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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.
UPDATE: I’d never seen this brochure before finding it on eBay. This is part of what was a vast vintage jeep doc and toy collection in New England. I’ve bought a few cool things from him.
As for a date on this four-page brochure, I’d say, given the patent date of 1948, that this brochure might have also been printed in 1948, especially given the CJ-2A. My guess is that Mr. Keyser didn’t make enough money to warrant any future reproductions of it. But, that’s only a guess.
While I’ve always called this a K and K mower (that’s the manufacturer), the brochure and data tag describes it as a Jeep Mower Bar (see pics at very bottom).
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 17, 2019: In February of 1948 Allan Keyser filed a patent for a side mower. It appears this became the design for the K And K Manufacturing Company’s Mower as seen in the brochures at bottom. You can view other early mowing apparatuses here. Interesting that this came out of Colorado. I wouldn’t have guessed it.
“This invention relates to a mower attachment for the presently popular small, four-wheel drive, automotive vehicles popularly known as jeeps, and has for its principal object the provision of means whereby a mower bar can be quickly and easily attached to, or detached from, the vehicle so that it will be easily visible and easily controlled by the driver of the vehicle.
Another object of the invention is to provide highly efficient means whereby the angle of attack of a mower bar may be adjusted to suit the desires of the user and the requirements of the particular crop being harvested.”
UPDATE: I bought the Spanish version of this brochure off of eBay, so I’m adding it to this post. The Spanish version is Forma H1-3-59.
I won this rare early (first) Gala Brochure off of eBay. It is Form H1-3-59. The marketing document appears aimed at resorts and other tourist businesses. Interestingly, it appears conceptual in scope and doesn’t show any of the actual models available, other than what Las Brisas had done with DJ-3As. Note that on the back page it encourages interested parties to write to “Gala Plan, Willys Export Corp., Toledo 1, Ohio, U.S.A.”
Page 1:
Page 2:
I 2012 I purchased this July 1951 brochure, an 11-page “Your Opportunity to Profit with Willys” (from number FB 1 4CM-751 GG). At that point, I hadn’t bought many brochures before winning it on eBay. Unlike 99% of Willys-Overland brochures, this one was unique, because it targeted potential Willys Dealership owners.
The reason I bought it, and the reason I never published it (only now remembering that I hadn’t), was that it was the foundational piece for my idea for a jeep museum. It was the backbone, the narrative that I wanted to course through the entire experience. It was the type of business case study (example study), that I had read many times while getting my MBA, but rather it being on paper, it was an experience.
The overriding question centered on the brochure. If it was 1951 and you had the means and opportunity to invest in a Willys-Overland franchise, should you?
A ROUGH MUSEUM OUTLINE:
Folks would begin the museum in a room with a 1950s feel. A presentation would begin with the look and feel of a 1950s commercial, except this would be trying to sell folks on the WO franchise. The video would end encouraging folks to take.a walk through history to better get to know Willys-Overland’s roots, starting with a Pre-WWII display, with 1920s and 1930s music, showing and explaining the history. It would be intimate, quiet, peaceful.
The next room would be the drums of war, the approach of WWII, the early development of Recon car options, ending with the Bantam/Ford/Willys options, with Willys winning the bid, just in time for the US to enter WWII.
Folks. would enter to the sounds of war. Maps would show jeeps being lease-lent all over the world, Britain, Africa, Indonesia, Australia, etc. The room underscores the the wide uses for the jeep (and GPA and other oddities).
As the war was being waged, visitors would encounter a more pastoral room, a relief from the war, showing WO experiments with jeeps and farming. It would also demonstrate Willys attempts to advertise the jeep, linking the willys and jeep brand, whenever they could, until the FTC case and the Ford lawsuit caused WO to shift their branding ideas.
The next room would be the introduction of the CJ-2A, the ads, the multiple implements, the implement companies. The next room would show the competitive landscape, with Willys adding other vehicles, and how the big three were responding (and how consumers were responding). Also highlighted would be WO’s continuing shift in brand marketing, the shift away from Jeep as the overriding brand to Willys as the over riding brand.
Subsequently, visitors would be taken into a unique room, showcasing the newly introduced Hurricane engine, but this would be a bigger-than-life walkthrough engine in plexiglass, so folks could look below at a crankshaft turning, a camshaft above, pistons to one side, etc. It would be a truly unique experience.
At this point in the museum, visitors would face reach the time period of the brochure. It’s the point in all business cases: What’s the decision, to invest or not to invest.
