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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.
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 .
Blaine spotted this unusual item. This appears to be some kind of 100 year celebration of the Philipines. How the Coke/Jeepney tribute add to this celebration is unclear to me.
Gerald forwarded me some jeep-centric pics that you may or may not have seen.
Here’s an unusual find.
“Metal sign with writing on both sides. Asking $350. If interested or have further questions, please contact Ron at 717-921-9089.”
http://harrisburg.craigslist.org/clt/1934549933.html
UPDATE: Derek’s got much more information on the CJ-3B site.
This image was on Vulcanhammer.net, but no longer seems to be there. In it, you can see Raymond Concrete Pile Company’s Gow Division’s SPT rig using a PTO to bore a hole for soil research. This is actually an advertisement for the Jeep.
The caption with the image is, “The Jeep helps cut our costs by getting more done”.
And the text below the image is:
In building anything big, the first step is soil sampling. Gow Division of the Raymond Concrete Pile Company. 57-year-old construction company with projects around the world, keeps its 28 ‘Jeeps’ going eight hours a day in its work of investigating soil conditions to furnish information to architects and designers so they can determine the best type of foundations for construction projects of all kinds. Here is one of Raymond’s “Jeeps” with power take-off being used to operate an exploratory boring outfit.
The manager of Raymond’s Gow Boring division says: “We were the first to use the “Jeep” in soil testing work, and we have been using more and more “Jeeps” ever since. The “Jeep” helps cut our costs by getting more done. It can maneuver over rough ground in the country and get into tight spots between buildings in the city. It furnishes the pwoer for operationg our rigs and carries our equipment quickly from job to job so that we’re always ready to go.”
Here’s an example of a post hole digger. So, maybe they ‘dig’ with some kind of custom corer and then use the PTO to lift it (which is what they appear to be doing in the photo above)?
The earlycj5.com site recently published some great brochures about a CJ-5 truck called the overlander which was available in Australia. Check it out! (Thanks Dan).
As I have mentioned a few times, I grew up in the Wandering Willys Jeep Club. In 1971, the club lead an effort to record all the members from Clubs in Region one of the PNW4WDA, their names, addresses, phone number, jeep types, jeep names, their jobs, and assorted other info. As far as I know, this was the first and last directory of its type created.
One of my favorite finds in the directory was an early Ad for Bobcat Fiberglass bodies, complete with the watermark logo of a bobcat (which I didn’t notice until I scanned the ad). Below is the Ad with owner Fred Weis listed as the contact person. Apparently, sometime later Bobcat products were owned by H.C. Van Wagner, as shown by this business card embedded in one of my fenders (yes it is still there).
Below is the original Ad, followed by a later business card. One interesting bit of info is that I haven’t seen any Bobcat CJ-3B bodies (that I know of).
Here are some Bobcat Products:
This is supposed to be the first Bobcat body produced:
Here is an example of a raised hood:
Here’s a body .. note the wide rim around the rear edge of the body. Also, the step doesn’t cut in to the body at the end and there are no drain holes by the step. (similar to mine)
Here’s an example of the body that I purchased, which was a light body racer.
“Note the much wider edge (maybe 2” wide). This body was hacked up a little bit,
but hopefully cleaned up nicely for the guy who purchased it:
I can’t say I’ve been in a Willys Wagon for 400 miles at a time, but I do imagine that what the woman is trying to say is that it seemed more like 1400 miles than 400 miles ….
Quinn dropped me a note today. He just finished a new project and wanted to share it with us. Does this mean your you and your wife can write off the jeep? Thanks for sharing!
Quinn writes, “I finally finished my mobile billboard advertising trailer (see attached pictures). I use my M38 to pull it around town when running errands …… it generates leads for my wife’s real estate business.
NOTE: The base utility trailer was purchased from Harbor Freight [ed note: maybe this one?] for $150 and the vertical box and rear door were made using 90 degree angled steel strips. It’s fairly light weight and due to the short length of the Jeep, the entire rig fits into house garages, parking structures and street parking spaces. The trailer also has an 875lb load capacity which makes it convenient for carrying camping gear or the occasional BBQ equipment/supplies.”
Stephen spotted this unusual ebay Item. I could only find one reference to “The Story of the Magnet and the Tunnel” and rather than it being related to Willys Overland or Willys Motors, it was related to an advertising push to spur the sale and promotion of Lee Hats. The timing of this push was the early 50s and, in the case of the tie-in with the Drew Pearson Show, it was sometime around 1952-1953.
