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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. This section used to be split into jeeps, parts and other categories, but recent changes to eBay will require this information to be recoded.
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 .
eWillys is live on the new server. Now that I’m on the new server, I can finally complete the changes and updates to the site, as well as add some new features. I have also set up a twitter feed which I’ll use to send out updates or announce problems or more.
I will re run a few posts tomorrow. New posts will start Monday. Enjoy your weekend!
Ann’s family is arriving this weekend to celebrate Oolie Christmas. Yes, it is Christmas in February. Why Christmas in February? Because her family (large family) was too busy to gather at Christmas. What’s an oolie Christmas? It’s a family celebration of Christmas started by Ann’s grandmother, who suffered a brain injury in a car wreck. After the wreck, she couldn’t do a lot, but one thing she could do was go to thrift stores. So, she’d go to thrift stores all year around until she had a huge collection of pretty bizarre presents (they’d fill half a bedroom). The presents weren’t addressed to anyone; instead, they were passed out until everybody had one. Then, everyone shouted OOLIE and opened the presents all at once. Then they would hand out another round of presents, yelling ‘oolie’ together again and unwrapping commenced once more. The goal is to have ten rounds.
After Ann’s grandmother passed away the tradition died. However, last year the family decided to restart it. Everyone bought ten thrift store items or made presents from scratch. We all have so much fun, we thought we’d repeat it. This year, as I mentioned, we put it off until February. In fact, we still have the christmas lights on the house, the tree still stands, and decorations still line the banisters. I admit it is strange having christmas decorations up so long you have to dust them. 
Because of all the activity, I’ll be rerunning some old posts and maybe a couple new ones during some down time.
Happy OOLIE Christmas!
UPDATE: This was first published Jan 23, 2011.
About a year and a half ago I posted a story about Ben Carlin and his famous SEEP “Half Safe”. What I didn’t realize at the time was there were a few other nuts crazy enough to modifiy a GPA and travel the world. One of those explorers was a Canadian named Lionel Forge.
I learned about Lionel’s adventure through a website operated by Colin Stevens, who eventually purchased Lionel’s GPA and began the restoration back to its original condition (he then sold the GPA to a USA collector in 2004). Thanks to Colin, we have a record of both Lionel’s transformation of the surplus GPA #4545 into “Amphib” and along with a summary of his story.
On his site, Colin writes, “[Lionel] had the book HALF SAFE which is about a GPA that was modified for world travel and which was travelling around the world. Lionel decided to modify his GPA and travel as well. One key difference is that he did not plan to sail across oceans with his.”
According to this newspaper article, Lionel planned to drive down through Central and South America, ship the car to Africa and then travel through Eastern Europe. One of the places he really wanted to visit was Montevideo, Uruguay, a country about which I posted yesterday.
According to Colin, Lionel made it to Central America, but then discovered the cargo ship he planned to use to make it to Africa was longer in service. So, he shipped ‘Amphib’ to a friend’s house in Florida and continued some additional traveling, though whether he made it to Montevideo is unclear.
Lionel eventually brought Amphib back to Canada, where it sat for at least 11 years on blocks (most likely much more) until Lionel’s death in 2001. Lionel’s family later sold the GPA to Colin, who photographed it extensively, recording all kinds of information about it. Colin then sold it in 2004 to an American collector.
You can read the entire story here at Colin’s website
Colin also wrote a 2 part article in Convoy Magazine in 2002 about the entire adventure, which he pieced together from Lionel’s images, passports and other information. Unfortunately, the magazine is no longer published and I can’t locate any back issues online.
Here are a few images from Colin’s website:
This is GPA#4545 at the salvage yard:
This shows Amphib after the 1949 Dodge Station Wagon top was added:
This is a newspaper article about his upcoming trip:
Amphib with the tent on top:
Lionel in Guatemala (Pyramid #1 at Tikal) in 1967
I also thought it appropriate to include an image of Colin Stevens with his 1944 MB. The photo was taken in 2000. You can see more images here.
This was first published July 2, 2010.
A reader named Sam called me today. He told me he had a great story to share. Hopefully, I’ve remembered most of it correctly.
