52 M38a1 Motor Pool Resto

I was thinking the same thing. They are nothing but trouble. Lol

 

Beastie things, ugh, what was I thinking. I hate vacuum wipers!

 

As good as shape they're in, the fenders are really dirty and full of crud. There seems to be some tarry undercoating but it's spotty. Makes me dream that this was a USMC jeep with a limited slip rear but that is a very remote possibility. We'll find out sometime in the future.

I have this love hate relationship with needle scalers, but at the end of the day, they do serve their purpose.

I've accumulated some sketchy fenders over the years which need restoring and braces replaced. I bought these old stock parts some years ago when I didn't have any decent fenders. As luck would have it, I came into good fenders so these braces have been just sitting on the shelf.

This is what they look like without the fender.

The two holes on each one are there to accommodate the horn bracket on the M38A1. Each brace can be used on either driver and passenger sides. I've seen CJ5 fenders with and without the braces but no clue why some came with or without.

 

Look for a different rear frame member, IIRC, reinforced for lift-points.

 

Nope, does not have the reenforced rear crossmember...

 

More rusty bits destined for the blasting cabinet. I like to wait until I have a good pile of parts before making that move.

So far, the bolts aren't fighting me too much. These are the lower grill hinges that bolt onto the frame.

 

USMC made field changes to the their jeeps. But They took from the same line that the Army drew from until the mid sixties when they started to have them built for them. That was about the time that the Army was moving away from the A1’s we had a very creative motor pool and they changed things to meet the need.

 

Going to the military vehicle shows, a guy had an MB. A cool little Jeep that he traced to the Lend/Lease program from England. It ran well and looked like it just came out of the field He said guy at the show told him the windshield wasn't correct for that year. I said how can you say that when the military pulled parts off of Jeeps to keep them running? Who can say what the military did to keep these old vehicles running? I wanted to find that "Expert and ask where his WWII Jeep was. You can find anything and everything on those Jeeps. The trick is to figure what the military did and what Bubba did.

Dave

 

Very true. Our jeeps had a split windshield. The A1-C had an opening in the windshield for a large cannon. lol. To stick through. When I was looking for a replacement frame I found one online for sale but choose not to go that way in ace someone actually had a A1-C that needed the correct frame.

 

I'm traveling for a few days visiting family so just making busy on this thread. I took a bunch of pics before I left. I'll post more as time permits.

OK, seats. Not really a priority any time soon, but this is what we've got kicking around. Driver's:

Passengers. Both of these seats look to have been covered twice in the past. Seat pans look good but if they turn out not to be, I have other good ones on the shelf.

Seat backs. I forgot to take a pic of the rear seat but it appears to be in similar condition. I will not be blasting these frames, just cleaning them up so I stay within the spirit of a mechanical restoration.

I have two NOS seat back springs (below) without hair pad that came along with this project, (but I will clean up the ones above first to reuse them if in good condition). Waste not want not.

I found NOS hair pads on eBay; Hair/felt pads But wow, the cost with shipping seems astronomical from BMJP. I'll try other vendors before making that move. I've used Beachwood in the past for seat covers and am happy with them, but I'm open to suggestions about what direction to go. I've never used springs and hair/felt pads before, just high density foam.

If I decide to use the ventilating windshield on this project, I'll investigate using high density foam for the bottoms at half the thickness. It's probable that with my height at 6'1", it will be difficult to see traffic lights because of the smaller vertical window size.

 

Horns, horns and more horns. These two are 24 volt. A spare came with this project and I'll test them when I have two batteries kicking around the shop at the same time.

This is the horn that I'll be using for this project. Tested and works but I need to replace the rotted mount. I have the correct parts on the shelf to do this but they're too shiny and new. This Auto-Lite came out of 58 CJ3B that I parted out almost 10 years ago. I've made it a habit to never toss anything!

I realize that some will frown upon not sticking with 24 volt electrical system, but I have all the period correct components that I've accumulated over the years.

 

But I suppose that I could use a 24 volt horn if I use a resistor. Any wisdom on this? I've never done that before.....

 

Midwest Military has a resistor that I used to run a 6 volt black out drive light off 12 volts. (My command car is factory 12 volt since it is a radio car, and the sealed beam BOD lamps only available in 6 volt). I'm not sure it's worth the expense when you could just use a 12V jeep horn.

 

Horn takes huge amount of current (amps), but ALSO the adjustment is very sensitive to voltage. Not at all like a black-out light in either way. Hard to imagine a resistor working without headaches.

 

I agree, yeah that was a bad idea

 

Bad ideas are usually the most fun.

I once tried to wire up revolving FD red lights on a 24-volt jeep by putting two 12 volt units in series. The motor dynamics made one turn slower and slower, while the other one would spin faster and faster.

 

Here….HOLD my beer!…lol

 

Engine that came with this project. I've done nothing to it so far. It's pretty complete.

It's locked up tight.

All the trim is included thankfully. I'm happy that the lift hook is included (not really visible). It came with pretty much two of everything (generators, distributors, carbs, regulators and fuel pumps) but I'm pretty sure they need rebuilding.

I believe that it was partially rebuilt and then abandoned. Pretty much every orifice was left open to humidity and mud daubers.

 

Odd color for a military.

All that 24-volt furniture is very valuable, as you know. Me, I'd use it, for the sake of the extremely high quality and long-term low maintenance.

 

Agreed with the odd engine color, but it is a RMD (replacement MD). While not the original engine, it is 'motor pool' correct as you probably know. Pete, it comes down to dollars and cents with this build. No funds to purchase a water proof harness just right yet. All this trim will not be sold off. In time I'll do it right!