Features Research Archives

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Buick V6 History Video

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

Bill shared this video that provides some history about the Buick V6. What the narrator doesn’t mention is that by 1965 installations of the Buick V6 were already happening in places like Salt Lake City, where a local dealer was installing them. At least one article in Four Wheeler Magazine also mentions the modifications necessary for a Buick V6 install. Unfortunately, my jeep mags are still stored, so I don’t have the Four Wheeler article handy to share.

(The good news is that we are nearly done with our master bedroom remodel. Once we move in there, we can remodel our ‘family room/office’, which is where we are sleeping right now, where I plan to display and shelve my books/binders until I can remodel the shop … one step at a time)

 
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Tractor Field Books

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

Since this post about a 1954 Tractor Field Book ad for the Farm Jeep, Barry has been able to track down some Tractor Field Books and post the information at Farmjeep.com. If you are a vintage tractor fan and haven’t heard of the books, I think you’ll like them.

https://www.farmjeep.com/tractor-field-book/

This page from the 1951 Tractor Field Book advertised the Universal Jeep, but post of the book covers standard tractors:

1951-tractor-field-book-jeep-ad

 
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Trench Art Exhibit at NOLA National WWII Museum

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

This article that Bill spotted mentions a trench art exhibit at the National WWII Museum, a place I still want to visit. I wouldn’t be surprised it there’s a few trench art jeeps there, too.

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/article_6542294e-1592-11ec-b22f-479c562f0e04.html

Here’s one example of a trench art SEEP at the exhibit:

 
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Snow Day

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

Today we received our first “big” snow. Anything over a few inches is a big snow for us. So, I’ll be shoveling and using the tractor to clear some area. Thankfully, this stuff should melt pretty quickly over the next few days.

Anyone plow with a quad or ATV/UTV? Is that heavy enough to do a decent plow job? Most of my plowing is pavement (about a half acre worth). We could use a small little runabout vehicle for the property anyway.

2022-01-06-snow-day-lowres

 
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Maury’s Lighters

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

Maury shared a pic of four of his lighters. I don’t know the exact dates, but made my best guess as to  the order they might have been manufactured. Maybe someone else has a better guess?

jeep-lighters-maury-lores

My guesses:

1) The Willys Motors is likely the earliest, possibly not long after the merger with Kaiser. It didn’t take long after the merger for “Willys” to take a back seat to ‘Jeep’, so my guess is 1953/1954.

2) The 4 Wheel Drive one is my guess for second, maybe 1954-56. Kaiser was ramping up the advertising and “4 Wheel Drive” was definitely a prominent element of that.

3) The yellow-blue logo is from 1957ish. That logo appeared on a number of brochures of that era, including this one from 1957.

4) I can’t tell if the red ‘Jeep’ light is plastic/glass or a combination, but I will guess that one is the newest one? It kind of feels like late 1950s or early 1960s to me.

 
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Pics from Facebook

• CATEGORIES: Bantam-FordGP-WillysMA-EarlyJPs, Features, Old Images • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

I don’t think I’ve shared this specific jeep-trailer photo. It was posted by Morihisa Ochi on the G503 Facebook page. He’s posted a number of interesting WWII-jeep photos.

jeep-trailer-conversion-wwii

Here’s another interesting photo from Morihisa Ochi. It shows a Ford GP that’s been converted into more of a truck and a radio jeep.

radio-jeep-phillipines

No date on this photo posted by the Maine Forest Rangers on Facebook:

maine-forest-fire-jeep

This customized jeep was on g503, posted by Graham Thrussell.

custom-jeep-g503-fb

Roger Martin pointed me to this jeep with a modified hardtop sitting on the back:

jeep-sedan-hardtop-fb

Roger also pointed me to this unusual tracked mb:

jeep-tracks-fb

Mario Maipid posted this May 09, 1943, article to Facebook. It indicates the FTC gave credit to Bantam for creating the jeep.

1943-05-09-ny-times

 

 
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Article About Importing a Mini-Jeep from Alibaba

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

Bill shared this article about one person’s experience importing an electric mini-jeep via Alibaba. Included is the cost of shipping and importing the jeep, which raised the cost of the jeep by about 40%.

https://electrek.co/2021/06/09/that-1700-alibaba-electric-jeep-someone-bought-it-and-heres-what-showed-up/

mini-jeep-alibaba

 
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Late 1940s? Photo of Jeeps & Men Welcoming W-O People on eBay

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

This old photo shows a series of early wagons lined up, along with a committee of men, to welcome the Willys Overland Motors Service School to Seattle. That might be Boeing field?

