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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 .
Bill shared this post about a rough CJ-3B that was rebuilt into a CJ-2A-looking jeep. The result looks good, but it is also a good reminder that what appears to be a particular model may not be so thanks to the interchangeability of parts.
PHOTO CREDIT: Dutch and Curbside Classic
This R.B. Macbride Ashtray sold on eBay for just over $20. R.B. Macbride was a long time vehicle dealer in Modesto, California, that didn’t get a jeep dealer agreement until early 1957. Here are photos of the ashtray.
This January 17th, 1957, article in the Modesto Bee shares the news about Macbride’s Willys Jeep dealership:
Later that same year, on July 17th, the Modesto Bee ran an ad for Macbride touting the new FC-170:
I’ve been going through old photos, from both my collection and my parents, to discard the ones that will mean nothing to anyone else (and save my kids from having to throw them out later). Among the photos were some of these early pics of my first jeep, which I eventually called the “Great Escape”.
I started building it when I was 20, a rig for racing, street, and trail. It was built on a part-time cook’s salary, so most everything was hand-me-down parts or hand built parts (example: the spring-shock plates were hand-saw cut from very old railroad-tie plates similar this. Why? Because it was steel we had laying around the garage. The ones we had were about a half-inch thick.
The earliest build pics:
Together and running with the original, used, mini-terra tires (also marketed as mini-terror tires):
UPDATE: Barney Goodwin (of Barney’s Jeep Parts) sent this 1973 photo out of Houston showing another possible example of an orange city-of-Houston CJ-5 painted similarly to the jeeps below.
Barney added, “This photo was taken in June, 1973 in my hometown of Houston. A neighbor who was an official for the City of Houston owned it. (His city car is to the left of the Jeep in the photo).
Like the Jeeps in the posting (below), I believe this had been a fleet Jeep, special ordered for a construction company, municipality or county. It had the same hard top as in the photos (see the doors propped against the wall behind it. Out of sight but in my copy is the windshield. It is orange also) Note the orange hinges, mirror arm, etc.
The changes he made to it were sand tires (the beach was 50 miles nearby) which I believe were on the Kelsey deep dish rims used on the Renegade and Renegade I, and also the white upholstery .
It was neat to see him cruise around on hot Houston summer days in this- just as it appears.”
==========================
A 1968 image from a slide on eBay shows a dually CJ-5 that’s been modified in an unusual way. Too bad the quality isn’t better.
From this pic:
A second photo on eBay reveals there were two jeeps at the 1968 equipment show in Houston, the jeep above and a second dually CJ-5 with a back hoe. Unfortunately, the image isn’t hi res enough to reveal much about the jeeps:
From the top of this photo:
UPDATE: I had something else planned for today, but my email turned flakey, so those pics will have to wait until tomorrow …. This is the third time I’ve reposted this, as the first two links turned back. I first posted the video below in 2015. It’s worth a second third look.
This video is called “WWII Jeep Gets an Honorable Discharge” and shows Mayor Fred Heine’s Ford GP. The video shows the jeep working on the farm. Lots of great shots. Wyatt’s father was the first person to work on it when Fred Heine couldn’t get it started. The jeep is now at the U.S.Veterans Memorial Museum in Huntsville Alabama, which was featured last week.
Roger Martin shared this pic with me from Facebook. Was this custom or production model (don’t have time to check it out right now).
Steve spotted these rarely seen wheels for sale. They were made by Fremont (MII40IK … Model #?).
View all the information on eBay
“RIMS ARE 20″ DIA X 4.5 WIDE WITH A 3 1/8″ BACK SPACE LOCAL PICKUP FROM PEMBERTON NJ 08068 OR CAN DELIVER TO HAGERSTOWN MB/FINDLEY OHIO MILITARY VEHICLE SHOW”
So, this happened the other day ….
Per Ann’s FB post, “Today the girls went to Doggie Details Pet Grooming where Shana, as usual, did an AMAZING job on them. They were soft and pretty and smelled so nice for all of about an hour.
Lizzy proceeded to escaped David’s fence redesign (expanded while the dogs were being groomed). Then, Lizzy got into the Pasture where a cow pooped on her. David then chased her back into the yard where a pensive Betty Page excitedly attacked her before they both bolted through the doggie door, into the house and across the white couch.