For a little background, Sam is retired after a lifetime of building hotrods, drag racing and owning a shop in Sacramento, but now operates a small flattie-oriented shop in Arvada, Colorado, where he fixes, modifies and maintains Willys (and probably a few other vehicles) for fun. I’ll be explaining more about Sam (and some of his great suggestions) in a future post, but for now you have enough information to understand why a Jeep owner, in some distress, had his Jeep towed to Sam’s shop to investigate a problem.
And now to Sam’s story … The owner of this willys had tried to drive his jeep to work, but the jeep stopped working while driving down the road. So, the owner pulled to the side of the road, waited a moment, and started it up again. Sure enough, it fired up and the owner drove onwards.
Another few miles down the road the jeep shutoff again. So, the owner repeated the process: pull over, restart, and continue onwards.
At some point, this re-occuring process became too much for the owner to bare, so he called a towing company and had his jeep towed to Sam’s.
So, Sam looks the jeep over. He starts it up and, sure enough, after a little while it shuts down. He knows it has an electric fuel pump and suspects that could be causing a problem, so he unhooks the hose from the carb and points it into a gas can. Then, he turns on the fuel pump. Sure enough, after a little while, the fuel dribbles to a stop, yet he can hear pump still pumping ….. hmmmm, Sam thinks to himself.
He decides to try an experiment. He knows the owner only fills the tank to half full, because if the tank gets too full gas leaches out of somewhere (I can’t remember where Sam said it leaked).
Sam decides to fill up the tank all the way, because he suspects there might be something in the tank. Sure enough, he fills up the tank and out pops not one, not two, but three ping pong balls.
As Sam explains it, the sucking power of the fuel pump was pulling the ping pong balls to the outlet area of the tank(where the fuel line connects), stopping the fuel from exiting the tank, which shut down the jeep.
How’d the ping pong balls get there? Well, that still remains a mystery ….
So, the moral of this story is that even the mightiest jeep can be humbled by an even mightier ping pong ball. And, a side moral, is that buying a locking gas cap is a pretty good idea.
This is an older post first published April 13, 2010:
I was surfing the net looking for a jeep drawing and, instead, came across an interesting 1963 hunting wagon on a blog hosted by Local Motors. I had not heard of Local Motors, but this company describes itself (in the about section) as a ‘New American Car’ company that builds cars in regional Micro-Factories.
The blog contained both a video about 1963 Willys Wagon and a still picture (see the video below). If you like those Texas hunting vehicles, go to this link and check out some of the crazy non-jeep hunters down the right side of the page, such as the suburban hunter.
UPDATE:**Status Unknown** Was $3200
(09/15/2013) I like this old modded flattie. It even has a rare 198 Buick V6. The old top is great, too. Includes an overdrive.
“1950 CJ3A Willys Jeep, Willy’s Flat Fender Jeep
Buick 198 cu in (3.2 L) odd fire V6,
12 Volt System w/ alternator.
Willys Jeep runs, current registration,
Clean title.
Full roll cage, padded,
seat belts,
20 gallon custom gas tank plus stock tank under the seat.
Warren overdrive,
Warn lock out hubs,
Original black license plates,
spare tire rack,
built in CB Radio.
Tow bar.
Extra heavy duty bumpers.
5th wheel trailer dolly on front bumper is removable. Also trail hitches at both ends of the Jeep.
No rust. Detailed record book going back to 1969.”
Ann spotted this funny image. She thought we could relate to it. I don’t know where it originated.
If you are in Hungary, drop by and check this out. Learn more on Facebook.
The Bantam Jeep Festival folks announced their online store is now open.
http://www.bantamjeepfestival.com/store/
I don’t know what it’s worth, but this model of the Russian Gaz is pretty cool. You can learn more about Team America here.
“This is the actual prop Jeep used in the cult classic comedy Team America: World Police (2004) by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the creators of South Park and Book of Mormon). The vehicle is made mainly of metal, has a wood floorboard, and rubber tires. It measures approx 54″ long x 24″ wide x 18″ high and weighs about 90 lbs. The bloody windshield has a crack on the driver’s side (presumably from filming). This great conversation piece comes with a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) from Premiere Props.”
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/clt/3632760028.html
