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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 .
Jonah Hodkins posted a bunch of pics from this year’s Willys Spring Reunion. You can see them all on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1147017852392638&set=pcb.1147020379059052
Here are ten of them.
Patterson arrived yesterday on Steve’s trailer (a big thanks to him), but things didn’t go smoothly at first (I will explain more tomorrow).
For example, some days you have to resort to old school carb techniques to make the jeep roll..
While at other times, the jeep rolls on it’s own …
Mike spotted this ad posted by Andy Fuhrman on Facebook. I’d guess it is a late 1940s ad from a Dansville, Virginia, newspaper. It seems an odd promotion. Is the wink by “Lewis” supposed to mean that you can bet on the jeep breaking down, so bring it in for service today?
You may have noticed that regular updates have returned. I hope to keep them going, though I may still need a few more days off than normal.
For example, we discovered yesterday that some of our outlets in the living room didn’t work. Three of them each had their bottom portions of the outlet on a three way switch, but the wiring was never completed. I made them work, but not via the three-ways switches. Whoever wired it, did it oddly, so I bypassed the switches. Because we hope to remodel the living area next year, my fix will do for now.
Our back pasture has three and a half new ‘squatters’ in the form of three cows and a calf. A neighbor offered to managed the back pasture in exchange for keeping his cows there. He rebuilt some sections of the fence and brush-hogged much of the grass. He’s getting a good deal, but, for this summer at least, it’s one less thing I need to manage.
Today I left early for the “west-side” so Steve Carter and I can bring back Patterson. I tried to purchase a cheap electric fuel pump yesterday, as the one on Patterson isn’t working at the moment. I only need it to get Patterson up on the trailer, but neither NAPA nor Autozone was capable of selling me a cheap pump. All the ones they had were 8″ long and $70 or more. That was overkill for what I want. So, I’ll do a simple gravity feed setup.
Progress has slowed on unpacking as Ann hasn’t felt good for a couple days.
We had a few amazing, golden sunsets over the past few days. This place will be a bunch of work for the foreseeable future, but evenings like this make it worth it.
I can’t remember seeing a spare tire being carried on a wire cutter like the jeep shown early in this video.
“Various shots of American jeep and trailer crossing a river on pontoon type raft. It seems that the raft has motor – it is more like a ferry. More vehicles crossing river. More shots of the ferry travelling across with German prisoners. American soldiers escort prisoners ashore.”
UPDATE IV: Well how about this …. There was an early Huffman hub that didn’t have the fancy ‘weapon-looking’ topper (as seen in the pics below). Instead, a cylindrical key was supplied to help select whether the hub was engaged or not. This ad is from the September 1962 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine.
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UPDATE III (May 17, 2020): In September of 1964 the Huffman Hub company posted this full-page ad in Four Wheeler Magazine —
September 1964 Four Wheeler Magazine
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(UPDATE II: Finally got a look at the 1967 article about Floyd Huffman that appeared in the August 20, 1967, issue of the Albuquerque Journal (pg 28):
These pics featuring the newly designed jeep appeared in the December 05, 1941, issue of the Ithaca Journal, two days before Pearl Harbor. I feel bad for those women having work the line in a dress and high heels.
The blurb below states:
THE JEEP TAKES ITS PLACE IN ARMY AND IN DICTIONARY: Officially designated as “quarter-ton four-by-four trucks,” but known to the U.S. Army as jeeps, the fast little scout cars, being turned out by thousands to serve as liaison between advanced mechanized units and infantry follow-ups, now are recognized as among the most important contributions of modern American assembly-line methods to the service. Powered with a 63-horsepower, four-cylinder engines, the jeep has a four-wheel drive, can carry three men and a machine gun, and can tow a heavy-calibre anti-tank gun. The pictures, illustration jeep production and testing, were made at the Willys-Overland plant in Toledo, Ohio. Left (in our case top): Women employees at work on a jeep assembly line. In the rear is an assembly line of civilian cars. Center: The cars being tested on the proving-ground. At right (in our case at the bottom): Negotiating an open field choke with heavy brush.
This video that Mike spotted includes a hood that was used in German as part of a ceiling (several hoods were used, then later auctioned on eBay). You can see this hood, along with other hoods, in this post.
Bill spotted this article about a 1951 Truck that was later sold for $38,500 through Sothebys.
The Article ==> https://silodrome.com/willys-4×4-pickup-truck/
The Auction ==> https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/0221/open-roads–february/lots/r0013-1951-willys-4-73-4-wheel-drive-pickup/1036426#/
UPDATE: Many folks probably haven’t seen this older post …
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UPDATED January 20, 2014: Here’s a jeep trip in 1955 that was undertaken after one of the trip’s members read the below article in National Geographic.
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Originally Posted October 23, 2013:
This spot is now a couple hundred feet under water. Learn more about the Crossing of the Fathers here: http://www.onlineutah.com/crossinghistory.shtml
In 1949 a joint expedition between the National Geographic Society and New York Explorers Club decided to be the first explorers, by vehicle, to enter the Escalante area of Utah. Accompanying the explorers were two jeeps and, fortunately for us, cameras. Their story, “The First Motor Sortie into Escalante Land”, appeared in the September 1949 issue (pages 169-204).
You can find a variety of inexpensive issues of the September 1949 National Geographic Magazine on eBay. If you are a fan of Southern Utah, this is a neat article.
For the first part of the trip, which began in Cannonville, Utah, the explorers traveled along part of the Cottonwood Road route we drove this past March. Their first big find was the arch we now know as the Grovesnor Arch, which the explorers officially named after the President of the National Geographic Society. What surprised me was that there are pictures showing the group on top of the arch with flags as if they’d conquered the moon. To be fair, I imagine it was a pretty challenging climb.
Note the explorers at the top of the Grosvenor arch.
From there, the party headed south as far as the Colorado River to an area now flooded by Lake Powell. So, some of the areas in the photos are no longer possible to see.
Below are only the photos that include the red and yellow CJ-2As that accompanied the explorers:
