News Research Archives

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Mudbog and Arena Cross, Wenatchee Wa

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

Steve wanted to let people in the Northwest know that there will be a Mudbog in Wenatchee in a couple weeks.  Here’s the information.

Event Mud Bog:  Promoter CheckeredFlagProductions, Dates 1-15 & 1-16, 2010.  Time gates open to public @ 7:30 pm
Web address http://www.CheckeredFlagProductions.com

Location Town Toyota Center
1300 Walla Walla Ave.
Wenatchee, WA. 98801
TownToyotaCenter1.com

Notes:  Racers contact Promoter for more info on eligibility and safety requirements prior to events Ensure your vehicle meets all the promoters safety requirements prior to showing up to events or you may be turned away.

 
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Happy New Year — 2nd Annual Report

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

It’s been two years since I launched eWillys.  The growth during the first year was modest, though not unexpected, since I didn’t have much content and I never advertised the site. Below is what the site looked like originally. Clearly it’s matured.

ewillys_v1

Growth in 2009

In 2009,  traffic grew dramatically, increasing monthly from March through December.  The number of visits per month increased 437% over a 12 month period, reaching almost 70,000 visitors in December.  The number of Monthly Page Views jumped even more, growing 610% for a maximum of 338,000 page views in December.

I suspect the growth reflects increasing referrals from readers, better google results, and successful purchases and sales.  This has lead to more readers contributing their stories.  And, unlike the one complaint I had the first year, I had no complaints this year, which amazes me.  I must have pissed off at least one person?  Maybe I’m not doing something right? LOL.

Finally, the installation of some advertising has created just enough income to cover the hosting costs of the site for the past two years and the cost for the upcoming year.  And, especially in regard to the ebay content, the advertising is perfectly relevant to the site, so it’s a win-win for ebay, me and you.

International Participation

This year readership expanded beyond the US & Canada with readers contacting me from Germany, Columbia, Italy, Phillipines, Switzerland, India, Costa Rica, Israel, the UK and more.  We even got some pics from Afghanistan by US troops, demonstrating that the United States armed forces (probably unknowingly) are backing the eWillys effort.

Readers can now choose from over 5000 posts & pages to view and probably close to 10,000 images (I don’t have a good way to measure this).  I’ve done my best to categorize the posts and pages in ways that provide unique ways to view, learn and enjoy the content.  The eWillys main folder on my computer (which houses the entirety of the photos, movies, etc) has grown to 4.5 GB — reminder to self, back up computer!!

The Platform

During 2009, the folks at WordPress did a fabulous job of updating a stable, dependable platform capable of serving the large amount of content you see daily. They continue to provide significant updates to the platform (in fact, I have to make a major update soon), which has allowed me to easily organize data and provide new types of services at zero cost to me or you — that’s a price I can handle.

Despite all the improvements, there are still somethings I’d like to ad, especially in the content department.  So, there’s plenty of work left to do over the coming year.

The Future

Today, January 1, is on target to be the busiest traffic day ever.  That’s a great way to start the year. I expect to continue meeting the same level of service, tracking the sales/purchases of jeeps, and providing the types of stories I hope you find interesting.

In addition, this year I hope to move more offline with eWillys. For example, I’m investigating the possibility, with Randy’s prodding, of launching a magazine that covers old Willys.  However, instead of being about Willys directly, it would be about the people who own, like, dream or have caught the Willys sickness and their similar interests.  I’m still investigating, so my final decision has not been made.  But, my next step is to mockup an issue, which I have the software to build, and see if I can create what I want.

My second project for the year is to raise the seed capital I need to begin work on my Willys Exploratorium project.  This would include creating a 501c3 foundation and an LLC.

So, thanks to everyone for their interest in this Quixotic Project.  I know I’m learning lots from everyone else and I hope you are learning something new now and then as well.  Have a Happy New Year!

– Dave

 
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Remember to Play with your Willys …

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

Paul wanted to wish everyone a happy ‘stainless’ new year and to tell you to remember to play with your Willys!

Paul writes, “By 7:30 this morning (Jan 1st) I was back in the garage working on the Willys (fitting the door seal upper attach flanges) and starting my twentyfifth year on this rebuild.  I hope to have the stainless Willys fully finished and on the road within the next two years where folks seeing it for the first time and unaware of the time I spent on this project will deem it an overnight success!  We do have long winter nights and the winter’s are kind of long but not THAT long.  Anyway, after the Jeep is done I have a 1951 military 1/4 ton trailer I plan on rebuilding out of stainless steel to match the Jeep.  This will be an easy job and shouldn’t take all that much time.

After all I’ve learned while fabricating the various stainless parts over the years I figure I could crank out another stainless Willys in fifteen years or so but I have other projects waiting for attention so I believe I’ll stop after completing this one.”

If you haven’t seen Paul’s project, click here.

