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About eWillys
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.
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 .
In March 1962, two different articles highlighted the introduction of the Jeep line of Tonka Toys.
1. Toys and Novelties Magazine: The article in this magazine noted that part of the reason the Tonka company had the financial and physical capacity to produce a wide variety of toy jeeps was that it had recently gone public.
As reported in this post, in 1962 the Tonka company launched the jeep models many of us owned as kids (and some of us still own as adults). It didn’t take long for Tonka to introduce specialized packaging as well. The August 1962 issue of Playthings Magazine highlighted three different Dispatcher Tonka Toys, with Hatari-themed boxes, that were for sale in the lobby of movie theaters while Hatari played in theatres.
Harmen-Jan of the Netherlands shared this video of farm life footage filmed in the Netherlands between 1920 and 1960. At the 15-minute-mark there is footage of a WWII jeep piling what I believe is hay(?) and at the 19-minute-mark there is a brief look at the same jeep pulling an overloaded wagon. In between (and before and after both marks), plenty of back-breaking-work is documented.
UPDATE: The article below is one of a number of articles highlighting the “JEEP” Tractor from Minneapolis-Moline Implement Company: The NTX. One or both units were also tested at Holabird, so the term ‘jeep’ used to describe a vehicle didn’t originate with the Bantam, Ford, or Willys prototypes.
Published in the Lansing State Journal, Lansing, Michigan, August 22, 1940.
According to a Hemmings article, the name ‘Jeep’ originated with Sergeant James O’Brian in August of 1940:
The UTX went to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, but earned its place in history in August 1940 at Camp Ripley, Minnesota, when Sergeant James T. O’Brien of the 109th Ordnance Company of the Minnesota National Guard noted the overall proficiency of the tractors, especially when pulling a stuck howitzer out of the mud. Inspired by the “Eugene the Jeep” character in the Popeye comic strip, O’Brien first hung from the tractor’s radiator cap a sign painted with the word “Jeep,” then painted the word “Jeep” itself on the flanks of the tractor.
Minneapolis-Moline chronicled the christening in a wartime advertisement: “This new MM army vehicle was not a crawler, tractor, truck nor tank, and yet it could do almost anything and it knew all the answers. Because of this, it brought to mind the Popeye cartoon figure called ‘Jeep’ which was neither fowl nor beast, but knew all the answers and could do almost anything.”
However, the short comings of the NTX coupled with the introduction of the Bantam BRC in late September doomed the 6 NTXs produced to the role of a jeep footnote.
It doesn’t mean the NTX isn’t worth anything. An NTX in 2012 fetched $29,000 at an auction.
UPDATE: Vince shared an article from autoblog.com that provides more information on the Rainbow Sheikh (Sheigh Hamad bin Hamdan) who built the world’s largest running jeep. It had been many years since my last post on the subject, so it was time to update this post.
In 2010, reports were that Guinness Book of World Records had recognized the jeep as the largest running jeep in the world; however, I could not verify the record through the Guinness web site. Recently, a huge CJ-5 built by the same Shiekh for his offload museum may have surpassed the flat fender.
Published in April of 2009: I thought it was just a fake keep prop of some kind, but apparently it’s being built on the framework of a large quarry mining truck.
On June 24, 1941, a syndicated article claimed that friends of Ward Canaday said he was the father of the jeep:
The Windsor Star out of Ontario, Canada, published this article blurb on June 24, 1941.
This news didn’t sit well with friends and former employees of Frank H. Fenn, President of the American Bantam Car Co. They wasted no time, quickly countering the notion that Canaday was the jeep’s father by explaining via telegrams why Fenn was the real father of the “Jeep”.
On June 27th, 1941, the Press and Sun-Bulletin published the responses in the following column.
And, just for fun, here’s another example of a Bantam BRC photo, taken less than a week after it arrived at Holabird. The first Bantam Scout Car wasn’t a secret for very long!
Published by the Seminole Producer, Seminole, Oklahoma, October 07, 1940.
Each photo (photos front and back, so 4 photos total) is 4.25″ wide. The glasses are just under 4.25″ wide.
Unable to travel much this year, I’ve had a little extra cash to investigate the odder eBay finds. These Roy Rogers photos are a good example of that type of purchase. I’ve learned that if you see something on eBay that has been with a seller a while, put it on your watchlist. Sometimes the seller will respond with a discount offer. In this case, I countered with an even lower offer, explaining that I didn’t collect Roy Rogers stuff and only wanted the images for the one jeep image. That seemed to work, as the seller accepted my counteroffer.
My eyes failed me … I never did get the image to look really 3D. I also didn’t want to disconnect the glasses from the photos.
Once delivered I was surprised by two things. First, the 3D viewer was much smaller than expected, but then I realized, duh, they are for kids. For me to view the image wasn’t all that easy through the tiny glasses (4.25 inches from end to end). It also didn’t help that my eyes (I’ll be 55 on Friday) are a little too old; I needed to wear glasses when looking through viewer at the focal length required, but that whole thing became awkward and I never could get the full 3D effect.
All three items were still connected as they originally were. Above them is an 8.5″ piece of paper to give a sense of size.
The second thing that surprised me that the glasses were still attached to the two images and the two images were still attached to each other, meaning these images and viewer had never been used. All three items still folded up into a neat little, compact package.
I just don’t know how stuff like this has survived more than 50 years!
In the ‘sometimes it’s better to be lucky’ department, eBay blessed me with a huge win the other day: 10 Willys News issues from 1960 and 1961 for only $20 (and free shipping)! Here’s the first one. It includes a lot of DJ-3A Surrey articles, a note about future President Lyndon Johnson checking out a Willys truck for his ranch, and more. The 1/4 ton jeeps (CJ-5s and CJ-3Bs) take a back seat to the FCs, Wagons, and DJs in this issue. There’s also articles demonstrating how dealers felt TV shows were helping to drive sales, which is likely why Willys Motors moved forward with other TV show and movie tie-ins.
