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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 .
This was a surprising find. Bulletin 256 by Koenig touted add-ons for the DJ-3A. I can’t imagine many DJ-3A owners purchased a winch. I can’t think of any DJ-3As that I’ve seen with a body extension either.
The website carver.wicklocal.com did a post about Jeep Funny cars, referencing the ‘godfather’ of jeep funny cars Ed Length, from Long Beach California (a name unknown to me, but then I haven’t followed the jeep funny car circuit).
The writer manages to dodge a reader’s question about what company made the first jeep (my nod is to American Bantam of course); instead the author references the first consumer jeep.
The “Secret Weapon” built by Ed Length and driven by Bob Wolford.
Another ad that includes the “billions of miles of service” phrase. This ad appeared in the December 1959 issue of Successful Farming.
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This February 1947 ad promises the farmers can use Hydraulic-LIft Implement with the Universal ‘Jeep’.
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“THIS IS A LARGE ORIGINAL 1947 ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE UNIVERSAL JEEP THAT YOU CAN USE ON HYDRAULIC LIFT IMPLEMENTS, MANUFACTURED BY WILLYS-OVERLAND MOTORS IN TOLEDO, OHIO. AD IS IN GREAT CONDITION AND HAS EXCELLENT GRAPHICS. AD MEASURES 12 7/8″ X 10″.”
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $125.
Tom spotted this toy for sale on Craiglsist. Another of these toys and box sold for $118 (plus an 18% buyers premium). A different version of this toy came with a search light (and sold in 2018 for $92).
“Made for Marx Buddy Charlie, GI Joe, and other 1/6 scale figures.
Jeep is in extremely good condition. Box in very good condition with cardboard inserts. Only real box damage is on a end flap. Tear on corner.
$125 firm.”
In the January 14, 1952, Newsweek put out an article about the jeep’s versatility. There are some interesting tidbits, such as the Chinese’s nickname for the jeep was “the vehicle of 10,000 capabilities”. The jeep was used to spear barracudas in the Virgin islands, play tag in Yakima, ski via jeep-joring in New England and Ontario, Canada,, and in Burma it was claimed that a jeep was once used to pull an elephant’s tooth.
This photo and caption was also included in a seemingly random area of the magazine, despite the fact that the same image appeared within the article.
UPDATE: More articles and better images have been added.
Originally published in November of 2014: Winter time means snow and ice for many folks. For people with jeeps, it means time to break out the skis, tow-rope and jeeps for some jeep-joring. Just mount yourself on some skis, tie the rope to the jeep, give a driver thumbs up and you’ll be jeep-joring behind a jeep like several generations before you. After all, how dangerous could it be?? **disclaimer: if you decide to do this and get hurt, this was not my idea. I’m only reporting it ….
Ski-Joring has been around for hundreds of years, though whether it started in Asia or in Europe is less clear.
When did jeep-joring begin? There’s evidence it was occurring as early as the winter of 1946-1947, in Ontario. These three articles suggest that the sport continued for at least seven years. The Violet Grafton image below made the rounds in a large number of papers.
Most of the Violet Grafton images were long and narrow, but this one was cropped differently:
January 29, 1948, issue of the Chicago Tribune. Violet Grafton from Greenwich, Connecticut, is pictured.
This two-page ad was published in the August 1954 issue of Fortune Magazine. It’s titled, “How Willys Versatile Vehicles Help Your Management Cut Costs”.
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This 48 page VEEPSTER Builders Guide & Assembly Manual was listed on eBay the other day. It’s a detailed document on how to build a VEEPSTER with the kit supplied by Sun Valley Autotech. There’s no date on it. Learn more about VEEPS, Scamps, VEEPSTERs and eVEEPSTERs here.
UPDATE: This is an a rewrite of a couple different brochures to document the snow plow and scraper relationship between the Glenn M. Rogers Company, the Morrison Railway Supply Company, and the Newgren Company.
I believe Morrison manufactured the Snowplow and Scraper based on a Rogers design and the completed item was marketed through the Newgren Company. As I’m no expert on these plows, or the relationship between these companies, this is all conjecture based on the brochures.
