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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 .
CNN reported on Witness to War, an interesting website devoted to the stories of Combat Veterans. I decided to search the site for “jeep” and discovered a story told by Tom Kennedy about surviving a blast in a jeep.
Click here or on the images below to view the video.
Alan has been sharing those great jeeping images from the Four Corners. He helps run a website called VMSB244.com where WWII men from the VMSB244 squadron are honored and remembered. One cool feature is that they have scanned original letters written by the men of that squadron.
According to the M201.com website, in 2009 the Musee Des Blindes in Saumur, France, unveiled a Hotchkiss M201 ENTAC. I do not remember ever seeing one of these.
As far as I can tell, this M201 is the only jeep at this particular museum. These first and last pics are from this page on the M201 website. The 2nd pic was on Flicker and taken by Massimo Foti.
Craig dropped me a note today about an old friend of his.
Craig writes, “I was doing a little web surfing and found an old lost friend, Hubert Cossard. I had been in contact with Hubert some 9 years ago about some awesome drawings he had made of Forward Control Jeeps. There were definite communication barriers back then as I am a little behind on foreign languages (even known to destroy my own language a bit!) [ed note: you aren’t alone!] but was in total awe of Hubert’s detailed drawings. Like many internet sites, there one day and gone the next, Hubert’s site disappeared.
Though I lost contact with Hubert years ago, by accident I just found his new, greatly expanded site. On the Jeep Family link there are drawings of just about every Jeep ever built or thought of. It’s a gotta-check-out-site!”
One quick trip to the site and I can only second Craigs description of the drawings. I couldn’t say for sure if they are scale-exact drawings, but they sure have the detail of someone who knows their jeeps. The site is in French, so if you need to translate anything, you might try Google Translate.
Here is an example of Hubert’s work below. Check out all of them here.
Looking for Willys parts or a restorer for your jeep and are located in Canada? You might try Willys Acres at 3224 Line 7 North (Coulson) Oro Station, Ontario, Canada. They have a collection of jeeps for sale, including the Boyer Fire Jeep in the post below.
From the company’s website, “First and foremost, we are a Canadian company that takes pride in the satisfaction of restoring World War II military jeeps and being able to sell very rare jeep parts for those that wish to do the work themselves…. We restore complete vehicles. The customer vehicles in the Photo Gallery are awaiting restoration. Our facilities consist of about 8,000 sq. ft. … We have about 50 jeeps in our Jeep yard, so have a look to see if any suits your fancy.”
I was checking out Wes’ Offroad Action site the other day and ran across this amazing photo. There is no evidence to support the rumor that the driver was texting just before this occurred (in fact, texting was a few decades away yet). But, I’ll make the claim anyway. See kids, particularly my kids, don’t text and drive off road!
Click on the pic to see a larger version and to see other pics of this CJ-5 Camper Combo.
UPDATE: Roberto had originally noted this was from Brazil, but when I checked out the website, I saw Londrina – PR, which I interpreted as Londrina, PR. So, I did a search from Londrina, PR and somehow found a town called Londrina in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, it seems I was a sleep at the keyboard. Because Hugo, from Uruguay, contacted me and told me the company was based in Brazil. Puzzled, I did another search and could no longer find a Londrina in Puerto Rico. Oh, the mysteries of the internet! So, thanks to Hugo and Roberto!
Roberto spotted this Cinfel website. I don’t know anything about the seller and I can’t tell if the seller is simply a reseller or manufactures these parts. Anyone know?
Gerald spotted these unusual tires. The theory behind these tires is similar to the “Sawdust tires” that were produced and sold a couple decades ago. Sawdust tires were recapped tires with sawdust (sometimes walnut shells were used too) embedded within the rubber mold so that as the rubber wore, the sawdust was exposed. These tires were only good for a year, but according to internet reports, worked quite well. Apparently, they were also much friendlier to the pavement than studded tires, though studded tires work better. Here’s a brief thread about them.
According to their history, the Green Diamond Tire of North America arrived in 1999. As of 2009, the company is under new management and seeking to build a manufacturing location in the Western US. Probably one reason for the Western Location is that a large number of Big O Tire retail outlets are selling the tires in Colorado. The company’s western headquarters is currently located in Denver.
I was surfing around the Old Willys Forum and spotted a link to a great little site in Canada devoted to BlueBell the Wagon. Make sure to take the animated BlueBell (upper left corner of the site) for a test drive. Lots of good info here.
Even Erlien wrote me today to tell me about the upcoming Barfrosttreffet (early frost gathering) in which he and about 40 other vehicles will participate. Given it will take place in Norway, I suspect it will be plenty cold! Even has offered to take some pics and share them.
Even tells me a number of folks from Norway keep tabs on eWillys, so I thought I’d give a shout out to the Jeep Club of Norway. Launched in 1999, the club has members in areas throughout Norway. Their website with some images to check out, but if you want to read about the club you’ll need to brush up on your Norwegian 🙂 (or use a translator, which is what I did). Thanks for the email Even!
