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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 .
Note the modified side entrance of this jeep on the February 2, 1943, photo of President Roosevelt.
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Blaine shared this modified FC-170 (or is it an FC van?) with a Coca-Cola theme. Anyone have more info about it? It was posted to Pinterest.
Tuesday’s funeral went well. My oldest son Karson and I drove Patterson (1956 DJ-3A) to the service as a nod to dad. No time for updates until Thursday morning.
Naturally, no funeral is complete without a quick engine check on the jeep …
A patent for a Mechanical Bola was patented on September 23, 1952, by B.D. Manning with the purpose of helping a single person rope and manage cattle. The drawing reminds me of the early modified Texas hunting jeeps like this one.
“A peculiar trait of such cattle is their curiosity with respect to motor vehicles. They soon become accustomed to jeeps, for example, and will come up to examine one, particularly if the motor is running. One can drive right up to a bunch of cattle in a jeep, without any of them taking the trouble to move, so long as the driverstays in the car.
With the device of my invention attached to aj eep or other auto vehicle, it is a simple matter to capture a single animal without waste of time, or if it becomes necessary to inspect or treat a large number of cattle for Screw-Worm or other disease, this may be done expeditiously, for if the rest runoff at the casting of one animal curiosity brings them back shortly if the driver moves his vehicle about a bit.”
Anyone familiar with these pins? Asking price is $295.
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“gold filled sterling silver. working screw pin back”
A nurse was wounded in this jeep on Saipan in 1944.
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“ORIGINAL WWII PHOTO – ORIGINAL TO THE TIME – NOT A COPY, SCAN, OR REPRO
QUANTITY: 1 – See the other original WWI & WWII photos that I have listed.
ITEM: Original WWII CONFIDENTIAL photo of Jeep that US Army Nurse 2nd Lt. Helen Lynch was wounded in on Saipan, 1944. Part of a large group of original PTO photos that I am listing. Most are of the Invasion and Occupation of Saipan and a few are of Tinian.
DATE: 1944 – photo does not glow under a black light.
SIZE: 3.75″ x 5”
CONDITION: Very Good; See scans..
BACK: Has paper tag with hand-typed description. Stamped “CONFIDENTIAL”. See last scan.”
UPDATE: **SOLD** Was on eBay.
Here are an assortment of jeep-related pics on eBay
This ad by the American Thermos Bottle Company was published in the May 22, 1943, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. I believe the takeaway from this ad is, If Thermos products are good enough for workers building jeeps, than they are good enough for the average American. However, there seems to be a lack of evidence that Willys and Ford employees were using Thermos products.
Updates will resume Saturday, then get interrupted again by a return to Seattle with my kids for Tuesday’s funeral. After April 3rd things should return to normal.
I discovered after dad’s passing that he had saved (thanks to his mother) most of the letters he sent home while he was in the Navy (1952-1955). I spent the last two days reading and scanning them. So, I ran out of time yesterday for most updates.
When he entered the Navy, Dad owned (most likely) a WWII jeep that he drove all over, including up to Brighton to ski (which is still a ski area above Salt Lake … the letters detail just how ski crazy he was .. and, he would work at Brighton after his Navy stint). Anyway, he left the jeep in the care of his parents and two brothers. In various letters, he advised them to be careful with it, to run it, to maintain it, and finally, as this letter shows, he asked them “Don’t wreck my jeep.” … a few months later, my grandfather sold the jeep for a Dodge PowerWagon, with dad’s blessing.
The account below was during his second week of basic training in San Diego. He was 19 at the time:
The letter reads,
Dear Mom,
We have started on our second week and things are still a little hard. I got your letter about the electric razor and stamps. You can send me both of them. Also, you can send me some cookies and candy. I am glad to hear about Carl, give him my best. I hope the weather is better out there than down here. It is hot in the day and cold at night. Say hello to everyone for me,
Love Karl
P.S. Don’t wreck my jeep .. write soon.
The 2019 FC Roundup in Phoenix is this weekend. We had planned to do a surprise appearance by flying into the event this year, but dad’s surprise exit shuttered those plans. Since next year is the last year, I have let Ann know that we will be down there no matter what.
I brazenly borrowed these pics from Steve Elkins, who posted about the early arrivals on Facebook.