Here are several different brochures through the years and a couple Sno-Dozer data plates at the very bottom. This first brochure shows the Glenn M. Rogers company marketing the snow plow. This 1948 brochure does not mention the Morrison company.
In this brochure, also from 1948, it appears Newgren is offering a Roger’s plow setup that’s been combined with Monroe hydraulics (with three different hydraulic options no less).
There’s no date on this brochure, but in it Morrison is now credited with the manufacturing of the Rogers design, with Newgren still marketing the package. There’s no mention of the hydraulic options. I am leaning towards this being a circa 1949 – 1951 brochure. This brochure may have introduced the “Sno-Dozer” brand name.
This ad appeared in the June or July 1952 issue of Country Gentleman.
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Like the April issue, this issue includes a variety FC and Surrey images.
The March 1956 Issue of Popular Science included a small story of a CJ-2A with a Gutter-Vac installed. It was used in Washington, D.C.
UPDATE: Thanks to Mark we have some background information on the Turner Manufacturing Company: https://www.statesville.com/opinion/o-c-stonestreet-a-closer-look-at-mr-c-h-turner-and-turner-manufacturing-company/article_d376cc29-de76-591c-bcad-62e719909ca6.html.
I’ve also added to the post with some wood working equipment that was also offered by the Turner Manufacturing Company of Statesville, North Carolina.
The Turner company offered a variety of other wood options as well according to the Special Equipment brochure index:
As the original post indicated, Turner produced hay balers as well.
This turner hay baler has some similar elements, but isn’t example the same:
This is really cool … expensive, but cool. Thanks to Steve for sharing it with us.
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“This listing is for one Vintage EL JEBEL JEEP PATROL Denver Colorado License Plate Topper Attachment. It is in very good condition with original paint.”
After Willys Motors found it’s groove in 1956, the marketing department continued its Saturday Evening Post ad-a-month pace throughout 1957. The company used the same triple-pane style of ads as it had in 1956, the exception being a two-page, color, introductory ad for the FC-170. Marketing also reused some content from the previous year, but combined that older content with information about the FCs.
For example, the first triple-pane ad, in February of 1957, was very similar to the the June 1956 ad, except that it included an FC-150.
Comparison of similar “Gets there … works there … anywhere!” ads from June 16, 1956, and February 23, 1957.
Here are the next four ads for 1957 in the Post:
These ads appeared in the Saturday Evening Post March 30, April 27, May 25, and June 22 of 1957. The April 27, 1957, ad is mostly a repeat of the November 17, 1956, ad. The June 22, 1957, ad is mostly a repeat of the September 26, 1956, ad.
In July, Willys Motors, as they did for the FC-150 in December of 1956, ran a full-color two-page ad for the new FC-170:
This two page ad introducing the FC-170 appeared in the July 13, 1957, issue of the Saturday Evening Post.
The remaining four ads for 1957 are shown below:
These ads appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on August 17, September 21, October 19, and November 11 of 1957. There was no ad published in December of 1957.
After Willys Motors near-montly ads in 1957, I expected to find similar advertising the following year. Instead, I could not locate any ads in the Saturday Evening Post over the course of 1958.
No month or journal name for this ad.
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“Type: This is an original 1947 print ad, we do not sell reproductions.
Year Published: 1947
Format: Black + White
Size: 8.0″ W x 10.5″ L”
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was on eBay.
Shane spotted these rare Canfield Wrecker Plates on eBay.
“CANFIELD TOW BAR CO. TOW TRUCK METAL BADGE EMBLEM NAME PLATE VINTAGE RARE. this was on a wrecker boom from a jeep when it was common to use jeeps as tow trucks. they are in good condition a few minor dings(see pics) for there age, they measure 12″ long and 4″ high. looks like the model no. is C450L and serial no. is 9204.”
Prior to the Kaiser buyout, Willys-Overland was a regular advertiser in the Saturday evening post, with ads appearing almost monthly from late 1941 (after winning its military contract) up until 1952.
From 1952 through 1954, the focus of the advertising shifted to the new Willys Areo line of vehicles, abandoning jeep advertising in the Post almost entirely.
In February of 1954, one ad for the Willys wagon was published, the only jeep-oriented ad of the year. However, the title of the ad was “The Common-Sense Car that Leads a Double Life”. So, even that ad was as much a “car'” ad as a “jeep” ad.
