Paint found on late 1953 USAF M38a1

[DMCarpenter]

Mods:

As a quick note, I am starting this in Technical. If you think that it should be in another group, please feel free to move it. Also, if this is something that isn't of value, feel free to delete. I intend to record the 'hidden' colors that I find here because it seems that there is little info out there on 'factory' colors on USAF jeeps.

I will just add as I come to things, so there will not be a whole lot of order in the 'discoveries'.

The inside of the glovebox is an OD.

Cleaning up the large tranny cover/floorpan, the base color on the covered up edges is OD, but it has a funny greyish cast to it. I find no blue there. There is blue on the exposed parts.



Album is at: http://www.willysmjeeps.com/v2/modules. ... _album.php

Edited by Wes K

[Scrapyard]

Good idea, I am looking forward for your discoveries, but...




Yes, some pictures would be nice.

[DMCarpenter]

I am not technically proficient. I have an album in the member section "DC Carpenter" I also posted one in the historic section.

The bottom of the big tranny cover did have the greyish cast OD as the bottom layer with blue over spray.

Interesting bit, the bell housing has what I would call a 'Marine Green' on it. I wonder if that has anything to do with the USMC rebuilt engine.

Thanks and Happy New Year. Auch Frohes neues Jahr!

Dave

[Scrapyard]

A late "Prost Neujahr" to you, too


Is that a replacement front grill or have the holes for the hinges been welded shut?

Oliver

[DMCarpenter]

Oliver:

I will have to check that out for you. It appears that this grill was not the hinged variety from the beginning. If you notice, it still had the 8 holes for the thumbscrews on the cowl. Also, someone replaced the battery lid footman loops with some homemade mess. As a late 1953 jeep, it may be a bit of a mish-mash. The motor is now at the machinist. Hope that we don't get a long face along the way.

Dave

[DMCarpenter]

Oliver:

I forgot to pull the grill out and examine. I will get to that for you.


Another general observation or two for all:

When taking the tranny cover parts, I found that many of the seams have a DAP sort of sealant on the overlaps, to include the heater cover in the passenger side floor. I thought that perhaps this was something that a PO had done. However, when I pulled the fenders off today, I found the same stuff between the fender and the firewall/cowl, which makes me think that it is either factory or a military mod. What is the consensus?

Also, the underside of the fenders seems to have had an undercoating of some sort shot over the Strata Blue (which did a really good job of protecting the blue paint). Military addition or PO? ideas?

I do have a few photos that I will be adding to my folder.

Thanks:
Dave

[wesk]

The undercoat could have been applied anytime in the past. Maybe military, maybe civilian. The only branch known to undercoat was the Marines.


The cover looks like a field conversion. The Military commonly stocked only the later parts later in the jeeps career and when a replacement was needed they generally only had the later item available so on it went.


This is the factory original installation.

You have the late grill, late wide bumper and late fenders. Of course the jeep could have been in a collision and got a replacement front clip in the past. The frame continued with the two grill hinge bracket holes for some time after the hinges were dropped.

You have the outboard front floor drains.

Have you had a chance to lift that paint off the patent plate with a little DOT3 brake fluid so as not to damage the etched in serial number?


Is layer A or layer B the top color?

[DMCarpenter]

Wes:

First off, thanks so much for all of your help.

The top color is 'A', that funky green, but it is a thin coat. The 'B' is the next layer down and Strata is under that. That 'A' isn't a faded Marine color is it?

I have posted the other pictures that were taken today.

Thanks again.

Oliver, I looked at my grill. No signs of hinge mounting, just the side bolts and the big bolt at the bottom.

Dave

[DMCarpenter]

I just put another photo in my album. it is a pic of the fuel tank. The tank body is painted a silverish color. The filler cap is painted green, and it appears to be 'Marine' green to me. It is interesting that after finding the Marine rebuilt motor in it, I am finding Marine paint and possible Marine undercoat. The plates still say US Air Force, but it is starting to look like it was Marine at some point.

Are there any other Marine things that I should look for?

Thanks:
Dave

[DMCarpenter]

This is not the correct image link for posting to a thread. Also it may have something to do with your photo file size. The full size photo you loaded is much larger than we wish them to be since they then hog too much server space. I have included the image data below. Wes K

Fuel_tank_w_cap.jpg

Dimensions1377 × 1836 File size 642.24KB MIME type image/jpeg URL http://willysmjeeps.com/v2/modules/gall ... _w_cap.jpg

Try to limit your photo uploaded sizes to 800x1200 or about 200K Wes K


By cropping the uneeded part of the photo I reduce the original full size photo fro 642K to 101K file size and still left the tank the same size it was in the original photo. WesK

Trying to post a photo of the tank

Dave

[DMCarpenter]

While I was looking for Marine stuff on the site, I found out that Marine hood numbers were USMC XXXXXX. Well, I looked at my own photos again. The number stenciled on all five wheels (Apparently '281891') is a six digit number. I don't mean to be taking a flight of fancy, but if it was handed over to the Marines, it would make some sort of sense for that to be the hood number. I have no idea why you would stencil the hood number on all of the wheels, apart from marking them to the vehicle, but it surely seems reasonable to me.

Ideas?

Dave

[DMCarpenter]

Thanks Wes, that is something else that I will have to learn how to do. I appreciate the help.

Another possible USMC aspect. The hood does have undercoating. The undercoating is all cracked now, but it is undercoated as well

Dave

[DMCarpenter]

This is a picture of the number stenciled on all five wheels. It threw me when I was thinking USAF, but once the USMC aspect came into play, I got to thinking that this might well be the hood number. Why else have a seemingly random six digit number on all five wheels. Has anyone heard or seen anything like this before on a USMC or any other service vehicle?

Thanks:
Dave

[wesk]

In my data base I have USMC 231XXX late 1953 and USMC 311XXX in 1963 so your 281891 number is in the ballpark for late 53 / early 54..

[DMCarpenter]

Wes:

Thanks, now that I know that this number is in the series and could have been assigned to this vehicle upon reassignment to the USMC, it seems to be coming together.

Are there any other 'Marine' features that I should look for?

Thanks:
Dave