> Dear list,
>
> Recently I was approached by a fellow Dutchman who is able to
> buy a jeep. The jeep he has an eye on, raises some questions
> though! Maybe some of you can help clear the sky around this
> vehicle.
>
> The jeep should be a 1942 Ford GPW which was imported from
> Indonesia to the Netherlands around 7 years ago. The papers
> that
> go with the jeep say (in Malaysian) that it is a 1945 Ford GPW.
> But...the dashboard nomenclature plates have the year 1952
> stamped in them.
I'm not 100% sure about this but here goes..
Our MB 43 an' 52 TRW were acquired from Pakistan and this is what we
experinced :
The MV's in question and a bunch more were old Pakistan military
surplus/mothballed->retired . Now the drill there was that the military
would auction the vehicles to the locals there (None -foreigners!) . then
it was upto the locals that bought the vehicles , what they would do with
them. Some bought them to fiw em and drive em, others would slap them
together an try an sell them to people interested in MV's (rich locals
and foreigners alike) . Being the developed country an all there was no
regulation about the degree or accuracy that these vehicles were fixed
up. As a rule NONE were ever really fixed up to original specs! Even if
the people fixing them claimed it. Truth being that some just don't know
what the original is supposed to be like they could not read nor did they
have any documentation.... Others were in it for a fast buck. result one
might be a proud owner of "something" that consisted of GPW, MB; Kaiser,
Mahindra, suzuki and other misc. parts.... Then came the documents.
usually the dócuments, titles etc were whatever happened to be at hand at
the time. Before we bought our Mb, it was according to the document
(mixed english and Urdu) and 1952 M-38. BUT according to frame serial
number an MB . Engine too was MB as most other parts. It still has a
bunch of GPW parts in it, as well as a coupl odds and ends. The odometer
that our Mb came with was an old trashed one of an Indian "kaiser " copy
jeep, an Mahindra.
Oddly our jeep then didnt have any data plates. My father asked that
plates be attached on and that they did. only prob was that one was an m
38 plate .... and the list goes on...
Paint that was on when we looked at our potential new "buy" was an ochre
red. under that was an really faded OD. Now it sports a dark OD.
Only after buying several books on Jeeps and MV's in general were we able
conclude that :
A) it is an MB frame
B) MB engine
after which we began a loong slow process changíng all non-mb parts...
Lesson of story... find out the frame numbers... do not trust the
documents as they are easy to forge. data plates can be always put on
later . If its an MB willys the frame number should be on the left frame
beam just near the junction of the front bumber. Also the cross beam
under the radiator in an MB is round.... as for the more precise engine
number data et all, someone else on the list may have the info needed
closer at hand....?
When we came to Finland an friend bringing an military vehicle had an
"original" pakistani receipt for his car, which the local custom official
took as a real thing (it wasn't and REALLY did not look it!). Eventhough
the paper looked really crappy and suspect. Its amazing how much the
bureucrats trust a piece of paper from some far off land with no regard
towards written statements...
But like I said I'm not exactly sure about Malaysia, though I wouldn't be
surprised if it were like what we went through....
sorry bout the length...
-- Juho Paaso ------------------------------- http://www.dlc.fi/~jmpaaso OR http://trade.hamkk.fi/~paasjuho -------------------------------YOL BOLSUN !
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