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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 .
Derek just posted a great story Sebastian wrote titled “Three Willys Jeeps and 2,500 Miles in Between. It covers his life with jeeps, both in Colombia and in the U.S., and includes lots of great photos.
http://cj3b.info/Owners/Sebastian.html
You may remember Ed Wilson’s father’s Egypt photos from yesterday. Well, Ed’s got a couple jeeps himself (a 1962 CJ-5 and a 1947 CJ-2A). Both have an unusual story.
Ed reports from Canada, “This is my first jeep that I got almost 20 years ago and have still not completed a restoration. Long story… but when I was buying it I was in the owners home looking at original photos in an album. I was very focused on the purchase and pictures, but then realized that I was in a room surrounded by gold records on the wall! It turns out, I was sitting on Bryan Adams bed in his bedroom of his family’s house. I ended up having a long talk with his mom and step dad.”
Here is the picture of my jeep with Bryan Adams step dad and his wife…not Bryan Adams mom the day of purchase. Note the winch.
This is after some use.
Now it’s ready for some work.
Ed’s second jeep is a 1947 CJ-2A. He writes, “My 47 cj2a has an interesting story as well. I purchased it from a guy that worked all his life in his dad’s jeep dealership. He has had a jeepster all his driving life and you can find a picture of it and his story in the link below. It is also a Kelowna jeep. His dad was named “Mr. Jeep” by Willys. You can learn more about “Mr. Jeep” by reading this story about “Mr. Jeep’s” first Jeepster (that he still owns):
The author is leaning on his white CJ-3A. I do not know the author’s name (but would like to know).
I stumbled across this neat forum article about a group of friends who decided to check out Hole-in-the-Rock, Utah, in 1955 after reading a National Geographic article (probably this one). So, in a fleet of three vehicles (looks like a 1949 CJ-3A, a CJ-3B, and a MB/GPW), they set off from Los Alamos, NM and drove to Escalante, Utah, before venturing into the Hole-in-the-rock area. Most of the photos that were taken are in areas now under the water of Lake Powell.
According to the article’s author, “My jeep was a 1949 CJ3 and it was a wreck when I got it. I think it had never been lubricated. I had to replace all the universal joints and overhaul the engine. The cab was aluminum and I bought it at Sears. The red jeep was an old military model. My friend had bought it and built a wooden cab for it himself.”
I wanted to contact the author of this story, but I can’t figure out how to register (says registration is closed) to the popphoto.com forum. Furthermore, I can’t figure out to contact an administrator. I’d like to contact the guy (he was 94 as of 2007 — likely passed away by now), because he doesn’t know what to do with the photos he’s taken.
The author’s notes in a separate post, “I wish I knew some historical society or such that would be interested in the slides I have. None of my relatives and friends are interested in these things. I suppose eventually they will be put in a big cardboard box and auctioned off for a high bid of $1.”
Since that was his wish, I’m going to preserve his story in total here, so I’ve post it below. You can see the original post here: http://forums.popphoto.com/showthread.php?151510-Kaiparowits-Plateau-A-journey-from-the-archives-to-Hole-in-the-Rock-Crossing-1955 along with the follow up comments.
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This trip was inspired from a National Geographic article in the 1950s. This magazine had several articles on little known areas of the southwest. Most were in very isolated areas with few, if any roads and trails.
A party of three Jeeps set out from Los Alamos NM to Escalante Utah. We arrived in Escalante about noon time, and then proceeded to find our way to the Hole in the Rock crossing. So named because early Mormon Pioneers lowered wagons and horses to the Colorado River, and then rafted across the river at this point.
Leaving Escalante we headed off in a South-easterly direction. The maps we had showed the distance to be approximately 50 miles.
We passed some remarkable formations, This was known as Dance Hall Rock. Locals had dances here periodically.
The Dance Hall Rock in Utah, 1955
After awhile we came to the dreaded fork in the road. As we debated which fork to take, a man appeared on horseback. He asked if we knew where we were going, we said we knew where we wanted to go, but not how to get there. He gave us directions, and on we went. He neglected to tell us what obstacles we would find. After several miles, we came to an enormous outcrop of slick rock, and the tracks we were following ended there. It was obvious that we had to cross the rock, We did that rather easily.
Juan showing his grandson a CJ-3B. Juan is passing on the joy of jeeps.
Juan shared this neat story about restoring a pedal jeep for his grandson Francisco. The email was written in Spanish, so I translated it as best as I could.
Juan writes, I am pleased to talk to you about something incredible that happened to me. A few days ago a jeep friend, Alejandro Galvan, messaged me, telling me that there was a pedal jeep for sale in acoatepec bazaar. They were selling a pedal jeep like the one my parents gave me when I was almost two years old.
The next day my brother and I went to see it. We bought it, cleaned it and compared it with a photo of my toy jeep from 60 years ago. We were surprised to discover that it is identical, except for a few modifications such as different tires tires and a windshield. I plan to ask the person who sold me if they know the source. Maybe there’ s a chance it was originally my very own toy. How amazing that would be!
Since my grandson just turned on year old and it was his Catholic baptism, we gave it to him. To my great astonishment, when my grandson saw it I could see in his eyes the joy. After the celebration, my brother and myself began restoring it to look like my pedal jeep. I’m very pleased with the way it turned out. Warmest regards from Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico.
BEFORE RESTORATION: You can see the photos of Juan’s original pedal jeep in the photos in the first picture.
AFTER RESTORATION: (I wish I’d had one of those as a kid!)
UPDATE 2: This is a hard book to find.
