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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 .
UPDATE: This is now for sale in New York for $7500.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/795642951661393
This was formerly a USPS FC.
“1962 Jeep FC/170 on a 1990 Isuzu Tilt Chassis. Truck runs stops and drives. Motor is 4BT1 with auto trann, power brakes,power steering and AC. I think all the parts for the AC are there but not hooked up. New Injectors and turbo in boxes. Nice project with the tilt Jeep Cab and the diesel engine. Come and look. Not a Commander“
UPDATE: These three General Electric Fire Jeep CJ-3A photos are for sale on eBay.
View all the information on eBay
” 8 x10 images and all in very good condition.”
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Originally Posted May 1, 2013: Marc uncovered these two Fire Jeep Photos
1) This photo was in the Allen County Community LIbrary.
General Electric Company’s new fire jeep loaded with women at the GE gate. The talking dummy and a fire prevention display are on the right. Ladies are unknown. Photo is from a Fire Prevention Book made in 1951.
http://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/cdm/singleitem/collection/coll3/id/5480/rec/6
2) This is on Flickr. Apparently, this photo was taken at the Le May Museum, but we never saw it there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/socal_photography/7975032426/in/pool-jeepexperience/
UPDATE: I finally found an original of this brochure by Laurel Worman, Inc. I was surprised to see it printed as late as October of 1953. It is an 8.5 x 11 inch brochure that folds out to 17 x 11 inches.
Its primary purpose was likely to promote the new Worman hardtop for the CJ-3B. I’m not sure how many of that style of tops sold, but I sure haven’t seen many. Instead, I’ve always wondered if the design was sold or made for Sears, which promoted a similar “Deluxe top”. Interestingly, this was more than just a top. The brochure highlights that the top was the result of Worman’s 5-year attempt to turn the CJ-3A into a station wagon type vehicle. Given Worman faded quickly after this brochure was made, it seems the company’s goal wasn’t met.
UPDATE II: **SOLD** Was $29,500.
“Pete Ulbrichts 1958 FC/170 Jeep. Featured in several Magazines Search the Internet and u can find pics of the original build. It is a 1958 Jeep on a 1989 Chevy 3/4 ton Chassis with a 350 Chevy Motor. Auto tranny heat and A/C. Licensed in NY State with transferable registration.”
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UPDATE (05/25/2021) : This was sold in New Mexico, made its way to New Jersey, and is now being sold out of Texas. Was priced at $25,000.
“Custom 1958 Willys Jeep FC-170. Not a Comanche but did not offer FC so had to use this option. Built on a 1989 Shortened Chevrolet chassis. 350 Chevy small block with 700R4 transmission. Has AC. Not many of these old Jeeps left. Older custom truck so not perfect. Overall in good running condition just needs freshening up. Turns heads everywhere it goes. Only in person offers considered. Listing at 25k or first reasonable offer. Clear Texas title. Located in Elderville.”
INFORMATION FROM AN EARLIER AD:
Continue reading
A photo from the May 30, 1959, issue of the Eugene Guard showing the FC-170 “EL Borrego” with the Boyds.
UPDATE: This series of articles was first published in 2015. I’ve updated with several additional articles and photos.
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(First published February 15, 2015) This interesting collection of news articles captures Howard & Ora Boyd’s 1958 trip in an FC to South America. The first article was published prior to the trip. The second was published during the trip. The third was published following the trip. I was only able to find one photo and it was poor at best. It may have been that the Boyd’s got the idea from the Schreiders, who did nearly the same route three years before them.
Howard Boyd died in 1993, but Ora Boyd lived until 2009, dying at the age of 106, meaning she was born around 1903. Living much of their lives near Eugene, Oregon, according to her obituary their year-long jeep trip was one of her all-time favorite memories. The obituary was published in the Talent, Oregon, Historical Society newsletter, so I’ve written them to see if we can learn more.
1. This October 31, 1958, EugeneRegister-Guard article discusses trip preparations. The Boyds had a custom camper built for their FC (though no articles mention the model of the vehicle — it looks to me like an FC based on the pic below). They named their jeep “El Borrego”.
2. November 09, 1958 Eugene Guard .. brief article:
3. December 14, 1958, from the Eugene Guard:
UPDATE: This updated post from 2012 now includes photos taken by David Carr at LA County’s Cabrillo Beach. The three photos below are on a wall as part of a “wall-of-fame”.
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From June 28, 2012: Over the past 100 years Los Angeles County has used a variety of vehicles to manage their beaches. As part of a retrospective, the article below shows a few of them, along with welcoming some new hybrids into the County system. All photos belong to LA County’s Life Guard Association.
Here are two GPWs (the pics were from a now defunct blog):
Bathing beauties were still posing on county lifeguard trucks in 1959.
Buz unearthed this CJ-2A Life Guard Jeep used by the city of Los Angeles (vs. the county). Though the caption accompanying the jeep suggests this was war surplus, it’s clear this is a civilian rig. The rear extension is interesting, though doesn’t look neatly done.
UPDATE II: There’s another 1954 Metamet 12-page brochure for sale on eBay (see bottom of post for pics)
View all the information on eBay
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UPDATE Posted July 04, 2019: This post has been updated to reflect some more information and images. It was originally posted in March of 2013.
