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About eWillys
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.
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 .
The tour jeep bed is now on rollers so I can moved it around. In the meantime, I drove the chassis outside so I could blow off the dust (a little chilly for washing it just yet).
Looking more closely at the transfercase, the tag on it has been removed, but it looks to me to be an NP 207, but I’ve never worked on these, so I could say for sure. After doing some research online, I see one challenge to making the 207 usable is that there isn’t a cable setup for shifting being offered as an option.
Moreover, some forums suggest the 207 is pretty weak and the 231 is a better option (for which there is a cable option). However, most likely any cable option will have to be a custom install anyway, as the cable length will need to be long enough to reach the cab area. Anyone have thoughts on this? Is the 207 good enough? if in 4WD low range is the 207 strong enough to deal with the weight of real trail jeeping?
Richard pointed out that Idaho Parks still has copies of its wagon poster for sale. We first ran across this poster back in 2015 at a gift shop outside the City of Rock State Park in southwestern, Idaho. It’s a neat little place to visit if you have time to make a detour. At the time, you could also head south from there and enter Utah along dirt roads, then drive south until the dirt roads reach the original Transcontinental railroad grades. It was a fun excursion: http://www.ewillys.com/2015/04/14/day-2-mon-apr-13th-rocks-trcks-dusty-roads/.
This Venga A Fare Il Soldato Da Noi poster is 6.5′ x 4.5′. At $80 (which includes shipping), it’s not a bad price (or make offer). The poster ships from Italy. Released in 1971, this movie is about a “girl is drafted due to a misunderstanding and this gives her the occasion to check on her boy-friend, whom she believes to be a womanizer.”
I found this puzzle for sale on Amazon. Since I have most of the ads (don’t have any Hondo lit though), it seemed a fun one to get. It’s got me thinking .. maybe I should arrange some of my rarer lit pieces and take high quality pics for a series of unique puzzles. There are several services out there that offer custom puzzles, such as this one: https://www.puzzleyou.com/photo-puzzle
Only a couple updates this morning, as I spent all of Friday building a framework to remove the FC’s bed. Unfortunately, my tractor isn’t quite bit enough to lift the bed, so I had to develop an alternative strategy. The framework is mostly made from wood that was formerly a dove coop, so it’s nice to put it to some use after storing it for a couple years.
Of course, the plan went sideways when the FC wouldn’t start. I eventually figured out that the electric fuel pump had stopped working. Once replaced, the jeep started right up (didn’t really want to push the FC around).
With the bed off, I will start with working on the FC’s mechanicals. For example, the transfercase low range was never connected, so that is something I need to address. In addition, some working needs completion and the brakes and break pedal need some attention.
With winter landing hard these past two weeks, along with sub zero temps for a few days, about a foot of snow, and our well-water-system freezing up for 48 hours, the FC project got placed on hold. With warming temps the last few days, I returned to working on the jeep.
Here’s where I am at currently. I’ve removed the doors, the carpet, the seats, and the bolts holding the rear bed. I now have to build a frame work to pulley the bed off of the chassis. Pulling the bed was necessary anyway, as I need to figure out how to hook up the low-range shifting mechanism.
As noted earlier, the problem I faced was that the rear seats weren’t comfortable and weren’t tall enough to give the visibility to passengers I wanted. Moreover, the floor is uneven and was carpeted, making cleaning of the floor a more difficult chore than it ought to be. Finally, the rear wheel wells make the far rear seats unusable for most adults.
After much thought, I have decided to build a new floor as one big one-height platform, raising it all to the height of the rear section, which also makes it as high as the original FC Tour Jeep rear beds (per Craig’s measurements). The platform will also be shifted back about five inches, which puts the second row of seats a little more over the rear wheel wells so that the far rear passengers will have more leg room. The rear wheel well will become more circular, which harmonizes more with the front wheel wells. This also better alights the rear of the bed with the rear bumper.
Currently, the plans have me saving the roll cage, which I can use as a template for the bed, and trimming the four rear doors so that they can be reinstalled on the new bed.
Another advantage of shifting the bed a little farther back is that it provides more room behind the cab and radiator to breathe, which should help pull some of the engine smells away from passengers in the back.
Here is a pic showing the before and photoshopped-after-look of the proposed changes.
I got this July 1959 issue of Jeep News for free, but it is an incomplete and damaged issue. On page one, the “Millions Will See ‘Jeep’ Vehicle Displays …” article continues on page four, but page four seems to be missing. So, this issue may be six or eight pages in length.
The last page of this edition might be the most interesting. On the lower left is an article showing an FC-170 modified to handle parking an maneuvering big trailers. One the lower right of the page is an article about Tootsie, a South Dakota coyote that became the official state animal, who got to ride in a jeep station wagon on some of her trips.