Needless to say I had to disregard Shana’s warning about too frequent bathing and bath them for a second time today. We’ve also had to shampoo the sofa, clean the floors, clorox the entire bathroom, wash the slipcovers and finally we got ourselves cleaned up.
I think it goes without saying…..Lizzy is so grounded.
Before the pasture:
After the pasture:
This brochure sold on eBay. It shares a Jeep-Approved bumper for CJ-5s, CJ-6s, FCs, Trucks, and Gladiators. It is form F144W.
These hubs have seen some serious wear on their faces. Evidence suggests it was Husky that private labeled this hub for Allstate (more on Husky history here).
What is interesting to me is that the back side of this hub looks identical to the backside of the early Husky, Dualmatic, and Free-Lock hub, too. I don’t have enough information to compared the eternals of each of these, but I suspect that some of the Husky and Dualmatic hubs reflect evolutions (or copies) from the early Free-Lock hub.
View all the information on eBay
Bottom of an early Husky hub (with more splines, but same underside design with the lock ring):
This version of the Husky hub, also appears to be identical on the backside (also private labeled with Allstate). See the rebuild of this hub here:
We had a surprise overnight visitor last night. Mitch was driving home from Moab yesterday, but the cold temps and long drive, especially over the Blue mountains, helped decide to camp at our place last night. It was a great surprise! So, no updates on this Sunday morning.
Here’s one of the accidents Mitch saw on his trip north. For those that have driven it, you’ll recognize this spot as the beginning of the downward stretch of the Pendleton grade when leaving the Blue Mountains on I-84.
Grant shared this narration of landing and driving inward into Italy during 1944. It includes a variety of jeeps.
“This black & white film shows the early stages of the Allied forces invasion at Anzio, Italy in 1944. The film lacks credits or other information, but likely dates to 1944. The Battle of Anzio took place from January 22 to June 5, 1944, when Rome was finally captured. The operation was opposed by German forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno. The landing operation was commanded by U.S. Army Major General John P. Lucas of VI Corps… ”
Blaine shared this jeep/trailer from Marx.
https://boise.craigslist.org/atq/d/boise-vintage-willys-jeep-and-trailor/7470495346.html
“Nice Willy’s Jeep and trailer. Well looked after toy. Trailer is missing it’s tailgate. Everything else is there”
It’s a good-sized model for the price.
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/clt/d/redwood-city-us-army-jeep/7464452477.html
“Vintage toy army jeep. 7″ x 4″”
During 1961, along with non-animal-related brochures, Willys Motors produced this series of ads using different animals. It appears they were only produced between January and September of 1961.
January 1961: Dog
February 1961: Busy Bee
March 1961: Horse
April 1961: Lion
I finally found an original of this brochure on eBay, so here it is. It’s another of the “animal series” of brochures that was published in 1961. This is Form DM61-07.
This is the front page.
This form is opened vertically to reveal this page:
The brochure is opened horizontally to reveal this page:
This is the back when unopened:
Forget April showers, it’s snowed here the last couple of days in Prosser, setting an April record for snow. We lost power for most of yesterday morning. Updates Wed morning.
Meanwhile, the snow followed Mitch Carter down to Moab, so the usually sunny Easter Jeep Safari week started with a blanket of snow.
At he got some good jeeping on Monday pre-snow (more pics on FB):
Barry Thomas’ photo of this farm working CJ-5 landed on the cover of this month’s Farm Collector Magazine. Congrats to Barry! (it is great photo).
If you have a subscription to Farm Collector Magazine, you should be able to read Barry’s article, too.
UPDATE: Just to be clear, this is not preassembled. It is a kit that needs assembly.
John forwarded me this link to a scale model jeep kit, roughly 22″ long, being sold through MegaHobby.com. At $260.96, it isn’t cheap, but it appears to be a detailed larger scale model. The model is produced by Dragon, which is short for Dragon Models Limited, a company out of Hong Kong, that has been making military diecaet models since 1987.
https://www.megahobby.com/products/1-4-ton-4×4-truck-w-50cal-machine-gun-1-6-dragon.html
A few months ago Nate shared a few pics of a Willys Electric Light Plant. Below are a few more. He has even more pics and info on the earlyCJ-5 page: http://www.earlycj5.com/xf_cj5/index.php?threads/151693/
For those going to the Willys Picnic this year, it sounds like he will be bringing it along (June 12th Kempton, PA).
