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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 .
Dan continues to make good progress on the reconstruction of his grandfather’s CJ-5. Below, Dan shares both the latest images and images from 20 years ago, with him driving. If you don’t remember the non running, poor condition of the jeep, you can view the early restoration pics here. Thanks Dan and keep going! And, I promise I’ll up there sometime this summer to collect the beer you offered 🙂
This past weekend Pete, from the Old Willys Forum, drove down to the 2nd Annual Willys Moab Rally 2011 put on by Casey Dimmitt. He reports that they had plenty of fun and wished they could stay longer. Pete put this video together (I think to make us all jealous so that we’ll join them next year!). Thanks for sharing Pete, I love that area!
UPDATE: This is back on eBay
(12/21/2010) This flattie has appeared in a variety of four wheel articles. Lots of links below.
“I am selling my super clean 1951 Willys CJ-3A, which has been featured in several articles in Four Wheeler magazine as Project Colonel Mustard. I wish I could keep it, but life changes dictate that I sell it. The serial number on the Willys is 451GB110046 and I am the fourth owner. This is an AS IS sale and the Jeep has a clean California title.
This Flattie was restored in 1997 and is rust free. It has an L134 flat head and T-90 3-speed transmission with an Advanced Adapter Saturn overdrive. The stock Dana 25 front and Dana 41 rear axles have mechanical lockers. The shocks are CJ-5 Bilsteins that work with the 2-in lift springs from Deaver Spring. The rear of the tub has been Line-Xed, and wheels are custom 15-inch Stockton units that have been powder coated black and the tires are 30×9.5R15 BFGoodrich Mud-Terrains. We have also completed an 11-inch non-assist drum brake conversion at all four corners. Steering is new and tight and braking performance is strong and straight. On the front bumper is a Warn 8274 winch. An Optima yellow top battery is under hood, along with a billet optical distributor and 12-volt conversion that uses the stock starter (rebuilt last year). A custom rear tire carrier moves the spare to the tailgate. This Jeep has a reinforced Smittybilt roll bar and seatbelts out of a YJ for all four positions. Also added is a Tuffy center console and 12v power point on the dash.
I recently rebuilt the carb and the Jeep starts right away every time and runs strong. It will reach speeds faster than 55mph if there is enough room to get there. It is a great weekend runabout and it has been wheeling in the So Cal desert, as well as the slick rock of Moab.
I have many of the original parts, including the original points and distributor and generator, along with the rear drawbar hitch. Also have manual and books. All of this comes with the purchase. The Power Tank and Hi-Lift jack are NOT part of the sale.
Here are some of the articles that have appeared in Four Wheeler magazine:
http://www.fourwheeler.com/projectbuild/129_0801_1951_willys_cj3a/index.html
http://www.fourwheeler.com/projectbuild/129_0804_1951_willys_cj3a_overdrive/index.html
http://www.fourwheeler.com/projectbuild/129_0812_1951_willys_jeep_cj3a_brake_conversion/index.html
http://www.fourwheeler.com/projectbuild/129_0807_1951_willys_jeep_cj3a_trail_gear/index.html
http://www.fourwheeler.com/projectbuild/129_0805_1951_willys_jeep_cj3a_suspension/index.html
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-_ffE8DvBs
This unusual photo has likely been through photoshop at least once. There’s a story attached as well. Click here to read the entire story.
In 1959 my dad and Mr. Hatcher Williams founded a summer school for high school boys at a hunting lodge in Corolla, North Carolina. I spent nearly the whole summer at Camp Yonahnoka in the Carolina mountains while my sisters and parents practically lived at the beach. (continued)
Here are some fun pics from Flickr. The last one is an illustration that isn’t a great pic.
The step has been modified, but this is a nice looking flattie.
She’s King of the World (that would be a Titanic reference)
I do not know the artist or name of the painting.
The Chicago Auto Show website has an archive of images from past auto shows. Some of the pics include a variety of different jeeps. Some of these you have probably seen before and, hopefully, others you haven’t.
Last year Bruce shared documents which indicated Willys Motors planned to have a Hong Kong black and gold theme for 1960. In the pics below, you can see the Hong Kong theme, but hard to tell what the colors are.
1951:
1954:
1959: (you can see a bigger version of the same photo at thefcconnection). This must have been released as a PR photo.
1960: I thought the description on the bottom of this photo claiming the CJ-6 link was interesting. I’m assuming the mistake was made by the person who assembled the auto show archives?