At this point visitors transition to the troubles at W-O and the decision to sell out to Henry Kaiser. The finally room showcase the Kaiser years, as the company took control of Willys assets and focused back on the unique 4WD capabilities of the jeep lineup, while also embracing “JEEP” as the brand.
The museum ends at 1963, when Kaiser shifts to more modern vehicles, such as the Wagoneer and Gladiator, and how those vehicles pushed sales to new heights, as well as a push away from jeeps as pure utility vehicles and more as a fun, family, or sporty vehicle.
Anyway, that was the plan, but time and resources never quite materialized.
Ann and I visited a lot of museums on the way to developing ideas in hopes of creating an experience that would bring in folks from outside of the jeep world, because based on my early research into auto museums, if it doesn’t cater to non-jeep folks, it likely won’t generate the income necessary to sustain itself.
UPDATE II: If you want to email me directly, feel free to use d@deilers.com (not d@ewillys.com, which hasn’t worked for a few years).
UPDATES: I greatly appreciate all the kind words. I see there are some questions, so let me answer them…
I hope that additional info helps!!
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I have decided to shut down eWillys. At this time, I don’t plan to do any more updates.
Thanks to everyone who were able to use it, read it, all those who commented, and the many domestic and international friends Ann and I have made over the past 17 years.
The site will remain up until the end of the 2024 year. I hope to figure out a way to republish some of the unique information the site has on it in a different, less expensive manor.
Best wishes all. It’s been a good run.
After successive waves of cleaning, I’ve organized my nuts, bolts, washers, and oddities into similar sizes, thread counts, types, sizes, kinds, etc. This Harbor Freight organizer is hardly perfect, but it should be much easier to locate things (I hope). I fully expect the rear tab on plastic containers that holds them to a thin vertical plate to eventually break. But, until then, this keep me a little more organized.
UPDATE: This is a very old post (which likely needs updating), but Mauri added a nice addition to it, a video of Jay Leno driving this rig.
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Originally posted April 28, 2011: The National Automobile Museum (the Harrah Collection) in Reno, Nevada, opened in 1989. Most of the collection is based on Bill Harrah’s (gaming pioneer and avid collector) automobile collection. Following Bill’s death in 1978, the Holiday Corporation bought Harrah’s Hotels/Casinos and more, including the collection. Then Holiday announced they were going to sell the cars. This ticked off Nevadans, so the governor stepped in and helped negotiate a donation of the cars by Holiday to a special non profit organization established for the purposes of a museum.
The museum was named among the top ten museums by Car Collector magazine, has been ranked as one of the best 16 car museums in the world by Autoweek, and has been selected the best Museum in Northern Nevada in Nevada Magazines’ Annual Readers Poll.
The collection appears to have only two jeeps. One is a slightly modded CJ-5; the other is a Wagoneer that was outfitted with a Ferrari engine and called a Jerrari.
Here is the Jerrari as photographed by RenoDesertFox from Flickr. Note the color of the first image is the correct color and the remaining images have had the colors tweaked by the photographer, but still show a good deal of detail.
1. Front view of the Jerrari (link to original)
2. Color has been tweaked. (link to original)
3. The Ferarri engine. (link to original)
4. Click on the image to more easily read the history. (link to original)
1. Here is the one image I have, again via RenoDesertFox, of the 1972 CJ-5 on display. (link to original)
It’s been another busy month here at eWillys HQ, though little involved jeeps. That said, I did get the race jeep cleaned up and the thermostat replaced on Sunday. I”m hoping to test the thermostat out later today, once my eyes recover from being dilated.
My eyes were dilated, because I had my cataract consultation this morning; they saw no problems doing the surgery on both eyes, so I will be proceeding forward on that! Having worn glasses since the 9th grade, I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to have 20/20 farsightedness! My eyes are pretty wonky at this point, with many of these updates done with just one less-than-perfect eye (and the other terrible). I am positive I’m making mistakes.
On the home front, we did minor decorations for halloween (no one comes by anyone). Ann had the brilliant, simple idea, to turn our house into a ghoul. It looks best from the road:
This is how it looks closer up and less dark (a bit more hokey):.
Halloween decorations will come down soon, quickly replaced with Xmas decorations.
One afternoon a couple days ago Ann and I heard a bang. We didn’t really think anyone of it until I wandered out to shut our driveway gate, when I encountered a beat up mailbox. It look like someone used it for batting practice (a quick tour of the neighborhood reveal a couple more smashed boxes). Having some body tools around, I brought the box back to life and it looks nearly as good as it did before, just with a little more character. At someone point I’ll add a barrier to stop this from happening again.
