FINDING THE HISTORY OF AN EX-MILITARY VEHICLE

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The history is USUALLY only found in clues still on the vehicle.

LOOK FOR:
1. Old documents with the vehicle (lubrication instructions, manuals, route maps, garbage left by soldiers (candy wrappers etc.) and stuff that falls down under the gas tank for example. Friends have found money from Cyprus in one 1967 Army jeep, Vietnamese money in a 1960s vehicle etc. I found a 1960s coin from Guatemala in my 1942 amphibious jeep.
2. PAINTED MARKINGS and DECALS (also called TRANSFERS). This is the MAIN way to trace any history on a jeep or other MV.

SERIAL NUMBER (VIN) SEARCHES
These will probably only turn up previous civilian owners. The military usually did not use this serial number on most records, but instead assigned a standardized painted-on number (also stamped into the frame on many 1950s vehicles in Canada). On 1960s and 1970s vehicles this number was often applied with stick-on numbers. On 1980s-1990s vehicle in Canada it often
only appeared on the paperwork and on the military licence plate which was almost always removed before it was sold surplus. This standard military number was usually painted on both sides of a vehicle up to about 1971 and is how the military controlled it in their records.

 1985 Norwegian military sales document for my 1944 Willys MB (SN VDN-1121) (click on picture to enlarge it).

PREVIOUS OWNERS
Ask them for ANY information - and parts! Ask where they got it and what they know of its history. Ask about any items removed from it. Ask about any old photos they might have of it - some show old markings before they were painted over. The previous owner of a 1942 Ford GPW jeep had photos if it as he found it and many of the markings clearly showed. He later erased them when he sandblasted it, but the photos survived. Ask for ANY paperwork. 

On my 1942 Ford GPA (amphibious jeep) I found the original bill of sale, vehicle licence, the man's driver's licences, old licence plates for the vehicle, the boat licence and the boat licence plates for this amphibious car, photos of it when he bought it in 1957, and many photos taken of it as the years went by.

CLUES IN THE VEHICLE
On my 1944 Willys MB I found the Norwegian military anti-freeze tag in the engine compartment, and Norwegian candy wrappers and pop bottle caps in behind seats and in cubby-holes. Some owners will have the original paperwork when it left the military. One on 1967 jeep we found a message written inside the glove box telling us the name of the jeep ("Igor"), its last driver, and the unit. I found empty rifle shell casings in a bunch of jeeps where they had fallen down into nooks and crannies or under seats.

PAPER RECORDS STILL WITH THE MILITARY
The military usually destroys all the paper records when they sell a vehicle surplus. Exceptions are the British who fortunately kept the records for post-WWII vehicles and these are accessible to collectors. Canada and the USA are unfortunately not good places to try to trace the history. If you can identify the vehicle's army registration number, and identify at least one of the units that had it (based on markings etc.) then you can contact the museum for that regiment and ask to look at old photos etc. to see if it shows up. You can also ask to try to find old drivers who remember the vehicle. Knowing the military number and ideally some distinguishing feature of the vehicle sometimes helps. I found one driver for a 1967 jeep I had, and he had some old photos he had taken when it was in service. He also had stories about it. He remembered it mainly because I described how the back seat was bent, so that clarified which one of two such jeeps the regiment had that it was.

SEARCHING FOR PAINTED MARKINGS
Study old photos so you know where to look. Look at the vehicle in good light. Look straight on and from angles. A flashlight or trouble light can be useful to pick up high and low areas where multiple paint layers exist and may reveal painted over markings. Scrape to find the markings, and one can also carefully sand down. Wet and dry FINE grit works well. Water brings up the paint colours, but you have to keep wiping
it clear as the particles suspended in the water make it murky quite quickly. Check with someone like me as to what the markings mean. TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS - before, during and afterwards. Measure and draw any markings you find. Describe the colours and locations. Vehicles were often transferred between units, so paint layers and markings can be many layers deep. On one 1967 jeep I found United Nations decals under the more recent camouflage paint.

I'd be interested to know the following data about your jeep:
Any history ____
Your name and location ____
Any markings found on it ___

Data plate info:
Model _____
VIN (serial number) _____
Date made (as stamped e.g. 5-6-43) _____
Contract number _____


Engine serial number (of engine now in it) ____

Frame serial number ____

Go to next page about military registration numbers. Link is here: http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net/history_of_you_vehicle.htm 

Sincerely

Colin Macgregor Stevens
seaforth72@hotmail.com

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