I found the advertisement below on Flickr. According to the information on Flickr,
this ad was for the 1960 Detroit Auto Show, but showed 1961 vehicles.
1961: The Hong Kong Exhibit (though I haven’t quite reconciled the 1961 show date from Bruce’s document).
1962: Here’s something from International Harvester.
1964: 
From the archives of the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History in Little Rock, Ar, comes this holiday image on a post card.
Next weekend, May 20-22, the 19th Annual Spring Midwest Willys Jeep Reunion and Swap Meet takes place in Mason, Ohio. Click here to learn all about it. Bob will be providing up-to-the-minute photographic coverage for eWillys readers . . . oh wait. I forgot . . . Budget constraints at eWillys corporate forced us to change from up-to-the-minute coverage to up-to-the moment-bob-feels-like-posting-images-and-simultaneously-has-internet-connectivity-and-isn’t-doing-something-more-important coverage. Thanks for volunteering Bob!
Well, sort of. Rudolf spotted this MA looking jeep for sale, but it turns out the owner combined some MA body parts with a Mitsubishi built CJ-3B. It sure turned out well. You can see some restored MAs at Gavin’s Site.
I received an update from the Festival organizers. Click on the pic to learn about all the updates.
I’ve never been a big fan of the DJ-5s (just not my thing), but I think this might be the best use of a mail jeep since they stopped delivering mail!
UPDATE: I suggested that the Surrey owner hadn’t gone full out with the Pepsi theme, as the racer below had. Lester correctly points out that the Surrey represents an older color scheme (which was before my time). If you look through these images, you’ll see the Surrey has the earlier, full color scheme of light blue, red, yellow and white colors. Thanks Lester!
I’m sure the pepsi folks wouldn’t want to be left out, so here are 2 different pepsi jeeps.
I think this builder couldn’t decide between Coke or Pepsi. I found it at jeepfan.com.
UPDATE: I initially had this as a front axle modification, which was clearly incorrect (the lack of a stearing knuckle should have been my first clue!)
Thanks to John for putting together the narrative and the images!
“Thought some other folks might find this interesting, especially those that have swapped to the D44 rear axle.
Bob forwarded some links to jeeps from the WW2 In Color website and the Lone Sentry Site.
FROM WW2INCOLOR:
FROM LONESENTRY:
Bob pointed me to these two images taken by SFC W.E. Duggar while stationed at Fort Sill, OK, in 1942 as part of the 1st Infantry Division – Dixie Division, 167th Infantry, 3rd. BN. The first one is particularly wonderful.
Rudolf has found a variety of interesting jeeps for sale in Bali. Here are pics of an unusual GPW.
You can view the first group of images here and learn more about their history. he MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History in Little Rock, Ar, only exhibits one jeep (shown below), but they do have a variety of WWII Jeep photos in their archive, many of which include captions. Here are 9 of them. The photos are part of the Allison Collection of World War II Photographs, the captions of which come from the ACME wire service.
The caption for the image below is: Yanks Hunt Eggs (CQ) in France
France—Holding a lettered board written in French and meaning “have you any eggs?” two Yanks ride in a Jeep and hope for a positive answer from French girls in the city of Rumegies, France. Driver and sign holder is Pvt. Maury Sanders of Corinth, Miss. The other Yank, Pvt. Albert Frank, Burlington, VA., looks on. Credit: Army radiotelephoto from ACME.
The Caption for the image below is: On one of the most dramatic journeys recorded in the annals of the war, so far, Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stillwell, at the head of a band of 114 Americans, Burmese nurses, Chinese, Indians, Britons and Anglo-Indians, covered 140 grueling miles on their retreat from Wuntho, Burma, which began on May 4th, 1942. For days the band struggled through the torturous heat of the dense malaria-infested swamps and jungles of Burma, to reach the banks of the Uyu River, where they were forced to abandon the few Jeeps and trucks they had, to proceed on home-made rafts, down the river to the Chindwin and Thenge to Imphal on the Indian frontier. They arrived at their destination, Dinjan, India with only a few cases of malaria and heat exhaustion. Considering what they had been through, their journey was remarkably successful. Here, in a series of 25 official U.S. Army photos, just arrived from India, the story of the retreat is graphically presented. New York Bureau
This bridge was repaired by the Chinese on time, and Major General Franklin C. Sibert, starts ahead of the first Jeep in the column.
