willysmjeeps.com

538254 us army are my hood numbers. Are these real or made up by the person whom restored the jeep?

Jerry

1952 m38

Jerry

There are others who can better answer this than I, but all Army registered M38s I am familiar with the hood registration number starts with 20XXXXXX. Somebody else chime in?

Go to the down loads above and click on serial # database. There are also alot of threads asking this----------I did. There are no official records to help you. You might get lucky and find them under the paint. And hopefully they didn't change the hood from another Jeep. The data base will help you determine alot. Ask with your DOD and serial # info. if anyone has a '52 close to yours. If you can get two on either side of yours, you might calculate it. They had different lots of Jeeps produced and suddenly pulled a batch for marine corp or other uses and this means that the sequences are not continuous. Your hood is your best bet. John

I agree. Everything I have seen start with a 2. Mine is a 52' and its hood number is 20908291.

538254 is not a valid hood registration number for a US Army M38 built in any year.

The Army hood registration numbers start with 2 up through 1955. They were 7 digit up to May 1951. 8 digit till the new style 2AXXXX came out in 55. The 20 class is light utility/scout car (20 thru 29 series)

The progression of hood numbers does not follow the jeep serial numbers. This is because the Army issued a block of registration numbers to willys along with each contract. Problem for us post WWII military jeep fans we do not have any copies of the original contracts so we do not have the first and last registration numbers issued by block to Willys for those contracted jeeps. So for example let's use contract number DA-20-018-ORD-9196 announced in July 1950 for 8,350 M38's. The Army would have included a block of 8,350 registration numbers with that contract. The actual production on this contract started in Feb 52 and seems to have started with about a 2385XXX registration number. Willys would have painted the registration numbers on each jeep as it rolled off the assembly line. Note this is production sequence and NOT WILLYS SERIAL NUMBER SEQUENCE. Often times for various reasons groups or single jeeps were sidelined during the assembly line process and then re-inserted in the line. This fouls up any chance of determining registration numbers vs Willys serial numbers accurately.

The only way we can properly proceed with our research is to continue to gather raw survey data from each M38 and M38A1 owner and confirm any hood numbers actually found on the hoods during the paint removal process. In the interim we recommend that those folks who are restoring jeeps with no record of their original hood numbers do not fabricate a number based on a wild guess. These bogus numbers will bugger the system for researchers in the future as well as our continuing efforts to gather this data. For this reason we recommend folks only use the appropriate for their DOD first 2 or 3 digits IE 238XXXX or 209XXXXX and fill in the XXXX or XXXXX with the serial numbers of their jeeps.

I recently bought a m38 its titled as a 1945 cj2a. I sanded down the hood and found 20892242 my problem is there is no data plates anywhere so I guess all I can find out from this number is that it is a 52.

Not sure where you got the information it was a 1952 unit. That hood number is a June 1951 hood number. Does your M38 not have a patent plate on the front end of the right rear wheel house behind the passenger's seat?

No mine doesnt have any data plates anywhere. I would love to find the true serial number and get the proper title for it.