A question was posed to me about whether Ford sold or gave their tooling to
AMG. Ford manufactured M151A2's for just under 1 year. AMG was going to
show everyone that THEY were in the Jeep business of which they certainly
did! Remember, AMG is the descendent of Willys and Kaiser jeep. Ford and
AMG were in DIRECT competition over the A2's. The answer is NO, they did
not. It also would makes sense that Ford would continue to woo the Gov't
for the production of jeeps and it would be foolish to dispose of the
tooling when perhaps, a contract would pop up in the future and guess what,
AMG would have your tooling! Ford was very much "miffed" over this deal and
would not have much if anything to do with AMG. AMG had all of their own
tooling and ALL body parts were made IN-HOUSE in South Bend, Indiana in the
former Studebaker production facility. (This may have something to do with
the drain holes in the side of the jeep of which I will later cover.) The
building is still there but is now a moving-storage facility however, the
test track ajacent to it is still the property of AMG and is used for the
testing of Hummers and training drivers for Hummers. It is 400 acres of
Indiana wilderness with every obstacle that could confront a Hummer. (Test
track, two foot chunks of concrete debris, 22" steps, straight ups and
downs, throttle-modulation points, breeching ditches, 40" swamp-2 acres of
it, and much, much more) If interested, I'll go into that later-I've been
through all of it with a test track Hummer. The test track is about the
only thing original for a M151A2 jeep. A jeep was driven for 6 miles and
then checked for any problems before it was checked off by a Gov't official
as then at that time, it was Gov't property and no more warranty. Warranty
was during the 6 mile run-in.
Regarding the fuel canaster. This was part of the emission control and came
on the scene in about late 1974. The Gov't wanted to to be emission
compliant along with other auto manufacturers. Remember, the Gov't is
exempt from this restriction for tactical vehicles but wanted this to be
incorporated into their system. This also included positive crankcase
ventilation back into the intake manifold.
AMG made only three (3) M151A2 variants. The M151A2 jeep, The M718
ambulance and the M825 armament carrier. ALL three of these were made
IN-HOUSE. All were complete and shipped to the Gov't with the exception of
the guns for the M825. The other variants ie; searchlight jeeps and other
such were done by other contractors but were not in any great numbers to be
bothered with by AMG. (Only the add-on parts, not the jeeps themselves)
As far as anyone knows, no jeeps from AMG were galvanized. I think only
Ford may have done a few of their later ones. At this point in time (1970)
rust was not an issue but later, AMG made "kits" called "extended service
life kits" which were channel pieces which were welded on top of the
existing unitized frame journals and cross members of the frame to extend
the bodies' lifespan. This was meant to be done out in the field. In 1977,
AMG started ZBARTing every jeep after that point.
While some unit numbers had the year in its' unit markings, AMG had nothing
to do with that. Anything additionally painted on the vehicle was solely
done by its' unit commander. NO dates and I mean NO dates of manufacture
were stamped on ANY AMG vehicle in any place because this is an additional
manufacturing step that was not in contract protocol. If any date is filled
in on ANY AMG jeep, it was done by someone else after it left the factory.
However, many componet parts had dates stamped on them by their
manufacturer mainly for warranty purposes and if they are original to the
jeep, this might put it close to its' year.
I will be asking one of the body engineers about the drain holes in the side
of the jeep and see if I can clear up this long awaited answer!
Well, this is all for now and it is late and don't want to make any mistakes
by being tired. Email me with more questions of specific items if I didn't
cover it. Also, I might cover how they installed the wiring harness in a
M151A2 through the frame to the rear-they used a whip antenna to pull it
through! By the way, the seam "glue" which is used in all of the seams of a
Hummer body is called "Cybond". It is of a peanut butter consistency and is
cured by baking it in an oven. (The whole body) It has microscoptic glass
beads in it and makes the body extremely rigid. If you replace body panels
on a Humvee and don't use it or something similiar like "seamseal", the body
will lose its' integrity and water tightness. Your Jeep Friend, Julian
Burke
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