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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 .
Dave here: Nate shared this video of him heading out in the snow to do some maintenance. It looks like that rig is running great and moves really well over the snow. Thanks for taking the time to record it Nate!
UPDATE V: Thanks to Barry for sharing a recent video made by CruddyCornstalks. he spends time explaining why the engine is unusual and how it works.
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UPDATE IV .. Feb 7, 2023: Nate was able to get this running. Check it out.
UPDATE III: See the internals of a Willys Light Plant here
UPDATE II: More pics of Nate’s Willys Light Plant here
UPDATE: There is more history about Miniger and his purchase of John North Willys Stock in 1929 in a 1946 Fortune article.
This postcard is currently listed on eBay.
The other day Nate forwarded me the following images of a Willys home power plant, built by both “Willys Light” and the “Electric Auto-Lite Corporation”. Not knowing much about any of this (and not having the time to source original info from newspapers of the time), I took a break from house painting to venture down internet rabbit holes. What follows is more of a work-in-progress than a finished piece. Hopefully, folks can add or correct the following.
Let’s start with the pics that Nate sent:
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)!
Russ sent along an update on this years Willys Rally, which takes place May 30th & 31st.
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
There are also a few pre-war Willys-Overland and John North images: https://mohistory.org/collections?text=willys-overland&images=0
I thought the below photo is neat, as it is a reminder that there was a big push to recycle metals (along with other materials).
According to the sign:
The Beauty Industry Helps Beat The Beasts
Throw It On The Heap
It Will Help Build A Jeep
http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/1026297
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.
This photo may show a Holden jeep: http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/736142
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
UPDATE: Buz reached out to say this is still available. He dropped the price to $550.
Buz is selling this unique windshield frame for the M-38. He has the paper work from the Government and work order to document its origins. Contact Buz Kanzenbach via phone 757 403 9964 or email buzkan @ att.net (remove spaces around the @).
“Split M-38 windshield excellent shape. This is a rare item! Authorized By Order of the Army, The Secretary of The Army. When it was broken during the Korean War it was transferred from a 1 piece two a 2 piece, to save glass. I know of only 2 frames in existence.”
Here are a few others from the archives that might be M-38 split windshields
1) This M-38 appears to have one: http://www.ewillys.com/2010/05/07/year-m-38-mount-vernon-wa-4000/
2) Possibly a modified one(?): http://www.ewillys.com/2014/06/03/1947-cj-2a-lexington-tx-4700/
UPDATE: I was surprised to recently see a 1953 ad for a Farm ‘Jeep’ in the Nevada State Journal (March 05, 1953, pg 9). Remember that the Farm ‘Jeep’, along with the ‘Jeep’ Tractor, were models produced mostly in 1951 and 1952, along with a line of jeep implements.
As you can see from this timeline reproduced below from the CJ-3A.info page, there were very few Farm ‘Jeep’s produced at all and none in 1953, though a handful of CJ-3B Farm ‘Jeep’s were made (see CJ-3B page for more info on the 3B version). So the use of the ad is curious.
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Originally Published May 12, 2020: Each of the brochures has consecutive form numbers, from FS-514100 to FS-514105. The brochure below included extra digits at the front: FS-4 FS-514102.
Here’s the Willys Service Bulletin that announced the Kaiser Willys Supercharger, along with the manual and a few pics of a super charger at the bottom of the post (from a 2014 post).
Kaiser Supercharger Manual:
UPDATE: I obtained a copy of this Kaiser Willys News, Volume 1, Number 4, off of ebay. Previously, all I had was a low resolution copy. This issue includes stories and photos about the Yakima Ridge Runners (last page).
Page 1 covers sales contents. Page two includes a short article about how a jeep won a road race in Las Vegas, but a search of vintage newspapers did not yield any more information. Page three is unusual in its description of the efforts to encourage wives to support their husband’s sales efforts.
Page 4 and 5 covers sales tips. Page 6 has an interesting diagram of an automatic transmission tools board, with enough detail to recreate it for a museum.
Page 7 includes a story with some details that might help someone recreate the 1954 Cavalcade of jeeps. As mentioned before, page 8 covers the Yakima Ridge Runners, among other stories.
UPDATE: I only had small ebay pics of this issue for years, but I was finally able to win a copy off of eBay. Plus, at the bottom is a notebook that must have been given out at the Hotel Astor event pictured on the top front page. I expect there is a Vol 1, No 1 issue out there somewhere, but I don’t have any pics of it yet.
You’ll notice this issue focuses primarily on the Willys cars, though there are two photos of a CJ-3B. Give the Willys-asset purchase was begun only nine months earlier, maybe the execs were still figuring out how they wanted to talk about the 4WD related vehicles?
Note book from February 1954 meeting. Other than the front page, it’s a series of lined-pages for taking notes.
