willysmjeeps.com

I ran upon 2 A1s and both where Navy Jeeps..

Of course no camera as I was working and I asked the man who owns them if okay to look..No Navy data tags but the curious thing was this....

The bodys where the Matte Slate Grey color but the frame ,engine all was
O.D. Green...my question is this as he would like to know also is it possible that the army gave the Navy the jeeps and they just painted them outside or do you guys think the p.o. did it to look good ???

Always open for opinions.., and thoughts..

Paint color does not indicate what branch of service operated the Jeep (unless it is original paint). Paint color on a 40-50 year old civilian vehicle indicates what color the owner chose to paint the Jeep! I believe they all came from the factory in OD.

The M38's all left Willys in OD 2430 but shortly after the beginning of A1 production Willys started delivering Strata Blue to the USAF, Green to the USMC and Gray to the Navy. As best I can decipher of available data the frames and engines would still be OD2430.

When the Army made the main transition to the M151 they dumped several thousand M38A1's on the USMC who had a strong dislike for the M151. These were all refurbished at Barstow, CA and San Diego and they were updated to the standard early 60's USMC contract specs with posi diffs, Packard wiring connectors, M151 style dash lights and M151 style air cleaners. It is quite likely that many of these ended up in Navy gray.

Thanks guys for the input ...I will pass it along..

The following is listed in the history of a Navy Communications Detachment on Camp Humphreys (Army Post), Anjong Ri, Pyong Taek, Republic of Korea in the early 1970's:

(Note: the Army Jeep reference in this case was an M151, not an M38A1)
* After procurement of an Army Jeep, the Detachment had it repainted off base in the Village to Navy Grey, but maintained the Army vehicle numbers. To further give it our Navy identity, the Detachment logo was painted onto a board and attached to the spare tire on the back of the Jeep, much to the chagrin of the Camp C.O. But, after searching Army regulations, they could not find anything prohibiting the paint color we chose and so it stayed Navy Grey!

Sounds like the procurement didn't follow official channels and this group did whatever they felt like at the time. But, the vehicle became a Navy Jeep and was used for official business. And I would bet that the engine compartment and underbody areas remained OD.