February 27, 1954. The branding emphasis remained on the ‘car’ being a ‘Willys’, rather than jeep, as it had since the 1951 ‘Willys Makes Sense’ campaign.
Given how similar the above ad was to the Willys Makes Sense campaign of 1951, It’s clear that even under the early days of Kaiser’s management, the advertising for the Willys/Jeep line had yet to be changed. That probably explains why no more jeep ads appeared in the Saturday Evening Post for the remainder of 1954 (and Willys Aero ads ceased after June of 1954).
Then, on January 8, 1955, Willys Motors published a two-page splash with an ad for it’s new model: The CJ-5.
January 08, 1955, Saturday Evening Post
Subsequently, Willys Motors’ advertising in the Post waned again, absent throughout the remainder of 1955. It’s advertising in the Post remained dormant until mid-1956.
On June 16, 1956, Willys Motors published “Gets there … works there … anywhere!”. The ad also appeared to have introduced a new slogan: ‘Jeep’ VEHICLES BY WILLYS KEEP AMERICA ON THE MOVE (that was used by the company at least through the end of 1957 .. I haven’t check past that yet).
June 16, 1956, Saturday Evening Post, “Gets there … works there … anywhere!”
Once again, jeep ads started appearing on a regular basis. On August 4, 1956, the ad, “Gets there … works there … anywhere” was published:
August 04, 1956, Saturday Evening Post, “Traction … Action … Satisfaction!”
Willys Motors continued advertising monthly with the same three-pane theme. These were the next three ads:
Willys Motors ads: September 22, 1956, “Goes more places, Does more Jobs, Save more money”; October 20, 1956, “Takes the lead, On the road, Off the road”; November 17, 1956, “Thousands … Millions … Billions!”.
On December 29, 1956, the final Post issue of the year, Willys Motors interrupted its three-panel campaign to introduce readers, in a two-page color ad no less, to the new model of jeep: the Forward Control ‘Jeep’ FC-150.
December 29, 1956, Saturday Evening Post 2-page ad, “extraordinary! Now… the completely new Forward Control ‘Jeep’ FC-150”
As well see in a future post, the company continued an almost monthly advertising campaign through out the following year of 1957.
This September 18, 1941, article in the Petoskey News-Review introduced readers to the new Air-Borne Battalion. The new battalion would be trained in air landing operations and include two rifle companies. One of those two companies would be equipped with riflemen on bikes (40), motorcycles (140), and jeeps (105).
This ad, “Willys-Overland brings Farmers the advantages of 4-Wheel-Drive Power”, was published in March of 1948 most likely in a farm magazine (based on other ads the seller was selling).
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It reads more like a press release than an article. Given its timing in conjunction with the release of the CJ-2A, it most likely was.
The cover image:
This postcard just sold eBay for $6.50.
This auction is set of four negatives showing a family and a late model CJ-2A, determined by the stenciling on the tailgate which didn’t appear until around August of 1947.
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“HERE ARE FOUR B&W NEGATIVES THAT LOOK LIKE THEY WERE TAKEN ON A FARM. LOOKING AT THE CLOTHES GUESSING 1950’S. ON THE JEEP YOU CAN SEE WILLYS AND 4 WHEEL DRIVE. THESE MEASURE 2 3/8″ X 3 1/2″.”
Chris notes that this photo is reversed, as the spare tire is shown on the driver’s side.
When I first completed the post on the early brochures and mailers created by the Kaiser Willys marketing team, I didn’t have a complete list of mailer examples. Below is what I believe to be the completed list:
Here’s an order form from 1955. At the bottom of the order form is a list of mailers, but the mailers lack form numbers.
These are the mailing brochures, but without identifying form numbers, I am not 100% positive these are correct …..
Farmer and Ranchers Best Investment: Whatever You Grow for Profit
Earth Moving Equipment:
Power Producing Equipment:
Jeep-A-Trench:
Service Station (Mr. Service):
They Go Through: Form W-1765
Nice shot of Joe’s Super Service Station in Hillman, Michigan. The photo features a jeep truck and a CJ-3A that could both be from the same year.
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