aboonski
Member
- 722
- 8
- 18
- Location
- West Melbourne Florida
In 1968 I had just graduated from AF basic training at Amarillo AFB TX and got my first assignment to the 6550th USAF Hospital at Patrick AFB Florida. When I got back into town (Melbourne Florida was my home town in '6
I needed transportation and found a 1952 military jeep in our local paper for sale for $500.00. Back then, M38s were cheap! This one had a hardtop and was 100% pure - no modifications at all. I remember it even had a primer system on the dash for hard starts and the remnants of some kind of radio equipment in back of the dash; supposedly, this jeep was once a general's jeep. I drove it for several weeks with the hard-starting 4-banger and came to the conclusion that it needed new life under the hood. To make a long story short, I pulled out the jeep engine and added a Ford 289 via a TransAdapt on the front of the stock tranny and the longer input spline from a 6-cylinder jeep. The rest is history. I sold the jeep when I got an assignment to Johnson Air Base Japan and, sadly, saw it in a locally owned junkyard when I returned from Japan two years later. All I have left is the technical manual for the M38 and a few photos of how I destroyed a perfectly good military jeep. One day I hope to by another 52 M38 with the tailgate that drops and the headlight protectors over the headlights. I plan to keep that one the way it was when the military first took possession of it! I hope the photos will post to this thread..... Anybody want to trade their Jeep for an M35A2C??????
I needed transportation and found a 1952 military jeep in our local paper for sale for $500.00. Back then, M38s were cheap! This one had a hardtop and was 100% pure - no modifications at all. I remember it even had a primer system on the dash for hard starts and the remnants of some kind of radio equipment in back of the dash; supposedly, this jeep was once a general's jeep. I drove it for several weeks with the hard-starting 4-banger and came to the conclusion that it needed new life under the hood. To make a long story short, I pulled out the jeep engine and added a Ford 289 via a TransAdapt on the front of the stock tranny and the longer input spline from a 6-cylinder jeep. The rest is history. I sold the jeep when I got an assignment to Johnson Air Base Japan and, sadly, saw it in a locally owned junkyard when I returned from Japan two years later. All I have left is the technical manual for the M38 and a few photos of how I destroyed a perfectly good military jeep. One day I hope to by another 52 M38 with the tailgate that drops and the headlight protectors over the headlights. I plan to keep that one the way it was when the military first took possession of it! I hope the photos will post to this thread..... Anybody want to trade their Jeep for an M35A2C??????
