willysmjeeps.com

sorry for all the question lately, just trying to get this jeep ready for the rally. question- was it common to wrap a manila rope around the frt bumper of an m38a1, when the jeep was in service?. thxs

No

im sure it was'nt common back in the day, but ive seen some old photos with the rope around the bumpers on a a1 when i was searching for info when i first purchase it. looking at photos from the mvpa convention i did see an a1 that won either the gold or master class that had a rope, i'll do alittle more research and make my decision. thxs wesk.

Willys built 120,000 M38A1's and 60,000 M38's. One photo with a rope = No they were not common.

The rope thing was a WWII thing. With WWII vintage GI's retiring between 1950 and 1970 yes there's an occasional throwback that wanted his old WWII rope on his M38A1 bumper.

So for the original question:

was it common to wrap a manila rope around the frt bumper of an m38a1

The answer is still a no.

Ropes, water buckets, radios and machine guns are all toys that a thoroughly engrossed restorer wants to justify on his/her jeep. Less than 20% of jeeps carried these goodies during any period in history. So bottom line is if you want a rope on your jeep put one on it. Justification is only needed for formal judging. This justification generally comes in the form of a properly sourced and dated photo. If you review the MVPA judging rules you will see in most cases the added accouterments have no bearing on judging unless they detract from the accuracy of the category they are being judged in. For example a machine gun or hood star would cost you points in a factory class resto.

i got your answer the first time, the above post was just small talk!