Need some buying advice

I am looking at this M38A1 for a major project. I would love to have it just for some light wheeling and cruising on nice days...I am looking for some insight on what Im getting myself into. Not new to Jeeps but new to the CJs...Any help would be greatly appreciated! Asking price is $700 but I was thinking more around $450.

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You want to do a restoration or remove all the military stuff? A properly restored M38A1 is a fairly valuable vehicle. IIRC the 24V waterproof electric stuff is wildly expensive though. If you are missing a lot of pieces, it may not be economic to restore it.

It would help to post your pictures in a larger format. Also, you are in the wrong forum - a M38A1 definitely has the biscuit fenders, not flat fenders.

Welcome from Boston!

 

I saw that one on craigslist too. You're getting yourself into a lot. If you really want a wheeler I'd try to find one that's a little more together for a better starting point

Welcome from Richmond. I think our usernames may cause some confusion!

 

I see the confusion...of course your name appears to be Ben also. Go figure. The jeep is in a sad condition from the bigger pictures that were sent to me by the seller. Not terrible on the rust but definately a year or so's worth of work. I have an appointment to go take a peek at it on Sunday. We'll see after that. Thanks for the help. Sorry about the wrong forum. Not sure how to switch that.

 

You're kidding. This is gonna get interesting.

You from farmville originally? I grew up in Blackstone and have a few friends whp went to Sydney and Longwood

 

Great and you both have XJs also.


I agree with VaJeeper.

 

Haha, figures my first post and I'm already causing confusion. Im actually originally from Richmond. I graduated from Longwood and now I work there in charge of fire safety and prevention. With regard to the Jeep, I'll know more after Sunday when I see it. I plan on taking lots of pictures so we'll see how it turns out. Thanks for the help guys.

 

I'm doing a M38A1 also and it's a lot of fun.

http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58372

In my opinion it all depends on the rust situation. I would carefully inspect the frame and see if you at least have a good starting point. Move on and check the tub condition then last check for overall completeness because all the other stuff will nickel and dime you.

At 400 you can afford to take a risk because you can probably get that back on selling parts.

If your on a budget you can put the engine together as 12v and switch over to 24v later. Is the tranny good? Axles? You can put rebuilding those off until later if they are decent.

Can't see the pictures very well so can't help you much more.

 

53A1- here are some much larger pictures. From what I can see, the passengers side floor pan is rusted through and I've been told that all of the running gear is present and in some sort of working fashion. Good luck with your project. I'll be keeping an eye on your thread for sure.

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**EDIT** Several are upside down as he scanned some 35mm for me. Sorry about that.

 

From the pictures, the rust does not look too bad. The floor and the hat channels that support it are the first things to rust through.

IIRC that style of front fender (with the seam going diagonally across it) is unique to the M38A1. You'll want to save that bent-up fender.

To me, this one is too good a M38A1 to strip and make into a CJ-5 copy (edit: well, maybe not ... looking at it more - might be a good source of a frame and a body for a civilian build-up)... but it also will be expensive to bring it back to full military condition. I'd suspect this was somebody's parts Jeep, and they've taken quite a few parts from it for another M38A1. Also, I was around (ca 71-72) when the last of these vehicles were being sold at public auction by the GSA. The vehicles that I saw up for auction were similar to this - mostly complete but lots of parts missing. Certainly no running/driving vehicles were being auctioned. I presume the services took what parts they thought they might need and sold of the rest of the vehicle.

Are there parts that go along with this Jeep?

 

From talking to the owner on the phone he told me that he has the passenger and rear seats, but not the drivers seat. He also told me that he has "lots of other spare parts" but didn't go into detail about what exactly he had. I know for a fact that there is no gas tank either in the jeep nor in the spare parts. I don't think I'm quite up for the challenge (or budget) of doing a military restore on it, although I don't plan on modifying so heavily that it could not be done in the future should I have a change of heart or want to sell it.

 

I'd be concerned about the condition of the engine block, the head looks like it has been off of it for a few years, and those cylinders have been exposed to the elements.

 

If it were me, I'd crawl and poke everywhere on it and write down how much rust through there really is. From my humble experience the hardest and most time consuming part is doing the metal and body work.

Also, think of the tools you will need to complete the job. Your going to need a small sand blaster and compressor for the small parts. You will have to have the bigger stuff sent to the sand blaster so you will need a trailer. You want to make sure there is enough material left when the blasting is done or your going to be welding in pieces of metal. You are going to need a welder and paint gun. Also if you throw metal work in the mix, you will need a shear and bender. Also think of the space required to do the rebuild. You need at least a two car garage or a outdoor space where you can work.

As far as military or not military rebuild I don't understand the big difference. If you build it back with what is there the body and frame will be all military and the engine you can add military parts to later. As far as the engine, you can find them for cheap and sometimes they don't need a rebuild. They used those engines for many years so they are out there. That's what I did.

 

From Blackstone? I was born and raised in Alberta. Sure do miss the country!

 

Well...I bought the Jeep yesterday. We settled on $500 and I can honestly say that I don't regret it yet. I got literally a truck full of spare parts to go with the Jeep. I'll post pictures as I make some progress. Hopefully a little bit every paycheck. Here are a couple from yesterday of us rolling it onto the trailer in Mathews.

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Hey it is a better Start then Chia was.

 

$500 is a good deal for that. Congrats!