M38 Markings

When I purchased the M38, the previous owner had done just enough sanding on the hood sides to determine what the hood number was, but had not progressed any further.   When I started sanding down through the solid OD paint job that had been applied to the jeep, I found a few markings in addition to the ones that the previous owner had found, but I didn't find many of the "standard" markings that one would expect to find.   I did locate the tire pressure stencils on the fenders, and the hood number on the driver's side and the hood star, and the remnants of the hood number on the driver's side rear bumperette, but otherwise, nothing I found looked like it was according to the TM...

When I was asked to have the jeep cary the 2004 Raleigh Veterans' Day parade's grand marshal, I decided to go ahead and repaint the M38 even though I was not yet done repairing rust damage to the side of the body tub on both sides or the rusted out passenger front floor.   I figured that the fresh paint wouldn't hurt anything, and I could always come back and touch up what I damaged once the new steel was welded in...  A post on both the MVemail list and to the M38 forum on the G503 website garnered a couple of replies to the effect that my jeep was marked as a base motorpool vehicle from the 5th Army base at Camp McCoy.   Several of the respondents mentioned that they had served in the 5th Army and that the vehicles at both Leonard Wood and McCoy had been marked similar to my M38.   With this knowledge in hand, I decided to go ahead and to apply the markings that I had found.  I did skip replacing the underhood caution as I have no hook on the jeep for use in securing the hood.    The markings were applied using Rick Larsen's paint mask product and, as usual, the quality of the product and the speed of shipping was incredible.

If you have questions about any of these photos, send me an email and I'll try to provide an answer. 

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Photo Caption
1 Hood number on driver's side.  Number is stenciled twice on two different layers of paint, earlier stencil is on back edge of hood where it is not obscured by the black out light, newer stencil is closer to front edge of hood and is partially obscured by black out light.   Stencil reads in 2" tall letters: U. S. Army 20895895.   A comparison of this hood number and others supplied on the Yahoo M38 group listing show it to correlate well with others, so I assume that it might be the original number.   I did not find the number stenciled on the passenger side of the hood.  Bottom line of text is 1" up from the edge of the hood.   The tip of the "Y" in army is 3.5" from the hood edge by the cowl.
2 Stencil in 2" high letters just above the step on the driver's side read "5 A CPMcC"   I think somebody wanted folks to know who's jeep it was...  The little "c" is a 1" high letter and the "CP" is centered on the mirror bracket.  The bottom of the text is 2.5" up from the top of the step.
3-5 From the looks of the mounting holes in the bed and the evidence that it had the 100 amp charging system, I had figured out that it was a radio jeep.    This stencil in 2" letters just under and forward of the fuel tank filler in place of the tank fill caution reinforces my thoughts about it's prior use.    Stencil reads "VEP 1-469" on the top row and "N/VRO-3" on the bottom row.    The "V" is 1" from the body seam.
6-7 Very little remained of the hood star, but it was 25" from tip to tip (point to point) and had a point toward the front of the hood.   Tip was 6" from the edge of the hood and is almost in line with the rear edge of the hood blocks.
8 Jeep "owner's" stencil repeated on the passenger side right between the pioneer tool handles.   Once again, in 2" tall letters is "5 A CPMcC."  Edge of text is 1" forward of the axe sheath edge.
9-10 Found the under hood marking that is normally found on the 3/4 ton and larger trucks telling one that they need to secure the hood when servicing the engine.    Since the M38 doesn't have a hood retainer hook like the larger trucks, I'm not sure why this is here unless somebody got overzealous at one point...   Text is different than what I've seen before as well and reads "secure hood in raised position with safety hook before servicing" in 1" tall letters.
11-19 Shots taken of the jeep just before applying makings one afternoon after work in early November 2004.
20 Paint mask applied.
21 Paint mask with extra craft paper taped down and tire draped for increased paint protection during stenciling (I used a can a white Valspar spray paint).
22 Marking once the paint has slightly dried and the paint mask has been removed.
23 View of the passenger side once the markings had been applied.
24 Passenger fender and hood.
25 Shot of the driver's side just before I pulled it back into the garage for the night.   M35A2C in the background.

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