So, how this strategy for Lee hats resulted in the tie-in with Willys is still a bit of a mystery to me. One interesting note is that the image at the bottom of this post is labeled ‘Willys Motors’ and has a rather CJ-5ish/CJ-3bish look to it. The entity ‘Willys Motors’ was the name given to Willys Overland following the April 1953 purchase of W/O by Kaiser/Frazer Industries, so I would assume the brochure was created after that.
According to the brochure’s seller, “We are offering a very unusual and scarce book. It’s about sales figures and advertising. It was apparently sent to the dealers by Cruse W. Moss V.P. in charge of sales, that’s what it shows on the last page. Nine pages of print on both sides.Our photos show the condition of the item up for bid.”
Sebastian’s friend Esteban found these great ads.
Sebastian writes, “Here are some vintage willys ads published in Colombia during the late 40’s and early 50’s. The one showing the CJ-3B appeared on a newspaper in 1953. The other ads were published in “Revista Semana”[ed. note: That is Spanish for ‘Week Magazine’ – I hope I got he right web link?], one of the oldest and most prestigious magazines in Colombia. A friend of mine, actually one of the best men in my wedding (Esteban Ucros), found these pictures. For work purposes (nothing related with Willys), he was researching the old archives of “Semana” (hard copies) and ran across these ads. He sent me high resolution pictures and I just did some edits.”
Tim wrote me the other day to tell me that he’ll be officially launching his willysjeep.com website on January 28th, 2010.
He writes, ” I Just wanted to let all 4 wheelers know that www.willysjeep.com will be coming on line in about a week. Its focus is on the advertising literature and manuals of the Willys Kaiser era, all in Hi-Res for downloading. It has many free resources geared to the Willys Jeep owner and the general forum is available to anyone who has an interest in 4 x 4’s. Free information, live chat, photo storage and blogging space are all there as well as many military manual downloads and Willys factory videos, etc. I have been involved with Jeeps for 47 years and it is now, in my retirement, that I can share my printed collection and passion with the world. Hope you have some members that can stop by.”
So join Tim (virtually) on the 28th for his official launch! Best of Luck!
Gerald sent me a link to Hans Tore Tangerud’s website. Living in Kristiansand, Norway, Hans is definitely a car lover, building a pretty sizeable site. He’s got a variety of old brochures and images, including a few Willys & Jeep Brochures.
UPDATE: Additional links — The Hadley Engineering Brochure and VEEPS vs. SCAMPS and other model.
Based on a reader’s inquiry, I decided to do some research regarding the Veep. I’ve seen a few of these for sale over the past couple of years, but it doesn’t happen often and I really knew nothing about them. So, here’s the little bit I learned.
According to the Dune Buggy Archives, the Veep was sold as both a completed jeep and as a kit by Hadley Engineering, which was based at 1778 Monrovia, Costa Mesa, CA 92627 (maybe they are still there). The company claimed that any Beetle or Karman Ghia could be used to build a Veep in about 40 hours.
I’ve only seen two engine sizes so far, a 1600 cc or a 1800 cc VW motor. The suspension, frame, and running gear is all VW. Most of the veeps appear to use a replacement M-38 body, though one ad below claims a ’42 body (mb or gpw) was used. The gas tank is mounted in the front, which simply looks odd when you open the hood. Below is a couple brochures and some misc Veeps. In the posts below are some additional Veeps.
I’m still hardly an expert on these, so if you have additional information, I’d love to learn more.
Learn more about Mike’s custom VEEP here.
Crosley was the maker of some of the prototype lightweight Jeeps the Army and Willys considered building. Apparently, Crosley continued down this path of lightweight utility vehicles. One of the results of this efforts was designed by the Crosley company and called a Farm-O-Road. The Crofton Bug, based on the Farm-O-Road design was actually produced by the Crofton Marine Engine Company. Only about 250 Crofton Bugs were built between 1959 and 1962 (or 1963). Like the jeep, these had some farm tools you could attach to these ‘mini jeeps’. You can learn more about this 1100lb vehicle at Tom’s Crofton Bug website.
Thanks to Gerald for finding these two pics.
Here’s Tom’s Crofton Bug and a few of his pics. Drop by his website to learn more about the Crofton Bug and see more images and brochures.
Links to the Crofton Bug:
Jim sent this my direction. Theres a number of varying Willys and Jeep brochures from early years up to today.
Some examples below
UPDATE: It appears this site has changed — at least I don’t remember it quite like this …
The “Jeepsterman” Morris Ratner has a variety of old brochures for sale on his jeepsterman website. You can see an example of one of those to the right, which is about the roper digger. Did you know the roper digger can be used in multiple ways? Now you do … Another interest brochure compares the jeep to the scout.
See all the Jeepsterman brochures here