And a pic of the Alaskan Wilderness:

Alaska_image_paul

 
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Not sure which Parade to watch on New Years?

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

Not sure which parade to watch on New Year’s Day?  Then watch the Rose Bowl Parade.  One of our reader’s, Kevin, tells me his daughter Alyson will be waving on float #83 (out of 91 floats) in the Rose Bowl Parade, so look for her and wave back!  She is Ms. Wheelchair California 2009 and Kevin’s a very proud papa, as he should be.  Congrats Alyson, Kevin and the whole family!!

 
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The Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet?

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

In the middle of a football game on ESPN I just witnessed a jaw dropping ad:  The Taco Bell Drive Thru Diet.  While the fine print claimed it was not a ‘diet plan’, it is clearly being marketed as a Diet Plan.  I mean, are they serious?

 
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Treadwright Tire Review from IH8MUD.com

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

Here’s a positive review of some retread tires from the IH8MUD website.

In other news, IH8MUD purchased Rockcrawler.com in October. IH8MUD, led by Brian “Woody” Swearingen, plans to take over the site, as well as related domain names, content and Service Marks and move forward with new ideas, a new layout and plenty of new information and content.

http://www.ih8mud.com/product_reviews/fzj80-treadwright.php

 
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URLFAN — eWillys in the top 10% of websites?

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

Well, what do you know … URLFAN is currently ranking eWillys in the top 10% of all websites at #398129.  Given the demographic size of people interested in flat fender jeeps, that’s a pretty great ranking in my mind, even if I don’t think the ranking means anything.

 
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Popularity of Willys growing in India (from 2007)

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

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPUmpJsz1rE&NR=1

 
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1946 CJ-2A Lynnwood, WA **SOLD**

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

UPDATE: Was $1500.

(12/09/09) This might be a great price!

“For Sale-1946 CJ-2A for sale, An all original unmolested survivor for sale. Runs! Complete! Flat Head Four cylinder. 6V Plywood Hard top has been taken off. Minimal Rust. More Photos upon request.”

1946_cj2a_lynnwood

 
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oops .. Sorry for the downtime

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

Apparently, there was a problem with the plugin that crashed the site.  Well, things are fixed now!  Hopefully, not too many people noticed!

– Dave

 
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No Posts – Update

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

UPDATE: I should really put the day of the “no post” up to eliminate any confusion about which day I’m talking about (which was Tuesday night).

Anyway, ever had one of those days where your ex-wife calls you to tell you that (1) instead of paying her mortgage, she chose to make other decisions with her money?  And, oh by the way, (2) the bank didn’t like that she didn’t make the payments, so, after a few discussions with the bank, (3) the bank put it up for auction and sold it.  Finally, (4) she was now calling me to let me know what had happened so that I could help support the kids through this emotionally!

Now, because my 3 kids live there and because I personally have $30k in equity (and she has $220k in equity), this is no minor mistake. Despite talking with her several times, I doubt I’m getting the full story.  She’s not stupid, but this was beyond dumb.

Seriously, what was she thinking?

So, while I like a break now and then, I would have much rather not had to have a break at all  ….

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

Sorry, I had a late night of driving. Drop by tomorrow PM for posts.

thx,

– Dave

 
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Craigslist Vs. eBay

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

barterfarmfrontWithout Craigslist or eBay I doubt eWillys would exist. Therefore, I try to keep up with news about those two companies.   Also, after being a co-founder of an early online bartering system we called BarterFarm back in 2000 (see logo to the right), I have followed eBay, Craigslist, and other online classified-based companies over the past decade.     So, I found this article today in the Guardian very interesting.  I thought maybe a few readers would be interested in this too.

I knew that eBay had managed to purchase a sizeable chunk of Craigslist back in 2004, but I didn’t know the following.

1) eBay is fighting to get a board of directors position on the Craigslist board, because they own 28% of the company.

2) To keep this from happening, Craigslist has been attempting to dilute ownership so that eBay will own less than 25% of the company, which keeps eBay from being able to demand a board seat.

3) I knew that there are only a handful of employees at Craigslist (maybe 20?), but the revenues last year for Craigslist totaled about $100m.  That’s much, much higher than I expected!  Given the size of their employee base, I suspect they are either contracting out a lot of services or raking in a lot of cash.

4) eBay launched Kijiji, a competing classified website which I have seen around, but never took very seriously.

I’m not saying one venture is better than the other, but eBay would eat their own children, while Craigslist is a community focused, egalitarian venture (hence the lack of ads, the lack of a national or international company sponsored search engine, etc).  One is public, while the other is private.  One is entrenched in the center of San Jose and Silicon Valley, while the other is situated in the heart of San Francisco.  eBay only obtained ownership by purchasing private stock from an early founder or investor (I can’t remember which); this didn’t make the other owners very happy.  Therefore, this relationship is destined for a rocky relationship of some kind.