(btw, Even I need you to email at d@ewillys.com … I tried responding to the email addy you sent and it didn’t work for some reason)
Brian sent me a link to a website called “Diane’s Jeep“. Diane lives in the UK and almost a year ago today purchased a 1944 GPW that she plans to restore. She has had experience restoring other vehicles, but this will be her first jeep. Diane’s Jeep Website has been chronicling her team’s efforts.
Below is an image of how the jeep looked before she started. It appears pretty stock and in fair condition. There is plenty of work to be done! Check out pictures of the progress that she has made. Good luck Diane!
Earlier in this decade, I drove through part of Hungary. I dropped in from Slovakia, stayed in Budapest and then drove north into Austria. Some people call Paris the city of love, but I’m pretty sure that title belongs to the city of Budapest — there was lots of kissing and hugging all over. And I enjoyed my fair share of it too there …. I also went to my first true European ‘bath’ while I was there; the description that comes to mind was crowded and disorienting. There was no kissing and hugging in there and, frankly, I was happy about that.
My understanding of Hungarian isn’t very good; the number of consonants to vowels made any attempts to pronounce town names and words an act of folly. However, despite that, I still found this Hungarian jeep site enjoyable: http://ww2jeep.gportal.hu . I’ve seen many of the pics on this website elsewhere and some nowhere.
HOG pointed out this article from 2009 in JP Magazine about some Flattie Drag Jeeps. There are some good pics. Here’s one below.
UPDATE 2: See a pic of a tipped jeep from Tom’s Dad’s Time in WWII.
UPDATE: Grant mentioned that Vernco demonstrates how to tip a jeep on its side. See a pic below and some steps. Learn more at Vernco.com.
Tip it on its side! Alex spotted this post from the Miljeep website. Unfortunately, my french is a little rusty … ok, really really rusty. I’ve posted two pics here. You can see the other two at the Miljeep website.
I tried searching for additional jeeps on their side, and though I couldn’t find any more, I found some other cool pics that I’ll feature over the next couple of days.
From Vernco’s Site, 9 prep steps for tilting your rig:
1. Drain the fuel tank and run the engine until the carb is dry.
2. Drain the engine oil, transmission and transfer case lube. (He didn’t drain the radiator, but notes he probably should have. It didn’t leak but caused a problem when he had to remove it later.)
3. Remove or drain the oil bath air cleaner.
4. Remove the battery.
5. Remove the passenger seat since it can pivot free.
6.Remove or restrain anything else that could come free.
7.Inflate the “downhill” tires to max pressure since they must support the vehicle weight on an angle while the tip is in progress.
8. Fit some 2×4′s between the engine block and “downhill” frame rail so the engine mounts wouldn’t shift.
9. Chain the engine to the frame so the mounts wouldn’t let loose.
EVENT: The LRDG Preservation Society will be participating its 2nd biggest event of the year October 2-3 2010 at Prado Dam Park in Chino Hills California. They are one of 85 different re-enactment groups from nearly every time period and culture in history. It is a Military Time Line Event which will feature everything from Roman Legionnaire’s to Viet Nam Re-enactors and many other periods in between.
Kim wrote me last week after seeing drafts of the “Africa SAS” T-shirt I’d like to produce (I am working on refining the shirt design btw). As the membership chairman of the Long Range Desert Group Preservation Society (LRDG), he’s particularly interested in the SAS jeeps and Long Range Desert vehicles. So, he introduced himself and the organization.
The LRDG Preservation Society is a non-profit organization established “to learn as much as possible about the unit, the men in it and the equipment and tactics they used. Then to share that information with all whom wish to learn. To that end this group has built a replica of a classic WWII LRDG truck (1942 Canadian Chevy, right hand drive, India format) and outfitted it with “historically correct” military equipment, gear, provisions, and uniforms. The vehicle was built by Rick Butler in Yreka California from several vintage trucks and parts from around the world. Converting a left hand drive vehicle to right hand drive was one of many challenges.”
The Society has supporters and members throughout the world, including the US, England, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, South Africa and more.
About the Long Range Desert Group:
During the 1930s, the British developed the idea of creating a motorized guerrilla/recon group in northern Africa to provide intelligence to British Forces. After studying the terrain and needs for such a group, the Brits formed the LRDG, which according to the LRDG website “was very much like a “private army”, formed to meet the particular conditions of desert warfare.” The LRDG was made up of volunteers and, because of this, they could wear beards and were given latitude that regular military soldiers did not have.
Learn more about the LRDG by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page.
I really haven’t done a great deal of research into the best sites for parts restoration. However, while looking for something else today (do I use that phrase a lot?) I discovered Classic Enterprises Restoration. Specifically, they had a nice, easy to scroll list of restoration panels for Willys and Jeeps of all types.
I was looking up something for a reader when I stumbled upon these two webpages. One page documents some of the differences between very early MBs and later ones. The second page provides detail pics of a British Airborne Slatgrille in Signal Configuration. I thought both pages have nice detail pics and explanations.
