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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.
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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 .
Here’s an image from 1942 that Hugo spotted at wikipedia. The picture is high enough resolution that I was able to get a couple closeup pics as well.
As I was researching yesterday’s article on the LRDG, I wanted to learn more about the Bagnold sun compass. After reading the explanation, I’m am quite sure that I’m not yet ready to be thrown in the middle of the desert with a Bagnold.
However, as I did my research this unique ‘time’ piece on a French Sundial website, I happened to see the amazing image below.
Just a few Updates Tonight ….
As a kid in elementary school, I remember climbing under my desk as part of our emergency drills (earthquake, nuclear blast, bully avoidance). But, I always wondered what I would do if there wasn’t a desk to dive under!
Now I know the government had already been planning for a lack of desks. Thanks to this image Alex spotted on Wikipedia, I now see that I just have to locate a Willys Wagon and dive into it for safety. Sure, it might get blown over, but it would sure be more comfortable than getting trapped underneath my desk (unless I was trapped under my desk with my sweetheart from 6th grade Michelle, but that’s a whole ‘nother story)! See the expanded image here.
As I mentioned a couple days ago, a reader named Dave spotted this article and wanted to share it with readers. The article published in the 1960 edition of All American Word follows the All American Engineering Company Testing the air drop of a jeep by a pallet rather than via a parachute. To test this concept, the AAE built a special vehicle to mimic the landing of a jeep atop a pallet at speeds of 135mph. As you can see, the test was successful (at least the one captured in the photos).
Dave writes,”I was in Georgetown, DE recently which is a small town on the DelMarVa peninsula, and I ran across this very interesting use for a VEC CJ2A! I think it might fit your recent “museum” series of posts and I’m sure that your eagle-eyed readers will immediately recognize the historical relevance of this column shift speed demon! Apparently, this was a precursor to what is now known as LAPES or the Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System which is still taught, practiced and used today by our Military for forward area resupply missions. I watched C130 crews practice this (with varying levels of success)! at Whiteman AFB in western Missouri in the late 80’s. Fortunately by that point they were only destroying HMMWVs and military pickup trucks! The 8 of 10 or so operations that were succesful were really cool and you could certainly see the advantages of this type of operation.”
Click on the link below to see some closeups
Just a few updates tonight (sat night)
I’m guessing this is a Fire Department (perhaps makeshift) out of Korea. I found this during an image search, but I could not locate the source. It looks like a Library of Congress type of image. If anyone knows of the source, please let me know so I can properly credit it.
UPDATE: Brendan noted that this is indeed a LOC image. Here is a link to this image and others http://www.history.army.mil/photos/Holiday/wwii.htm.
I suspect it was just easier to stick the tree in the MA rather than his sleigh? It’s a great pic. I found this during an image search, but I could not locate the source. It looks like a Library of Congress type of image. If anyone knows of the source, please let me know so I can properly credit it.
At JpZombie.com, Casey has uploaded 20 images from the late 40s / early 50s. Several of the images have also been loaded at the earlycj5.com website and a thread has popped up around them. A video was also uploaded (see below) that shows early color footage of the Yakima Ridge Runners (from Yakima, Washington) playing in what appears to be the Little Naches River and shows them traveling over the Naches Trail (you can also see video excerpts from Exploration Northwest which discusses the trail).
Below is a small version of one of the pics at JpZombie. In this pic, you can see on the sign ‘Wally Klingele’, who was one of the founding members of the Ridge Runners. Some of the pics at JpZombie appear to be pics capturing the Life Magazine Folks who put together these classic videos (ridge runner video 1 & ridge runner video 2).
This is also courtesy of JpZombie.com via Youtube:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5eIbxvuKJQ
Thanks to Wes at offroadaction.ca for creating a post about this great collection of black and white photos (how I haven’t stumbled across it is beyond me) at Jeep4ever’s website. Click here to see nearly 200 b&w photos, some you probably have seen and some you haven’t seen courtesy of Jeep4ever.ca (I’ve posted a variety of these previously, but found them through the library of congress).
I particularly like this one.
There are some new Bantam and MB testing photos at Life Magazine. There are some great closeups of the Bantam. Note the first pic — I believe that is the first ‘jeep’ ever stuck in the mud; it surely wasn’t the last! All six of these photos were taken by David E. Scherman in 1940.
Bruce forwarded me links to two images of Surreys he has posted.
The first one is from the Virgin Islands in 1958 and shows a DJ-3A in the center of the picture and a DJ-3A Surrey at the lower left. The second image shows 5 or more Surreys sitting at rental lot Hawaii, the surrey in center front
is a 1963 with 13″ tires and babymoon hubcaps.
Strangely, I’ve never experience anything in my jeep like these drivers did …. (I think these are both images from Life Magazine, too — I will have to double check this)