View all the information on eBay

“1950’S WILLY’S JEEP DEALERSHIP SERVICE MEN SCHOOL SEATTLE PRESS PHOTO ORIGINAL. THIS IS AN ORIGINAL PHOTO. NOT A COPY.  MEASURE 8 X 10 INCHES. ”

1940s-willys-overland-seattle-photo

 

 
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“Submarine Jeep” Transmission Trouble

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Bill shared this video. It is part of a series of videos about its creation and challenges.

 
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A Different Kind of “Fire Jeep”

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The video highlights the saving of a jeep that’s been through a fire.

 
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Happy New Year 2022

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

2022

The year 2021 was a bitter sweet year for us. We lost two people we love (our moms), gained a new home in Prosser, brought to that home the jeeps, yet to make everything work, I’ve had to let eWillys go, or at least leave it on life support. In fact, over the last six months I’ve used my computer less than I have since sometime in the late 1990s when I was using an iMac, one of those Bondi Blue iMacs; that was 2 x-wives ago! Wow, time flies.

Instead of working on the computer improving eWillys, I’m outside removing stumps, inside remodeling another of our interior spaces, or pondering where we are going to put a new barn. Instead of doing updates in the early AM, I am walking the dogs down the driveway to open the gate, eating breakfast, and doing some puzzles on my phone. Instead of pondering the narrative structure of my next book–October Gold, a book that intertwines Japanese Gold, American POWs used as Slave Labor, and the State Department’s denial of their reparations from their use as slave labor–I am wondering if I should just get an old jeep with a snow plow or get a snow plow for my tractor.

In other words, my mind is simply not focused on ewillys or jeeps. This isn’t just an isolated moment; It isn’t the result of contemplation following our mother’s deaths. It also isn’t the result of the fact that at age 56 I am now fully retired, meaning I don’t have to work (but being a work-a-holic, I have to be doing something). Instead, it’s been true since we bought this place.

This doesn’t mean eWillys will come to a dead stop. But, updates will continue to be infrequent and I don’t expect them ever to return to their full glory (Unless someone else wants to step in and do it). I guess the question is, what do I do with all the bits and bytes that constitute eWillys?

That is the big question, a question for which the answer has been elusive. Perhaps I can answer that question in 2022?

In the meantime, we’ll continue to remodel. This summer I hope to do more about redoing the shop area; My hope is to set this place up so we we can entertain folks, so we can hold some kind of annual vintage jeep event, something a little different and unique, hopefully in 2023. But, we’ll see how 2022 progresses.

I hope everyone’s 2022 is fantastic!

 

 
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Wild Man Willis Ray Willey

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

UPDATE II: This post was originally posted in January of 2011 (yes, hard to believe it was eleven years ago!). The post covers some of the history about Willis Ray Willey, which is a pretty cool name for a site about vintage jeeps. Who else had a name that includes both “Willis” and “Willey”? Anyway, this post is full of some great and useful comments. It’s taken on a life of its own.

======================================

UPDATE: Thanks to Mike for sorting out Willis’ real name. He was Willis Ray Willey, while his twin was Willard Roy Willey.

It might not surprise you that my interest in history has led me to become the family historian.  As a part of my self-assumed title, I make it a point to look through the family albums and scan images whenever I’m visiting.  This morning while looking through my grandmother’s album, which contains images from Fighting Creek, Idaho, the place her parents homesteaded in 1911 (they actually won a land lottery), I stumbled upon the unusual photograph of a man in an early motorcar that I show below.  I called mom over and asked her if she recognized anyone in the photo, as I didn’t.  She said she didn’t either.

About mid-day I was talking to my aunt (mom’s sister) and briefly described the photo.  I described the guy as ‘wild looking’.  Well, my aunt said that there was once this guy with the name of Wild Willy or something that used to be a colorful character around the Spokane area.  I got curious about who this guy might be and why the unusually nice photo, for a photo taken in 1933, ended up in a family photo album.

So, I powered up Google’s image search feature and input a variety of search strings until I spotted a picture of a guy who looked like the guy sitting in the car.  The story accompanying the photo said his name was Willis Ray Willey and, while he didn’t have a jeep,  he had quite the unusual, adventurous story.  So, I thought I’d share a brief summary of it.

To read more about Willey, visit this article from Nostalgia Magazine. Willey reminds me of the Camel Man, who Hein ran into a few months ago in Australia.

In the picture above, we appear to have Willis Ray Willey in his 1904 REO, the first year that the Ranson E. Olds Automobile Company built a car.  This photo was taken in 1933 (note the ’33 on the license plate).  The photo is taken with the Monroe Street bridge and the Spokane Falls in the background.  Willey planned to drive this car from Spokane to the 1933/1934 World Fair in Chicago.