UPDATE: I just finished reading this book. I was hooked from page 1. It’s an amazing tale about a man who starts the war in Norway as a Commando whose team is trying to disrupt Nazi attempts to create an Atomic bomb. Soon, he is fighting in North Africa, where he becomes a POW. Eventually he escapes and becomes a medic at the Russian front for the Russians as they advance westward. Some of the details are surprising and unexpected. While with the Russians he finds a jeep. Commandeering it, he begins a risky trek westward with a questionable priest.
Copies of the book can be found:
– By Jeep to Freedom on Amazon
– http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?keyword=woolf+blint&mtype=B&hs.x=0&hs.y=0&hs=Submit
– http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=woolf+blint&sts=t
As part of the original post, I found this blog entry related to Woolfs jeep journey.
Ed Bray and his parents raced jeeps for years throughout the West. They built two Fiberglass Bobcat bodied race jeeps. In fact the family was friends with both Paul Parker (Parkette Fiberglass Body manufacturer) and Fred Weis (Bobcat Fiberglass body Manufacturer).
Their first jeep with a bobcat body was built on a military frame and powered by a 327 with 365 HP. Below is Ed’s mother at the start of a race in Calgary where she won an obstacle race. A year ago Ed spotted this jeep, still powered by the same motor (he recognized the sound), driving in Spanaway, Washington.
Ted’s CJ-5 was narrowly spared by Hurricane Sandy. Great pics!
Ted writes, “Hey Dave, here’s a few shots of a huge tree that came down during Sandy and almost got my new plow truck. I almost moved the CJ and my dump truck in back round before storm but never got to it. I got real lucky, the little CJ pushed her way through three and two feet deep snow storms later in the year!!!”
Jim forwarded this wonderful story to Derek who forwarded it to me. It’s a heart warming tale of a man and his jeep told by the man’s daughter. A mechanic by trade, J.B. Martin, from Richmond, Missouri, drove a ‘beefed up’ 1945 MB. According the article he is credited with taking “children home in a snowstorm, a doctor to a snow-bound rural home, his family for bobsled rides, and in two days got around 60 cars started.”
J.B. Martin and his jeep. Photo from the Richmond Daily News — Richmond, MO
Paul forwarded these pics to consider. The moral is, always follow a half track!
“Last Saturday I visited the local military vehicle show and I saw an amazing sight. Among the various military trucks, Jeeps and one half track on display there was a Willys M 38 which had suffered a bit of body damage when the previously mentioned half track didn’t quite stop soon enough. I don’t know the reason for the meeting of these vehicles but the attached pictures show the results of contact between one very light and one very heavy military rig. The poor M 38 got the worst of this bump but the half track also suffered when it received a scratch in the paint on the front drum. Sad to see but I don’t believe anyone was hurt.”
A reader named Sam called me today. He told me he had a great story to share. Hopefully, I’ve remembered most of it correctly.
For a little background, Sam is retired after a lifetime of building hotrods, drag racing and owning a shop in Sacramento, but now operates a small flattie-oriented shop in Arvada, Colorado, where he fixes, modifies and maintains Willys (and probably a few other vehicles) for fun. I’ll be explaining more about Sam (and some of his great suggestions) in a future post, but for now you have enough information to understand why a Jeep owner, in some distress, had his Jeep towed to Sam’s shop to investigate a problem.
And now to Sam’s story … The owner of this willys had tried to drive his jeep to work, but the jeep stopped working while driving down the road. So, the owner pulled to the side of the road, waited a moment, and started it up again. Sure enough, it fired up and the owner drove onwards.
Another few miles down the road the jeep shutoff again. So, the owner repeated the process: pull over, restart, and continue onwards.
At some point, this re-occuring process became too much for the owner to bare, so he called a towing company and had his jeep towed to Sam’s.
So, Sam looks the jeep over. He starts it up and, sure enough, after a little while it shuts down. He knows it has an electric fuel pump and suspects that could be causing a problem, so he unhooks the hose from the carb and points it into a gas can. Then, he turns on the fuel pump. Sure enough, after a little while, the fuel dribbles to a stop, yet he can hear pump still pumping ….. hmmmm, Sam thinks to himself.
He decides to try an experiment. He knows the owner only fills the tank to half full, because if the tank gets too full gas leaches out of somewhere (I can’t remember where Sam said it leaked).
Sam decides to fill up the tank all the way, because he suspects there might be something in the tank. Sure enough, he fills up the tank and out pops not one, not two, but three ping pong balls.
As Sam explains it, the sucking power of the fuel pump was pulling the ping pong balls to the outlet area of the tank(where the fuel line connects), stopping the fuel from exiting the tank, which shut down the jeep.
How’d the ping pong balls get there? Well, that still remains a mystery ….
So, the moral of this story is that even the mightiest jeep can be humbled by an even mightier ping pong ball. And, a side moral, is that buying a locking gas cap is a pretty good idea.
John told me that his dog Blitz loves riding on his CJ-3A.
He writes, “I take my dog for a ride almost every day. He likes to ride on the hood. It’s the funniest thing. People wave,point and smile. I even had one lady follow me and stop me to take a pic. I think that dam dog likes willys more then me.”
Louie asked me if I’d be interested in some pictures from the 2010 Redbull Historic Military Club gathering, which included jeeps, seeps and floating trailers. I did not know those Bantam trailers floated so well!
Louie writes, “For a number of years a military collector ( Kevin Kronland of Spooner Wi.) held a 3 day event at his Cranberry farm. He had almost 100 vehicles of his own and our Redbull Historic Military Club would attend with about another 50 to 100 vehicles. Of course we all had a great time showing ,driving,and talking about our vehicles. He had a DUCK, a GPA, and other collectors brought there am fibs to run in his cranberry pond. (A real lake.)
