This Incredible WWII Jeep Was Built Piece By Piece From 1,000 eBay Parts
In late 2025, David Tracy was at an F1 event in Las Vegas, talking casually with an eBay Motors representative about the absurd breadth of Jeep parts available online. He joked that it might be possible to build a complete World War II Jeep from eBay alone, then moved on with his life. A few months later, eBay came back to him with an offer: turn the joke into a sponsored challenge, build a brand-new Willys MB from scratch, and drive it roughly 900 miles to the rugged off-road trails of Moab.
So, that was the easy part. The hard part was realizing what he had agreed to. Rebuilding an old vehicle provides a blueprint; you simply replace what is broken. On the flip side, creating a vehicle from nothing meant sourcing every single bracket, specialized washer, and missing fastener. To make the build truly authentic, Tracy committed to ensuring at least 75% of the vehicle was factory-fresh, centered around three massive core components: a brand-new frame, a brand-new body tub manufactured in the Philippines, and a shiny, newly cast French Go-Devil engine block.
Tracy went about sourcing more than 1,000 pieces from eBay, learning how they all fit together, and doing it all while juggling family life, editorial work, and the day-to-day demands of running a media company. He quickly learned that the new body, frame, and engine did not make the project simpler. They made it more complicated, because there was no original vehicle to lean on as a blueprint.
He set up what was essentially a one-man factory in his Los Angeles driveway, adding a workbench, a vise, a grinder, storage shelves, and a stockpile of fasteners to keep the assembly moving. Then he leaned on a small circle of specialists: a longtime Jeep-savvy friend, a Canadian reader who was also deeply versed in WWII Jeep restoration, and another wrenching ally willing to fly in and work long days on the build. Their help made the difference since the project was less restoration than reconstruction, with transmission rebuilds, engine assembly, suspension work, brake systems, and steering components all arriving as separate pieces of the puzzle.
Old components had to be cleaned, measured, shimmed, and rechecked. Plenty of issues and troubleshooting were required to get the truck running and operational, as these kind of projects go. However, the true test of Tracy's backyard engineering began with a grueling 900-mile road trip from Los Angeles across the punishing desert terrain toward Utah.
Driving a vehicle designed in the 40s, i.e. lacking any modern creature comforts, aerodynamics, or structural safety, turned the journey into a test of endurance. Navigating steep elevation changes and high heat, the freshly-minted Willys MB rumbled across highways and rugged backroads, its new Go-Devil engine singing steadily. Tracy and his crew carefully monitored the fresh mechanical components, nursing the vintage-style machine through the vast expanses of the American West.
When the flat-fendered Jeep finally rolled into Moab, ready to challenge the brutal slickrock trails, the impossible gamble had officially paid off, cementing one of the most audacious automotive builds in history.
