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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 .
“THIS M170 WILLIS ARMY 4X4 JEEP IS IN EXTREMELY NICE CONDITION IN AND OUT, SHEET METAL IS PERFECT. THIS JEEP WAS RESTORED BY A FIRE DEPARTMENT FOR THERE USE. THE CHASSIS HAS ROUGHLY 25,000 TOTAL MILES AND UNDER 3,000 TOTAL MILES ON NEW REBUILT ENGINE. IT IS STILL 24 VOLT WATERPROOF WIRING AND ALL RUNNING GEAR IS REBUILT AND ORIGINAL. THE ONLY MODIFICATION WERE THE NEW PAINT AND ALL NEW FIRE EQUIPMENT. IT HAS A NEW 100 GALLON TANK, NEW HIGH PRESSURE PUMP, PLUS NEW HOSE, A ELECTRIC HOSE REEL. IT STARTS, RUNS AND DRIVES LITERALLY AS NEW AND EVERYTHING WORKS EXCEPT THE FULE GAGE(NEEDS NEW SENDING UNIT) ALWAYS KEPT INSIDE AND IS CURRENTLY TITLED AND LICENSED. EMAIL WITH ANY QUESTIONS.”
This sure looks like a vehicle left over from the Road Warrior.
“TRUCK IS IN OVERALL GOOD CONDITION. RUNS AND DRIVES.IT DOES SMOKE FROM EXHAUST BUT DOES NOT SEEM TO BE A PROBLEM.INTERIOR BENCH SEAT IS IN NEED OF REPAIR DUE TO UPLOSTRY BEING RIPPED,CURRENTLY BEING COVER WITH CLOTH. PUMP AND PUMP MOTOR RUN EXCELLENT.
THIS TRUCK WAS USED FOR OFF ROAD BRUSH FIRE OPERATIONS.THE TRUCK IS BEING SOLD DUE TO THE LIMITED AMOUNT OF WOODED AREAS CURRENTLY IN THE FIRE DISTRICT WHICH THIS VEHICLE IS TO BIG FOR.
DUE TO VEHICLE BEING IN THE FIRE SERVICE, THE VEHICLE HAS NEVER BEEN REGISTERED ,THEREFOR WE DO NOT HOLD A TITLE. WE HAVE ALL NECESSARY PAPERWORK TO TRANSFER OWNERSHIP TO OBTAIN TITLE
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK ANY QUESTION YOU MY HAVE! MORE PICTURES ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST VIA EMAIL.TRUCK IS AVAILABLE FOR INSPECTION BY APPOINTMENT ONLY! VEHICLE IS AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL PICKUP ONLY! BUYER IS RESPONSABLE FOR ANY KIND OF SHIPPING ARRANGEMENTS AND COSTS! .ANY PAYMENT BY CHECK WOULD HAVE TO CLEAR BEFORE POSSESSION OF VEHICLE IS OBTAINED! VEHICLE IS BEING SOLD IN AS IS CONDITION WITH NO WARRANTY OR GUARANTEES!
CONTACT INFO: MARTINT14@AOL.COM OR CONTACT MARTIN AT 631-831-7627 MONDAY THRU FRIDAY 7AM-3PM EST …”
This is the 2nd beautiful restoration from Vista I have seen. The first one is posted here. The seller is as meticulous regarding the description as he is on the restoration itself!
“Background on VEC #14,513 – During the past seven years I have restored four 1946 CJ2A jeeps to original condition. This jeep is by far the best and is the rarest of the four. It also represents my last jeep restoration project. I work at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park and my first restoration of a CJ2A is being used in a trained animal show there every day. I had so much fun, with this project that it got me started restoring them for fun. #14,513 is my best restoration and I expected it to be my “keeper”.
As far as I can trace the history, except for the last year before I purchased it, when it was in Oregon, this jeep is a California native (at least for the last 50 years, when the ownership trail went cold). It has no rust. In the 1950’s it was owned by Phil’s Garage in Torrance, California. It was set up to tow vehicles back to the shop. It was impeccably maintained by the garage mechanic, who I never met, but whose workmanship and attention to detail 50 years ago, I still admire today.
This jeep has matching serial numbers on the firewall, dash and left front frame horn. Behind the column shifter, is the T-90 transmission. The column shift option was dropped early in the first year of production (at around #30,000), because the GIs returning home from the war preferred the floor shifter transmission like the ones they were used to driving in their various theaters of operation. For this reason, there are very few, original equipment, column shift VECs left ….”
I was quite surprised yesterday, as I noted in my post related to the Waikiki VJ Day Video, that I spotted a mustard yellow MB with the words “SHORE PATROL” emblazoned across the windshield frame. Also interesting is the top on this jeep. See how it appears to go up before it heads back. I’m wondering if that’s a hard top of some kind?
That lead me on a trek to find any other shore patrol jeep with a color scheme that was NOT a light blue color. A quick google search of the term “Shore Patrol Jeeps” reveals an endless slew of light blue Jeeps evoking, in my mind, a Navy theme. However, despite my searches, I couldn’t locate anything other than Navy themed or Army Green Shore Patrol Jeeps.
So, to the upper right is the best snapshot I could get of the Waikiki Shore Patrol Jeep, followed by some other Shore Patrols I found around the web.
(04/17/2010) There are front and rear PTOs on this CJ-2A. What is the piece of equipment hooked to the rear PTO? Is that a rear winch? It looks like there might be some interesting history with this as well.
“To view more photos of this vehicle visit us at www.newmeadowsauto.com or call 207-443-1442 and ask Tony to schedule a test drive. RUNS, DRIVES…NOT ROAD WORTHY……PLOW WORKS ……WINCH WORKS……CHAINS FOR THE TIRES. AMAZING PIECE OF AMERICAN HISTORY”
“Willys Jeep. 49-51 Willys Jeep CJ-l. Customer fiberglass cab. Local San Diego Truc, 4cly, 4SP, P.T.O- 4WD. All there, Black plates, Not running. Project, lots of potential. Former Glass Truck. RARE- No paperwork. $600 OBO.”
I wouldn’t mind getting some more shots of this 1958 Civil Defense M-38A1 from the South Plattsburgh Fire Department out of Plattsburgh, NY. This unit serves as their brush truck and currently carries 80 gallons of water, chain saw, hand tools and a booster reel supplied by a 30 gpm pump belt driven off the prime mover engine.
A student from Mississippi State University named Cliff contacted me yesterday. He’s in the Aerospace program and also employed at the Raspet Flight Research Lab. The lab owns and operates the M-38 Fire Jeep shown below. They have a problem with their jeep and need some help.
According to Cliff, the M-38 had developed a knock (after being loaned out temporarily), so Cliff and another co-worker tore the engine apart during some down time recently.
Cliff writes, “Here comes the bad news, once we got the motor on the stand and pulled the rod caps we find that the rod bearings on the 3rd and 4th cylinders have ground in to nothing, which was thought to be the case when a ton of metal shavings were found in the oil pan. The motor is not original to the jeep, it had been replaced in ’88 with an F-head and a hole cut in the hood to accommodate it, and seems to be a rebuilt engine because the crank has already been turned once. So here is the dilemma. The lab is low on money and is not wanting to pay a lot for repairs but many of us here would like to save the jeep from the scrap yard and return it to its duties as our fire truck. So I am here to ask for your help in saving this Jeep, we are in need of a new crank and badly need a new wiring harness and am asking for donations on these parts but am also willing to trade the entire F-head motor(which other then needing a new crank is in great shape) for a L-head motor.”
I responded to Cliff to see if I can get a little more information about this project and what else they might need (for example, bearings, seals, etc) to get this running again.
Unless someone wants to contact Cliff themselves (I’ll be happy to forward an addy) and provide assistance (maybe you live close or graduated from the Mississippi State or for some other reason), I will be happy to organize some help for Cliff and his project.
