Hello Jeff, In the later 70's, the bodies were Z-Barted which is a
undercoating material. They were done by a aftermarket dealer right there
in South Bend who set up shop at the factory. There were also some
galvanized jeeps (lower portion only) but those were few and were mainly for
export and experimental towards the end. AMG realized they had a rust
problem for years and were trying to do something about it. The Z-Barting
process seemed to quell that problem. Yes, there were replacement bodies
(complete) and they were shipped singly in wooden crates. The gov't had a
small quanity of them on hand for surplus and a few got out about 10 years
ago. A surplus dealer in Florida got about 4 of them before the DRMO caught
on. The rest were run over by a tracked vehicle to demil them as they were
the main part the gov't wanted destroyed. Some may still exist in other
places as they were advertised in Supply Line for I think $2500. The bodies
weren't anything special as they were just the regular production and were
pulled off the line for replacement status. There was also a "Service Life
Extender" kit which is still available today which was 9 pieces of channel
stock to slip over the affected rusted parts of the frame journal and welded
in place to again give strength to the 151 and extend its' service life.
Tom Murray may currently be selling them. The bodies had a body tag on the
front-center firewall which serialized the body only for production reasons
but was meaningless as a VIN number. Through the history of the 151, four
manufacturers made the body tub. (Ford, Budd, AMG and I forget the other)
AMG made all of theirs in house and none were made for them by another
manufacturer. I have been meaning to see if I can find out about the
drainhole on the side of the 151 A2 as the earlier production didn't have
it. I'm not sure if AMG made it both ways or did all production with the
drain hole. Ford made the A2 for a very short period and don't know if they
did the drain hole any or at all. The person I need to see may be deceased
but I will find out. The data plate was the only VIN number on the complete
unit. I hope this helps. Sincerely, Julian Burke
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