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I recently purchased a 1953 M38A1 and tracing its history is turning out to be a can of worms, as is customary.

The data plate indicates that it was manufactured by Ford in Canada, but the plate has been damaged by sandblasting. The delivery date is mostly there "1-12-" and the serial number is pretty much unreadable but I think it is "F-200658". There is no data plate on the passenger rear fender behind the seat, and the engine is a GM 153 of unknown origin, maybe a DJ-5.

There appear to be no numbers stamped in the driver front frame horn, I was expecting "53-3XXXX" or similar. There was a large bumper bolted on top and rust has pitted the area. The entire outer surface and dash was sandblasted at some point so I may never know what markings it carried.

The really odd bit is the title. It last changed hands in 1985, and the prior owner had passed away in 2012, and his widow in 2013. The title shows that it is a 1953 Ford, serial number "MD59596"... which appears to be a Willys number.

This may have been one of the early M38A1 CDN models, but without the CFR number it's only speculation.

Am wondering if the data plate didn't originally come with this Jeep. Are there any things I can look for that would nail it down as a Willys vs a Ford?

Tracing history will be extremely difficult if it is the assignment history you are looking for. There is no chance at all in the US with US produced M38A1's and Canada Services has recently blocked access to CFR # histories.

You have a dash plate. Inspect the rear side for evidence of the real FXXXXXX number. This is the number you should trace.

The tag on the front end of the right rear wheel house is a US thing and is called the Patent plate since it lists the Willys/Kaiser patents.

The top of the left front frame rail is your best source for the CAR #.






Ford of Canada built M38A1 CDN


Kaiser of Canada built M38A1 CDN2


Kaiser US Built M38A1 CDN3

MD59596 is a Sep 1953 Willys built M38A1. Can you post detailed photos of your jeep. Especially closeups of the grill/frame, the top of the cowl, the dash, the side view of the front fenders and the side view of the rear quarters?

Thanks for the info.

I pulled off a massive fabricated bumper and cleaned up the top of the frame horn... looks as if there is something there, but I cannot seem to make it out.

I took two high resolution photos - one of the frame horn, and one of the bumper surface that was touching the stamped area. The bumper photo has been flipped horizontally so the numerals (if any) could be made out.

Frame Horn

Inside of Bumper

Here are some photos I took the other day prior to removing the front bumper and sanding various areas down to check for markings:

The beast looks fairly straight from where I sit..
I spy a nice 1st gen Bronco too! Nice!

Rick

RICKG wrote:The beast looks fairly straight from where I sit..
I spy a nice 1st gen Bronco too! Nice!

Rick

I think the body (on whatever this 1953 ends up being) is in pretty decent shape. I will likely leave the spare tire where it sits, since I have seen several photos of Canadian M38A1s with them relocated. The rear panel doesn't have any braces nor provisions for a top, so I'll either brace that or replace the whole chunk. A heat gun is helping with the really thick filler on the passenger side.

That photo contains three early Broncos... one is peeking out from the lift, one is mostly hidden by the 1986 CJ. The yellow one is the only "unmolested" one, the others are all pretty hardcore trail rigs.