willysmjeeps.com

A day of cleaning first the shop then these parts.

Kents,

Not to highjack this thread, but thanks for posting that picture. It shows the same shackles that came on my USMC M38A1 when it came to me. Everything on my Jeep appears to be unchanged from USMC but those shackles are LARGER than the ones used on the standard Army Jeeps and I've been wondering about them!

Welcome Ruger45 from my Ruger 30 Carbine!

the rear bumper is a USMC bumper kit and it included the two hooks on the ends.

I was talking about the front bumper although the rear of mine and the one in the photo uses the same shackles (unlike the Army Jeeps). If you look at the front shackles in the picture they reach the bottom of the bumper. Standard Army shackles only reach about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way down. The difference is obvious if you know what to look for.

the front shackles are included in the marine rear bumper kit.

This should help illustrate the kit:

By the shackle info I would guess mine not to be USMC I have small shackles and just on the front bumper.
I am pretty much convinced it was an Army vehicle paint seems to be Army now shackles. Every little cule helps.
Wes if the shackles are a tell tail that would mean that radio truck you posted is USMC. Correct?

Cool! Another mystery solved! Thanks Wes and Keats. You guys are a gold mine of information! Any idea why the USMC used different shackles? Also wondering why they used cotter pins to secure the pins instead of the clips that they Army used?

Ruger45,

Your best guide to your Jeep's past may be the layers of paint colors on it since USMC Forest Green and US Army OD are different. I would also suggest sanding down through the paint on the ends of the front and rear bumpers and the sides of the hood and looking for any markings. AFIK USMC markings were always yellow and US Army were white except some early WW-II that were Olive BLUE! I suspect that there were local variations so that's not a certainty.

Chuck, I just wanted to say 'Hello' from in town! My bucket of bolts came with a lot of 12V stuff, so if you are going to go that route (my goal is to go back to original 24v waterproof) then I might have some spares that could help.

Been kinda quite on the jeep front. But it would seem that some blasting of parts is in the near future.

I know of a fantastic sandblaster that is right up the road from you. Although he does mostly commercial stuff, he is very reasonable and takes care of the little guy. PM me if you need his contact info.

charliebrowndog wrote:I know of a fantastic sandblaster that is right up the road from you. Although he does mostly commercial stuff, he is very reasonable and takes care of the little guy. PM me if you need his contact info.

I think I am going to take some stuff to a place in hampstead they do soda blasting. But who do you know right up the road from me?

Just when you think things are going to come togather to work on the jeep the universe throws a curve ball. On Nov 2 I fell 20 feet at work. I just got home from the hospital today and it is looking like i will be laid up for the next 6 months. So I guess the jeep has to wait some more

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully you can get a helping hand with it and move along with all the small tasks until you are back on your feet.

Not that I am at this point but I thought I would ask.
When putting a jeep back togather would you say to put the drive train togather then put the body on?
Or put the body on then the drive train?