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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 .
This eight-page October 1962 issue of Jeep News introduces the Gladiator and Wagonneer. So, it may not be too surprising that this entire issue covers these new jeeps.
UPDATE: I found what I believe is another Israel Kaiser brochure which highlights the Compact Tender design. This truck looks more like a modified wagon than a truck. The bed does not appear independent of the cab.
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Original Published Dec 05, 2010: Congrats to Or who spotted some information from a “Kaizer-Ilin Industrys Ltd” marketing document at the Israel Cars forum. He and I have both searched for any official piece of evidence that the vehicles we were seeing were really produced and this represents the first step in that process. We still don’t know how many were produced, nor how many years they were produced, nor in how many countries they were produced (though they have appeared in both Israel and the US).
The document below is from 1963. Or translates it the following way:
1. Tender Willys
2. “Station Car”
3. Compact Tender
4. c’hamp 1963
Moreover, Or spoke with some of the folks at the Israel Cars forum and discovered that the Compact Tender is built on the Panel/Wagon frame (104.5″ wheelbase) rather than the long pickup frame (118″ wheelbase).
Thanks to the guys at the Israel Cars forum for posting this Ad:
The October 1961 issue of Jeep News was eight pages. Page one included a couple photos of the FJ-3A from different angles. Willys Motors also announced that eleven TV commercials would hit the airwaves over the coming months. I am not sure sure if all these commercials have been saved to YouTube or not.
Page two shows the results of the second annual Las Cruces Jeepathon. The event featured fifteen racers and 8500 spectators. An article on page two also noted that the October 1961 issue of United Airlines Mainliner magazine featured four images of jeeps, including “a lavatory truck, Surrey, FC-170, and a conventional one-ton pickup truck”.
Page three shows a small elephant in the back of an FC-170 along with Joan Crawford with an DJ-3A Surrey. Page four shows two ‘comparison-data’ brochures, one for the truck and one for the wagon. Another of these was published for the CJ-5 and DJ-3A and is available on eBay.
Pages five and six are mostly dealer information. Page seven is highlighted by Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida and their movie ‘Come September’.
Page eight shares the story of Evie Durant, a church worker who uses her jeep for a variety of tasks in Alabama. Also on the page is a surprisingly robust rebuild of a CJ-6 into a swamp maneuvering, oil searching rig. Finally, there’s a short story of some college graduates and their training with the Audio-Visual wagons prior to their departure of Africa.
Unclear how many pages this is. The starting bid price is place at $80. It contains some useful assembly images.
“THIS AUCTION IS FOR A RARE, ORIGINAL “JEEP-A-TRENCH & JEEP-A-TRENCH GEAR-DRAULIC PARTS LIST MANUAL”
PRODUCED BY AUBURN MACHINE WORKS INC, OUT OF AUBURN NEBRASKA
WILLYS JEEP SALES LITERATURE, AND OTHER VEHICLE MAKES AND MODELS.
ORIGINAL – NOT A REPRODUCTION.
GOOD COLOR AND GRAPHICS. SLIGHT WEAR FROM AGE,STORAGE, USE. SOME SLIGHT SMUDGES ON COVERS BUT PAGES ARE CLEAN AND CLEAR.
COVERS MANY JEEP-A-TRENCH ASSEMBLIES:
DIGGER CHAIN, BOOM, FRAME, HYDRAULIC DRIVE, SPEED REDUCER, MAIN HOUSING, AUGAR, ELECTRIC LIFT, HOIST, REDUCTION, OVERLOAD, CRANK BEARING AND BELL CRANK, CLUTCH THROW-OUT, HYDRAULIC DRIVE CONTROL,
TRAVEL CONTROL, TRACTION DRIVE, WINCH, RATCHET
GEAR, NO. C100 AUBURN CRUMBING AND GRADING ATTACHMENT.
COVERS JEEP-A-TRENCH GEAR-DRAULIC ASSEMBLIES:
NO. 200 CRUMBING AND GRADING ATTACHMENT, FRAME, BOOM, AUGAR, MAIN SHAFT AND HOUSING, OVERLOAD AND TRACTION DRIVE, TRANSFER GEAR DRIVE, REDUCTION DRIVE, HYDRAULIC LIFT.
HAS TWO INK STAMPS ON FRONT COVER:
PARK “JEEP” SALES, HIGHWAY 7 AT WOODDALE, ST. LOUIS PARK, 16, MINN, WEst 9-5111
JACK BALLANTINE, TRENCHERS AND TRENCHERS PARTS, RES 127 W 68TH ST MPLS, FACTORY – CONGER, MINN.”
UPDATE: At bottom is a printed version of the plate listed on eBay. A few of the pics show the truck with the high middle cross piece on the grille, which helps date it.
View all the information on eBay
“8 x 6 x 1 inch
“Let us demonstrate America’s lowest priced 4-wheel drive truck”
“4-Wheel Drive Jeep Truck”
“Willys…world’s largest makers of 4-wheel drive vehicles”
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Originally published April 14, 2013: The ad is from 1956.
“Original newspaper ad , 8 x 8 .”
The June-July 1961 issue of Jeep News is only six pages.
Page one shares news about the FJ-3A, which the company planned to introduce in the fall of 1961. Interestingly, the paper refers to it as The Commercial ‘Jeep’ Fleetvan. Page two includes another example of an FC-170 with a custom camper on the back.
An articles on page three highlight the use of jeeps at Lake Placid, New York, and the continued use of DJ-3A Dispatcher surreys as part of the Pepe movie promotion. Page four shows how an FC-170 was converted into a horse carrier. Page five is all dealer news.
Page six shows some images from a jeep club meet at Kaiser Steel, while a pic at the bottom shows a militarized FC-170 with it’s top removed.
Claus is curious about the size of a Kong body-extension data tag size. Anyone have one they can measure? Alternatively, anyone know the size of a Koenig hardtop data tag?
Using photoshop, I was able to figure out that the body-extension data tag size is about a 2-1 ration, meaning if the height is 2″, then the width is about 4″. My guess is that the tag may be 1.5″ x 3″.
Here is a body-extension data tag example:
Jake shared some pics of a t-shirt he found at the Soul City Dry Goods store in Missoula, Montana. The shirts do not appear available on line. I also don’t know the price or how much inventory the store has.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/837017479769475/permalink/2683153998489138
This upcoming year of the Dragon marks the seventeenth year of eWillys; it continues to be the longest ‘job’ I’ve ever had. The site seems to have its own inertia that pulls me along. Despite all the posts, approaching 65,000, interesting new stories still appear, which keeps me energized, as I think it does you all.
To that point, in 2023 I spent more money on old docs than ever before, mostly in the form of Willys and Jeep News issues. I’ll be publishing more issues throughout January, into February. Most of the issues are early to mid 1960s, so you’ll see more full-size jeeps, but most still contain information on the older jeep models as well.
My goal for 2024 will be to continue on the every-two-day or three-day-update schedule. Now that I have so many Willys Jeep News issues, my hope is to weave together interesting stories that span across the various issues. Two post that I know I will do are 1) a post on the range of custom campers built from FC-170s and 2) the wide range of ice cream jeeps. I also hope to create more of an index, so that jeep news, brochures and other documents can be arranged along a timeline. Again, we’ll see how things go.
With the chaos of family illnesses and death behind us for now (fingers crossed) over the last six years, I had more free time to read in 2023. At six hundred pages, “And The Band Played On” by Randy Shilts, a book about how HIV and AIDs unfolded in the 1980s, is one I just finished and proved the most interesting book of the year, even though it was written in 1987. Another fascinating book is a new one by Kashmir Hill called “Your Face Belongs to Us”, which highlights the scary way in a company called Clearview can locate your image in videos based on the company’s ENORMOUS database of video and still images (I can guarantee it is worse than you think it is). Big Kibble was another interesting book, this one covering the history of dog food (I like history-of-food books). Other books I read include Deluge, Zoobiquity, Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive and American Wildfire, Sedition Hunters, Angle of Repose, among others.
