emailNeed to contact me and don't have my email? Click on email button.
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 .
Dave here: Seth and Roger both shared links to his Facebook post showing a Cutlas Automatic Hub, which is a rarity to see in the wild. That got me thinking that I’d never done a post about the different, early attempts at creating auto-engaging hubs, which appeared to generally be a failure (none ever caught on).
WARN INDUSTRIES Mid 1950s:
I believe the first commercial attempt at an automatic hub was Warn’s hub by that very name, the Warn Automatic hub. This hub appeared as early as 1954 in this brochure (from this post), Willys Motors was promoting the hub as of October of 1954.
Hugo Vidal, through his Brazilian company, AVM, also produced the Automatic Model, an example shown below (from this post):
According to Hugo, the technology was never perfected and customers had problems, so eventually the hubs were pulled from the market.
THOR AUTOMOTIVE early-mid 1960s:
The next production hub with claims to being automatic was the Thor Industries Automatic hub, advertising for which appeared in the early-mid 1960s in Four Wheeler Magazine. While the company’s Electro Hub was sort of automatic, in that you could electrically engage it from the dash, the compass Automatic Hub claimed to be fully automatic. Over the years I’ve seen a few of these, but again this hub didn’t become popular, though I don’t have any reports as to why.
This Thor ad appeared in the July 1963 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine (front this post):
Ad from the July 1963 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine
Here is an example of the hub. Allstate also private labeled this hub, as can be seen at the top of this post.
CUTLAS ENGINEERING early-mid 1970s:
Around 1960, Cutlas advertised an “Automatic” hub, but it wasn’t actually an automatic hub, but rather it had ‘automatic axle positioning’, which I believe meant that it made engaging the axles easier (so don’t be fooled by this advertising)!
“1955 M38A1 military jeep with m416 trailer 1. Original F-head 134 engine with T-90 3 speed manual transmission and warn overdrive. 2. Changed from 24 volt to 12 volt 3. Good tires, new spare 4. Runs, stops, and drives good. 5. Trailer is in good condition. 6. All lights are military. 7. Has original military slave cables for jumping batteries. 8. Extra T-90 transmission and transfer case. 9. Extra parts: ex: oil filters, touch up paint, Other items also. 10. 2 battery system. 11. Has permanent 1955 plate. 12. Stereo system included.”
It was posted on OWF as a cross post from ECJ5 about Novaks NovaDrive unit will be on display. It’s an overdrive for select transmissions, don’t have a ton of info on it, but seems like a coming soon deal.
But Novak is a great vendor to our Willys community providing some really slick transmission and powertrain swap products. They also have a great research area and library of information on all sorts of stuff.
No skin in the game here for eWillys, not associated with the event just sharing what looks to be a quality event if your in the Salt Lake area looking for something to do maybe check it out.
While doing some book research, I ran across the Missouri Historical Society’s online archives, which includes some images of jeeps, mostly photos of jeeps at schools, probably related to bond drives. It may be of use for folks looking for military era jeep photos. https://mohistory.org/collections?text=jeep&images=0
Photo from the Missouri Historical Society, CREATOR: Sievers Studio. Miss Elengo, who probably worked for the Modern Beauty Shop magazine, is one of the clients and rights holders.
A reproduction of a photograph of American soldiers attempting to pull a Jeep out of the mud using a Holt tractor during the Battle of Okinawa (April 1-June 22, 1945). Photo from the Missouri Historical Society
Brian is looking to sell this running Mighty Mite. Contact text first (due to signal) @ 217-twofoursix-23onenine or email: tallmustang90 at yahoo.com (remove spaces from around the @)
““All original 1965 American Motor Corporation (AMC) Military Jeep M422A1, air-cooled engine, has fording capability, aluminum chassis, and is designed to be airdropped (parachute) behind enemy lines. Only weighs 1700 lbs. It’s a 1968 Mighty Might Jeep; it’s all original/complete, 24 volt system 100 percent intact, and UNCUT body. Was stored in CA’s high desert (dry climate/no rust) about ten years ago. Has correct seats, includes rare jump seats on tailgate and rear fenders. Seats 6 people. New batteries, new fuel pump, new carb rebuild, new plugs, new plug wires, new cap/points, new tires. Runs great. Your chance to own an extremely rare military Jeep to add to your collection. Only 2600 M422A1 were ever produced. Reason for sale is too many projects. Clean title in hand. $12,500 OBO.”
This is a Ramsey 8000 Lb Winch with everything you need to attach to a transfer case. Came out of the bed of a 60 Willys Pickup. Get it before it gets Restored and price triples.