M38s blue from the factory???? (lots of pics)

Post by **wesk** » Tue May 09, 2006 11:04 pm

Hello Bill,
I saw the ad as well. He will not post any photos which I feel is very odd. At any rate he describes the same lightly splattered under dash area you have already posted many photos of above. Again I find it as merely a case of very light original paint contact with the upper underside area of the dash by Willys combined with a more agressive spraying later of USAF blue which made a more pronounced evidence of it''s presence in the so called virgin areas. The majority of apparently lightly restored M38's I have seen all have very poor factory paint coverage of the upper underdash areas. This easily leads someone to believe any later color sprayed heavier there to indicate an original coating.

WillysMotors · Post by **WillysMotors** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:51 pm

Well it's been about 7 years since we last discussed this. Wes and Ryan have been quietly collecting data in the interim.

I believe it is now safe to say that Willys made M38's in OD 2430, Strata Blue, and Marine Corps Green - from the Toledo Factory !

Here is the Master index calling out the BOM number.

WillysMotors · Post by **WillysMotors** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:54 pm

And here is BOM2477 Page 5 of 13 with the colors.

Bill_F · Post by **Bill_F** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:43 pm

I can't not see your attachment.

WillysMotors · Post by **WillysMotors** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:42 pm

Hmmm. It was there 3 hours ago...

I put it in again. Maybe it will stay this time...

Bill_F · Post by **Bill_F** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:01 pm

Works now. Nice to see confirmation of what I knew all along.

TomM · Post by **TomM** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:08 pm

Good info! The 7 year wait was worth it.
Thanks

Bill_F · Post by **Bill_F** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:16 pm

Make it so I could have a factory class blue m38 if I ever wanted to go that direction, to bad I dont. I like to drive my jeep.

ECVJeeps · Post by **ECVJeeps** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:46 pm

So with this information we can safely say that there were some M38's with a factory blue finish. That would explain why I had blue under the heater access cover while the heater cover itself was originally OD. Also the windshield pivot brackets were painted OD then over sprayed Strata Blue while the body metal under the pivots wes painted only Strata Blue.

I'm not crazy!

Congrats on the nice information find.

Cheers

WillysMotors · Post by **WillysMotors** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:10 pm

The other pages described the various primers used at different times, one of which was OD primer...

ECVJeeps · Post by **ECVJeeps** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:07 pm

Is this information posted some place here on this site?

BullRun · Post by **BullRun** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:38 pm

Pretty amazing to find those specifications... OK I have to reevaluate my M38. It has a blue battery box lid and other parts.

I suspect it might be built from parts from several jeeps. It appears to be a flight line vehicle at some point due to most everything being painted yellow.

The Kelly Top (military installed) has O.D. too so nothing is pure on my vehicle.

Almost all the unrestored M38 jeeps I have found locally have been USMC. It is a consistent trend.

Thanks for the research!

Post by **wesk** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:51 pm

If you look closely the BOM date addressing the use of the Blue and Marine green is 6 - 51. It would help if Keith gives us the approximate delay between the introduction of the Bom and the implementing of it on the assembly line during this period.

And yes thank you Keith for introducing the real black & white evidence.

evanso1975 · Post by **evanso1975** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:48 am

If you look closely the BOM date addressing the use of the Blue and Marine green is 6 - 51. It would help if Keith gives us the approximate delay between the introduction of the Bom and the implementing of it on the assembly line during this period.

Be nice if we could have that info. Mine is 7/51; always thought it got the Strata Blue overspray by the military. Perhaps it didn't?

Are there any other pages to this BOM available? I'm not seeing any info on the following:
Seats (unless you include those in "Body Assy")
Axles
Springs
Frame

Great info; thanks for sharing......

Post by **wesk** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:09 am

These two M38 web sites have been around for over 11 years now. We have talked this Strata blue to death during that period with at least 3 M38's with no OD. Only strata blue. Lacking any factory evidence I have always felt they could have been a very well done strip job by a USAF unit. I have many period photos of OD2430 M38's being operated by the USAF from 1950 thru 1954 or so and several of Strata Blue USAF jeeps with obvious OD2430 still showing in the wheel wells and under the hood. Now that Keith has established the first layer of factory evidence we can all agree that Some were blue. Now to narrow that focus down to when the first Willys blue painted unit rolled out the door. I am suspecting July or August 1951.

If you base the amount of samples of survivor M38's we have then one can probably assume that of the over 60,000 M38's built probably less than 10,000 to 15,000 went to the Air Force.