You’ll note that Willey is only wearing shorts.  It turns out that Willey was a sickly youngster.  After examining him, a doctor suggested that he improve his constitution by exposing himself to the elements.  So, over time, he reduced the clothes he wore, eventually only wearing shorts whether winter or summer.

Apparently, that did the trick, as he never got sick, at least not until he was on his trip to the Chicago World’s Fair.  See, it turned out that simply wearing shorts wasn’t very common practice and, in fact, wasn’t tolerated.  People complained when they saw him and police would arrest him, with many arrests occurring on his way to Chicago.  According to Nostalgia Magazine, he did make it to Chicago, where he was arrested again. However, this time they cut off his hair and beard and he promptly got sick and remained sick for 3 months.

Now in the photo above, you’ll note that along the side of the seat it reads “Postcards 3 for 25 cents”.  One of the ways Willey made money was by selling postcards of himself; I guess he recognized just how much of an oddity he was.

If you look below, you can see two of the postcards he sold.  One is of him on Treasure Island in San Francisco, with a dog, a coyote, a turtle and multiple possums (click on photo and scroll down to see closeups).  The other is of him ice skating at LIberty Lake (thanks Jerry).

Yes, quite the character indeed!

 
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1969 CJ-5 “462” Profile on Hemmings

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Bill shared this story from Hemmings about a restored 1969 CJ-5 with the 462 package.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2021/12/30/after-eight-years-of-commuting-and-four-decades-of-plow-duty-this-1969-kaiser-jeep-cj-5-has-been-restored-for-leisure-use

cj5-426-story-photo

 
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Saginaw Steering Conversion Video

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Bill was kind enough to share this video. I don’t have time to review it, so I don’t have any comment on it at this time.

 
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Video about History of Mitsubishi Jeeps

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

Again, I haven’t reviewed this video, but hopefully it’s done well.

 
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Mahindra Roxer Review (1 Year Later)

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Here’s one more video courtesy of Bill. It might be a practical vehicle for the right folks.

 
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The Passing of My Mother

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

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone for the kind words.

mom_dad_kim_dave_xmas_1973-2

Christmas 1973, dad, me, my sister and mom. This is one of only a handful of family pics as mom hated to have her picture taken. Boy, those are some early 1970s clothes!

This morning at 2am my mother passed away. She was 82. Over the course of the year she’s endured strokes and several heart attacks, but it was especially in the last month that she faded quickly, both physically and mentally. I am gratefuly she went relatively quickly, unlike my father, who passed in 2019 and whose stroke in 2002 set him on a slow decline for more than a decade.

As many of you know, this comes on the heel of my mother-in-law’s passing in September; we surely didn’t expect my mother to follow my wife’s mother so quickly.

My mother was born in Seattle in 1939. Her father was an aeronautical engineer at Boeing, where he worked, initially, in the famous red barn, the original home of Boeing. He was a fun, silly man who loved woodworking, singing, and mischief.

Her mother was tough as nails, having grown up on a farm her parents homesteaded in Idaho. Because of this, Mom grew up with one foot in Seattle, a suburban teen, and one foot in Idaho, a farmer girl.

She attended Franklin High School in Seattle. That’s important specifically because her group of high school friends remained a tight group to this day. Her passing means that her group has dwindled to only five and all five are surely heart broken this morning.

After she married Dad in Seattle, they moved to Renton in 1963. She gave birth to me in 1965 and lived in that same house until we moved her in November to the elder care home.

When my sister got into gymnastics, my mother did as well, eventually becoming a judge. She worked as a judge at multiple levels for over 40 years.

Mom’s farmer-girl side got great joy out of her seasonal garden. We learned to pick strawberries, shuck corn, collect peas, and much more. During the summers we ate fresh fruit from our property: strawberries, huckleberries, black berries, blue berries, apples, raspberries, cherries, along with the fresh fruit and herbs. That was all her (dad on the other hand loved to grow trees).

When my sister wanted a horse, mom was right there, supporting her efforts emotionally and financially, support that continued right up until the day she died. This relationship and support of my sister naturally meant that they were closer.

I, on the otherhand, more independent, was not as close to her. Over the years, mom and I grew farther apart as our politics and other issues divided us more. My separation/divorce from my first wife in 2000 really ripped us apart and we didn’t speak for more than a year. It was actually dad’s stoke in 2002 that forced us to start communicating again. Still, and sadly, there was always a bit of distance.

From the time I started eWillys in 2008, mom often checked the site. She really loved to follow our trips and was a frequent commenter on the posts. She was always amazed and proud of the warmth, friendship and kindness so many of you shared with Ann and I on our journeys.

