mhouston44

Trying to identify what i have here. It is a friend of mines dads jeep. he wants to get it fixed up and going but has no idea what it is. He "thinks" its a 58 but isnt exactly sure. I have searched a bit and think its a CJ5 but i really dont know. He needs a gas tank to start out with but until he figures out what he has he doesnt want to order anything. Any help on year/model would be appreciated.

fourtwenty

under the hood on the firewall drivers side is where most of the id tags were that model looks to be from the late 40 to mid 50 might be a kaiser jeep. I had one years ago. Is the tank under the front seat? We had a v6 in ours from an 80's gm just bolted right in. good luck orrick

citcapp

That looks like a M38A1 Military jeep. First of the round fender jeeps. It had a overhead 4 banger at the beginning of its life and a 24 volt electrical system. Small block chev V8's fit just fine. You can find adapter for this conversion on line

mhouston44

Citcapp, you are the 2nd person to tell me it looks like an M38A1. The guy i was talking to said because of the glove box being on the drivers side made him think it was the military version, but then he said since the headlights were not recessed it may have been a CJ5. he also said that during the time these were being built that they had no real order to the chaos of building jeeps, just whatever they could find laying around that would fit is what they used. So maybe with that being said, most of the parts are interchangable?

Texascarnut

Looks like a "Johnny Cash" model. I.e.; "one piece at a time."

There appear to be parts from several generations of Jeeps on that sucker. Not even the tags will help beyond discovering what it started out being. It does appear to have started out as a Korean War era military Jeep.

Jamesbo

If memory serves me correctly, an M38A1 will have a hole on the passanger side for the exhaust snorkle. [Could be covered with a plate]

mhouston44

the more i research it, the more i think its just a real early model of a CJ5. from what i have read the M38A1 ha a two piece windshield and the recessed headlights. Someone told me that was an aftermarket hard top on there. either way it looks like its going to be a fun project, especially since the money isnt coming out of my pocket!

Jamesbo

I'm not sure exactly how to explain this but a Miliary jeep has thicker paint. Almost like undercoating then paint. This makes the sheet metal [hood etc] heavier

bkeese

Your picture don't show enough, but based on what I see, the large gas tank openning, the tool box in the cowl, I would say it is military, M38A1. As Jamesbo said the hood should have a double bump hole in the passemgers side. I had a 65 CJ5 with the tool box that wasn't military, but I don't remember that glove box on the left. The id tag that fourtwenty refers to should be on the frame.

Good luck.

Jamesbo

Again, Reaching back into my rather dusty memory banks. On an M38A1, the seat supports are tubular. In the pic, yours look flat.

The gas tank would be under the drivers seat and the tool compartment under the passanger seat. The passanger seat pulls forward to access the tool compartment.

As Pat mentioned the M38A1 origonally came with a 24 volt electric system. I'm not certain but I thought the "tool box in the cowl' was for the extra batteries. As I recall [like above] the tool box was under the passanger seat

Pat???????????? Help me out here.

citcapp

Its a M38A1 there are several indicators:

The large hole for the gas filler. They were set up for filling with jerry cans and the tank had a large filler tube and twist on waterproof cap
The Glove box on the drivers side
The battery box on the passengers side between the hood and the windshield
The tool box under the passengers seat
The wind shield was two piece with a rubber separation piece. Most were changed out to the later 55 one piece windshield. the dimensions were the same. I did this conversion on mine.
The headlights on mine were not recessed and it was original with the 24 volt system when I bought it. The hoods where interchangeable with the later year civilian jeep

First M38A1 produced in 1952 and continued thru 1957
First civilian model of the round fender design produced in 1955

cherokeepeople

also in pic 3 right above the tail light is a recepticle for a 24v or radio harness.it has a little flip down door.it should also have a big tag on the dash on the passenger side.it will be about 12 inch by 8 inch.it tells all the info as far as 4x4 etc.nut i do have a couple doubts.and better pics of the gauge cluster and of the front grille will help

willychris

I know this is an older post so I don't know how far you have gotten but from what I can tell what you have appears to be a cj5 with an m38a1 tub on it, dead give away is m38a1s and only m38a1s have reversed shackels on the front springs, all m38a1s have recessed headlights,there was a model called the cjv that was basically a cj5 with 24 volt electrical and some other military features but are fairly rare and usually for export,the receptical above the taillight is the trailer receptical. I can't tell completely without seeing more photos but another dead giveaway would be to see if the front frame rails are boxed in,cj5s were never boxed in. M38a1s were built from 52 to 57 for the usmc and army and for export from 58 to 72 with a small contract going to the usmc in 64 and they were not a hodgpodge of parts from whatever they had lying around,they were made to specific spefications from the us government,usually after their military service is when they got the mismatched parts because most parts were interchangeable and people used whatever to keep them going. Aside from oldsmobiles I am a avid collector and restorer of old military vehicles and have a pretty good knowledge of them especially m38a1s, please feel free to ask me any questions you might have.