Author Topic: Help with a Jeep  (Read 3201 times)

Offline Ned260

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Help with a Jeep
« on: July 31, 2015, 05:53:01 PM »
G'day all,

Recently we picked up an un-restored, 1942 Willys MB (Donald), the owner says his father bought it from a Catalina pilot who bought it soon after the war finished, and it has only been used on their family farm and never been registered. I was hoping some of you may be able to shed some light on Donald's past as he is covered in original looking markings.

The first marking we noticed is possibly the most fascinating, it depicts the sign of the 8th  division AIF, of which most of its soldiers we captured as POW's and sadly many died, and the division ceased to be after February of 1942, so surely it would be something special to see on a jeep?
It is on the right hand side of the windscreen frame.


The second confusing marking is what is barely recognisable as the 1st Armoured Division, located on the rear just above the willys script. Underneath is a photo of the full unit marking.



Third, and most difficult to depict is on the left hand side windscreen frame, see what you think, to me it is 48 on a blue background with a white background above, might need to stand away from your screen on this one.


And lastly, a photo of Donald seeing daylight for the first time since 1978.


If anyone can make any sense of this bunch of markings it would be much appreciated, and if it is of any relevance, the bonnet number/ARN is 128079.
Thanks,
Ned
48-666 110 GS 1988
175-180 109 FFT 1969

Offline dodgeguy1942

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Re: Help with a Jeep
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2015, 07:18:49 PM »
Hey nice jeep are you going to restore it?

Offline Ned260

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Re: Help with a Jeep
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2015, 07:26:31 PM »
As there is very little rust in the body, it will be restored mechanically to reliable driving condition, but the body will be kept original to preserve its history and character, and just to be something different as we already have a restored 1944 Ford GPW.
48-666 110 GS 1988
175-180 109 FFT 1969

Offline AGAS 5

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Re: Help with a Jeep
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2015, 07:30:41 PM »
The 3rd one is the tactical colours of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals (RASigs). I'm not sure which unit had the number 48 though.

That's a lovely jeep btw :)

Cheers.
Series 2A SWB 113-300 VTF  6 RAR
Perentie FFR 49-290  2 Sig Regt
Perentie FFR 49-390  1 MP BN
Perentie GS 50-087  5 RAR

Offline Mike C

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Re: Help with a Jeep
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2015, 12:36:20 AM »
Hi NED260,

Nice 'barn find'. They are getting narder and harder to unearth these days.

ARN 128079 was assigned to a Ford GPW, chassis number GPW65168, rather than a Willys MB. If you can check the chassis number and post it, I'll see if I can isolate which vehicle it actually is. The Ford GPW 128079 was sold soon after the end of the war.

The markings are a bit of a mystery: the '48' in red on a white/blue background was the marking of a Field Artillery Regiment signal section, later a Field Regiment sig section within a Jungle Division (ie a lightweight infantry division), so a marking from the 1944-45 period.

The 8th Inf Div had pretty much ceased to exist before the first batches of jeeps started to arrive in Australia (June 1942), so it is doubtful that this sign is an original marking. The 1st Armd Division sign is reasonable for the period 1942-43, as is the Unit sign for a sig sect in a jungle inf div. Is the 1st Armd Div sign in black and white, or black and yellow, please?  Makes a difference as to period. The WW2 sign was black and white. 

Making sense of the markings depends a lot on which paint layer they are painted onto, relative to each other. So which do you think is the most recent (closest to the top coat) and which the oldest (lower down in the paint layers)?

Is the vehicle painted in Deep Bronze Green? It looks like it from the image. This would possibly indicate some period of post-war service, rather than being sold off at war's end as 128079 was.

If you can provide some more info as above, I'll see if we can deduce some more info for you.

Regards

Mike C

 

Offline Mike C

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Re: Help with a Jeep
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2015, 11:11:55 AM »
Ned,

Your PM recd and replied to.

Mike C