willysmjeeps.com

Hi all,

I know we all get a lot of year of production questions, so Im sorry if im beating a dead horse here, but I would like to know.

First off, my M38A1 is MD79056 with a hood number I believe of 20869905 (Wes or someone, if you can kind of check that that number makes sense, Ill appreciate it!). Date of Production according to the dataplate is 12/54.

But here's my issue. The other day I was ordering some stuff from AJP - including grill hinges. Now, I thought I was supposed to have a Center bolt.....but my grill doesnt support that. My fenders have the reinforcement side panel, like the new style, but the hat channels in the fenders run down a few inches past the end of the fender and have (i want to say 2? holes drilled in them)

Heres a picture of my grill. You can see the two brackets for the hinges.


But on my body tub...I have the tabs on the firewall for the radiator connecting rods that now never get used.

How can this be?

Now...I did a fair amount of work straightening out the passanger side front fork on the jeep where the bumper connects. It got bent up some from what looks like an accident from long long ago.

and an old picture of the forks and bumper+shackles (Yes i know i dont have a chain for the shackles...)

Kinda hard to see since its painted, but its bent at that oval. Now im thinking that this got into an accident while in service, the army unit responsible didnt have a late style grill, so they possibly made some modifications and fit the early style right on. Does this sound logical to anyone?

I dont have the old bumper (that one pictured is a repro late style) so I cant say with more confidence if my hypothesis is correct. Anywho, if anyone could explain to me whats going on, I'd appreciate it!

Mucho thanks-o.

Your serial MD79056 should be a Dec 54 unit with a 2Axxxx hood number, rigid (no hinge) grill, and strap fastener battery cover.

I have the battery box strap as well, which matches the late model productions.

The VIN # for this thing is 869905, so I was thinking that they just cut off the 20 off of the front. But since it begins w/ 2A, not sure if 869905 has any relation with the hood number.

Hrmph. Wonder why everything makes sense besides the grill...

Don't confuse VIN (vehicle identification number) which are often assigned by state DMV's to older vehicles that had serial numbers on removable plates with Willys serial number. If your dash data plate says MD79056 and/or your right rear wheel house tag says MD79056 then that is your jeep's factory supplied serial number. Unless of course your jeep met it's first civilian owner without any ID tags and that owner's DMV issued the VIN you are now mentioniong. Then someone down the line bought a set of MD ID plates with the serial MD79056. Some DMV's even used the engine serial number for the titles on early vehicles.