If you are a subscriber you may already have your copy or its on its way soon. Mine landed yesterday.
Those not familiar or maybe have not kept up on their subscription it's the premiere Classic Willys Jeep Magazine packed full of some really great articles and vendors who support our Willys and Jeeps!
In this Issue:
In Memoriam: Pat Huges 1937-2025
Events: Bob Christy- Jeeps in January
Cover Story: Bill Norris - Trenchers (this issue is packed with historical photos and related items of them!)
Cartoon Corner: Roberto Flores has a great tie in to the Cover Story! Always enjoy his Willys / Jeep Cartoons.
Tech: Sal Consalvo of Vintage Jeeper covers Positive Crankcase Ventilation- PCV
Classifieds: Another great resource to post up your Wanted and For Sale items, cross posting your items is the best way to get them out there in the world for Willys and Jeep folks to see.
Please check out their site and consider subscribing.
They also have a full catalog of their back issues, you can pick up the entire set to keep you busy for a very long time catching up on the older issues.
Roberto Flores forwarded these two illustrations with some background information. Great as always!
Here are a couple of pics of my newest commissioned order cartoons for the “Jambo Jeep 2015” meeting. This is a classic jeep and 4x4 held each year at Navarre, where I live. From some years ago, the crew which organized this meeting ordered me some artwork, as cartoons or logos. This year, they have asked me to draw the logo too (I would try to find some pics of it) and these 2 cartoons. One shows a fully restored WW2 US Army Dodge WC51, with markings of the famous 101st AB division “Screaming Eagles”. His owner is posing next to it and dressed with the airborne division uniform. Also, you could see his girlfriend at the background and some architecture from the village in which they live, Murla, at Alicante, on the Mediterranean coast.
The other “violet” Willys jeep is a Spanish Viasa one modified to look as an US flatfender by his owner, who appears too at the drawing, posing with all his family. Also, I have drawn some well known monuments and so of their village, Almacelles, at Catalonia.
While reading the latest issue of The Dispatcher Classic Willys / Jeep Magazine it was noted that you are still able to purchase the 2026 Holy Toledo Calendar.
This is a super high quality Willys / Jeep Calendar and is something really special for the garage, shop, office, or a really nice gift for that Willys friend who may not be as active on the internet.
Click on the photo to head over to their site......
The Dispatcher Magazine
The Dispatcher is a great magazine that takes many hours to perform the research and then overall production of this great resource. It contains historically accurate articles, entertaining Willys / Jeep cartoons from Roberto Flores, readers stories, Tech Tips and of course great coverage of past and upcoming Willys events. Looking for a list of Willys vendors? They have pages of Willys vendors for all areas of you project needs.
Roberto Flores' search for fires in Portugal tangentially led to a finding a few links to blogs with fire jeeps on them.
This first set of photos is from a 2008 post on a Portuguese website. According to a translation, "On the day of [the jeep's] baptism, the Father said in his address: "The first-aid jeep is intended to fill a very important gap in this Corporation, which is to be able to turn to places of difficult access or even of the city, where it is not justified to move a heavier car."
This last website from Catalonia only shows one photo and it's not the best angle. Still, the parking lights suggest it is a 1946 or early 1947 CJ-2A. It's not clear where this one is located, other than in Portugal.
Thanks Roberto Flores for the warm welcome to 2026!
Happy New Year!
Look Back at a Great 2025 and look forward Welcome in 2026!
Wishing you and your families a Happy New Year!
Thank you for all the support this past year, we started off with a huge lift to transfer to site to the new hosting platform and the folks from NetFire really did a great job to get us over to a new server and backend system that is just first class.
I’m very happy with the site and what we have been able to bring forward.
There are some really big things in the works for closer to mid-2026 that on more in the physical world than on the site, but it will be great to share those with the Willys world as they come online. There is a lot going on behind the scenes construction wise to really provide a neat place for Willys living history with some cool hands-on experiences.
Thank you again for the support and hanging in there with us!
The Fall 2025 Dispatcher Magazine is making it way into Subscribers Mail Boxes.
Exceptional articles on Willys / Jeep / Historical / Event's and much more..........
If you are not familiar or its been a while since you have checked this out please head over to their site and consider subscribing and picking up a few of their back issues,
Roberto Flores provided a very great article on a local Jeep Event in Spain along with a full page Cartoon Corner. Roberto is a wonderful Artist, Cartoonist, Illustrator, Author and so much more, its fun to see his work and looks like he had a very good time at this event, great to catch up reading his content.
