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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 .
Inventor David Stone filed a patent for a Power Take-Off Mechanism and Drive Therefor, with Willys Motors as the assignee, on August 08, 1950.
This ad may have appeared multiple times, but appear at least once in the January 30, 1943, issue of Colliers magazine on page 29. Included below is a color version supposedly published in 1942.
This April 5, 1941, article in Colliers puzzled me. Through it, the author referred to a train as a “Giant Jeep”. I’ve never run across a reference before or after that time of a train being called a jeep. The article never mentions any reference to the newly created 1/4 ton vehicles, whose ‘jeep’ name was still catching on in the press. It also does not indicate where/why the jeep name for the train originated.
This ad was published in the February 7, 1942, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, pg. 31.
UPDATE: Chief Detective SteveK realized this is actually a CJ-3B. I thought it was a poorly done CJ-3A.
I snagged this 5″x7″ postcard off of Craigslist. For some reason it is depicted with a CJ-3B raised hood bump along the top side of the hood.
UPDATE: I’ve updated these images with corrections and four additional ads. You can a similar listing of Collier ads in black and white. I’ve added two ads that only appeared in the CIO-News, one that only appeared in Colliers, and one Sat Evening Post ad that I’d missed.
Original Post (03/01/2019): I tried to find a listing of all the Willys-Overland ads and their issue dates that were published in the Saturday Evening Post during and after WWII. Unable to find any good resource, I spent the last three days surfing through 250 issues of the magazine using the Saturday Evening Post non-profit site, which costs $15 a year to use. Then I organized them in a way that I hoped would make it easier for me to study them. Hopefully, it’s handy for you all, too. For expediency and bandwidth size, I used low-resolution images to create the files below. Eventually, I’ll go back and replace them with hi res images so that everything is clearer when viewed more closely.
The ads started in May of 1942 (at least that’s the earliest I found) and were published on average once a month. All ads published up to November of 1945 were placed on the inside of the back cover.
On November 10, 1945, Willys-Overland formally introduced the CJ-2A to Saturday Evening Post readers with a more centralized, two-page ad. After that, one or two-page ads for the CJ-2A appeared until August of 1946, when the first wagon ad appeared in the magazine.
UPDATE: As Bill notes, there’s also a May swap meet. That should not be confused with the August Annual show.
This August the National Pike Steam, Gas & Horse Association will be holding it’s annual show in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. This year it will be featuring working jeeps. Learn more about this event at http://www.nationalpike.com.
Tomorrow is the Moonshiner’s Swap Meet at the Puyallup Fair Grounds in Puyallup, Washington.
TJ is there today (Saturday .. vendors get in early) and spotted what I believe to be Jim’s restored (by Willys America I think) Traveller. It’s a beaut! It looks to be located in the main hall, so if you are there, be sure to check it out.
Steve Bovee just contacted me about the upcoming 70th anniversary of the De Anza Jeep Cavalcade, aka Hemet-Borrego Jeep Cavalcade.
He writes, “Willys Jeeps and Flat Fenders Welcome … Next month will be the 70th anniversary of the De Anza Jeep Cavalcade aka Hemet-Borrego Jeep Cavalcade. Some 400 vehicles, mostly Willys Jeeps, went on this epic off-roading event April 2, 1949.
To celebrate the anniversary a few flat fenders will be getting together on April 6th and will be retracing the original route, as much as possible. There might be several starting points, but the main one will be in Hemet and as in the first run we will travel south through Battista Canyon, stop in Anza for a snack and photo shoot and then head out to Coyote Canyon. Coyote Canyon part of the trail is for the brave at heart and there is only one way in and one way out so I’m sure some of us will stop there.”
You can read more about the original Cavalcade in this July 1979 article from Desert Magazine (below), which can also be found on Archive.org.
This Collier’s cartoon ran in the July 31, 1943, issue of Collier’s Magazine, page 56.