Here are some pics of the jeep before disassembly:
Apparently, this is a Navy CJ-3A. It appears there is a data plate above the standard data plate on the dash that could very well document this. That said, it seems like it should be painted navy colors rather than in a cammo pattern.
“Fully reconditioned 1953 Willys Jeep. Originally assigned to the Navy. Restoration includes rebuilt motor, transmission, rewiring, steering and suspension. Non-directional military tires, tow hitch, and roll bar. Runs great, super fun to drive!”
Somewhere around 1950 the Emergency Management Folks in Saugus, Massachusetts, bought a CJ-3A as an all-around emergency vehicle. As you can see by the emergency boat (being towed by the Jeep in the 2nd pic below), this isn’t a high budget operation, but then this town of 26,000 probably didn’t need much more (though they did invest in a DUKW in the late ’50s).
Sixty years later, Saugus still has the CJ-3A (at least it looks the same with minor additions). Sporting the code name ‘Unit 41’, it seems this EMV handles emergency parades more than anything these days.
UPDATE: Steve reports that this sold for $5600 with only two bids.
Jean-Sebastien spotted this unusual find.
“This is a Jeep FC 170 four wheel drive flat bed truck that has been made into a fire engine. This vehicle was originally used by the US forest service around Yosemite and later sold to a church camp just outside of the park. The vehicle was garaged and used by the church camp for insurance purposes. The vehicle is in extreemly good original condition. All equipment is stock except the windshield wiper motor which was changed to an electric model instead of the vacuum type. The vehcile runs strong and starts up promptly everytime. It has the 6 cylinder motor with a 3 speed manual transmission. Warren “free wheeling” hub caps to secure four wheel drive. The interior is in very good condition, as you can see by the pictures. The odometer shows 30,000 miles, but the speedometer cable broke so I can’t say what the actual mileage is. I would say not more than about 50,000 original miles. The fire apparatus has a 250 gallon tank with a 5 hp gas motor that both starts manually or with an electric push button starter. Pump works great and all seals seam to not leak. Vehicle comes with 200 feet of fire hose ( cotton single jacket), 150 of 1 1/2 and 50 ft of 1 inch. Two variable plastic nozzles with 1 1/2 fittings. There are two yellow helmets and a first aid kit. All gauges work (except the speedometer) and two new gauges were added for oil preasure and temperature. Body shows some signs on repair around the passenger door handle, but otherwise the vehicle is in good overall condition for the body. Vehicle runs fine and all mechanical parts work good. Brakes are in good condition as are tires, clutch and transmission. There is no slippage when shifting. This is a fairly rare vehicle and would be well suited for a ranch (for insurance purposes) or another church. Please e-mail any questions.”
As usual, searching for something unrelated to Toyota lead me straight to the Toyota BJ (I was searching through some automobile history). I knew very little about the Toyota Land Cruiser history, so the threads I’ll share below were very interesting to me. The pics all came from the IH8MUD.com website, where there are plenty more pics of both the AK10 and the BJ.
Again, according to Wikipedia, in 1950 the Korean War created demand for a military light duty vehicle. The United States Government asked Toyota to build 100 vehicles based on Willys specs. The following year, Toyota designed the BJ prototype. While longer and more powerful (6cyl) than the 1/4 ton jeep, the BJ had no low range. The National Police Agency (NPA) was impressed enough to put in an order for the Jeep BJ’s, which became their official patrol vehicle. The BJ would have 3 different Models, a Touring model (BJ-T), a Radio model (BJ-R), and a Fire Engine Capable Model (BJ-J) [technically, I suppose these would be the english equivalent translations …].
In 1954, Willys-Overland put pressure on Toyota to cease using the “Jeep” name. Technical director Hanji Umehara had the responsibility to rename the vehicle. Interestingly, rather than compete with the Jeep label, he chose to compete directly with the Land Rover label. He notes, “I had to come up with a name for our car that would not sound less dignified than those of our competitors. That is why I decided to call it ‘Land Cruiser’.”
