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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 .
This was also on eBay. I assume one of the Tux Park guys hopped on this unique resource. Unfortunately, only a couple photos were provided on eBay.
A big thanks to Ted Jordan for making and sharing these scans. When Hubart A. Kelly initially purchased the D. L. Beck Manufacturing Company, which produced CJ-2A hardtops, initially the cab company was called Kemco. At the time Beck was still a working partner at the company. This rare four-page brochure was produced at that time. Not too much later, Kemco was officially became the Kelly Manufacturing Company and Kemco disappeared.
These are the interior two pages.
This is the Dealer’s Confidential Price list:
And here is what the rest of us would likely have paid:
Ted Jordan also shared this early Kelly Manufacturing Hardtop Brochure. Note that the brochure mentions Kemco on the front page, which suggests this was printed shortly after the name was changed to Kelly.
So … this was on eBay yesterday. I’d patiently waited to purchase it, even setting my alarm clock. However, when the day and time arrived, my phone was away from me charging. Meanwhile, I was distracted researching this book 1000page-plus cook book from 100 years ago (1920 in fact), which I found while doing some ewillys posts yesterday (I was killing time awaiting the eBay auction end).
My supportive wife was very excited when I showed her the book images, as she knows I like a good old cookbook. She started chanting, “buy it, just buy it, buy it” … but no, I couldn’t at that price. After some research, I found a free copy on the Internet Archive, but looking through 1000 pages on the IA just isn’t the same as having the real thing in my hands. Eventually, I found a MUCH less expensive copy through Amazon, which Ann purchased for me as a gift (she’s hoping I’ll cook some food from it).
By the time I returned to this eBay auction, it was exactly 2:15pm, the same time that the auction ended. My timing couldn’t have been any worse.
Oh well, at least I got a cookbook out of the deal! Here are the two images from brochure that were posted to eBay.
Looks like a good price.
https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/tro/d/renton-willys-trailer-4×6/7104260098.html
Here’s a related newspaper ad for them (originally posted on the earlyCJ-5 page some time back):
Like we saw with the 1948 ads in the Montana Farmer-Stockman, the ads run in the Chronicle-Star out of Pascagoula, Mississippi were more sparse. Moreover, two different dealers posted ads. The first half of the year it was the Runnels-Wiggins Willys Dealer publishing ads. The second half of the year it was the Stewart Motor company out of Mobile, Alabama, publishing ads.
RUNNELS-WIGGINS: February 13, 1948:
RUNNELS-WIGGINS: March 05, 1948:
RUNNELS-WIGGINS: April 09, 1948:
Here’s the 1948 Report On The Universal ‘Jeep’ in Conservation I mentioned last week. At twenty-three pages, it’s larger than I expected with lots of photos. All but three of the photos were taken at the Rio Grande College Farm in Ohio (see last page for more info).
This early Warn manual No. WD-255 sold on eBay for $36.20. My last bid was $35.20, so someone out there outbid me.
In 1949, Willys-Overland halved the number of ads in the Montana Farmer-Stockman from 1948’s eight ads to only four. This may underscore the financial issues Willys-Overland was facing.
The first ad was published January 15, 1949:
Seller’s asking price is $295. The contents are likely very similar to this one, which has been scanned and made available for free.
View all the information on eBay
“”Product Merchandising Manual” by the writers and illustrators of Willys Motors and Willys-Overland Export Corporation, Toledo Ohio. No Copyright information. Assembled and Published by Willys and the Jeep Division in the early 1950s – we make a presumption of 1955 based on the Jeep CJ-5 described herein., Presumed First Edition, NOT Ex-Library. No ISBN. Note – the photos you see are of this binder and sections no ‘Stock Photos’.
A tight firm clean binder containing Forty (I through XL) tabbed sections of promotion information for the Jeep dealer to sell Jeeps to the public. The purpose-made three-ring binder is deep blue/yellow-green lettered and decorated with the large Willys ‘W’, although the information is for Jeep. The binder is 11 1/2″ x 11 1/2″ if you count the big graceful curve of the 3 1/4″ spine. The hinges for the binder are separately hinged so the binder could hold additional information as developed by Willys and Jeep. The pages are 11″ x 8 1/2″ with 3/8″ color-coded plasticized tabs identifying the sections. Those sections, again, total 40. Continue reading
This ad appeared in the October 14, 1954, issue of Oregon’s Heppner Gazette Times. It includes an illustration of the new CJ-3B. It also shows that some KW logos appeared in newspaper ads for a short time.
This ad appeared the following week (October 21, 1954) in the same newspaper with similar elements.
UPDATE: I mistakenly list a September 1949 Ad as a September 1948 ad. I removed that, so now there are only seven ads on this post.
Willys-Overland ran a series of Universal Jeep and Truck ads in the Montana Farmer-Stockman newspaper through 1948. The ads for the Universal Jeep focused on farming and ranching and appear most, but not all months (The paper is archived at the Library of Congress and appears to have been a bi-monthly publication). Below are seven ads I could find. In 1949, the number dropped to only 4 ads.
No February Ad
