Military-Vehicles: [MV] pin up art on MVs

[MV] pin up art on MVs

Jeff Polidoro (willys@vgernet.net)
Sun, 28 Sep 1997 12:17:57 -0400

I do not have an MV with any artwork but I heard an interesting story about
one and saw the (painted over) Jeep. A friend and I were trailering a Jeep
one day, when he insisted we stop at a horrible diner. As he consumed his
flesh burger, a guy came and asked us if the Jeep was ours. He said he
had one he wanted to sell, right down the road. We followed him for an
hour and, finally, he showed us a 44 MB with an excellent, solid body,
every military trinket stripped off, VW bucket seats, an aluminum fuel tank
and a humungo trailer hitch assembly welded to the x-member.

He said that the Jeep had been in service at an airbase in (North?) Africa.
He said that the base commander had allowed it to be painted with the same
"nose art" as the aircraft. ( I have asked military folks that I know if
this is plausible and they say that it was up to the base commander, some
allowed it some did not.) Obviously, everyone loved the Jeep but it was
shipped back to the States, in 1945, by the only one who could afford to, a
rich kid who was stationed there and drove it occasionally. He worked
(still does) as a caretaker for the rich folks. When the Jeep arrived, the
conservative old Yankees made the son paint over the girlies. Eventually,
the Jeep sort of became his. He used it around the grounds, etc. He said
he could now sell it but he had to ok it with the folks. My friend made
the guy a very lowball offer which the guy took seriously. He said he'd
get back to him with an answer but, to my knowledge, never has.

The guy claims to have the son's photo album with the Jeep all painted up.
He also claims to have the original shipping papers from 1945 for shipping
it from Africa to the US. I have never seen either one. The Jeep also
doesn't have any evidence of "lumpiness" under the paint which might
indicate that the artwork is still under there or was ever there. Not
saying it's not there, just that I can't see it.

The way it stands, because I was along for the ride, my friend feels it's
his deal to pass on before my turn to bat comes up. Can't say I disagree.
But he'll never pay enough to get it or keep track of it to the point where
I'll get it if he doesn't. The guy will probably just sell it to someone
else when he tires of my friend. Of course, other than the nose art, I'm
not really that anxious to have it. So, if that bit's not true, it's all
pretty meaningless. But then again, we're just animals with excessive
leisure time, right? So what else would we be doing?

Regards,

JP

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