I believe that most, if not all, of the GP's and early GPW's were built at
Ford's River Rouge
Plant (Detriot, MI). In addition, bodies were constructed at the Lincoln
car plant and
seat cushions were produced at the Highland Park plant. By early 1943,
however, increased demand necessitated that Ford build jeeps in other
factories as well. So by the time the War was over, jeeps had also been
manufactured in Edgewater (NJ), Dallas (TX), Richmond (CA), Chester (PA),
Louisville (KY), and Dearborn (MI). Each plant was assigned certain
units from different contracts. So by taking your chassis number and
figuring out which contract your GPW fell under, you MIGHT be able to
estimate which factory your GPW PROBABLY came from.
(This info came from pp 27-39 of AAW Vol. 1)
Mike Meister
On Mon, 27 Jan 1997, Todd Paisley wrote:
> Input and output seals on the transfer case also changed to
> leather. How do you determine which Ford plant a GPW
> came from? A friend of mine has a bunch of data plates
> and he has noticed some differences in the way the data
> plate are stamped. (Type of stamp used, location of various
> stamps, etc.) He thinks the plates were different because
> they came from different plants. I would love to know where
> my GPW was built at.
>
> Todd Paisley
>
> ----------
> > From: Bill Kish <kish@browncow.com>
> > To: mil-veh@skylee.com; Michael Meister <mike@agen.tamu.edu>
> > Subject: GPW rubber parts. Was:1943 GPW
> > Date: Monday, January 27, 1997 9:57 AM
> >
> > Michael Meister writes:
> > > I have a couple of questions regarding authenticity:
> > >
> > > 1) When did they go to leather boots over the transmission and
> transfer
> > > case shafts?
> > >
> > > 2) When did they start using lengths of steel tubing in the radiator
> > > hoses instead of all rubber?
> > >
> > > I know these changes were a result of the rubber shortage beginning in
>
> > > 1942, so is it safe to say that in April 1943 both of these changes
> had
> > > been made, or is that an incorrect assumption?
> > >
> >
> > You're right. A 4/43 GPW would be well into the rubber shortage time
> > frame. I don't have any exact dates for the above changes and it may
> > be impossible to ever determine them, but by Fall '42 Ford seems to
> > have started replacing rubber with less critical materials where
> > possible. This included:
> >
> > Shift lever boots, radiator hoses, hood blocks, grommets, carb intake
> > seal, tie rod end seals, tool & glove box seals. (Any others?)
> >
> > It would be interesting to hear from owners of original GPWs in the
> > crossover period to try to determine the approximate dates of the
> > changeovers at the various Ford assembly plants.
> >
> >
> >
> > -BK
> > --
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Meister "Give me an army of West Point
Class of 1997 (WHOOP!) graduates and I'll win a battle;
Department of Agricultural Engineering Give me a handful of Texas
Texas A&M University Aggies and I'll win a war."
College Station, Texas
--Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
http://www.agen.tamu.edu/~mike
mike@agen.tamu.edu