 
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Dash Example

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

I found this example of a Dashboard at the Jeep 4×4 Center website.  I thought the details were really nicely exploded.  I’d like to build something like this for various jeeps.  It would certainly help me remember what is supposed to be where on various flatties.  Anyone run across diagrams like this for flatties?

dashboard_scrambler_schematic

 
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1946 CJ-2A Cayucos, CA **SOLD**

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

UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $1200.

I suppose the story goes like this, “One day, I parked it in the field and couldn’t start it, so I left it there …”?

“Perfect project vehicle or parts car. Has not run but 4 cyl. motor still turns.”

1946_cj2a_cayucos

 
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Flat Fender Frenzy Aug 14-16, 2009 Bainbridge, Oh

• CATEGORIES: Club Runs, News This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

John forwarded me some pics from the August Flat Fender Frenzy. You can view more pics hereHere’s a link to pics from previous years.

John writes, “Our FFF was held aug. 14-16, at Lost Valley Jeep, Bainbridge Ohio. 15 flat fenders lined up for a Saturday trail ride. Jester Hill Grill was our feed’n hole. We camped at Pike Lake State Park.”

flatfender_frenzy

flatfender_frenzy2

 
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Updates

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

Updates will occur infrequently tonight in-between Nazi Zombie sessions tonight (Karson’s visiting 🙂 )

 
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Hard top and windshield St. Clair, Mi $250

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

This could be a good deal for someone.

“aluminum half cab , doors, m38 windshield frame 250 obo call Aaron @ 810 650 2136 ”

http://porthuron.craigslist.org/pts/1468031244.html

hardtop_stclair

 
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Broadband slow tonight

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

My Broadband is acting slow tonight, so more updates will need to wait til tomorrow.

– Dave

 
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Kids on a Jeep

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

This pic of kids on a jeep was too precious to resist …

 
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Veteran’s Day: Thomas Tugend

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

thomas_togend_cnn_story

I ran across this story of Thomas Tugend on CNN.  It included a video with a great pic of him in a jeep (seen above sitting in the jeep).  The story also reminded me of some family history of my own.  My Great Grandfather was born in Nassau, Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1859.  He loved both Germany and the U.S.  One of his 5 daughters moved to Germany and married a German Military Officer in 1892, who would fight the Allies in WWI (don’t know if he survived — she would die in the WWII 1944 bombing of Hanover).  I’d like to know what was going through my Great Grandfather’s mind as WWI broke (but then, I’m the family history buff).

However, Thomas Tugend is still alive and provides this interesting interview on his experience.

 
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Windshield Glass Template for CJ-3A?

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

UPDATE: Jim gave me some good advice on going with some ‘flat glass’ shops rather that windshield specific shops.  I’ve asked for some quotes and will provide updates on my quest.  Thanks Jim!

I need to have a windshield cut and I don’t have the old windshield glass to use as a template.  I’ve gotten one quote for about $200 to have the glass templated, cut and installed (which seems a bit high to me).  I think if I had the template, I could get the price lowered. Anyone have such a template?

Then I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be useful to have a series of windshield glass templates for a variety of jeeps in PDF form that could be downloaded and printed (probably have to printed at a Kinkos).  If anyone knows of any existing templates online, please let me know.

 
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1950 M-38 Clovis, Ca $4250

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

I”m not sure what exactly needs to be done, but the price seems a little high for a project.

“PROJECT JEEP !!!!! 5 NEW PRO COMP MUDDERS 33/12.5/15 TIRES, 5 NEW STEEL BLACK WHEELS, 4 NEW RANCHO 5000 SHOCKS, NEW RANCHO SPRINGS AND SHACKLES, NEW BEST TOP SOFT TOP (still in box), SM465 TRANNY MATCHED TO A DANA 20 TRANFER CASE (both rebuilt), NEEDS MORE WORK JUST DON’T HAVE TIME OR THE DESIRE TO DO ANYMORE, ASKING $4250.00 OR BEST OFFER, TITLE IN HAND.”

http://fresno.craigslist.org/cto/1448321272.html

1950_m38_clovis

 
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No updates tonight

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

No updates tonight.  Enjoy Halloween and set your clocks back!

 
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Tellico 4×4’s 3 Day Sale

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

Tellico4x4.com has a 3 day sale with up to 70% on clearance item and 10% off all purchases (don’t forget to use the Promo Code  TW-10P-9 when making purchases).  Sale valid Friday, October 16 – Sunday, October 18, 2009.

tellico_sale_10_16_2009

 
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1942 GPW Dekalb Junction, Ny eBay

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

It’s got quite a bit of rust, but it does run and drive.

“here is a very rare  ford jeep. I AM TOLD IT IS A 1942 MODEL. it comes with original military tires. 4 cylinder flat head. runs and has recently been driven in the fields. great for restoration or use. . see pictures”

View all the pics on eBay

1942_gpw_dekalbcounty