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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 .
From the Sunday News (and Duke University’s Digital Collection Archives) comes this October 7, 1945, contest advertisement. What I find very interesting is the color scheme. I do not recollect seeing any jeeps with this color scheme. Does anyone know if this was a custom color scheme of some kind for Pepsodent or simply an artist’s creative license?
I was doing some research on GBW’s FC 170s when stumbled upon several Jeepster prototypes listed at the American Jeepster Club along with some other Jeepster specific information. Below I reference 3 prototypes found on the history page. Please visit the American Jeepster Club’s ‘Willys-Overland Jeepster History’ page to learn more. The fourth image is a 1979 Jeepster Prototype press release I found at offroaders.com — it seems to me it was a good idea NOT to develop this one.
1949 Jeepster Coupe Prototype
1962 Brazilian Jeepster Prototype
Concept drawing of a Safari Jeepster
There are some new Bantam and MB testing photos at Life Magazine. There are some great closeups of the Bantam. Note the first pic — I believe that is the first ‘jeep’ ever stuck in the mud; it surely wasn’t the last! All six of these photos were taken by David E. Scherman in 1940.
Bruce forwarded me links to two images of Surreys he has posted.
The first one is from the Virgin Islands in 1958 and shows a DJ-3A in the center of the picture and a DJ-3A Surrey at the lower left. The second image shows 5 or more Surreys sitting at rental lot Hawaii, the surrey in center front
is a 1963 with 13″ tires and babymoon hubcaps.
Paul forwarded a link to me regarding ‘justacarguy’s’ website. Specifically, Paul pointed out a page of old rail cars — literally automobiles on wheels. There were a couple pics of jeeps and many more of cool old cars. Check out all the pics here.
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $800
It’s $800 and runs .. what do you want?
“Willys jeep four wheel drive with low and high range. Runs good 4 speed tranny any quests”
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!
Check out this image. I found it at a blog called “An Uncommonplace Book“. Look at all those employees!! The sign in the background reads, “Buick Motor Co, Largest Automotible Manufacturers in the World. Annual Capacity 40,000 Cars”
I ran across JP Magazine’s feature about the Olson’s ice racing jeep “Black Ice” today. There are a variety of interesting and unusual ideas implemented in this custom rig that could probably be used for road, trail and off-road racing applications. It’s a fun Jeep to check out.
Learn much more about this vehicle at JP Magazine and view many more pictures there, too. Here are a couple images:
Somewhere at my parents house buried under time and boxes, there may still be a few pictures of a drag strip I had when I was kid. Built from presswood, the home-made drag strip stretched about six feet long and maybe a foot wide. It was painted black with white lines down the middle. The left side of the drag strip was built on top of a series of three shelves where I could store all the model cars I built, except for the two ‘cars of the week’ that I would place on my drag strip.
I loved to build model cars, especially wild street machines. The Boot Hill Express is one I remember building. You can see in the image below, that I found on oldtoystuff.com, an example of the Boot Hill model. I’m sure I built a few of these others, such as the street “T”, as well as many others not pictured.
It’s not that I was ever a highly anal model builder, reveling in details and accuracy. No, I just liked putting them together, to make the pieces fit, to get it finished so I could put it on my race track.
So, I do have a certain understanding of the skills necessary to make a really fine, high quality model — skills I am perfectly at peace saying that I don’t possess. Of course, as a dad, I figured that if I enjoyed building models that my kids would enjoy it.
And it was then that I ran smack into rule #27 of parenting — “sometimes the things I liked to do as a kid aren’t ‘cool’ anymore” (and I probably shouldn’t open up the debate about whether model building was ‘cool’ even when I was a kid). So, when I bought my boys a model for christmas a few years ago, they gracious said thanks, and then avoided them for the thrill of xbox. What’s a dad to do?
What got me thinking about race tracks and building models as a kid was that I came across this extremely well done model by Serge Haelterman. The detail is impressive, far beyond anything I’d ever do. You can go to this AFV Website to see more pics of his model and read his description of what he did to it.
