willysmjeeps.com

I am new to this forum and am wondering if it is possible to find the past military history of my M38 from the serial number?

About all you can expect is the year of manufacture
off the plate in the passenger side wheel house, and
the engine year and type (original or replacement)
from the engine number on the upper front of the
block. If, by chance, you can discover the 'hood
number' it can narrow down things a bit. The Forum
has some charts with what owners have reported
on their own vehicles. Best of Luck!

Jim in Darkest Arkansas

The military destroys all service records on wheeled vehicles when they get surplused out or stricken off the record due to combat loss.

So unless you can find original hood registration numbers and unit markings under the various layers of paint on your jeep you are left with only the data plate data from the dash.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to do some serious searching for the numbers on the paint. It looks like it's only been repainted one time and with a slightly different color.

I found the numbers painted on the hood yesterday so how do I go about trying to find out any military info on the numbers? The numbers are 20895859. Any help is greatly appreciated.

The hood number is a registration number. When the DOD contracted Willys to build a certain number of jeeps they also issued Willys an equal number of registration numbers to paint on the jeeps as they rolled off the assembly line. Since jeeps did not always remain in serialized sequential order on the assembly line the hood numbers do not always follow serialization sequentially. When the jeeps were delivered to the armed forces they tracked and identified the vehicles by their hood numbers. Therefore each vehicle's service or maintenance record which followed it through it's miltary career was based on this hood number. When the vehicle was surplused out or otherwise stricken from that service's roster it's records were destroyed.

Therefore the only value of having your hood number is that someday you may come across a photo of a jeep in military service with that hood number on it. Your hood number could then help to establish part of your jeeps career. Or you may meet a veteran who recorded the hood numbers of jeeps he served with.

If you want some insight into your jeep's history right now you are going to have to numbers and symbols that exist on other parts of the jeep to help you relate the jeep with a specific unit. Even then this will usually not give you a date of that service.

What was your serial number on the data plates.

I probably already asked, but just in case. Wes has been working on a data base that restorers can refer to.

the serial number on the plate is 27151. I'm pulling that off the title as the jeep is 30 miles away at this point. If it is any different, I'll re post.