UPDATE: The complete set of plans for the Wander Wagon is shown below. Previously, I’d only had the first part of the build scanned.
In 1948 Popular Homecraft Magazine did a two article series on the construction of a home built Jeep Station Wagon. The name for the custom wagon was the Wander Wagon Junior. The project was shared with readers over two issues, the 1948 Jan-Feb issue and the 1948 Mar-Apr issue. I was finally able to locate a copy of the Mar-Apr issue, so now the full build is shown below.
PART I: January-February 1948 issue:
The patent for this portable reeling device was filed on December 25, 1962. It isn’t just for a jeep, but a jeep-like vehicle is shown and referenced. I’ve never seen any evidence this was ever manufactured; anyone else?
From the patent, “Now with more particular reference to the drawing, FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4 show an embodiment of the invention with a jeep as the means to drive a power driven communication wire reel 16. The communication wire is retrieved and wound onto the communication wire reel 16 by activating outwardly an adjustable speed disk 31 with a clutch lever 20. The power to perform this function is derived from a power take-off 38 from the engine.
Persons familiar with jeeps of the military variety know that such jeeps have a transmission which connects the motor to two shafts which are connected in parallel. One of the shafts drives the ground engaging wheels of the vehicle while the other shaft is connected to a power take-off. This power take-01f may be used to drive a hydraulic system or other attachment. In this case, the power take-off 38 is connected to the shaft 37 and thence to a universal joint 36 and, from there, to the clutch for driving the reel. A pressure spring 35 is held in place and away from a spinning friction power disk 33 by means of a bearing 34 which is fixed to the friction power disk 33. The constant pressure which is exerted on the bearing 34 forces the friction power disk 33 outwardly and against the adjustable speed disk 31. By moving the clutch lever 20 to the left, a pivot 40 in a clutch lever support plate 22 will force lever lugs 39 to the right.”
The November/December 1944 issue of Home Woodcraft featured this “realistic” jeep toy-of-the-year. If you need high resolution versions of this, comment below or email me.
I’m guessing this photo was part of the 1955 CJ-5 introduction?
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“Vintage Jeep Vehicles News & Photos Press Photo KAISER JEEP CORPORATION”
Carl found this one as well, a song from the Connecticut Yankee that has a jeep on it for some reason.
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“This is Extremely Rare original Sheet Music from the US for: ” My Heart Stood Still ” From The Musical: A Connecticut Yankee . This original sheet music is from 1957 and is in VG+ Condition. This sheet music is 5 pages long!!”
Is that a truck-bed trailer?
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“Vintage Jeep Vehicles News & Photos Press Photo WILLY’S 8 X 10”
This photo captures a military test of a jeep lashed to a raft in a Los Angeles lagoon.
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“1942 Press Photo La, Calif. Army jeep on a raft in Army demonstration. Photo measures 9 x 7 inches. Photo is dated 7-3-1942.”
Joe spotted this rare 1971 Suzuki LJ10, also called a Brute IV, at Mesa, Arizona’s, Cruise Night. This looks in good shape. You can learn more about these vehicles at http://www.LJ10.com
Jay shared pics of this modified Jeepster Commando that appeared at this year’s Atlanta Auto Show.
My father passed away yesterday at the age of 85 after a week of family hospice care at his home of fifty-five years. He’d had a good, full life. The Navy veteran, long time Boeing Engineer, and, after retirement, Home Depot employee, struggled physically after his stroke in 2002, but it never dampened his will or drive.
I took this pic just as the first basketball game started on Thursday. I had no idea it would be the last pic.
Before he passed on Thursday, Dad and I did something we’d never done. We turned on the March Madness basketball tournament at 9:30am and began watching March Madness together. I love basketball, so I thought I could share this with him (and I had control of the remotes). Though he likes sports, he always preferred football more.
Dad could no longer see the TV too well, so I ran the play-by-play scores by him and explained who was playing. He seemed to enjoy it. It was mostly just he and I as we rooted for the underdog teams as we juggled multiple games and channels. But, what he was really looking forward to was the 4pm game, which featured #1 seed Gonzaga, as that was his college Alma Mater.
