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About eWillys
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.
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 .
I don’t have it; but do have these old pics from a 2013 post. The problem is I can’t quite tell what the date (aka form number) is from 1959 or 1960. If you have this brochure, the date would be great. Scans would even be better, but I know that’s not simple for everyone.
I’m also interested in other 1958-1962 brochures. These all have date related-form numbers. I have a bunch, but not all of them. At some point this month I will create a list of what I have and what I need to more fully document the brochures from this era.
“1960s? Jeep station wagon salesmans features slid card, size 4 by 9 inches, condition is good with light handling, any questions please send an e-mail, USA shipping will be $5.00”
“Description – This auction is for a vintage sales mailer covering the Jeep FC-150, FC-170, Universal, Pickup truck & 4WD Utility Wagon. Not sure what year it was published.
Condition – The covers have dirt and wear as shown but the book is otherwise OK.”
These two nearly identical jeep brochures were published in different colors a year apart. The red version was published in late 1959. The blue (or green-blue?) brochure was published in late 1960.
Differences:
Page 1: The truck at the mid-far-left of the page on the 1960 version has the ‘hockey stick’ styling, where the 1959 version has the older styling. Curiously, the wagons are identical.
Page 2: The ‘hockey’ stick 4WD utility wagon moves from the right to the left hand side on the 1960 brochure, while the older-design 2WD wagon is dropped in favor of the Harlequin-design wagon. The plain version of the truck is swapped for the ‘hockey’ stick truck. There are a variety of small text edits as well.
Page 3: Some very minor edits. The red version of the brochure is marked Form NO. 59-19, while the blue version is marked Form No. 600-19. Both brochures were part of a 20 series set of brochures both years. Once I get both sets of brochures complete, I will do a post for each year of brochures.
There was a mention of both Maverick and Hong Kong TV series at the very end of this Jeep Commercial. This is one of at least three commercials Buster Keaton did for jeep.
UPDATE: Thanks to Dave, we have some additional Koenig history:
“The son of the founder built the company up into a successful business making winches, “truck bodies”, and other stuff. His name was Herbert Koenig and he died in 2011 at age 95. An obit mentions that Koenig Iron Works (of Houston) was sold in 1978, and is now known as “RKI” and makes truck equipment (in Houston). They are RKI-US.com. Nothing indicates they care about Jeeps anymore!
Also, a Danish guy seems to have a website named Koenigwinches.com and it seems he makes parts for Koenig winches.”
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Original Post November 2019:
This is a good example of simple post that spun out of control. Initially, I wanted to look at some changes in Koenig’s CJ-5 hardtop model numbers over the years; But, that then expanded to a look at twenty years (or so) of brochures.
THE EARLY YEARS:
The timeline of the early Koenig brochures are pretty easy to identify based on the jeeps used. In later years, Koenig began using numbered ‘bulletins’ to identify brochures. At first, I thought the numbered bulletins should be ordered by ascending number, but after closer examination, I the later two digits of each bulletin number reflect the year of the brochure. As you will see, other brochure elements back this theory.
UPDATE: This post started out as a post about Koenig hardtops, but that lead to updates on the Car Craft and Blue Star hardtops. I should have the Koenig post done for Saturday morning.
This updated post provides more info on the CARCRAFT hardtop. An early Special Equipment catalog contained two different versions of the Carson Machine & Supply Company’s Car Craft brochure. I’ve added a third brochure at the bottom which I’d found off of eBay years ago. Here are two real-world examples: one jeep and another jeep.
This brochure was published back in 2017. It features a CJ-2A and does not have the stylized CARCRAFT branding. Instead, it shows a plain “Car Craft” brand with a space added.
This is the first time I’ve published this brochure. It includes the new CARCRAFT branding and used a CJ-3A jeep:
This brochure was available on eBay in 2013. It appears to be the company’s signature brochure for the hardtop. I haven’t tracked down another copy:
(From 2014) This Blue Star aluminum top was built by the Blue Manufacturing Company, founded in Kansas by Max Blue circa 1946. ‘Blue Star’ was the brand name used on several products he produced. There’s some conflicting information, but it appears In 1946 Blue Manufacturing was building aluminum airline parts. About that time, as a hobby, Max began building aluminum boats. He also tried manufacturing and selling jeep hard tops.
Demand was so great for the boats that in 1948 he leased space and built boats full-time. Meanwhile, he either sold or abandoned the jeep top business altogether. Given only a few Blue Star tops have surfaced over the last few years, I imagine he didn’t sell too many of them.
Jordan spotted this unusual combo. This package creates an early jet powered boat using a Kermath modified L-134 and a Hanley Hydrojet. I’ve included a Kermath brochure and links to the development of the Hydrojet by Keenan Hanley at the bottom of the post.
“Willys Jeep engine block casting number 804380, and Hanley Kermath HydroJet. I’ve never attempted to start. $500”
UPDATE II: I’ve added a second version of the W-O Canvas Top brochure (tan brochures). they come from a Willys-Overland Equipment Book that, based on other brochures contained in that book, was likely published earlier than the brochures that appeared in the original version of the post.
This jeep brochure from an early Willys-Overland Special Equipment catalog highlights the first production soft top for the CJ-2A. It was labeled a W-O Canvas Top. The material used wasn’t your average canvas, at least according to the brochure. Instead, it was 10oz soldenized duck. That description meant nothing to me, so I attempted to decipher it.
These two brochures were published in a Willys Industrial Equipment book. It appears Willys-Overland changed up the name slightly to the Willys Canvas Top, though in the text the W-O Canvas Top name remains the same as above.
The biggest mystery was the term “soldenized”. Not even the internet knows what “soldenized” means. The fact that the term probably describes a means of mildew or waterproofing makes sense, and Robert Ackerson described it similarly in his jeep book, but that’s more a description of the result of the process, not a description of the process itself.
I suppose the timing of this article is appropriate, given those of us in the north half of the blue ball are plunging into winter quickly (at least the weather in Washington State feels wintery), as a recent Smithsonian Magazine article on the Zamboni Company featured several photos I hadn’t seen of Jeep-based Zamboni vehicles. Here’s the article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-zamboni-changed-game-ice-rinks-180973352/
The article also included this ad featuring the CJ-3B as Model D from the Zamboni Company’s archives:
