Hi Guy’s,
l have been lurking on steel soldiers for a while. I wanted a deuce and a half but every time I had the money for one some emergency came up. Anyhow fast forward to today. I have an El Camino up for sale at the moment and have been offered a M38A1 in trade for it. Spoken to the guy on the phone, it’s still 24 volt, has had a quick paint job. He says no rust, it’s been layed up a year as the transfer case is leaking really bad to the point of undriveable. So will need a tranfer case overhaul and reseal that doesn’t scare me too much. Also it’s never been registered came out of a government auction. What would something like this be worth? I’m looking at keeping it as a fun parade vehicle.
Thanks,
Alex
I am going to be Derrick Downer today.
I have a fair amount of experience with this. I've had a GPW, 4 M38A1s and I have customers with M38 and M38A1 models which I have done extensive work on.
On one hand, that Jeep looks pretty good. It has the rear seat, top bows, etc. Like all of them, it's missing the front D-rings and probably other stuff.
You need to ask yourself what you want out of a vehicle like this. If it's never had a full blown, ground up, frame off restoration, then you'll always be dealing with something on it. That vehicle is 60+ years old. If it has the original wiring in it, then every time you go to diagnose an issue or repair/modify something (like adding a passenger side tail/brake light), you're going to be dealing with brittle wiring that the outer sheath is crumbling off of. The Douglas connectors can fail, in that the inner rubber insulator falls off or becomes dislodged and then the outer shell can become energized and it will be exciting when it touches something under the dash.
My M38A1 customer bought a Jeep that looked very similar to the one you posted and a few months after he bought it, it spun the #4 rod bearing and smoked the crank and the #4 rod. Upon disassembly, I found about 2" of sludge in the bottom of the pan that had completely clogged the pickup.
If it's missing the correct distributor and carb, that's big bucks (relatively, I mean obviously we're not talking Ferrari prices here but it's several hundred dollars).
With military vehicles, it's very easy to make an old, worn out vehicle look very presentable with a fresh coat of paint. There's no chrome, no leather, not a lot of weatherstripping. It's very easy to buy something that looks like it's going to be a fun "around town bomber" and find that you end up doing a complete restoration on.
So, you need to go over the thing with a keen eye for detail. You need to be able to answer the following questions for yourself (either getting the answers from the seller or figuring it out on your own):
What's been done to the engine? Completely rebuilt? Head gasket? Nothing?
What's been done to the transmission?
What's been done to the clutch?
Has the transmission ever been rebuilt? Does it grind or pop out of second gear (a common T90 issue)?
Have the axles been rebuilt or had a major service (like the front knuckles removed and everything serviced?)
What's been done to the brakes? New master and fluid, or everything (including steel lines)?
How's the wiring? Including under the dash? New? Old but okayish? Old and trashed?
How much m-series stuff is missing?
How good was this paint job? Did they pull the tub off and sandblast it to bare metal or did they just scuff it and shoot it as is?
How is the tub itself? Floors and hat channels commonly rust as do the bottom of the battery boxes.
Is the frame bent? Front frame horns are commonly bent, repaired or replaced altogether.
How new is that canvas top?
Any driveability issues, like death wobble?
How tight is the steering linkage? I see tons of Jeeps where the steering box and every piece of linkage is shot.
Those are all things I'd look at. Ask yourself what you're capable/willing/can afford to deal with and what you want out of the thing.
All that being said, you only live once, buy it and if you have to, blow up your credit card rebuilding it.
