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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 .
Just a few updates today’s , as we spent the day in Seattle and returned to find one of our dogs having locked herself in our garage (for who knows how long) … she was a bit traumatized …
This British “Baby Buggy Video” is an edited version of the Ford video that introduces the Ford GPs to the world, so much of the video may look familiar:
I can’t find where I have published this 1959 commercial, so here it is.
Thanks to Maury for spotting Nate’s snow video. While he plays in the snow, we are surviving the cold. First, our re-done trough water delivery froze, then our well-water seems to have frozen, which remains a mystery as to why. Anyway, we are dry camping at home for the time being. Temps start trending up today, so hopefully this cold snap will be behind us for the remainder of winter.
Merry Christmas (eve) everyone!
I must have seen this commercial when it aired back in 1983, but I don’t remember it. I guess I had other things on my mind? I graduated in the summer of ’83, for which my parents bought me the first jeep of my own (I’d driven Dad’s CJ-5 for a couple years), a patched together, blue, modified CJ-3A with a Buick V-6 and T-15 for $1500. I spent the summer cruising around in it, then the Fall driving it to my first (and last) quarter at a community college, before pretty much flunking out (I just didn’t care about college at that point).
Instead of college, I traded labor for a rundown, hacked together racer, took that apart, and started building what would become my first project jeep. Too young, dumb, and stubborn to fail, I got a part time job cooking and used those meager funds to cobble together a custom jeep over the subsequent year and a half.
Willys Motors featured this Jeep Frolics film at the 1959 Chicago Autoshow, as explained in the February 1959 Jeep News. It features color clips from the Jeepers Jamboree out of Georgetown, California, ‘Jeep’ Roadeo racing from Yakima, Washington, and the ‘Jeep’ Endurance run staged at Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. According to the Jeep News issue, the film was a popular attraction at the auto show.
This 1959 Jeep commercial was run during the Maverick TV show (and probably other places, too).
Scott spotted a story about Louis Mattar and his amazing Cadillac Fleetwood, which he and friends drove non-stop from the west coast to the west coast and back. Later, he drove it from Alaska to Mexico City, again non-stop. The article is worth a read!
Here’s the article from Haggerty: https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/more-than-70-years-ago-louie-mattar-drove-6320-miles-non-stop-in-his-fantastic-perpetual-motion-machine/
And, I found this video:
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And this earlier video from 1954, which shows them changing the front tire:
Finally, here’s a more modern CBS report about the car’s new home at a San Diego museum:
There were some jeeps at SEMA 2023 this year, but one of the most interesting was a rebuilt FC-170 by Roy. The excerpt starts at 2;27. (I can’t tell what the narrator is saying, because my sound isn’t working tonight for some reason).
Bill shared this quick-assemble jeep video, though this doesn’t quite look as quick as others we’ve seen.
What’s more interesting is that one of the comments under the video shares how some US jeep dealers ran some contests challenging folks to assemble actual jeeps completely taken apart. This is the first I have heard about this type of contest. I wonder if it was ever documented in any news articles or magazines. Here is the full comment:
“My grandfather’s garage did this in the 1950’s. He owned the first Jeep dealership in Manhattan, because he was selling Willy’s before WWII, so automatically became a Jeep dealership after the War. [Willys] did a promotion where they set up this contest in different dealerships, to see how long to assemble an entire Jeep. But it was completely apart, not in sub assemblies like here. My grandfather won with a time under 4 hours, and they presented him with a solid gold Bulova watch. On the back was engraved his name, the date, and the time it took to put the Jeep together.”
With the Philippine government’s decision to modernize public transportation comes the need to make the famous Jeepneys more environmentally friendly. To that end, the 76-year-old Franciso Motors company has partnered with Tembo, who will provide electrification kits to Franciso Motors. Francisco spotted this older Jeepney, noting it was one the company built.
Francisco Jeepney makes both public transportation-sized Jeepneys and smaller, more familiar-sized jeep-like vehicles called Oners (if I understand the site correctly). .
Here is Elmer Francisco describing his goal with electric Jeepneys (takes a about a minute to get to the interview):