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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 .
This ad cites Willys-Overland’s use of the Dictograph as part of an advertising campaign. Given the war references, this was likely printed between 1942-1945.
View all the information on eBay
“This is a vintage original ad, not a copy or reproduction. Neatly removed from magazine. Would look beautiful framed. Measures 10 and 1/2 by 14 inches”
How did Patterson’s accident occur? It’s the result of a cascade of several events.
Patterson has sat for the better part of two years, which likely caused the fuel pump to stop working. Already knowing it didn’t work, and because I was going to have to drive it on the trailer on Saturday (loading a vehicle at my mother’s place is awkward due to the terrain), I tried to buy a cheap electric fuel pump on Friday, I found some $12 cheapy electric ones on Amazon, but it was too late to order off of Amazon, so I figured I could pick up a cheap one at AutoZone or NAPA. Right?
Wrong. The cheapest ones that had were $50 and up. Worse, they were eight inches or bigger. I just wanted a small, two inch fuel pump to get it on the trailer. Even worse, I have a brand new electric fuel pump somewhere; but, given the move, it’s impossible to find right now.
To complicate things, Ann was sick on Friday, so I had to take her mom in for her bi-weekly post-cancer infusions, so that ate up time I had hoped to use to hunt for an electric fuel pump. With time disappearing, I fell back onto an old school idea: rig up a gravity feed setup.
On Saturday morning I had planned to waked up at 3:30 am to head to Renton so I could build the gravity feed, get Patterson running (so it would be ready to load when Steve arrived with the car trailer, as we had a tight time table), and load a cargo trailer that I was towing. Unfortunately, I woke up at 1:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. So, by the time I arrived in Renton at 7:00am, despite my coffee injection, I was already feeling a little tired.
My mother’s garage looks like it was destroyed by a tornado, but in reality, it’s her storage system (sorry mom). So, hunting down 1) extra fuel tubes and 2) a useable reservoir in which I could hold some gas proved difficult and frustrating. Eventually, I cut some hoses off of Biscuit and cobbled this device together:
The “fuel overflow” container was a plastic Costco Mixed nuts container. A handy steel funnel was just wide enough to sit on the mouth of the container, yet had a perfectly sized opening at the bottom to slide into a rubber fuel line.
To put it together, I drilled a hole in the nuts container, then slid the rubber fuel line into the container, sealing it with silicone. Then, I used a steel fuel line and a second rubber hose to feed the carb. I then taped the whole assembly to the driver’s side mirror, which put it high enough to feed the gas into the carb, yet it hung over the side of the jeep so that gas wouldn’t spill onto the jeep.
This shows the system before it was taped to the mirror.
With the system in place, I poured some gas into the funnel and Pattrerson started right up.
So far, so good.
However, I noticed that the brake and clutch were both really tight. If I push the brake, the clutch also went down. To get the clutch to release, I had to physically reach down and pull it up by hand. I didn’t have time to address this issue on Saturday morning, but figured I could work around it.
With the jeep in “neutral”, and me in the jeep, I released the clutch with my foot, but it remained depressed. I figured, given the jeep was in “neutral”, that I could exit the jeep, block the tires, and let it warm up a little. Before I exited the jeep, I double checked that the column shift transmission was in neutral by wiggling the shifter up and down.
I hopped out of the jeep, but before blocking the tire, I reached down to pull out the clutch (why, I don’t know why I felt the need to do that .. should have let sleeping dogs lie) …
Anyway, when I pulled out the clutch, instead of remaining in neutral, somehow the jeep was in reverse. Suddenly, with the clutch-plate engaged, Patterson began rapidly moving backwards.
It was a moment of horror, the realization that there’s nothing I can do but watch Patterson jerk backwards. And, at that moment, I realized the cargo trailer I had rented was Patterson’s prime target. Why Patterson took exception to the trailer isn’t clear, but he ran into that trailer with all that power he could muster (thankfully, he doesn’t have all that much power). Fortunately, the trailer stood its ground, with the only damage being a broken running light. Patterson definitely got the worst of it, sigh.
I suppose the good news is that Patterson was never a trailer queen. I can pull out the dents and fix the bumper.
The thing that haunted me for several hours was how it happened. I was sure I had it in neutral and had tested it several times. Eventually, as I was driving back to Prosser, it finally dawned on me that neutral on the column shifter was “back and forth”, not “up and down”. What I thought was neutral was the shifter moving between 1st and reverse. The gears were so well aligned that it just felt like neutral.
So, it was partly stupidity on my part and partly something that wouldn’t have happened had the clutch been working correctly and/or the fuel pump working correctly, as that had definitely been my focus.