After some tender love:
Ann finally harvested her Poblano peppers, so I spent some time roasting them, skinning and de-seeding them, before freezing them. They’ll make some yummy meals.
Apart from all that, fall chores have taken priority, such as falling leaves, shutting down irrigations systems, along with much more. I’m sure most of you can relate!
Happy Halloween everyone!
Leave is to David Tracy to try and get a CJ-3B running in anticipation of his wedding. He must have a patient bride! Thanks to Bill for sharing this story.
UPDATE: eBay has a rare color photographic slide depicting a DJ-5 Gala/Surrey like the one shown in the Hawaii ad at the bottom.
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Originally Published May 21, 2020: During the late 1960s, a couple different Jeep dealers in Hawaii offered DJ-5 Jeep Galas for sale. There were at least two different styles of ads published. The Gala was a Surrey that was sold by the export arm of the company.
In 1967, a Kaiser-Jeep dealership owned by Von Hamm-Young Mercantile, flew the 1968 model of the DJ-5 Gala Jeep to Hawaii. From the story below, it would seem that this may have been the first example of a DJ-5 Gala Jeep arriving in Hawaii. Note that the photo’s caption only describes this jeep as a Gala.
Over the next two years, the dealer published ads hoping to spur sales. We’ll likely never know how successful sales were, but I’d suspect not too many were sold.
1) The first ad appeared between April and September of 1968. The example shown below was published in the May 30, 1968, issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. There are a variety of things that struck me with this ad. First, it’s the first ad I’ve seen for a DJ-5 Surrey/Gala. Second, it is advertised as a “Surrey Gala”, rather than one or the other. Third, it came in six different color schemes. Fourth, later in the year (specifically September 24th in the Hawaii Tribune Herald), Big Island Rambler was the dealer name at the bottom of the ad, with no specific link made to Von Hamm-Young.
Apart from all those points, it’s generally just an odd ad for a vehicle!
2) This ad appeared multiple times, but only during April of 1969 (I could find no other ads for any other month in 1969), isn’t quite as odd as the 1968 campaign. The ad also doesn’t mention the multiple package options. This particular example was published in the April 4th, 1969, issue of the Honolulu Advertiser.
UPDATE: I ran across this photographic slide of a jeep train on eBay that looks identical to one that ran in the Flamingo Botanical Gardens (see postcard below). The problem is that the CJ-5 bears a Chevron Island plate, an island that is along the Gold Coast of Australia. Was Chevron Island a term used in Florida?
Here’s the post card (available on eBay):
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Originally posted January 14, 2013: Craig spotted a postcard on eBay about a jeep train in Flamingo, FL. Some additional investigation revealed the train was located at the Flamingo Botanical Gardens. It looks like they still use a CJ-5 to pull the jeep train! A tour leaves every hour, on the hour, from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm.
“Flamingo Gardens is a 60 acre not-for-profit attraction with a wildlife sanctuary, aviary, and botanical garden. The Gardens were originally the property of Floyd L. and Jane Wray, who in 1933 built a home and citrus grove on what was then the edge of the Everglades, where they started a botanical collection of tropical and subtropical fruit trees and shrubs.”
From the website:
Here are historical photos of the jeep train:
Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/92849:
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/131421:
I thought this collection of dash plates was interesting. Jeep Rodeos, Ice Races, Jamboree, and more. Colorado was a happening jeep place circa 1970!
View all the information on eBay
“Vintage Colorado event plaques from the 1960’s attached to a vintage CJ glove box door.”
Here are three photos of working jeeps available on eBay.
1) CAMBRIDGE, MA Fire Apparatus SLIDE: LIGHTING UNIT-2:
2) 1961 Slide NIPSCO Northern Indiana Public Service wagon:
3) CJ-5 Unloading Circus Wagon Train 1980s:
4) 1961 Colorado Tour Jeep CJ-5: I’m unclear if this is a San Juan Scenic Tour Jeep or someone else running a tour. Davis tours was over by 1961.
Bill shared this video from FRAME of MD Juan’s parts production line.
The 2025 Holy Toledo Calendar is now available for purchase. You can buy the online here: https://www.dispatchermagazine.com/calendars/2025-holy-toledo-wall-calendar.
Steve shared this swamp buggy racing video. At the 3:17 mark are some flat fenders, but they are quite a bit slower than those specially built buggies.