Speaking of books, it’s crazy that this year will mark thirteen years since I published my first book, Finding Virginia, and seven years since my last one, Slag. I have returned to researching my next book about Rossiter Raymond, once the pre-eminent mining engineer in the world. I’m still looking for the right narrative to tell his story (maybe I can sneak in a jeep?). We’ll see how things go.
On the jeep front, work has begun on the FC Tour Jeep. I’ve removed all the rear seating and carpet. Given I want to raise the rear bed to a point that more closely reflects the original tour bed, I must decide whether to build atop what’s there or remove all the rear bed and build a new rear floor altogether, then reimplement the existing sides and rollbars. Also, I was able to secure a set of original FC-170 seats (thanks to Craig) that can be reupholstered, so that’s one less thing to worry about!
Meanwhile, the race jeep gets started and run once a week. It still needs some graphics, but that’s pretty trivial. I hope this spring to take it somewhere local to give it a few workouts. When I was driving it around our pasture last fall, it seemed to be missing slightly in the high end, so I want to test it a little more to explore that more once the weather warms.
As for 2024 trips, Ann will likely be in DC at some point in January. She has spent the last two months working on a bill for the existing victims of state sponsored terrorism, which attempts to fix and tighten an original bill passed by Congress in 2015. Later in the year we may be in Sea Cliff, New York, so that I can give a presentation as part of a museum exhibit related to my family’s history in Sea Cliff. Of course, we also plan to attend a few weekend jeep races here in the Washington State this summer. Depending on what happens over the next couple of months, we are considering a trip to Europe, but we’ll see how that goes. If we don’t go to Europe, and if the FC Tour Jeep gets done in time, we may take it to one or more summer events. However, finding someone to stay and manage our property, and especially our dogs, is our biggest hurdle to travel.
That’s all for now. Stay safe and have a wonderful 2024.
This eight-page Jeep News was published in March of 1960. On the front page, the company announced the 1960 ‘Jeep’ Approved Equipment Sales Program to further push third party equipment sales, which rose 33% in 1959 vs 1958. Willys Motors also welcomed a new Jeep Approved Equipment sign.
In addition, the front page highlighted the Surrey, noting that Pepsi had purchased 100 surreys, making it the largest Surrey purchase to date. Eighteen of those went to Tulsa in custom colors of Code N-57 Pepsi-Cola Yellow and Pepsi-Cola Creamed Striped Vinyl, but it is less clear to me what colors were used for the other surreys. Finally, the front page noted that the Surrey would appear in “Seventeen” Magazine on April 04, 1960 (see full ad in black and white here).
Page two referenced three different brochures. The first brochure was highlighted to announce that an updated version of the value-rater with 1960 data had been published (view the 1959 version here). The second two brochures were intended as mailers for a targeted audience of contractors, engineers, and other building trades people. The first mailer was titled “When The Weather Outside Is Frightful” (DM60-01), while the second one was “Building Up? Or Down?” (DM60-02). At least nine 1960 DM60-XX brochures were produced, though I am still missing DM60-05, DM60-07, and DM60-08.
A story on page three describes the use of a Surrey by the fashionable “Togs for Women” stores as “a trailing fashion show, with a trailer loaded of the latest in women’s clothing.” Pages four and five cover the rise of jeep clubs from across the country, both for fun and for community service. Pages six and seven have a variety of FC stories.
Page eight has another Bonners Willys story, this time highlighting a DJ-3A Dispatcher, though the hardtop on the dispatcher looks most like a very early Willys Overland top like this one. Meanwhile, a different article shared the news of a thirty-two Dispatcher purchase by Sommers Drugs, a San Antonio, Texas, drug store chain.