As Colin notes, this is a great excuse to upgrade my lights back to stock.
The next challenge is moving Biscuit….
Ted’s got these parts for sale.
View all the information on eBay
“Willys Jeep CJ2/3A VEC Farm Jeep Newgren Single Bottom Plow Front Counter Weight. Condition is “Used”.
For sale is a Willys Jeep specialized equipment combo consisting of a Newgren brand single bottom land plow and front counter weight. The Newgren brand plow was designed to be used on Willys Farm Jeeps equipped with either a Newgren , Monroe , love , or Stratton Three Point Hydraulic lift or Hitch on back of Jeep. The front weight was mounted on front of Jeep as a counter weight to any of the specialized equipment being used on rear of keep with hydraulic lift.
The front counter weight weighs 265 lbs roughly and is in great shape.
The Newgren single bottom plow is also in very good condition for its age with original Newgren serial number tag still intact. This original Willys specialized combo would be a great addition to any correct Farm Jeep restoration or working Jeep.
These items are way too heavy to be shipped so local pickup will be best, I’d be happy to store them for a reasonable time period once they are paid for
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $8000.
(12/27/2020) I don’t know much about these or what these are worth. Here, it is described as an M-151A2, but I couldn’t verify that the model number was used to identify this. My guess is that it’s built on an M-151 chassis, but that could be wrong, too. It reminds me of the lightweight airborne jeeps.
“Baja Jeep military rebuilt engine needs alternator ,lights ,and tires rare keep Selling don’t have the time to fix it up to many projects message me for more info”
This appears to be original, or close to original:
From this site: https://uncrate.com/1975-m151a2-wolverine-truck/
Jonah Hodkins posted a bunch of pics from this year’s Willys Spring Reunion. You can see them all on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1147017852392638&set=pcb.1147020379059052
Here are ten of them.
Patterson arrived yesterday on Steve’s trailer (a big thanks to him), but things didn’t go smoothly at first (I will explain more tomorrow).
For example, some days you have to resort to old school carb techniques to make the jeep roll..
While at other times, the jeep rolls on it’s own …
Mike spotted this ad posted by Andy Fuhrman on Facebook. I’d guess it is a late 1940s ad from a Dansville, Virginia, newspaper. It seems an odd promotion. Is the wink by “Lewis” supposed to mean that you can bet on the jeep breaking down, so bring it in for service today?
You may have noticed that regular updates have returned. I hope to keep them going, though I may still need a few more days off than normal.
For example, we discovered yesterday that some of our outlets in the living room didn’t work. Three of them each had their bottom portions of the outlet on a three way switch, but the wiring was never completed. I made them work, but not via the three-ways switches. Whoever wired it, did it oddly, so I bypassed the switches. Because we hope to remodel the living area next year, my fix will do for now.
Our back pasture has three and a half new ‘squatters’ in the form of three cows and a calf. A neighbor offered to managed the back pasture in exchange for keeping his cows there. He rebuilt some sections of the fence and brush-hogged much of the grass. He’s getting a good deal, but, for this summer at least, it’s one less thing I need to manage.
Today I left early for the “west-side” so Steve Carter and I can bring back Patterson. I tried to purchase a cheap electric fuel pump yesterday, as the one on Patterson isn’t working at the moment. I only need it to get Patterson up on the trailer, but neither NAPA nor Autozone was capable of selling me a cheap pump. All the ones they had were 8″ long and $70 or more. That was overkill for what I want. So, I’ll do a simple gravity feed setup.
Progress has slowed on unpacking as Ann hasn’t felt good for a couple days.
We had a few amazing, golden sunsets over the past few days. This place will be a bunch of work for the foreseeable future, but evenings like this make it worth it.
I can’t remember seeing a spare tire being carried on a wire cutter like the jeep shown early in this video.
“Various shots of American jeep and trailer crossing a river on pontoon type raft. It seems that the raft has motor – it is more like a ferry. More vehicles crossing river. More shots of the ferry travelling across with German prisoners. American soldiers escort prisoners ashore.”
UPDATE IV: Well how about this …. There was an early Huffman hub that didn’t have the fancy ‘weapon-looking’ topper (as seen in the pics below). Instead, a cylindrical key was supplied to help select whether the hub was engaged or not. This ad is from the September 1962 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine.