Dave asked me about the type of adapter used on DJ-3As and FJs to connect an automatic transmission (which may have been the Borg Warner model 12 according to David Sapp mentioned in his comment to this post, though I have no documented evidence of this, but it should be out there somewhere). Essentially, a adapter plate is bolted to the back of an L-head/F-head engine, to which the transmission bell housing attaches.
After some searching, Dave spotted the adapter in an FJ supplement book. Here are the pics.
Meanwhile, a discussion from 2012 on the topic of DJ-3A automatic transmissions yielded these pics showing a BW transmission connected to an L-head with a similar looking plate.
As for the rare shifter that’s been captured in some pics, this pic is the best I have (from a DJ-3A automatic). It confirms Barry Goodwin’s comment on another post that the transmission lacked a “Park” feature. Instead, the driver would put it in neutral when parking (and I assume pull the parking brake).
If anyone has a document that confirms it was the M-12 BW transmission that was used, or has more pics or is aware of other useful discussions on this topic, please let me know. There isn’t much info about these setups on the web.
FYI: Based on my research, it appears the Willys Aero cars of the 1950s used a GM Hydramatic rather than a BW transmission.
This neat quarter-sized Sacramento Jeepers pin is available on eBay for $14.95 (or make offer) and free shipping.
View all the information on eBay
“US Quarter is there to show size. This item will be packed well and Shipped with USPS First Class with tracking.”
Mike shared this video of a brief MD Juan factory tour. The video, in part, demonstrates the scope of equipment necessary to make some of the parts. It’s not a trivial investment in stamps and computer equipment.
One of the rarest type of jeeps hubs are the Kurland hubs. I’ve only had one pic of these hubs (thanks to Ted Jordan) until yesterday when Richard Darr forwarded me a photo of a set of hubs he acquired. This led me to a quick dive into the internet, which yielded the following.
A variety of searches related to “Kurland” and “Kurland Motors” yielded results in both Los Angeles (a city whose name appears on the hub) and Denver. In fact, there were Kurland Motor companies in Los Angeles, Denver, and Grand Junction, Colorado (also known as Kurland Junction Motors).
The Denver location was opened as early as August 1946, as an ad in the Windsor Beacon out of Windsor, Colorado, mentioned the new Universal Jeep arriving for delivery (soon).
I couldn’t location much information about this Denver Willys distributor, other than Kurland Motors was instrumental in the launch of the Mile High Jeep Club in 1956 and that Kurland Motors, at least for a short time, marketed Kurland-branded bumpers about that same time.
Regarding Kurland Junction Motors, I was able to locate this ad from February 22, 1948, (The Daily Sentinel, GC, CO):
Now, were the Denver/Grand Junction Kurland dealers connected to the Kurland Motors of Los Angeles that also sold Willys-Overland vehicles? If they were related, I have yet to find a connection. But, at least I was able to unearth more information about the LA Kurland.
CREDIT: December 05, 1948, issue of the Los Angeles Times
As the article suggests, the Transport Motor Company lost some key personnel. Perhaps Transport Motors had decided to exit its Willys-Overland relationship?
At some juncture, it appears Kurland launched a line of free-wheeling hubs. These hubs were stamped with 1) KURLAND, 2) Los Angeles and 3) Patent Pending. Unfortunately, I could find no patents related to the hubs. In fact, the only information I could find related to the hubs was a reference to a CJ-2A being sold with a set of the hubs.
November 10, 1955, Independent News, Long Beach, CA.
Here are the only pics I have of the hubs:
CREDIT: Richard Darr
CREDIT: Ted Jordan
In 1951, Kurland Motors provided the Los Angeles Times automobile editor, Lynn Rogers, a wagon for a journey down to Ensenada, Mexico. A description of the trip was printed in the October 21, 1951, issue of the Los Angeles Times.
