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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: **SOLD** Was $8000
(08/21/09) It appears the suspension is customized as well.
“Stainless Steel Body (Body cost 6000.00) 350/350hp 4 bolt with 350 trans with extra clutches. Assembled with Advanced Adapters parts. Less than 1000 miles on engine and trans. Aluminum custom built radiator. Over 17,000.00 invested.”
While doing some research, I wandered through Vintagetrends.com and happened upon a “jeep coat”. Having never heard of one of these, I did a quick search and landed on the olive-drab.com site. The Olive-drab reports “the heavy ‘Coat, Mackinaw, OD’ was issued initially in 1938, intended for cold weather use by troops who did not engage in much movement, such as drivers.” You can learn more about the different versions of coat at the olive drab website.
The coat at Vintagetrends.com is for sale, priced at $135. The description of the coat, issued in 1944, is as follows: This is final pattern Mackinaw field jacket commonly called a jeep coat. Jacket is in overall used condition and is stained to back and front, sleeves. Lightly frayed at cuffs, but there is no overall holes are damages. Perfect for the reinactor. All buttons present to front. We could not locate spec tag, but size tag states size 38 to collar.
Here’s a Joe Dope poster advocating for soldiers to take it easy on the jeeps.
The eWillys Bogota-Col0mbia/Butler-Pennsylvania reporting bureau has contributed another great batch of pictures from Colombia. When’s the last time you were out with so many nearly stock flatties? Clearly, Colombia will have to be a must-stop location on my trip around the world. Thanks for sharing Sebastian!
Sebastian writes: I was able to put together some pictures of Willys near Bogota. As you can see, these pictures are very different from those that I shared with eWillys readers previously. Most of the Willys in Colombia are located near the coffee plantations, which is lower in elevation compared to Bogota (4500′ msl vs. 7500′ msl). In Bogota you don’t really see highly loaded jeeps; plus, since it is colder and rains constantly, every one has a soft top. These pictures are from a Willys ride last month. My father took my CJ-3B at the end of August for a nice ride with the “Willys Country Club” of Colombia. This is the club that we belong down there; Dad usually rides with them on his CJ-3A [editor’s note: that’s the pic in the upper right].
The “Willys Country Club” of Colombia is a remarkable group (established in 1995). As you can see below, their Willys are in excellent shape. Even though I have ridden with them on many occasions, my 3B is not officially one of the club jeeps since they only allow low hoods. That is the reason why my father usually takes his CJ-3A.
I am attaching a map that hopefully will help you to understand Colombia better.
I did a search on a “CJ-5 gas tank” and stumbled across a website called “The Find“. It had search results from Tellico, zaib4x4, 4 wheel parts, and a variety of others. So, I did a few more searches. It looks like a great way to compare online prices. They have an iphone app as well.
Sebastian, whom I mentioned in this post (a couple posts down), taught me a couple things about Willys in Colombia today.
1) Willys are very popular in Colombia. They started arriving during the 50’s and immediately became a sensation. They are still used regularly in the coffee plantations. He assures us that every single coffee beam that we enjoy in a Colombian Coffee has been transported at some point in a Willys (most probably a CJ-3B). There are cities and towns where you can see Willys everywhere, being used as work vehicles. For somebody from this country it would be like going back on time. They are also used as taxis, carrying people by the dozen. [Editor’s note: Nice work Sebastian; I am sold on a trip to Colombia :-)]
2) There are many Jeep festivals in Colombia. Most of them occur between September and October; they are called “Yipaos”. The festivals were started in 1988. The vehicles are driven through the main streets of a city and the Jeeps with the largest amount of objects carried with the most harmonious arrangements earn prizes. In fact, in February 2006, a Guinness World Records was established for the “Longest Jeep Parade” in Calarca, with a caravan of over 370 Jeep Willys vehicles. It seem to me that we need to break that record back! Here’s an article about it on the CJ-3B page.
Sebastian also sent me a powerpoint with some nice big pictures of one festival. You just gotta see it to believe. Check out the mud flaps … I’ve been looking for some older looking mud flaps!
As I mention in the post below, Sebastian wrote me yesterday and told me a little about the Flat Fender Club of Butler. As I understand it, Sebastian launched the club website last year. It sounds like it’s kind of an ‘open source’ club.
Sebastian writes, “The Flat Fender Club of Butler is a very nice group. I am doing my best to help out. A friend of mine from Colombia helped me with the logo and the t-shirt design and I started the blog at the beginning of the summer. The club is very informal, with no dues and no officers, only the president and founder Dave Zibrat (great guy!). Butler is the place where the “Bantam” factory was located (the building is still there), and therefore it is the place where everything related to Jeep started.”
It appears several of the club members are readers of ewillys and I look forward interacting with more.
Yesterday (and today) I have enjoyed some correspondence from Sebastian, who hails from Colombia and currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In 1994, Sebastian and his father (who owns a blue CJ-3A), rebuilt a red 1954 CJ-3B, which can be seen to the right and viewed at the CJ-3B Page (sixth down from the top).
