Jeff Falcon’s Willys M38A1 Restoration Beginning

 I live in a small town of Pierre Part Louisiana, which is in the south eastern part of Louisiana about 50 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico and the home of Infamous Swamp People. I’m employed at a local chemical plant, I’m a small business owner that enjoys working on anything from repairing a water hose to rebuilding this Jeep. For as long as I can remember I always had challenging projects but I never went this deep into any project like this Jeep project. This 1953 Willys M38A1 Jeep was sitting in the previous owners front yard for quite some time before I really noticed it. One evening I spotted the Jeep on my way home from work and thought about that thing for a week or so I tried taking myself out of stopping to talk to the owner, afraid I wouldn’t leave with out it, well as I figured I happened to pass when the he was doing yard work so I stopped and I guess I caught him just right because he told me he wanted X amount for it which I could not believe it I could not get to my house quick enough, hook up my trailer and right back before he changed his mind. I knew the Jeep would require some work but I wanted to get it going to go play around in the mud, woods etc. but when I started researching what I had and how these Jeeps served us in war no telling what story this Jeep could tell I just knew I had to restore it and the more I dug into the history of this jeep the more I found out about this 1953 Willys M38A1C, some of the M38A1’s were modified with extra rear support springs, bed supports, the rear tail gate panel was removed, a special windshield was put in with a U-shape in the center for the barrel of the huge gun that was mounted in the rear of this Jeep, the spare tire and Jerry can was moved to the passenger side although I won’t be going back with the gun, I installed the rear tailgate panel back and I will move the spare tire back to the rear along with the Jerry can, I will put all labeling back as per original with a slightly different color scheme which of course the main color will be Olive Drab the rest will be a pleasant surprise so everyone must stay tuned to see my progress, I’m a few weeks away from spraying inside and the underneath then masking it off and finishing the outside shortly after I will set the body on a dolly covering it up then rolling in the chassis totally dissemble, rebuild every part until its near perfect then… To be continued. 

Kaiser Willys Jeep Blog Story – Jeff Falcon

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