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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 .
(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’.”
“1960 willys jeep for sale. great condition. 4×4. Flathead Hurricane 6 original motor, ~100,000 miles. Was in the movie, “A Plumm Summer.” Painted like a sheriff vehicle. runs great, and always starts, may need to have the piston rings replaces, but all the seals were just redone. cheep to insure, and a great vehicle, some custom work was done to the back seats to turn them into side benches. this jeep has all original parts, except for 1 missing rear seat, but i have the replacement in storage.”
“I purchased this over 2 years ago with the intentions of restoring it. I have purchased many additional parts but have not had that much time to work on it. The boro had asked us to remove it from the property back in September due to one of our wonderful neighbors. We need to sell soon. I did get it to turn over. This is a great solid Jeep with very little rust for someone who has time to work on it. We had it posted in the Fall for $1750 but now brought the price down. The price is firm. I have posted many items on here with great success. We are looking to sell this quick. Not looking forward to selling it but in the future when I have more time I will look into purchasing another vehicle to restore. Need to be removed from our property by end of March. ”
