willysmjeeps.com

In the picture attached is the color I found under the undercoating on the body. To me it looks like 2430. There is just bare metal underneath that layer so its factory paint. I just want a second opinion that that is what I am looking at. I actually havent seen 2430 in person other then possible close matches shown on the many discussions on this subject on the forums.

Also does anyone know if the Greeks undercoated their A1’s? I know the Marine Corps was the only US service to do so however this jeep came out of Greece. I don’t see any signs of this being a Marine Corps jeep before the Greeks. Additionally I don’t think it was a bubba thing as to the best of my knowledge it never saw civilian hands as it would have gone through MAP to Greece ( I believe that is correct) and it was Greek army surplus when we got it. I am not going to keep the undercoating but I am just curious if anyone has seen this before.

Yes it is 2430. There's no other indication of a primer because they used a thinned layer of 2430 for the primer coat followed by a Un-thinned layer for the top coat. I would imagine that the Greeks probably did use a lot of undercoating considering their location.

FWIW there are rumors that the US Navy undercoated some of their Jeeps as well, particularaly the Seabees.

I read that in another post of yours Wes regarding the primer coat. That is why I went and sanded down a spot and when it went to bare metal I was pretty sure it was 2430. As far as the undercoating I am trying to start another long discussion on undercoating because there has been plenty of threads about this. I was just curious if any one else that has an ex-greek A1 had the undercoating. It makes sense they would use it being on an island

We have several European members and English members with greek M38's.

My M38 is a former Navy jeep. It was undercoated and the paint under the coating looks exactly like yours.

Dan

wesk wrote:We have several European members and English members with greek M38's.

My project 1952 M38a1 "Greek Revenge" had a thin but effective black undercoating over 2 two layers of green. However very different to the one in the first picture. After the undercoating was done the Jeep received a camo job and a lot of that paint ended on the underside on top of the undercoating.

My other Greek 52´MD wreck ("Greek Tragedy") has no undercoating, but the underside has been painted with red primer, so maybe the undercoating had been removed to check the metal and later it was only repainted.

My ex-Strato Blue M38 has an undercoating, too. But it is ex-Iranian Army.

Oliver

Oliver,

Thanks for the reply. I would say my jeep body was a "Greek Tragedy" after its service with them!! My A1 also had the typical camo job you see on the greek jeeps. Its good to have someone help validate this for me. I was always curious where the undercoating came from since the jeep never was in civilian hands. It only makes sense to have the undercoating being on an island.

TJ

Thunderbird712 wrote:Oliver,

Thanks for the reply. I would say my jeep body was a "Greek Tragedy" after its service with them!!.

TJ

hmmm i think that all US jeeps that serves in Greek army had the opportunity to travel in all of beautiful greek islands so not "Greek tragedy" but "Greek Euphoria"

Hahaha!! I was talking about the horrible body work that was done on the jeep!!! I think my 1 year old daughter could have welded a patch better!! I think it is really cool that the jeep was in greece for sometime. You dont hear of to many here in the states that were former greek jeeps. I only wish I could know more about its time in Greece but until the Jeep can talk to me I will never know!!!

Thunderbird712 wrote:Oliver,
It only makes sense to have the undercoating being on an island.

TJ

Many European countries still use salt for clearing their roads in the winter. The poor factory paint job and a couple of wet, cold and salty winters - this undercoating saved me a lot of bodywork!

Talking about poor factory paint jobs, the inside of both of my dashboard panel had no paint at all on it.

Baios, I hope to be able to rename my project Jeep when I finally get it running. I could have choosen a better preserved ex-Greek Army MD, for just a little more money, but I wanted an early one. So I can´t blame anyone but myself, not even Frau Merkel

Digging through the threads...and just to clarify.


2430 is the correct as shipped new 1950 M38 color?

Tks,
Brian

I finally found the multiple pages of paint posts.

Now I am really conflicted.

2430 is as delivered 1950 from Willys.

I pulled the dimmer switch the other day and was cleaning it up.
Found two different colors of OD or green, depending on your mileage,
along with some sort of blue/gray applied later.
One color is on the firewall side and is noticeably greener that the other,
which is on the floorboard side, and under some of the blue/gray.
It is noticeably browner than the firewall paint.



Neither resemble 2430, or samples shown here of Gillespie's 23070 or AJP Late WWII OD, and the firewall paint matches color I have found inside the wheel wells and well as on the underside.

Anyone want to take a swing at this?
BTW, I prefer the greener color, and was wondering what Ryan used on his M38, as it appears closer than the 2430.

Tks,
Brian

Actually, looking at the original post that firewall and underframe/wheel well green I have is a match for his color photo. If that is 2430 then that is what I have and would like to paint mine. Again, the AJP and Gillespie recommended colors don't appear green enough.

Help?

Sorry if u did already but take a look at my photo page. I have a couple of pictures of my frame painted with AJP. Granted these pictures were right after I painted it. Its been close to a year now since then but the color hasnt change all that much. I have the frame next to the body that the original picture in this thread was from. They are not an exact match but then again the body was painted 60 years ago so u can expect fading due to time and environment to effect the paint plus all the other stuff thats been discussed before. I think it is close enough.