Credit: (U.S. Army Photo from ACME)
A writer, and ‘recovering ranch girl’, named Tamara Linse wrote a nice bit of history about the 115th Cavalry Horse Mechanized, which was a National Guard unit from Wyoming that served in WWII.
She notes that early resources were scare. She writes, “The 115th Cavalry was activated nine months before war was officially declared. The entire 115th Cavalry Regiment, all 1,086 men, was inducted into federal service on February 24, 1941, the day they boarded a train for Fort Lewis, Washington.
Like all wartime training facilities, Fort Lewis was unprepared for the influx of soldiers. The men trained with stove pipes for cannons, sticks and brooms for rifles, and jeeps marked “TANK” for enemy armored vehicles. Aircraft used sacks of flour for bombs.”
She also mentions that while some soliders were excited to see the new jeeps, motorcyles, and other mechanized vehicles, other soliders would only give up their horses when you pulled their reins from their (I hesitate to say cold, dead) hands.
In the article, she includes an image, courtesy of the Wyoming State Archives, which shows a horse jumping a jeep. You can check out the entire article here. You might also like to read why/how Men are Like Plants.
While looking up this Crosley (which I’m not quite sure is a Crosley), I discovered the largest Mircocar Museum in the world. The bad news is that it appears closed until Fall 2011 for renovations. However, you can look through the virtual tour to see the types of cars owned by the museum.
According to NWJEEPN.com, an offroader made the mistake of going around a locked gate in order to explore some dirt roads in Clark County, WA. He was caught and punished. As part of his sentencing, he had to publicly apologize via the below YouTube Video. That seems a novel use of YouTube.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmXGe9FBCE8
According to the University of Colorado, in 1943 Glenn Miller was asked to “organize a group of outstanding AAF bands to boost morale. Each would contain musicians especially selected from the draft. Each would be trained to play both inspiring marching music and outstanding dance band music. He envisioned himself as a morale and band builder. While working to achieve his objectives, Miller encountered frustrating opposition from some officers within the military bureaucracy. He did, however, have powerful allies in Washington, who helped him to circumvent red tape.”
Called the “Band of the Training Command of the Army Air Forces under the direction of Capt. Glenn Miller” and stationed at New Haven, Ct, Miller continued to run into some problems. “A famous, if exaggerated, story soon circulated wherein a military official scolded Miller for ruining traditional Army marching music, saying that Sousa marches were as perfectly fine in 1943 as they had been in 1917, to wit Miller reportedly replied, “Tell me, Major, are we still flying the same airplanes that we did in 1917?”
Despite continued flack from those who disagreed with Miller’s plans, Miller continued to make changes. A newsreel eventually captured a practice session. “The newsreel showed off what was called the ‘jeep band’. That is, the marching band’s big drum sets and drummers that were carried aboard jeeps and driven alongside the musicians as they marched on the Green or at the Yale Bowl. The AAF apparently thought Miller was doing the right thing because he simply kept on doing it, much to the delight of the young people in the services who were marching and listening to Miller’s “updated military music”.
This image comes from the University of Colorado Music Department. I searched for other images on the net, but didn’t have any luck.
You might have seen one or another of these images illustrated by Normal Rockwell, but did you know there’s a story as well? Published in the January 29th, 1944, edition of the Saturday Evening Post, the story was written by Wilbur Schram, who went on to be called the “father of communication studies” in the United States. The story appears to be a fun, fictional tale of a jeep named Wilbur and his exploits. Unfortunately, I could not find any copy of the full text anywhere on the net.
Here is the best snapshot I found on Flickr about the article.
Here are closeups also found on Flickr
Claus forwarded this story and pics today from South Africa. As I told him, marriage can be a rocky road, so it only makes sense to start out newlyweds in a jeep! You might remember Claus’ brother’s build, which can be seen here.
Claus writes, “The past weekend my brother was asked, by one of his friends, to provide his jeep as their wedding car. Apparently the jeep was centre of attraction and completely shadowed the newlyweds hehehe :-). It even was part of the decor at the reception hall.”
Craig spotted this cool image of an unusual “Eat More Bread” delivery truck. He believes it was shown at the Chicago Auto Show in 1960. I looked through the Chicago Auto archives, but didn’t have any luck finding other examples of it.
I found another example of this rig in “The Story of the Jeep“
According to the CJ-3B Page, Willys-Overland considered a large delivery truck back in the erly 1940s, but apparently decided not to pursue them at that time.
