And in this corner of the barn, we have a 1954 M38A1 Jeep! It looks pretty solid, but hasn’t run in a while. It’s located in Washington, Iowa and is up for sale here on eBay, where the opening bid is $1,500 and there’s no reserve. Our own Josh found this workhorse!

The seller tells us almost nothing about this Jeep, apart from it having “extremely little to no rust.” That seems like an odd way of putting it, but the structure does look solid, even the doors from the cab look pretty straight! Anyone got any idea what the markings on the hood and door are? Possibly an ex-fire vehicle?

It looks like the Jeep has been recently moved from the barn to outside, although it hadn’t been there long when this picture was taken judging from the grass condition under the Jeep. While you’re looking at this picture, what in the world is that circular indentation in the side of the body for (right in front of the door)? I found one reference to an “auxiliary power plug indentation” and saw the same feature on other M38A1’s, one of which had a plug like looking thing in the center of the circle, but I wasn’t sure.

It looks like you have some work to do on the inside, but it can’t be too bad–these are such simple vehicles to work on! Based on the overspray visible here, the Jeep wasn’t originally red, and may have been gray–possibly Navy? However you look at it, we are seeing a primitive interior here. But, as quoted on this page talking about the Marine Corps decision to continue purchasing the M38A1 for many years after its successor was introduced, an expert said “When the situation involved harsh terrain or severe conditions those d%&@ things were unstoppable”.

And here’s part of what made it unstoppable. The 72 horsepower Hurricane F-head four cylinder would never set the world on fire with its power, but it sure would keep going when the going got tough. Are you the right person to get it going again?