Metamet was a British company that refurbished WWII jeeps and civilian jeeps, creating a slew of different models. According to the G503 Forum, “Metamet was run by an expat Pole, and latterly his son. It was a wonderful Aladdin’s caves of wartime Jeeps and Jeep bits and pieces located in a series of old mews stables in Daleham Mews. These places were commonly garage workshops in post-horse London, but nowdays are worth untold fortunes as residences.”
At one point in the early 1950s there were twelve different models of jeeps offered by Metamet, only one of which was the standard production model jeep. The rest were all customizations of one type or another. Seven models were 80″ wheel base, while the other five had 100″ wheel bases. The models include, the Standard, De-luxe, Farmer, Five-in-one, Saloon, Shooting Brake, 10 CWT Truck, Metaplan, Station Wagon, 15 CWT Van, 20 CWT Lorry, and a 2 Ton Loadmaster.
Metamet’s early 1950s models. There were seven 80″ wheel base jeeps and five 100″ wheel base jeeps.
Here’s an example of Metamet’s advertising.
A 1952 Ad posted to Flicker by Johnathan confirms there were twelve models also:
Finally, here’s a 1954 12 page brochure that provides examples of different models that used to be linked to on the jeep farm website:
UPDATE: Here’s one from the archives …
Originally Posted July 24, 2015: This Willys News article from July 1955 highlights an annual customer jeep demonstration in Plattsburg, New York. That’s the biggest teeter-totter that I’ve ever seen. We used to do something similar back in the 70s as part of payday events.
article continues below . . .
UPDATE: It’s been 9 years since this post has run, which just shows you how rare it is to see one of these for sale (see next post)
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Craig Brockhaus saw the Boyertown Economy Delivery Comparison Post (see below) and forwarded both Boyertown and Montpelier Delivery Truck designs. Cool Stuff!
MONTPELIER DELIVERY TRUCK ARTICLE:
BOYERTOWN DELIVERY TRUCK INFORMATION:
UPDATE II: This post was originally posted in January of 2011 (yes, hard to believe it was eleven years ago!). The post covers some of the history about Willis Ray Willey, which is a pretty cool name for a site about vintage jeeps. Who else had a name that includes both “Willis” and “Willey”? Anyway, this post is full of some great and useful comments. It’s taken on a life of its own.
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UPDATE: Thanks to Mike for sorting out Willis’ real name. He was Willis Ray Willey, while his twin was Willard Roy Willey.
It might not surprise you that my interest in history has led me to become the family historian. As a part of my self-assumed title, I make it a point to look through the family albums and scan images whenever I’m visiting. This morning while looking through my grandmother’s album, which contains images from Fighting Creek, Idaho, the place her parents homesteaded in 1911 (they actually won a land lottery), I stumbled upon the unusual photograph of a man in an early motorcar that I show below. I called mom over and asked her if she recognized anyone in the photo, as I didn’t. She said she didn’t either.
About mid-day I was talking to my aunt (mom’s sister) and briefly described the photo. I described the guy as ‘wild looking’. Well, my aunt said that there was once this guy with the name of Wild Willy or something that used to be a colorful character around the Spokane area. I got curious about who this guy might be and why the unusually nice photo, for a photo taken in 1933, ended up in a family photo album.
So, I powered up Google’s image search feature and input a variety of search strings until I spotted a picture of a guy who looked like the guy sitting in the car. The story accompanying the photo said his name was Willis Ray Willey and, while he didn’t have a jeep, he had quite the unusual, adventurous story. So, I thought I’d share a brief summary of it.
To read more about Willey, visit this article from Nostalgia Magazine. Willey reminds me of the Camel Man, who Hein ran into a few months ago in Australia.
For comparison, view this modern photo: http://almostoneaday.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunday-bridge-series-monroe-street.html
In the picture above, we appear to have Willis Ray Willey in his 1904 REO, the first year that the Ranson E. Olds Automobile Company built a car. This photo was taken in 1933 (note the ’33 on the license plate). The photo is taken with the Monroe Street bridge and the Spokane Falls in the background. Willey planned to drive this car from Spokane to the 1933/1934 World Fair in Chicago.
You’ll note that Willey is only wearing shorts. It turns out that Willey was a sickly youngster. After examining him, a doctor suggested that he improve his constitution by exposing himself to the elements. So, over time, he reduced the clothes he wore, eventually only wearing shorts whether winter or summer.
Apparently, that did the trick, as he never got sick, at least not until he was on his trip to the Chicago World’s Fair. See, it turned out that simply wearing shorts wasn’t very common practice and, in fact, wasn’t tolerated. People complained when they saw him and police would arrest him, with many arrests occurring on his way to Chicago. According to Nostalgia Magazine, he did make it to Chicago, where he was arrested again. However, this time they cut off his hair and beard and he promptly got sick and remained sick for 3 months.
Now in the photo above, you’ll note that along the side of the seat it reads “Postcards 3 for 25 cents”. One of the ways Willey made money was by selling postcards of himself; I guess he recognized just how much of an oddity he was.
If you look below, you can see two of the postcards he sold. One is of him on Treasure Island in San Francisco, with a dog, a coyote, a turtle and multiple possums (click on photo and scroll down to see closeups). The other is of him ice skating at LIberty Lake (thanks Jerry).
Yes, quite the character indeed!