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UPDATE III (May 17, 2020): In September of 1964 the Huffman Hub company posted this full-page ad in Four Wheeler Magazine —
September 1964 Four Wheeler Magazine
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(UPDATE II: Finally got a look at the 1967 article about Floyd Huffman that appeared in the August 20, 1967, issue of the Albuquerque Journal (pg 28):
These pics featuring the newly designed jeep appeared in the December 05, 1941, issue of the Ithaca Journal, two days before Pearl Harbor. I feel bad for those women having work the line in a dress and high heels.
The blurb below states:
THE JEEP TAKES ITS PLACE IN ARMY AND IN DICTIONARY: Officially designated as “quarter-ton four-by-four trucks,” but known to the U.S. Army as jeeps, the fast little scout cars, being turned out by thousands to serve as liaison between advanced mechanized units and infantry follow-ups, now are recognized as among the most important contributions of modern American assembly-line methods to the service. Powered with a 63-horsepower, four-cylinder engines, the jeep has a four-wheel drive, can carry three men and a machine gun, and can tow a heavy-calibre anti-tank gun. The pictures, illustration jeep production and testing, were made at the Willys-Overland plant in Toledo, Ohio. Left (in our case top): Women employees at work on a jeep assembly line. In the rear is an assembly line of civilian cars. Center: The cars being tested on the proving-ground. At right (in our case at the bottom): Negotiating an open field choke with heavy brush.
This video that Mike spotted includes a hood that was used in German as part of a ceiling (several hoods were used, then later auctioned on eBay). You can see this hood, along with other hoods, in this post.
Bill spotted this article about a 1951 Truck that was later sold for $38,500 through Sothebys.
The Article ==> https://silodrome.com/willys-4×4-pickup-truck/
The Auction ==> https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/0221/open-roads–february/lots/r0013-1951-willys-4-73-4-wheel-drive-pickup/1036426#/
UPDATE: Many folks probably haven’t seen this older post …
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UPDATED January 20, 2014: Here’s a jeep trip in 1955 that was undertaken after one of the trip’s members read the below article in National Geographic.
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Originally Posted October 23, 2013:
This spot is now a couple hundred feet under water. Learn more about the Crossing of the Fathers here: http://www.onlineutah.com/crossinghistory.shtml
In 1949 a joint expedition between the National Geographic Society and New York Explorers Club decided to be the first explorers, by vehicle, to enter the Escalante area of Utah. Accompanying the explorers were two jeeps and, fortunately for us, cameras. Their story, “The First Motor Sortie into Escalante Land”, appeared in the September 1949 issue (pages 169-204).
You can find a variety of inexpensive issues of the September 1949 National Geographic Magazine on eBay. If you are a fan of Southern Utah, this is a neat article.
For the first part of the trip, which began in Cannonville, Utah, the explorers traveled along part of the Cottonwood Road route we drove this past March. Their first big find was the arch we now know as the Grovesnor Arch, which the explorers officially named after the President of the National Geographic Society. What surprised me was that there are pictures showing the group on top of the arch with flags as if they’d conquered the moon. To be fair, I imagine it was a pretty challenging climb.
Note the explorers at the top of the Grosvenor arch.
From there, the party headed south as far as the Colorado River to an area now flooded by Lake Powell. So, some of the areas in the photos are no longer possible to see.
Below are only the photos that include the red and yellow CJ-2As that accompanied the explorers:
This video documents destroyed vehicles and dead soldiers. At one point a soldier riding a horse passing by some destroyed vehicles. It’s a jarring contrast. A few jeeps appear here and there.
“Invasion Scenes Europe (1944)
Allied invasion of occupied Europe – France?
Captured German officer being driven off in jeep. Various shots wounded German prisoners being brought through British front line and put into trucks, a captured German medic appears to be attending to them. Various shots destroyed enemy artillery and vehicles. Various gruesome shots of dead soldiers lying on tank abandoned in road. Various shots corpses in street (not clear in civilian or military casualties). Shots of burnt out Tiger tank, soldier on horseback passes. Various shots American and British troops advancing through town reduced to rubble. More shots of burnt out military vehicles and equipment. More shots captured Germans being brought from front line.”
Bill shared this article about one author’s experience with buying a 1987 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. It’s a good read, though I don’t think the writer actually answers the question of the headline, “What I Wish I Knew Before I Bought a Jeep Grand Wagoneer”. I suspect the editor of the website where the article was posted created the mis-matched headline.
The author didn’t have much luck hunting through classifieds, so he decided to place a “jeep wanted” ad in Kijiji. That resulted in him finding a rust free Wagoneer. He eventually upgraded the powertrain to a Vortec engine and is very happy with that decision.
https://www.insidehook.com/article/vehicles/wish-knew-jeep-grand-wagoneer
Steve shared these images from day two’s ‘Top of the World’ jeep trip.