Mom was also a big fan of my books. She always wished I would contact Hollywood so they would make a movie of the Amber Panels book. She never quite understood that rewriting the book into a screen play was a non-trivial under taking, me for which I did not have. Still, I’ve always appreciated her support of that notion.

Despite our differences over the years, I never doubted that she was kind, thoughtful, and had a big heart. Having lived most of her life within a 10 mile area, she developed many friends and collegues over the years and those folks are mourning her this morning.

Godspeed Mom on your journey to join Dad.

Obviously, eWillys will likely remain lightly updated over the next week. Best wishes all for a better 2022.

mom-kim-playday

One of the few pictures of mom driving the jeep. She and my sister are trying out a balance event at a jeep playday in the early 1970s.

 
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Collins Brothers Jeep Collection for sale

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

Thanks to Bill for forwarding this video. There’s a lot of nice looking jeeps here. You can also learn more here: https://collinsbrosjeep.com/cj-for-sale/

 
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Merry Christmas 2021

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

Merry Christmas everyone!

It’s a bit of a somber Christmas in our neck of the woods. Mom has been struggling over the past week with lots of confusion and health struggles. After a 36-hour wait in the ER, she finally made it into the hospital Thursday night. She had an operation yesterday (the 24th) to remove fluids from the sac around her heart. The docs extracted 700ml (which is a lot) and left a tube in to drain more. Needless to say, this indicates her heart is struggling mightily. Without some kind of miracle, she probably has weeks left at the very most. So, Ann and I are having a quiet holiday season at our new home this year.

We hope everyone else has an enjoyable holiday season with your families and friends. And, I hope you all are blessed with good fortune in 2022!

This 1945 Christmas Card was auction on eBay in 2015:

1945-mb-merry-xmas-card

 
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General George Patton’s Jeep Driver

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Bill shared this video of General George S. Patton’s Personal Jeep Driver. He once removed a jeep engine in 40 minutes (and was very proud of that)!

 
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BAW BJ212 Available for 2021

• CATEGORIES: Features, Other 4x4s This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Bill forwarded this article. Looking for a brand new, old school 4WD vehicle? Well, look no further than this Chinese/Russian BAW BJ212. Of course, while you may be able to buy it brand new, getting it to the states (or elsewhere) might be a challenge.

https://www.motor1.com/news/556070/baw-bj212-china-video/

baw-bj212-chinese-lores

 
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1961 Wagon Left to Rot, Now Runs

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Bill spotted this short article about a wagon seemingly left to rot that was restarted.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/1961-willys-jeep-was-left-to-rot-in-the-woods-takes-first-drive-in-30-years-177018.html#agal_1

1961-willys-jeep-was-left-to-rot-in-the-woods-takes-first-drive-in-30-years_1

 
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Jeep Sales and Service Sign Hamilton, MT $4000

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

It lacks a back panel, but otherwise looks good.

https://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/atd/d/grantsdale-rare-old-jeep-sign/7421635365.html

“This is a super hard to find Lightup Jeep sign from the late 50s. It also has Authorized Willys Dealer on it! Lites up and has no cracks or fading to the lens. The back was broken and removed some time ago. Has the original hanging bracket and all original electronics. Been stored indoors for the last 50 years! This sign is aprox. 3ft x 4ft w/o the arms”

jeep-sign-hamilton-mt1 jeep-sign-hamilton-mt2

 
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Custom Electric Jeep Mesa, AZ $2000

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

Thanks to Joe-in-Mesa for sharing this ad. This electric jeep was custom made by co-workers of the seller years ago. This price is “a couple grand” which I interpreted as $2000. Contact Steve Henry via email for more info Steve @ slhenryservice.com (remove the spaces from around the @).

mini-electric-jeep-mesa-az2 mini-electric-jeep-mesa-az3 mini-electric-jeep-mesa-az4 mini-electric-jeep-mesa-az5

 
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Willys Jeep on Farm as Tractor & Plow Video

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UPDATE: This video was shared in September of 2018. An oldie, but a goodie.

I saw this video for the first time yesterday. Near the end of it there are several jeeps featured doing non-farm chores. I’ve taken a few screen shots of them and added them below. The most interesting one to me is the red one with the extended rear (pic with guys carrying the washing machine).

We’ve run across these extended rears like this on a few jeeps over the years, but this is the earliest evidence of them that I have seen. The one on the back of the red jeep looks like to me like it was professionally made, leading me to wonder if it was a purchasable product.

stills-from-farm-as-tractor-video1 stills-from-farm-as-tractor-video2 stills-from-farm-as-tractor-video3