He writes, “My Willys is still in Colombia, so I only ride a couple times a year. Last May I went there for a week and put more than 250 miles on the jeep in less than five days. A couple years ago I became aware, and joined, the “Flat Fender Club of Butler” which is close to Pittsburgh. Butler is the place where the “Bantam” factory was located (the building is still there) and, therefore, it is the place where everything related to the Jeep started. The club is formed by a very nice group of people who are crazy about old willys. You can see some of the recent events and history of the club at: http://flatfenderclubofbutler.wordpress.com/ This blog also shows some pictures of the owners and our new T-shirts and Caps!”
For all the customizations I’ve done, I have to say I was still surprised, delightfully so, to receive this update from Brian about his metamorphasis of a GM sending unit into a Willys tank. Maybe it is just me, but it simply never occurred to me to try something like this. Moreover, as I turned Brian’s work into a post, I learned a great deal about gas tank sending units. Thanks Brian!
A quick note. After doing some research, I discovered one of the most common reasons for the older gas gauges to stop working correctly is a bad ground. So, if you are having problems with your old gas gauge, check the ground at the gauge and/or sending unit.
Take it away Brian:
I have tackled a variety of planned tasks on my CJ-3B, but as with any project, I’ve run across some unexpected issues as well. My gas tank sending unit is a perfect example.
*** DISCLAIMER: Before I begin, please be advised that when doing modifications to a gas tank it would be prudent (understatement) to drain and dry the gas tank. I hear gasoline is very explosive!!! ***
Prior to installing my gas tank, I decided to use an ohmmeter to test my sending unit to make sure it was in good condition. Unfortunately, I connected my ohmmeter and discovered my unit was dead. So, I thought this was a perfect chance to install a modern sending unit.
Btw, you can visit the 1945gpw website to get a nice overview about how to use an ohm meter to trouble shoot your old Willys sending units.
The stock unit on my CJ-3B is 40-0 ohm’s (which means the ohm meter would read 40 ohms when full and 0 ohms when empty). As I am upgrading my gauges to auto meter gauges, I had to make sure I selected a gauge that would work. There were four different gauges to choose from: 90-0, 30-0, 8-73, and 33-240 ohms. Note that the last two gauges are backwards for our purposes — the gauges would have read full when empty, and empty when full (if they worked at all). Also with my new gauge, I felt I would run into a problem with the ground, so I decided to replace the sending unit and make it work right.
I had replaced a GM in-tank pump and sending unit on a friend’s truck and found a GM sending unit would fit though the tank opening of a Willys. So, with that in mind, I started by disassembling the old Willys unit. First, I removed the sending unit and the sending unit base from the gas tank. Next, I separated the sending unit from the base as I will be reusing this base (with some modifications) using my drill press.
With that apart, I turned my attention to the GM Assembly. I removed the sending unit off the GM assembly by cutting the tube up high. I went over to Mick C. and we machined a plug for the old unit (a machinist is a good friend to have!). This GM unit is 90-0 ohms, a perfect match to the Auto Meter 105-2641 gage. It is also internally grounded, note the two wires.
Here is the unit assembled. The new plug had a hole in the center so I could run the new gas line through it. Also, the plug had a hole for the wires as well. I drilled three holes around the radius of the sending unit base and welded the plug in place. You can see the welds in the image below.
Note the J-B Weld. There is about 1/8″-3/16″ between the top of the plug and top of the unit. I used J-B Weld to pot and seal the unit. J-B weld (http://www.jbweld.net/products/jbweld.php) claims to be resistant to gas (from the website: “It’s strong as steel and impervious to water, gasoline, chemicals, and acids.”). DO NOT USE SILICONE!!!
[Editor’s note: Mitch mentioned months ago that he had a problem using J-B Weld to seal an old gas tank. Given the claims by J-B, maybe Mitch’s problem was more an adherence to the old tank rather than J-B itself? Any thoughts Mitch? This should be a good test of J-B and gasoline. ]
Now, I had to adjust the float to work correctly with the new unit. I cut the arm at the first bend from the float then turned it 90 degrees. I also cut the float down an inch.
Note: there is a pattern to the bolt circle on the old unit. Index the sending unit on assembly so the float will clear the internal wall in the tank. The wall runs across side-to-side; the float will have to do the same.
Adjusting the float was easy. I just held it to the top of the tank and bent the arm as needed.
One good thing about this modern sending unit is the rheostat can be replaced by removing two screws. You would have to get another one from a junk yard but can easily be rebuilt.
This works really well … I love these types of projects.
Brian
A reader named Robert noted my interest in an alternative emergency brake. He purchased the one to the right and says it looks pretty good, though he still needs to install it. While this isn’t exactly what I’m seeking, it is a great price at $4.95.
“Can be made to fit many applications. Originally designed as brake cables on Military trailers and Jeeps Unused/Unissued. Handle style and color may vary.”