52 M38a1 Motor Pool Resto

Well here we go with hopefully a straight forward resurrection of this 52' bucket of bolts. I stumbled across this project last March near Quincy Mass which I was unable to pass up. Fortunately, the PO did not disassemble very much and it's very complete including all seats, top bow and rods.

I believe that the PO purchased this from somewhere down south summer 2022. It sat on his trailer in the weather doing nothing. Apparently he had plans to highly modify but I'm pleased that he didn't.

It was still light enough last night to push it into the barn with the tractor last night. The cat said this is stupid, I'm outta here....

The reason I couldn't pass this up was the condition of the sheet metal. This is very hard to come by in New England.

My understanding is that this was a 'barn find'. I'm inclined to believe this because of the lack of rot, even in the usual areas we all know about.

I'd like to protect the body but at the same time, try and partially preserve the 71 years of patina. I'm open to ideas of how you guys would go about this. I do want to deal with the inside since someone years ago painted it black.

All the tags and data plates are there. In NH, it's very easy to register vehicles like this. Living in a small town is great. I call my local PD, they come over for a VIN verification and I bring that form to DMV with bill of sale and it's done.

This is the only body damage and some hammer and dolly work will make fast work of it. Some strange yellow paint on the hood and driver's side.

Lucky to have original fenders which are not that easy to find. They're in fine shape.

The first run of the M38A1 had some features which were later deleted or changed like the battery box lid. My 54' has the hinged lid which is a much better design.

Showing about 23,500 and I'm inclined to believe this is accurate. Yes, I have the floor pans, thankfully in good order.

Hinged grill was discontinued in 1953 I think. One great thing about the M38A1 is the boxed frame in the front end and the beefy tie rods.

It came with a correct RMD (military replacement) F-134 engine that I believe someone began to overhaul. In the crates of parts, there were valve spring and piston tools but poorly stored and unfortunately many orifices of the engine were exposed to humidity and years of mud daubers. That's a future project of it's own.

So the plan is to pull a running F-134 from a 58' rot box I have laying around for a transplant. I do not plan to go 24 volt but will be period correct 12 volt. This should be a fairly low budget project and do hope to have it up and running by the spring. First order is to remove the grill, fenders and regulator. Here we go...!! Pete

 

that yellow is old mass state dot color... my buddy george has one as well his was that color

 

The first M38A1 I had had the early hinged front grill, thumb screws on the battery box, and the early seamed fenders like yours. You are lucky to find one without a lot of rot. Looks like a great project. You may be able to find the original hood numbers by lightly and slowly sanding on the hood. It looks like a great starting point.
I'll be looking toward the progress on this build. Got a friend coming over today to help me get the 64 M38A1 running again. Lots of information on the M38A1's on the G503 website also.

Dave

 

It was harder to get mine inspected and titled, since I bought it from Virginia.
Had to get hold of the right DMV inspector to look at the numbers and fill out the paperwork for me to get the title. It wasn't driving and they wanted me to get it there to inspect. I finally convinced them to come and inspect it. The next two I bought were from South Carolina and the titling process went a lot smoother.
Great project.

Dave

 

just wow condition is great

 

I live in Florida and they don’t want to giv me a title. May have to title in another state

 

You should buy a lottery ticket. That this is in great shape. I’m a bit jelly. Start a build post…

 

OK, buyer's remorse is beginning to fade. I don't believe I've EVER owned a jeep with (intact) inner fender braces.

Thanks for the great comments. I promise to keep this thread image rich. Pete

 

Boy that thing is in good shape. Too nice to hack up. It good the previous owner never got around to modifying it.

 

What a beautiful Jeep! It is in such great shape!

 

Good progress today and happy to report no broken bolts. Some were stubborn but heat and patience pays off. There's no rush with this project. Front clip is off.

Had a chance to assess a number of things and have next steps. Regulator and splash pan out. It's unfortunate that the wiring harness disintegrates in my hands.

I knew the Ross had issues. There is a lot of slop on the pitman side of the box. Popped right off with some persuasion.

There was quite a bit of water in here.

Happy that the sector shaft is in good shape and the worm gear is fine. Just need bushings and seals. Who still has NOS nowadays?

So I've decided not to use the T90 and D18 from the 58 CJ5 because; 1) I don't have to change the rear bearing retainer on the D18 and: 2) It's already set up with the military e-brake (which works). So I'll drain and drop this tomorrow and assess next steps. I think that seals and gaskets are in order.

Had a visit this evening from fellow member blalp. My dog was helping him remove the front driveshaft (as if laying on a cold and dusty barn floor wasn't enough). Thank you Shaun!

 

Happy and honored to help work on this Jeep! It was a fun day! Thanks for having me over this afternoon. Oh, and thanks to your pup for helping with that driveshaft!

 

Arthur is a good dog. Thanks Shaun for your help!

 

Did you get the 64' running and is it it 24V...?

 

Wow, what a score! My first jeep was an M38A1 fro a local military school which I attended. They were in pristine condition but after being sold off to the private market I doubt any are even in this good of shape. Wish I had saved mine but being a college bound teen I just didn't have the time or resources to keep it running.
Have fun with this!

 

I agree. It was military policy to surplus them at about 25K miles. They were made available or loaned to other agencies, but often had very few miles added.

I got my M38A1-C from the Civil Air Patrol in Concord NH. (There is one over in Henniker fully equipped with the anti-tank 106mm.)

Our town FD also had one as a forest fire rig, with a 416 trailer - but the original contract required us to return it when we no longer wanted it.

 

Funny you should ask. Got it running today. 1967 CJ5A came by and we got both the 53 and the 64 running. The 53 now needs tie rod ends. It's got a bad case of death wobble. A few weeks ago we got the 64 running by working with the distributor, plugs, and swapping out the carb. Today we got it tuned and running well. They are both 24V and that made getting them all running well a challenge.
Drained the tank, changed out fuel lines and filters, tweaked the carb. On the 53, the notch on the distributor was letting the point plate move and the point gap wasn't consistent. Thanks to all his troubleshooting, Mike got them both running today.
It's great to get help from my friends here on the forum.

Dave

 

Let your fingers do the walking. Found this with one click
https://www.ebay.com/itm/204119962473?hash=item2f867f7369:g:zssAAOSwc9djSCr~&amdata=enc:AQAIAAAAwAAFYj20jDnutet/z2Ejv8+JzR5IWzC6d6cN2Ohe7Ym+7HH0c50SL74i5XCbMcdHWIHx2QFEDAJctZgGgFQ7QpkFWz86HH8vSf3B/iOVSbDQidnAJWP4UkLox9hFemY3qkQaBMJpouQmYs1j4zMuhwG9+AuNU7Od473g6lNtu70yC/LQYqMbUrc3btAFwaEtC9mPXuXOb6IxEeknxEloUbgeDcnS3JJJnUjg7XSrNJ0pxcaQEA+PuXEJYtou7cAoQg==|tkp:Bk9SR6alrpWKYw


Also there are a bunch of surplus vehicle dealers, and the collectors club, as resources. Nice thing about military jeeps is they stayed nearly the same year after year, there were mountains of spares stockpiled and extremely well preserved, and many parts are common with other military vehicles.

Excellent parts books are available surplus.

Try Peter De Bella, Quarter Ton & Military, or google the others.

 

Peter Debella and John Bizal with Midwest Military always have top notch parts.
I have also gotten parts from Quarter Ton Military. Lots of parts I have bought from forum members on the G503 and Willys M Jeeps websites. I have bought and parted out a few rusted out M38A1's for spare parts.

Dave

 

These 2 are the great, and I will add George Baxter of Army Jeep Parts.