Well...I FINALLY BOUGHT ONE.
A unit built in March, 1955.
Rust free, unmodified body with just under 50k miles on the odometer.
I bought it at a very VERY good price.
No history with it, the Army numbers are long gone...which made it easy for me to decide to paint it in USAF Strata Blue. It will have a 55Kxxxx AF serial made up of the last four of the Willys serial. On the bumpers, I'll put the unit my father flew for during 1955 and the base I was born at a few weeks before.
I grew up on AF bases, a neighbor used to let me drive his surplus A1 daily driver on the base back roads when I was 10. So it was the first vehicle I ever drove.
It has very decent OD paint, so like many Jeeps allotted to the Air Force, it will remain green under the hood. It has new green canvas seats and a new, never been installed, full top.
It has been fairly well looked after but needs the usual: New seals, gaskets, hoses and belts. The radiator had been cleaned at one time, but I'm doing it again.
Also, we'll rebuild the master cylinder and wheel cylinders, overhaul the steering box.
The biggest and most expensive thing found so far is the need for a new wiring harness. Again, it's the factory unit, attesting to it's original configuration...not being subject to ham-fisted repairs and questionable additions over the years.
Two of the gauges were later model military units, I have sourced period-correct replacements. I found the part numbers in a 1956 edition of the G-758 manual.
The guy doing the work is a MV specialist, Hopefully it will be finished in late January.