Steve wrote, “On Sunday, Casey led a group of 12 vintage Jeeps and four modern iron up the Top Of The World trail. Two Jeeps had a mechanical breakdown. All the Willys with factory Jeep engines made it to the top without a problem. Breakdowns included a radiator vs. fan, and a broken steering rag joint. No one was left stranded. The group took care of each other and no one was left behind.”\
Sunrise on the last day of the event:
All lined-up for Sunday’s trail ride:
This July 8th, 1943, article in the Oakland Tribune shares information and pics on the Ford assembly plant in Richmond, California. Note the rationing table at the top of the page.
I thought the doors on the CJ-6 were interesting in this August 12, 1964, jeep ad. I’ve not seen those doors anywhere else, so maybe they were artistic license?
View all the information on eBay
UPDATE: **Status Unknown** Was $15,000.
(01/12/2021) “Selling a rare military AM General M718a1 Ambulance. Same as M151a2 just setup in the ambulance configuration. Clean Ca title on planned non-op. Pre-smog. Runs and drives great. New nos carburetor and fuel lines. Clean tub never been cut, wrecked, or rolled. Soft top is in decent shape, no rips or tears. tires all have decent tread. Extremely rare Jeep in this configuration and condition. Asking $15,000 no trades.”
Steve Elkins shared these pics he took at this year’s Willys Rally. He and Blaine attended the Rally for the first time. He counted over 40 Willys and a few more modern iron participating in the event, but didn’t have a head count.
He felt the Red Cliffs Lodge was the perfect venue for such large event. He wrote that the beautiful setting on the Colorado River was an oasis in the desert. The facilities were well maintained and the staff was awesome! He plans to “definitely return to this destination in the future”.
Steve noted that just about every Willys was represented, including Flatfenders, Pickups, Stations Wagons, a Parkway, and one FC. Non-Willys included wranglers and one Jeepster Commando. There was mostly modified Jeeps in attendance, but still there were an impressive representation of Jeeps equipped with an original Power Train. Those with beautiful paint jobs aren’t afraid of getting them dirty.
This video include Ridge Runner footage we’ve seen before, but I’ve never seen it called their exploits a “Jeeplechase”.
“Yakima, Washington, United States of America.
Various shots of Jeeps climbing a steep hill.
Various shots of Jeeps going over rough ground.
SV. Jeep leaping off ground as it breast hillock.
MV. Jeep emerging from brush.
SV. Jeeps going through line of fire.
Shots of Jeeps going through muddy pool – one jeep splashes driver of broken down vehicle.
LV. Three jeeps going through pool together.
SCU. Mud spattered drivers. They take off caps, centre one reveals white bald patch.
N.B. This is some kind of driver training exercise for part of the American defence plan. The drivers are know as Ridge Runners.”
Here’s another Yakima Ridge Runner’s video with narration that murders the name of “Yakima”.
“LV. Jeeps racing over rough country. CU. Jeeps flashing past camera. SV. Jeeps racing around tight corner. CU. Jeeps flashing past camera. SV. Angle shot, jeeps climbing steep hill against skyline, & LV. SCU. Jeeps bumping over rough country. SV. Jeep bumping in air, & SV. SV. Towards, jeep jumping through air. SV. Jeep jumping through air. Tarpaulin falls off back. Jeeps bucking – several shots. Passenger nearly loses seat. MV. Jeep racing past camera. MV. Line of jeeps going down hill. SV. Jeeps racing through water. MV. Jeeps driving through mud splashing over drivers, & SV. & MV.”
This is another example of a “jeep-assembly” demonstration.
“Jeeps While You Wait (1951)
Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
LV. Elevated, officers watching demonstration in jeep assembly, four men with RCEME SCHOOL written on backs ready to assemble jeep. CU. Officer firing gun to start demonstration. SV. Demonstration team jack up frame and fit in engine. CU. Jack being put onto chassis. CU. Soldiers putting on wheels. CU. Soldier doing up wheel nuts. CU. One of demonstration team. SV. Two members of team putting back axle into position. SV. Team fixing on back axle. LV. Elevated body being put on completed chassis. CU. Body being put into position. CU. Clock. SV. Team fixing on bonnet. CU. Soldier looking on . LV. Team piling into jeep. SV. They drive off.”
An article from February 10, 1967, in the Fort Myers’ News Press highlighted the creation of a Fruit Harvester by local inventor Robert Wehr. The device could be mounted to a variety of vehicles, but in this case is pictured mounted on a CJ-5. I was unable to find another other articles about this invention.
Here’s in the related patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3413786
