Lots of fun articles in this April 1955 issue.
Features Research Archives
1950 Photos of Austin Champ Tests on eBay
UPDATE: There are now several photos on eBay that were taken during the testing of the Austin Champ.
1. Photo of prototype Champ from the passenger side.
“Motor car jeep. Size of photo 8″ x 10.3”
2. Photo of an Austin Champ prototype from the front.
“Motor car jeep. Size of photo 8.1″ x 10.2″ 1950-07-26”
1954 “In Uruguay” Ad on eBay
UPDATE: Still Available.
(004/09/2019) This two-page ad is supposed to be from a 1954 magazine. The seller does not provide the magazine or specific issue date.
1951 Yakima Ridge Runners’ Life Article
This May 14, 1951, article “Life Goes Ridgerunning” from Life Magazine used to be posted in full on the Yakima Ridge Runner’s website, but that site appears to be no longer active. So, you’ll find it below.
If you’ve never seen the color footage of the Ridge Runners jeeping in the Cascade Mountains, that’s worth a throwback look: http://www.ewillys.com/2011/03/29/2-more-videos-from-jpzombie-com/
And, there’s the widely circulated set of two videos that may have been filmed at the same time the writers of the magazine article were visiting Yakima (video 1 and video 2)
1956 Brochure for the New CJ-6
This form W-242-6 highlighted the new CJ-6’s additional 50% more cargo area. This isn’t the best example of this brochure, as it has some fading at the top and right side.
1949 Sinclair Opaline Jeep Ad on eBay
UPDATE: This ad is back on eBay. It is 10.5″ x 14″
“Vintage 1949 – Original Magazine Print Ad
GI’s on the Town in a Willys Jeep – Art by Valentine”
1943 Buenos Aires Motor Magazine
The June 1943 issue of Motor Magazine out of Buenos Aires, Argentina, featured this introduction to the jeep on its front page. I snagged this copy off of eBay in December and it finally arrived. The 24-page magazine printed on newspaper covers a wide range of automotive subjects, most far above my rudimentary Spanish. I’m pretty surprised any of these survived!
Here are the first two pages (the only two that included the jeep as far as I could tell):
Also included in the magazine was this ad(?) featuring a jeep.
1951 Photo of Jeep Tests in Chesapeake Bay on eBay
That had to have been a cold drive in January!
View all the information on eBay
“1951 Press Photo Soldiers drive amphibious jeep in Chesapeake Bay near Virginia.This is an original press photo. Amphibians – US – A Marine drives an amphibious jeep in Chesapeake Bay, off Little Creek, Virginia, during training exercises. According to the Navy, jeeps such as this will operate with only the driver’s head above the surface. The curved tube attached to the windshield is the exhaust pipe. Straight tube is the air intakePhoto measures 8.25 x 6.5inches. Photo is dated 01-17-1951.”
1962 Photo of Jeeping in the Dunes of Padre Island on eBay
The seller of this June 18, 1962, photo claims this was South Padre Island, but the original script on the back of the photo labels it Padre island, which is north of South Padre (I know, that location may seem obvious). According to Wikipedia, South Padre was closed until 1962, which makes it more likely that this is Padre and not South Padre. That said, I’m no expert on this region.
View all the information on eBay
“1962 Press Photo Jeep “Off Roading” on South Padre Island Sand Dunes, Texas. This is an original press photo. Jeep rolls across sand dunes of Padre Island in Texas. Photo measures 10 x 8.25 inches. Photo is dated 06-18-1962.”
1955/6 CJ-5 Brochures
This brochure was part of the family of brochures described in this Kaiser/Willys ad post from a few days ago. Curiously, this brochure is labeled form W-239-6, suggesting it was printed for 1956, while the original version of this was form W-239-5.
After comparing the two different versions, I could only find some minor differences between the two. The ‘biggest’ difference was a slight repositioning of the text within the balloons on page 2 of the brochure. Form “5” had misplaced the text slightly, with a few letters extending above a couple balloons. Form “6” seems to have fixed that. It also appears that Form “6” uses a bolder font for the text in the balloons. There could also be some minor differences that I did not detect. Here’s my comparison of the balloons:
So, now I know I should have bought a W-239-5 version if I wanted the original! Another lesson learned the hard way … anyway, here’s the scan of the W-239-6 version:
Compare those pics to the Form W-239-5 version from Autopaper: