6 Comments on “March 1950 Four-Wheel-Drive Willys Truck Brochure”

1. Mike February 21, 2021 at 6:32 am

   KALMAN MOTORS!!! (stamped on brochure) WOW, when I was a kid, I’d ride my bicycle 7 miles from Clifton to Polifly Rd Hackensack just to look at Old man Kalman’s collection of used Jeeps, GMC trucks that never sold.
   Kalman Motors was a Pontiac, GMC truck Jeep dealer, he’d take anything in on a trade, if you had a horse, he’d take that too. As a result, a huge lot of unsold trucks and Jeeps rusting away over the years. Kalman sold more pizza Jeeps than any of the other dealers in the area, took in trade the pizza Jeeps he sold Steve’s Pizza the years before. I would just wander the lot on Saturday mornings in awe at this huge assortment of Jeep vehicles, it was like going to Disneyland.
   Kalman took in trade a 1963 metallic blue CJ5 from Bruno’s House of Pizza, boy o boy, loved that Jeep, one spring morning, riding the #30 bus into NYC down RT 3 with my mom & little sister, there was old man Kalman towing a school bus with Bruno’s CJ5. needless to say, I was impressed. So impressed, I convinced my dad to buy it. $800.00 buck seemed like a good deal, and he’d throw in a new paint job, cool,( $50.00 deposit) come back a week later, we now have a METALIC GREEN JEEP, with the paint thinned too much, so as the white lettering on the door still shows through the new green color. Marvin, old man Kalman son’s excuse was, Hey, the old man has bad eyesight. Needless to say, there was no del, and my dad never got his 50 bucks back.

   This is the story I’ve been waiting to tell, I feel like a kid again, The joy of being 71 years old, and still remembering what it was like when you were 15. Dave, thanks for posting this brochure, gave me renewed outlook on life, I’m serious, although humor is always apricated.
2. David Eilers Post authorFebruary 21, 2021 at 10:00 am

   Mike,

   I thought you might like that brochure 🙂 and glad it brought back memories!

   It’s funny that your first jeep was metallic green. We didn’t have a jeep distributor nearby, but we did have Al Carroll and his place was full of jeeps. He was part of the local Seattle Rump Bumpers Jeep Club (co-founder?) and he always had jeeps in his shops (3 shops?). Dad did some piece meal transmission and transfercase work for him. I started doing it too when I was around 18. When I was 19 we went over to Al’s place and parked in front on a trailer was a metallic green racing jeep with a fiberglass body. It had sat outside, so wasn’t in the best shape, but it looked great to me. Al let me have it in exchange for doing some work for him. Unfortunately, I lost my photos of that first racer.

   You can see the original cage, tires, and frame in this pic, though I’d already altered the frame with a new suspension (reversed front springs and outboarded back springs) by the time this photo was taken: http://www.ewillys.com/wp-content/uploads/tripleshot2.jpg

   The jeep was built on an M-38A1 chassis with a roll cage that was mounted to the frame. The builder built it in a month, sometimes using a blow torch to cut holes for bolts rather than drill them. The engine, which didn’t go with the jeep, but that we pulled and delivered to the original owner, was literally a V-8 cut in half and patched to form an inline 4 (built along indy specs said the builder). The manifold was also a V-8 manifold cut in half and patched. Behind the engine was a simple T-90. The jeep was built to run 100-mile-plus races in eastern Washington.

   Everything I cut, I used a hand hacksaw. Man, that was an exercise in patience!
3. oh my god February 21, 2021 at 4:49 pm

   heres a very funny story concerning willys vehicles — theres a humboldt county , calif hippie on youtube , he went to my alma mater HUMBOLDT STATE – his channel on youtube is ” GABRIEL TRAVELER ” — hes been to almost every country on earth — his channel is very informative usually , but recentlly he went to ALASKA , and in his video he spots a WILLYS WAGON , i think in JUNEAU ? OR SITKA ? — heres the funny part , HE DOESNT KNOW WHAT IT IS !! — WHAT ?? — I THOUGHT HE WAS KIDDING ?? — HE GREW UP IN THE WOODS NEAR WILLITS , CALIF ! — THATS WILLYS CAPITOL OF THE WORLD !! — BWHAHAHA ?? — of course hes younger than most of us , 40’s ?? — THATS NO EXCUSE !! — YOU WOULD THINK HIS HIPPIE BACK TO THE EARTH PARENTS DROVE A WILLYS !! ?? — when he spotted it he did seem to think it was a jeep of some sort , but then he said IT WAS EUROPEAN !!! — bwahahaha !!! POOR GABRIEL , TOO MUCH HIPPIE LETTUCE ??? —> BWAHAHA !!
4. David Eilers Post authorFebruary 21, 2021 at 5:53 pm

   Vernon, that’s funny!
5. Andy Testo February 23, 2021 at 6:57 am

   I have a copy of this that the Willys Overland Export Company made in French.
6. David Eilers Post authorFebruary 23, 2021 at 11:29 am

   Andy, I’d love to get a scan of it if you have the time and inclination.

   I’m awaiting a couple more brochures from ebay, as this one above is a companion to several others with similar styled brochures that I’ll feature together.

   – Dave