How many M-38s have survived?

RICKG · Post by **RICKG** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 9:41 am

Just a curiosity.. I wonder what a reasonable best guess
would be as to how many surviving M-38s are out there.
Wes??

Bretto · Post by **Bretto** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:21 pm

That would be interesting to know
I haven't a clue but I hope mine comes back alive sooner than later. Mine's still on the surgeon's table.

whydahdvr · Post by **whydahdvr** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 3:32 pm

If I remember right, the majority of M38's were shipped overseas to US allies as military support. Hence, how Greece and a lot of others got them. And they were made for about a year or so after 1952 specifically for the export market. Add to that their age and we may never even be able to make an accurate guess.
But Wes and Ryan certainly know a lot more than I do.

Post by **wesk** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 10:28 pm

M38 production was Sep 1950 thru Jul 1952 period. No special deal for some foreign country later on has ever been uncovered or substantiated. With Willys and Kaiser supplying M606 and M606A2/A3's there was no need to do that.

Over 62,000 built. My best guess on survivors would be about 2000 world wide. With the majority in those countries that received a lot of MAP hand me downs from the US Army in the late 50's and early 60's.

The Greek collection was I believe a large quantity surplussed or MAP'd at the same time in Europe and transferred to them.

We have about 250 to 300 M38 owners as members from whom only 170 have submitted even partial survey forms. If we assume half the US population uses the internet and 1/2 of that actively participates in blogs and forums then we probably have about half the M38's in the US represented here. So it is a reasonable assumption that with between 600 and 700 M38's here in the US still that another 1300 still exist in the rest of the world.

davem201m38 · Post by **davem201m38** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 4:03 am

I think Wheels and Tracks (Bart Van der Veen) publication did an article on MAP and Greece jeeps some years ago.
I think, (I've lost so much paperwork and moved on with my life) a lot of Greek MAP stuff was rebuilt Far Eastern and ex Korea stock. These vehicles are often taged with Japan Ordnace Command rebuild tags with 'shop number' and date on variuos sub assemblies or sometimes the place name .
A lot of surplused M38s in Europe simply rotted away, the Greek stock survived because of their climate. The Greeks didn't seem to repair much, just use it till it wore out and throw it way.
I'm sure there will be a Greek owner who can provide more detail and correct me where I'm wrong.
Sadly these rebuild tags are usually removed from pre M Series jeeps when owners restore them because everybody wants a 'first off the landing craft jeep' and the 1950s rebuild tags don't fit in with that image.

whydahdvr · Post by **whydahdvr** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 6:10 am

Some of the details I shared I got from Peter DeBella back when I was looking to buy a jeep in 2008. He has (or did at least a couple months ago) an M38 that came back over here from Greece. He might be able to provide some more info on the quantity shipped there.

RICKG · Post by **RICKG** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 8:40 am

Thx for the replies guys.. The M-38's numbers are few..
And consider that our good pal Bubba (shudder)
got a-hold of too many of them. All the more reason
to preserve them.

evanso1975 · Post by **evanso1975** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 12:22 pm

RICKG,

We all curse Bubba and his engineering expertise

, but don't forget there would likely be a lot less M38's out there if he hadn't intervened.

Owen.

pilotomutante · Post by **pilotomutante** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 8:34 am

Hi all, this is Jose from Spain. Here we have a few M-38 running around. I cannot say a number, but something in between of 20 to 60. They are a mix of early and late style, mine having S/N MC13600. When I bought it several years ago it was badly abused from its military career, and had been modified with a Perkins diesel engine (standard spanish army bubba mod). I have managed to rebuild an original block and now is back to its former configuration. I do not know its service history, but I don´t think it was ever rebuilt. They just made field repairs to it using whatever they could find to keep it running. For example: the steering that I found installed was from a GPW!

Spain received a mix of willys over the years, first to come were CJ-2 and CJ-3, due to U.N. banning the sale of military equipment to what was still a fascist regime. When we finally managed to get accepted in the U.N. then came all the surplus equipment, that is: MB, GPW, m-38, M-38A1, etc...

So that and hot and mostly dry weather is why there are some still around.

Hope this is of interest, and if someone has more info, please be welcome to correct me!!!

RICKG · Post by **RICKG** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 9:45 am

Thank you for your reply, Jose-that's interesting info.
As you may know, Wesk is maintaining an M-38 info
database-have you submitted a survey to him?

pilotomutante · Post by **pilotomutante** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 12:09 pm

Survey just submitted