Original Strata Blue Paint

[Bill_F]

I 100% sure my hood number was factory applied. I have good reason to believe that.

[wesk]

No way. That series number did not come out until 54. You're dreamin!!! The first 4 digit letter prefixed hood numbers came from the factory late 54 and they were M38A1's.

[Bill_F]

Proof will come soon enough

[wesk]

And he built an Ark!!!

[BullRun]

Hey Wes, thanks for the pictures. I can't recall ever finding an old Air Force vehicle in my part of the country so the pictures for me are very interesting. On the other hand Marine Corps vehicles are a dime a dozen. Army vehicles slightly less.

I have an Army M38A1 that did go through a rebuild program and it has several ID tags that prove it. Do these Air Force vehicles have any rebuild tags?

For the record chrome yellow is basically a generic term for a group of specialized yellows not generally available except by custom mixing for those who might want to know.

Anyway, these Arctic Top Air Force vehicles sound very intriguing. Willys was a very busy place in the '50's.

Here's a couple more:


Here's an Air Force M606A2 with civvy hard top.


Here's a very nice looking 9 year old M38 with an arctic top and nice looking Strata Blue paint and no rust. Wanna bet this jeep got a brand new tub and blue paint to replace the tire rusted tub it had????


Now if this jeep got restored later in it's life I can almost guarantee the restorer would find traces of these registration numbers.

[wesk]

Willys supplied the jeeps in canvas only. Although Willys built arctic top kits for the Army so did several other manufacturers.

The Air Force used a lot of tops at northern tier bases because they were still reasonably comfortable during the warm months. Most USAF vehicles would have had the tops at least semi-permanent by adding interior lights and often antennas and roof warning lamps. In some cases the tops were painted white and in some cases the civvy aftermarket CJ3A tops were used.

There are copies of business news releases floating around that list some of the Arctic top contracts which were for several thousand tops at a time.

[Bill_F]

[quote="BullRun"]


Here's a very nice looking 9 year old M38 with an arctic top and nice looking Strata Blue paint and no rust. Wanna bet this jeep got a brand new tub and blue paint to replace the tire rusted tub it had????

For only being 9 years old when the picture was taken I would think it still has its original tub and probably had a repaint.

The proof about my jeep will come soon enough.

[BullRun]

Hi Bill: I think Wes added those extra pictures through some internet magic (Thanks Wes) as I did not add them or there is a ghost in the machine.

[wesk]

I must be missing some other kind of internet magic Bullrun. I keep seeing you reply to Bill but I don't see any post from Bill that you are replying to!

[Bill_F]

Strange things happening with the internet.