1952 Willys M38: (Day 441) October 1, 2011

Saturday, October 1, 2011

(Day 441) October 1, 2011

I have been updating Facebook more than the Blog of the Jeep. I will play catchup in this post.

I found the radiator rod,Engine Lift Plate and Radiator for the M38. I completely stripped the headlight buckets and did a full rebuild on them. With new bulbs,Grommets and seals. Rebuilt the fuel tank sender and pickup. Got all new gaskets from Rapco. Got the Tires mounted on the wheels. The wheels got blasted and coated with POR15 before the OD green. The inside of the wheels got a extra weld to held support the rivets. We did a pre-fit of the body before paint. The hood wanted to sit offset to the grill by about 3/8". we had to shim the back of the drivers side hinge to kick the hood straight. This could be because the cowl was fully replaced and isn't straight with the body. Our Painter at work and I shot the Finally Coat yesterday. It came out really nice. The Paint was mixed 2:1 (Paint : reducer). I used DuPont Synthetic enamel reducer. We used a Gallon of paint to do the fenders,grill,hood,seat,body,windsheild and trans cover pans. It was a bit close and would recommend having more than a gallon to spray tub. More pictures tomorrow with tub sitting on frame.

2 comments:

BrianOctober 15, 2011 at 7:24 PM
Impressive. Your attention to detail is amazing. I think you will really enjoy the final product. I have an M38CDN. I rebuilt the drive train and engine in '82. Hasn't been driven since '85. I am contemplating a more complete restoration. Best of luck. Not long now.
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Patrick HNovember 4, 2012 at 9:23 AM
Thanks Brian for taking the time to comment.
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HISTORY OF THE JEEP

On September 23, 1940 in response to an Army Invitation For Bids, the American Bantam Car Company of Butler, Pa. delivered a prototype vehicle to Camp Holabird for testing. The test vehicle was immediately recognized by the Army as one of the most important and innovative vehicles in the history of modern land warfare. Delivered and tested as Bantam Reconnaissance Car #1001, it was soon thereafter that it's testers dubbed it the "jeep".

Though the design and development of the first prototype jeep was primarily the work of Bantam Car Co., both Willys and Ford later supplied prototypes to the Army also. The Army tested all three designs and combined features of each design into one standardized jeep design. The initial contract for these standardized jeeps, model MB, was awarded to Willys in October, 1941. With the attack on Pearl Harbor shortly thereafter and America's entry into WWII, the Army felt that a second producer of jeeps would be needed. Ford Motor Company was contracted to build standardized jeeps based on the Willys MB design. Ford's designation for their standardized jeeps was model GPW.

A common misconception is that the letters "GPW" stood for General Purpose - Willys, but this is incorrect. The letters "GPW" are from Ford's own vehicle model codes where "G" indicated Government contract, "P" was Ford's code for an 80" wheelbase Reconnaissance Car 4X4, and "W" meant Willys design motor.

Another common misconception is that the name "jeep" was derived from a slurring of the letters "GP", but the word "jeep" was in common usage as early as 1938 - two years before the first jeep appeared. Exactly how the little 4x4 Reconnaissance Car ended up with the name "jeep" has never really been determined.

Willys and Ford went on to produce approximately 650,000 standardized jeeps between November 1941 and August 1945. Ford stopped producing jeeps with the end of WWII, but Willys adoped the jeep name and developed many successful civilian versions of the trusty wartime jeep.

Its simple, robust design gave the WWII jeep a legendary reliability in the field. The jeep served well beyond it's intended purpose acting as not only a Reconnaissance Car, but as weapons platform, ambulance, troop transport, equipment hauler, tractor, railroad locomotive (when fitted with special wheels) and more. The flat hood served equally well as a dinner table, operating table, map table or altar in the field. It was beloved by the troops and remains one of the most recognizable vehicles in the world.

Sources:
T. Norton, R. Bernier, & W. Spears, "Two Intrepid MB/GPW Restorers Go in Search of the Oldest Surviving Jeep." Army Motors 100, (2002): 8-18

Lawrence Nabholtz. The Military Jeep. Atlanta, Texas: B&M Printing, 1996

Ray Cowdery. All-American Wonder, Vol 1,2. Minnesota: USM Publishing, 1996

J. Gilmore, MB GPW Technical Knowledge Base (2002). Available at http://www.g503.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=4 (11 January 2003)