTV from the west of the buildings to the east and 4) to prep the area for the new barn. With the pathways in place, we can then finish up the landscaping of the bunkhouse.
Before the walkways:
Levels found and walkways dug. Forms, gravel bed, and cement to come this weekend.
This coming Saturday, the forms will be layed, rebar positioned, and concrete poured.
On the jeep front, we have decided that the next project will be setting up our corral system. Once that is done, we plan to set aside other property project updates in favor of me working on Biscuit and/or the race jeep starting roughly in early November.
This Willys Makes Sense banner from 1950 was used to promote the Willys Makes Sense campaign that was part of Willys-Overland’s marketing shift toward “Willys” as an overarching brand, away from the use of “jeep”. It is listed on eBay for $499.
View all the information on eBay
This California Four Wheel Drive Club of Fresno’s roots date back to 1953. It’s unclear what size this is.
View all the information on eBay
“Vintage Four Wheel Drive Club Of Fresno Vest, Green. 8 Vintage Patches. 79-83..”
UPDATE: Here is another Drifters Jeep Club jacket for sale on eBay, this time for $60. The name on this one is “Crash”. It is a Large.
The San Gabriel Valley area Drifters Jeep Club still exists.
View all the information on eBay
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This jacket sold in 2019/2020. It was priced at $199, but when I clicked on the “watch” button I received an offer of $175 from the seller.
In case you hadn’t heard, Roger Martin’s father Jim ‘Pee Wee’ Martin passed away recently. He was one of the “Toccoa Originals”, one of the folks that was there when Camp Toccoa in Georgia first opened.
Roger Martin at his father’s funeral
To honor his father, Roger drove up Mt. Currahee in a 1942 GPW loaned to Roger by his friend Paul Grice. The mountain road is 2.5 miles and climbs 850 feet. Roger was accompanied on the trip by two daughters, two nieces, and a few other family members. They all enjoyed the beautiful views!
Of course, Jim was one of several members of the 101st Airborne that were portrayed in the HBO series, The Band of Brothers. According to Roger, the series transformed Jim’s life. Here is unique look at Damien Winters and Jim sharing stories about making the series along with some of Jim’s experiences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynzOAqTZFUE
