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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 article appeared in the July 1952 issue of Popular Science (pgs 79-82). This is article is interesting in that is covers some of the complaints GIs had about earlier jeeps and how the M-38A1 attempts to address those issues.
The February 1963 issue of Popular Mechanics included an article about the New Mexico Jeep Derby held annually in Truth or Consquences, New Mexico. It’s a great article about the early days of jeep racing. I’ve also included a video of one Derby race, but the quality is poor. Still, in some clips, you can see just how much the co-pilot shifts his body around the jeep.
View Popular Mechanics February 1963 at Google Books
I took a chance on eBay and bought a 1949 issue of the Goodyear’s Magazine for Men off of ebay that mentioned, in the ebay ad, about having an article on a Jeep Posse. The magazine turned out to be a sort-of marketing piece by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company focused on men and with several interesting articles. Below you’ll find two articles from the magazine and a quiz.
The first article is a pretty early article on Utah’s Bountiful Jeep Posse. The other article covers a man named John Fordon and his business in New York City called “Beck ‘n Call”. Finally, the Fordon article includes a quiz on streets from around the country, names as relevant to day as they were back in 1949.
And now, the article on Fordon. Also, note the “Where are they” quiz.
The May 1967 issue of Popular Mechanics includes the article “Four-Wheel Safari Test In the Rugged Rockies”. The article covers a two-day test in the high mountains of Colorado from Telluride to Ouray. The main goal was to see if the Ford Bronco and/or the International Scout could compete with a V-6 equipped CJ-5. The conclusion was interesting.
I’ve found a May 1948 Outdoor Life article called “Jeep Pose Fights Fire & Flood”, but I can’t find a reasonable priced issue (one on eBay is $30 with shipping). If anyone happens to have that article or the magazine, I’d be interested in sharing the story.
Cover of the May 1948 issue of Outdoor Life with the Jeep Posse article.
This issue includes (from a worthpoint auction), “Jeep Posse Fights Fire & Flood”, ” Turkeys of the Tall Peaks” and ” This Happened to Me”. There is also a print suitable for framing titled ” The Battle with the Wolves” by Fred R. Zepp. There are to many vintage ads such as Champion Outboards, Remington, Dupont, Heddon, Dipsy Doodle Wood Manufacturing Co., True Temper The Rod of Champion, Calvert, and more to mention, there is a color ad for Old Thompson Brand Blended Whiskey on the back cover.
This Carbogram was published six times a year by the Holley Carburetor Company of Warren, Michigan. The below issue features the announcement that Willys would be using Holley’s 2300 Carb in conjunction with the new Tornado-OHC engine.
View all the information on eBay
The May 1953 issue of Popular Science including the following 2 jeep-related short blurbs:
Cold Alaska has so much warm water (from volcanic springs) that 17 new Jeep fire engines being sent there for civil-defense duty are equipped with special “heat exchangers.” They’ll cool the water sprayed on fires — cold water put out fires faster.
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The same issue also includes an unrelated mention of the new M-170:
Ed’s got this rare Salesbuilder for sale on eBay. He’s also got other Willys-Overland related items.
View all the information on eBay
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $28.
Here’s a good price on some 1960s Four Wheeler magazines (currently $28.49 w/ free shipping). I’d buy the lot myself, but it appears I have all of them.
“All of these magazines have been 3-hole punched, previously stored in a binder. The magazines show to be used with edge and corner wear. Some of the covers exhibit crinkling and all of them show some degree of age wear. Several of the magazines have address labels. Some of the magazines are curled at the binding edge from being in a notebook binder for years. The insides look to be clean without markings.”
This vehicle, dubbed a “Super” Jeep, was featured on the cover of Mechanic Illustrated magazine in April of 1968. Unfortunately, the article provides very little information. Hopefully, this is still sitting in someones garage, somewhere.
There’s a post card of a jeep train from the Jungletown area of Africa USA on eBay. Also on this post, I’ve aggregated all the Africa USA images.
View all the information on eBay
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From 2015: Africa USA, was part of a theme-park movement in the late 1950s that included New York’s Freedomland, Disneyland, Wisconsin’s Fort Dells, and others. By 1959, these parks were collectively generating revenue of $2 billion.
There is a feature article about these parks in the August 1, 1960, issue of Life Magazine. The picture below is from that article. You can take a ‘virtual’ jeep-train tour of Africa USA here (don’t expect much). 
This article appeared in the December 1955 issue of Willys News. That’s the jeep train behind the animals.
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R. H. Carroll took the time to create a website displaying a wide array of off-road and dune buggy magazines. His plan included posting images of early Four Wheeler magazine covers, as seen here: http://99wspeedshop.com.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fourwheeler01.html (This helps me as I’m still looking for 1962 and 1963 Four Wheeler magazines).
This link shows you the Home page for the entire site. As you click through, you’ll begin to see that he spent a good amount of time creating this. Another neat feature are the timelines for the various magazine genres. Just the Go-Karts/Karting section alone is unique and interesting.
Below is one timeline example. Check out the Hot Rod/Street Rod/ Custom Magazine timeline here: http://99wspeedshop.com.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/menu03.html
This handy timeline was published here: http://99wspeedshop.com.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/menu04.html
This April of 1972 article in Boy’s Life Magazine tells the story of the Boys Scouts work project on the Naches Trail in the Cascade Mountains just north of Mt. Rainier in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Four-Wheel-Drive Association. I was not there (that I remember), but our club, the Wandering Willys, including my father, was there to help ferry the Boy Scouts to the Naches Trail.
You can read the article online here
This story appeared in the August 12, 1950, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, page 56. It highlights the challenges of being an Army jeep driver.
A November 11, 1949, article in the Saturday Evening Post included these two pics of an Auto Club of Southern California CJ-2A.
Most of you have probably seen this, but for documentation purposes, this high-flying kid in a toy jeep made the cover the January 30, 1943, issue of Collier’s Magazine. There are a couple pretty cheap issues on eBay.
This photo was published in the November 20, 1943, issue of the Saturday Evening Post.
UPDATE: The complete set of plans for the Wander Wagon is shown below. Previously, I’d only had the first part of the build scanned.
In 1948 Popular Homecraft Magazine did a two article series on the construction of a home built Jeep Station Wagon. The name for the custom wagon was the Wander Wagon Junior. The project was shared with readers over two issues, the 1948 Jan-Feb issue and the 1948 Mar-Apr issue. I was finally able to locate a copy of the Mar-Apr issue, so now the full build is shown below.
PART I: January-February 1948 issue:
These pics were part of an article in the November 11, 1945, issue of Colliers.
Steve Bovee just contacted me about the upcoming 70th anniversary of the De Anza Jeep Cavalcade, aka Hemet-Borrego Jeep Cavalcade.
He writes, “Willys Jeeps and Flat Fenders Welcome … Next month will be the 70th anniversary of the De Anza Jeep Cavalcade aka Hemet-Borrego Jeep Cavalcade. Some 400 vehicles, mostly Willys Jeeps, went on this epic off-roading event April 2, 1949.
To celebrate the anniversary a few flat fenders will be getting together on April 6th and will be retracing the original route, as much as possible. There might be several starting points, but the main one will be in Hemet and as in the first run we will travel south through Battista Canyon, stop in Anza for a snack and photo shoot and then head out to Coyote Canyon. Coyote Canyon part of the trail is for the brave at heart and there is only one way in and one way out so I’m sure some of us will stop there.”
You can read more about the original Cavalcade in this July 1979 article from Desert Magazine (below), which can also be found on Archive.org.
This Collier’s cartoon ran in the July 31, 1943, issue of Collier’s Magazine, page 56.
UPDATE 3: I’m taking Wednesday (03/06/2019) off of posts to write an article, so here’s an oldie, but a goodie.
UPDATE 2: Daniel Strohl over at Hemmings provided a solid background update about Wally Cohn.
“Born in 1924 in Germany, his father and stepmother sent him to the Chicago area in 1937 both to live with family and to escape the increasingly anti-Semitic mood in Germany. After Kristallnacht, his older brother Herman, his father Siegfried, and his stepmother joined him in Chicago. Walter flew 30 missions for the U.S. Army Air Corps as a bombardier during the war, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross and a Bronze Star and rising at least to the rank of Sergeant. After the war, he served as a member of the chief justice’s staff during the war crimes trials in Nuremberg, then returned to the United States and founded W&W Foreign Auto Parts in Blue Island, Illinois.”
UPDATE: A reader named Clint just determined what type of vehicle Wally was using — A 1936-1940 Opel Olympia. Here are two links to images: Link 1 & Link 2. Thanks Clint!
ORIGINAL POST published in 2010: I ran across the images shown below and others. I didn’t think much of them until I looked more closely. It appears the builder, who I assume is Wally Cohn, has merged a 1936-1940 Opel Olympia with a MB to create, arguably, the first Jeepster-like vehicle, except it is four wheel drive. The ‘Wally’ appears to use the entire jeep drive train. If you look in back, you’ll even see this car can tow a trailer!
Who is Wally Cohn? I have no idea. I can’t seem to find anything about him, other than his name was Wally Cohn and he was nicknamed the Jeep King by photographer Walter Sanders.
Photographer Walter (Wally) Sanders worked for Life Magazine from 1944 to 1961. After growing up and leaving Germany for the US in 1937, he returned in early 1946 and lived the rest of his life in Europe, mostly in Munich. You can learn more about his biography here.
Because Walter was in Europe during December of 1946, and because these photos were snapped during that month, and because of Wally’s uniform (which Bob noted is an Army Airforce Uniform), I have concluded that Wally Cohn was a member of the armed services trying to merge cars and jeeps into a Wally vehicle of some kind (note the name Wally is displayed prominently on the dash in one of the pics).
This would be a great collector’s item — and a cool jeep too!
Canada’s Maclean’s Magazine featured an illustrated jeep on the cover of its October 1, 1945, issue. Though there’s no specific article about the jeep, you can read the entire issue online (and many other issues) here: https://archive.macleans.ca/issue/19451001#!&pid=0_1
As a side note, though Canada and the US (and Great Britain) all declared war against Japan on December 8th, 1941, on December 7th, 1941, four hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 2000 Canadian troops along with 12,000 Chinese (and British?) troops, attacked a Japanese force of 52,000 strong in Hong Kong. The fighting lasted for three weeks. The Japanese prevailed, but they suffered significant losses.
UPDATE II: Bob Westerman shared a few cage photos he’s found during his research:
UPDATE: Dan tracked down this detailed explanation of the Squirrel Cage: http://weaponews.com/weapons/16209-a-system-for-increasing-the-patency-of-the-squirrel-cage-usa.html
The November 9, 1948, issue of the Evening Star ran a short article on the Squirrel Cage. A February 1949 issue of Mechanix Magazine ran the same photo (and it’s more clear).
The Evening Star photo and caption:
The Modern Mechanix photo and caption:
During a 75,000 mile adventure between 1940 and 1942 Life photographer George Rodger photographed the growing war across Africa, Europe, and Asia. During the latter part of his adventures he found himself using, then abandoning, Two Ford GPs sent to the Chinese as he and his fellow adventurers escaped Burma. He reported on these adventures, through photos, in the August 10, 1942, issue of Life Magazine.