Coverage of Camprodon Terra da Jeeps 2025
Camprodon is a small town in the comarca of Ripollès in Girona, Catalonia, Spain, located in the Pyrenees, near the French border. (search for the lift there on the location)
Here is a cool video of that event as well that I was able to find.
Other Events covered.....
2025 Willys Fall Reunion
Bowler of Bust Vintage Jeep Rally
Technical Articles
Vintage Jeeper covers Pinion Seals.
Looking over this one I now see why the re-pop pinion seals are IMO trash and have a metal lip to them, they look to be supplied that way on some Dana 18 stuff, I have tried these and they are horrible.
This article would have saved me a lot of headache when I was rebuilding my one unit and I had purchased one of the re-pop seals and it just did not work at all, I moved to a very similar seal that Sal covers the ins and out on this.
This is really a time saver if you are thinking of tackling you Pinion Seal, review this one prior.
Historical Articles
Willys MA
If you want to dig deep into the Willys MA and it history, multiple pages and just amazing photos as always are in this issue.
The historical significance of the Bantam, Willys, Ford work done on these early rigs just can not be understated how important of a project this was for the World at this time.
Looking a the photos and seeing some of the same parts used well into the 60's on production models is just really neat. Then to know of the full re-pop market that is still going strong.
Progress Build Report
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Bill Norris continues his articles on his 1963 Delivery Wagon with the infamous 230_OHC Tornado. He started these articles last issue. You can also follow along some of his stuff over on OldWillysForum.com as he works through that project.
Classified Ad's
Just one more place to send your For Sale and Wanted Ad's, you get some great reach with The Dispatcher. this is a pretty targeted approach for you to post your Rig For Sale. Basically you need to cross post your stuff at times to get the folks who are looking to see it.
Don't overlook this spot.
Advertisers / Vendors / Supporters
If you are in need of something for your Project odds are The Dispatcher has you covered for a quality vendor, sorry if I miss anyone but here is snap shop of the various advertisers / Vendors / Supporters that you can find through out this Fall 2025 Issue. If I missed anyone please let me know happy to add a link or two......
Display set up and ready to welcome folks to Jeep Fest 2026!
Dave's Wife Ann and his Sister Kim.
This was a giant effort by a lot of people near and dear to Dave and Ann.
I guess for any new folks eWillys was founded and run by Dave Eilers for over 20 years, in late 2024 Dave stepped aside but was always available to help get the site back up and running and was key on the transition once we got the site onto the new Host.
Dave was a super talented person in so many aspects both inside and outside of the Willys world, we were lucky enough that he shared his knowledge, passion and provided so much research to the Willys Community over the years it really is an amazing body of work. It is an honor to be able to maintain the archives of eWillys and push forward the site for new folks to find and explore. We lost Dave to Cancer in late June 2026.
One of Dave's Jeeps was "Patterson" a red 1956 DJ, which he took on the amazing 2017 Alaska or Rust road trip that retraced the Alaska Highway and in part the previous trip taken many decades ago The Pineapple Express which is a whole different story, that was back in the 1950's. Along the trip many stickers and signatures were added to Patterson at various road stops and media events that were planned along the way, it was a big hit, as a result there are various signatures all over the rig that have stood the test of time.
Awesome Scoutpilot Decal by the Great Roberto Flores!
So many great Decals, Walck's 4WD!!!
Alaska or Rust Decal
The PNFWDA is a Throwback Decal of one of Dave's Fathers Jeep Clubs growing up.
Classic Roberto Flores eWillys Bear!
Patterson was gifted from Dave and Ann to Bob and Mindy Christy, they are the ideal caretakers for such a great ride, and it will have a great new journey with them. If you are reading this today Sept 12th, 2026, and attended the Willys Fall Reunion or doing so Today, you have already seen the Memorial in person as it was slated to visit there for that event. You can catch it at the Spring Reunion as well and check it out in person.
Patterson Arrives on Joe DeYoungs Trailer.
Bob's First Ride in Patterson, off the trailer and into the bay to dry off.
Drying off Patterson and getting cleaned up from the ride over from WI.
Getting prepped to head into the show.
Jerry and Bob heading in with Patterson
Bob checking out Patterson on arrival!
Patterson has arrived!
I was able to head out to Jeep Fest for Thursday and Friday, the setup days and meet Bob, Mindy, Monica, Scott Gilbert, Jerry, and his crew who run Jeep Fest while we were awaiting the arrival of the Guest of Honor Patterson.
Patterson had a very special chauffer in that to get all the way from Washington state to Ohio it made its way via Wisconsin, Joe DeYoung happened to be out on the West Coast and had room on his trailer for Patterson and brought it back to his shop in Madison, WI. While there he did some clean up work and got it a bit more operational for Bob and Mindy. It was very nice to be able to meet Joe as well at Jeep Fest during the arrival and initial set up of the display.
I headed out Friday AM to spend some time with my Parents and oldest Sister not too far in MI while Jerry and his crew assisted, Bob, Mindy, Monica, Scott, Joe and all sorts of other helpers get the display set up perfect.
Especially special was that Dave’s Wife Ann and Dave's Sister Kim were able to visit Jeep Fest and see Patterson, meet the team, and crew who set up the display. They were able to spend a lot of time together and over the course of Jeep Fest share many special stories and history of Patterson and eWillys and of course share how special Dave was to so many.
I am very thankful for the work that Scott, Bob, Mindy, Monica, Joe, Jerry, Roberto Flores did the artwork and shared all his talents, what a team effort. Ann and Kim for travelling out to Ohio to meet everyone. I am sure there are others who put time into the Memorial, it was very well done, a lot of behind-the-scenes work was performed to pull this off. To those who purchased shirts, hats, and decals, signed the banner, stopped into the show, helped in any way, or will be doing those things in the future, Thank You. OffRoad Outfitter hosted the Shirt, Decal, Hat sale, and they were very gracious to provided their support to everyone hosting the sale items then managing the production and shipping of them, Thank You.
We were able to start some new signatures on Patterson in support of Bob and Mindy and wish them the best of luck with Patterson. One day will probably come where these signatures and decals will be removed and Patterson will hopefully made into its best new version of what it needs to be, these Willys and Jeeps are meant to be enjoyed and the history passed on but they are best used and put to the test out on the roads and in the wild. But for right now we are just thankful to be able to spend some time together and reflect on how precious our time is here and remember that we can all make an enormous impact by just being ourselves and supporting each other and sharing our talents.
Dave touched so many of our lives and continues to do so and we are blessed to be able to share in all of our friendships and stories and pass them on to the next generation, so that they can be influenced to start their new adventures and hopefully with a little bit of luck includes some old iron!
2017 Alaska or Rust Crew! Dave in the Drivers Seat.
Back in mid Sept 2025 Dave had decided to sell his fleet of Jeeps due to his health conditions he wanted to clean up some of his stuff and pass it along.
He had created a post on his personal website and sent over the images to me as well with the info to do as you please (no pressure there!), we posted them up, he had 4 for sale, Patterson the '56 DJ, Lost Biscuit '49 CJ-3A on a CJ-5 platform, a race Jeep, and a very unique FC Transport rig.
A few days later he told be he had a bite on Lost Biscuit and it went down the road to MT. Based on the asking price I figure it was in need of repairs, the current pictures show it does need a lot of love but it still looks pretty good.
Searching up the various items that he did to this rig its a pretty neat Jeep. From the custom hand painted name to all sorts of small modifications that were done. Its been a journey, if you are in the market for a pretty neat base project this might be for you. The opportunity to own a real piece of eWillys history.
Andy actually gets the credit for finding this on Craigslist, during my research this AM the old posts had a lot of images that would only load when clicked and made a lot of the older posts to not properly display the photos, I worked to fix that this am it was a DB edit and impacted 61k posts and over 330k references, but was a very simple fix to take care of, so that back end work on the eWillys Archive is always in progress. I really hope you get some time to spend reading through the Lost Biscuit story and if in the market think about picking this one up.
Willys Jeep custom build project 1973 CJ5 with some 1949 parts Modified fiberglass body and hood Rebuilt Buick 231 even fire V6 engine, manual transmission and original transfer case and axles from the 1973 (rebuilt) The engine is mounted but the headers and steering will need modification. I have the radiator, two sets of headers and other parts necessary to build it out. $3000 Please leave a voice message at 406 ,58 seven:4.99 to. This phone cannot accept texts. Thanks!