The British Airborne Slat Grille in Signal Configuration:
The Early MB Differences Page:
A reader from Greece contacted me today. He is searching for a bare bones willys that he hopes to get and ship back to Greece. As an alternative, I suggested he try using ooyyo.com to locate a jeep in Europe. I haven’t used this search engine much, but in a search of greece, it did show a variety of Willys flatties and CJ-5s. So, I did a search on Willys in the US and I got a wide range of results, from way, way overpriced — almost confusing — to reasonable deals. For example, I have this CJ-3A from CDA listed at $10,000 , yet ooyyo has it listed at $20,000 and links it to this ad. Caveat Emptor!
I ran across JeepGod’s website today. There’s a variety of interesting tidbits on the site, including an inexpensive solution for an air compressor, a nicely drawn out map for navigating Uwharrie National Forest in North Carolina, and the below list of Jeep Manufacturers, which provides some details into the specific companies that manufactured the vehicles we generally describe as Jeep or Willys. I hadn’t thought of organizing a list quite like this, so I thought I’d highlight it for readers. It’s certainly not an exhaustive list, as there’s no FC-170 listed, but that’s a minor quibble I think.
I feel fortunate that dad kept his old manuals around so that when I started working on my Jeep (and this was pre-internet), I had a some good resources at hand to help me puzzle through problems. Specifically, he had a 1969 Chilton that seems to contain information about engines and transmissions related to every automobile made that year (and if not everyone, at least most).
Even in the post-internet age with Google at our fingertips (I actually keep my laptop on a special shelf that I’ve used many times while working on things in the garage), sometimes finding old information can be difficult (like the proper firing order for a 231 buick V6). It’s these type of searches where an old manual is a godsend (and which I turned to so I could finally figure out the firing order).
All this comes to mind as Mark forwarded me a link to the OldCarManualProject Website. There is a ton of information here, though sometimes it takes some digging to find it. It is particularly full of Chevy Manuals. For example, here is the complete service manual for all 1938 Chevrolet Passenger Cars and Trucks. So, if you love or own older vehicles, this is worth some surfing (though I didn’t see many Jeep specific manuals).
Over at Plastic Warriors, Paul has put together a site dedicated to pictures and info about 1/76 and 1/72 plastic soldiers, kits and wargaming. He has spent considerable time photographing, discussing and comparing various model types and clearly has a passion and expertise for the subject. One item that caught my eye was his link to the five worst army men of all time.
In this archive link, you can see his examination of minature Jeeps. He also had these matchbox covers, which were I thought were interesting.
Thanks to Wes at offroadaction.ca for creating a post about this great collection of black and white photos (how I haven’t stumbled across it is beyond me) at Jeep4ever’s website. Click here to see nearly 200 b&w photos, some you probably have seen and some you haven’t seen courtesy of Jeep4ever.ca (I’ve posted a variety of these previously, but found them through the library of congress).
I particularly like this one.
I have to say I’m a fan of Canada and Canadians. Growing up in Seattle, Canada was only a 3 hour drive away, so I’ve crossed the border many times. On the other hand, the Canadians keep sending me back … I don’t know what that’s about …
When I was 20, I had an opportunity to work in the San Juan Islands for a couple years, at the north part of San Juan Island itself at Roche Harbor (map). Many Canadians boated over to enjoy Roche’s hospitality, perhaps as many as half the tourists were Canadian. Because I had friends with boats, I had the opportunity to boat across Haro Strait and visit Victoria, BC, Canada.
There are four things I know about Victoria from personal experience: 1) The Royal BC Museum was a great place to visit; 2) There used to be a great knife store downtown that gave good discounts to chefs (I still have a couple of those knives); 3) There are places to drink in Victoria (which for a newly minted 21 year old was pretty fun); and 4) There were some very nice strips clubs downtown (which for a newly minted 21 year old … well, you get the picture).
I’ve also spent time in Vancouver. During one memorable, well mostly memorable, experience, I attended the 1986 World Expo (and it turns out countries still hold world expos — the 2010 Expo is in Shanghai, China), which took place at the downtown facilities which held the recent Winter Olympic Games. Me and 2 of my friends trekked up to the ’86 expo, without hotel reservations of course; instead, we spent two nights camped out in Vancouver. The first night was on some land being developed right near downtown. We just set up the tent, and jumped in (and a whole lot of traffic woke us up early the next morning). The second night we found a walking trail a little farther out of downtown and jumped in the tent. Oh, to be young again ….
With these thoughts in mind, I decided to do a search of flatties and Canada and happened across the antiquewillys.com website. After some looking around, I found a photo gallery, where I came across this image, posted by “waggone”. I personally love to see those desert dogs reaching for the sky!
Here are some useful engine examples from howstuffworks.com. They have a number of linked pages devoted to engines. You can start here. Here are some examples of what you will see …
Here is a classic engine (how stuff works page link):
Here is an overhead cam example (how stuff works page link):
This is an inline 4 example (how stuff works page link):
This is a V example (how stuff works page link):
And here is an electrical system example (how stuff works page link):
Tim contacted me to note that he published more images about Willys and Fidel from Cuba on willysjeep.com. Here is a little history of Fidel and Willys along with a gallery of images. I previously published a post about Cuba here. Tim continues to publish some truly unique items!
Here’s a sneak peak of an ambulance. I haven’t come across too many later model Willys Ambulances.
