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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 .
Craig spotted this at the Life Magazine Archives. You can go here to see more archives:
I spotted this picture on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/5122433858/sizes/o/in/photostream/
UPDATE: This was supposed to be yesterday’s top post. Well, it still works today. Besides the below pics, here are some additional pics on Facebook.
Bruce and I exchanged a few emails about Elvis and jeeps. I’m still not certain how, but after a few searches for Elvis, I found myself learning more about the Tour-de-France and Jeeps. This was quite a fun search. Elvis will have to wait until later . . .
This is a restored Tour-de-France jeep that may be an MB. I found the photo below on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dprezat/3625273265/
I found the photo below on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairemarine/5324818051/
There are many more smaller photos here, including what I believe is an article about the jeep.
Here are some pictures from Life Magazine, that can also be seen at G503.com
Here are some related toys — From Aplimodel.com comes this model:
This website had an older model of bike jeep:
You can buy the below diorama from Amazon.com UK:
And here is a different variation of a diorama that was on eBay UK:
The CJ-3B Page also has an image with four Tour-de-France Jeeps:
http://cj3b.info/Toys/FranceToys.html
Kurtis spotted this article from the July 20th, 1942, issue of Life Magazine. Some of the pictures are familiar, but this is the first time I’ve seen this entire article. The article extends 7 pages and can be viewed in its entirety online.
http://books.google.com/books?id=6k0EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q&f=false
Here are the first and last pages:
The July 23, 1945, issue of Life Magazine has a three page article by Joe Weston that describes a jeep trip through Sweden in what I would guess was May or June of 1945. Based on the three cartoons (show below) they were driving a Willys MA.
The article describes crowds of people gawking at the jeep wherever they went. In Stockholm people started removing parts off of it. The article was a funny read.
Read the entire article within Google Books or
Below are the three cartoons:
FEATURED MAY 2009
There’s many more jeeps pics at the Life Magazine Photo Website.
Here’s how the Navy transported their rowing shell.
An MB or GPW pushing a Midget car to start it
An early CJ-2A and a post hole digger
FEATURED IN MAY 2009
UPDATE: I found a long discussion, details and the pic below at this website:
From this website, vectorsite.net, I’ll put some of the content just to make sure it isn’t lost.
“The AirGeep was first flown on 12 October 1958. Apparently it proved grossly underpowered, barely able to fly over a fence, and it was sent back to the shop, where the piston engines were replaced by a single 317 kW (425 HP) Turbomeca Artouste IIB turbine engine. The upgraded AirGeep flew in late June 1959. It weighed 1.1 tonnes (2,500 pounds) and could carry a payload of 550 kilograms (1,200 pounds), including the pilot.
The AirGeep was put through trials for both the Army and the Navy over the next few years. The engine was upgraded again to a Garrett / Airesearch 331-6 engine, which had a higher power-to-weight ratio. For Navy trials, which began in June 1961, the rotorcraft was fitted with floats, and redesignated the “PA-59 SeaGeep”.
* Piasecki wanted to build a bigger and better AirGeep, and the Army Transportation Research Command obliged them by issuing a contract for what Piasecki called the “Model 59K” and what the Army called the “VZ-8P(B) AirGeep II”, which made its first flight in the summer of 1962.
The AirGeep II was similar to the AirGeep, except that the aircraft was “bent” in the middle so that the rotors were tilted fore and aft, it seems to improve forward flight characteristics. The AirGeep II used twin 298 kW (400 SHP) Turbomeca Artouste IIC turboshaft engines, once again linked so that if one failed the other would drive both rotors. One engine could also be coupled to the landing wheels to drive the machine on the ground. The increased power allowed a maximum take-off weight of 2.2 tonnes (4,800 pounds). The pilot and observer had “zero-zero” ejection seats, allowing safe escape if the machine was on the ground and standing still, and there were apparently seats for additional passengers.”
As we learned, the rotabuggy was a bit of a failure. However that didn’t stop the military from investigating some type of ‘flying jeep’. Now, I don’t know if the military really called it the Aerial Jeep or whether it was Life Magazine’s attempt to sell magazines, but the result is a pretty unusual flying machine:
I wish we had some better photos of these. These three photos were shot in 1949 by J.R. Eyerman in Shanghai, China (click on the pics to see the Eyerman credit) for Life Magazine. Interestingly, on this page the credit for the third photo is also, or mistakenly, given to Jack Birns. Also, according to this page, the third photo captures the last tug to leave Shanghai, with credit to Jack as well. According to the folks at G503, these jeeps were used by the shore patrol “to pick up mostly drunks in and was easy to wash out the puke.”
From September 29, 1952, comes this Ad from Life Magazine, pages 40 and 41, titled “A World Famous Family … Each a Leader in its Field“.
Here’s an unusual color photo of soldiers posing in a Willys MA from Life Magazine. I couldn’t find the original source of this on the Life Magazine site (I stumbled upon it through Google).
There are some new Bantam and MB testing photos at Life Magazine. There are some great closeups of the Bantam. Note the first pic — I believe that is the first ‘jeep’ ever stuck in the mud; it surely wasn’t the last! All six of these photos were taken by David E. Scherman in 1940.
“I kept telling Larry, take the stairs, take the stairs! But no, he had to show off!”
I just love these old pics!