Gonzaga is a Catholic school, but dad was no Catholic. In fact, I’d only learned the day before that while at Gonzaga, he got As and Bs in everything, except for the Ds he received in the religious classes. That sounded about right to me.
Just after 2pm on Thursday he decided, with his usual certainty and determination, that he was going to stand again and do a couple “pushups” (knee-bends using his walker). He hadn’t been out of bed in a week and a half, so we knew he was pretty week to be attempting this. His heart was only pushing about 20% of normal, due to heart failure, but, as he put it, “Goddammit”, he was going to do it. So, my wife, my mother and I helped him. He proceeded, with our help, to push himself off the bed twice.
By the second push, he was pretty tired, so we put him back into the bed. He immediately asked for my hand. That’s when I knew something was wrong, as he wasn’t one to hold my hand. Then, his breathing started to increase and a concern flashed across his eyes. While we soothed him, we could tell something had happened. He, of course, knew it, too.
The end came quickly and he suffered little. If he hadn’t been in the middle of dying, I am certain he would have appreciated the irony that a little exercise led to his passing, as loved to exercise, mostly lifting weights. Exercise made him feel alive most of his life, but in the end it led to his passing. I doubt he would have wanted it any other way.
We will miss him, but we are universally happy in his death. Between his stroke and increasing heart failure, he was a shell of his former self. At the end, he went out quickly and with dignity at home knowing he was loved (and with some gallows humor about the exercise). He was a good man and got what he deserved: PEACE.
PS…. for the record, Dad and I did share the Gonzaga game, though he showed little emotion as the Zags crushed their opponent, remaining pretty stiff throughout. It was only after the game that the funeral home came for the body. (I’m pretty sure dad is smiling, but shaking his head at me by this point).
Summer of 1981. Dad and I at Milk Lake in the Cascade Mountains jeeping with our Jeep Club
Dad and I in 2013.
This Liftmobile patent was filed by Schultz Kurt-Gunnar on January 16, 1960. This seems to be the only patent related to the jeep that he filed. I can find no evidence that this
According to the patent, “The present invention aims at providing an improved elevator-type motor truck or liftmobile, repowered, equipped and counterbalanced for faster transportation of the load under care, to more distant places, even off the road, where they may be urgently needed under adverse conditions, as after accidents, during strikes, rebellions, forest fires, etc.
More particularly, the present invention aims at adapting a motor vehicle or truck, for example, a commercially available vehicle such as a Jeep, by appropriate modification and reconstruction thereof to quickly pick up the load at a depot from the ground or from a lorrys platform, for instance, canned food and refreshments, packed in boxes, first-aid material, barbed wire spools, bundled on pallets, and various other auxiliary and protective articles, to expeditiously travel with the load at the usual convoy speed, about 25-30 m.p.h., even over rough ground and in roadless country, and to promptly deposit the load in dangerous places under fire from rebels, at dark, by dumping, i.e., without necessity of stopping the vehicle for purposes of unloading.”
Anyone ever run across one of these cranes. It was manufactured by the Construction Machinery Company out of Waterloo, Iowa.
The price on these two identical photos is good. The photo appears to have been taken on September 20, 1950.
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“Original Korean War Press Photo dated 1950. (2 identical) Jeep unloaded from a Flying Boxcar plane at Kimpo Airport, taken by Photographer Stanley Tretick. 7X9″ the image itself is a bit grainy but theyre in great shape.”
On pages 48-29 of the August 15, 1942, Saturday Evening post featured an ad by the United State Rubber Company titled “Here’s Where Your Rubber is Going”. The ad included a Ford GP.
You never know what will pop up around my parents’ house. The other day my sister found this tiny compass set, given to my grandfather for my father and his brothers. The set contains a small magnet, what I believe to be a magnetized arrow that can balance on the magnet, a 1925 coin (unsure what type of metal), and a small leather pouch. All of this was stored in a small envelope with a note to my grandfather.
The letter mentions four items. The fourth may have been a small leather pouch, which somehow I forgot to photograph. The coin was in the leather pouch. The arrow and magnet were in the tiny envelope shown in the photo below. Both the leather pouch and the small envelope were inside the large enveloped with the writing.
I tried to find more info online, but didn’t have any luck. Anyone know some history about this? Is the magnet and arrow supposed to be used with the coin?
