-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Bever <danbever@juno.com>
To: rejan@escape.ca <rejan@escape.ca>
Cc: mil-veh@skylee.com <mil-veh@skylee.com>
>Hi Rej,
>The "Script" jeeps that you ask about are the early production Ford GPW
>and Willys MB jeeps noted for the Ford and Willys name stamped on the
>rear panel of the jeep. The government put and end to the this early on.
>One source list about 17,000 GPWs and about 25,000 MBs had the Ford and
>Willys name.
****** Yes Dan but ... I have observed Willys W-LU 440-M-PERS-1 jeeps
(Canadian contract versions of the Willys MB and opart of the MB serial
number sequence). My last jeep was MB155796 and it was script. Thus at least
55,796 Willys MBs were script, and I suspect as many as 56,498 (to
MB156498), and maybe more. This needs more research with surviving jeeps to
establish a more accurate cut-off date. Even then, I think it is VERY LIKELY
that in the transition, in a given week or two let's say at the
factory(-ies), that some jeeps had script and some did not as bodies were
likely just brought from storage as needed. Proof of this is in a photo in
"All American Wonder" where it shows Ford GPW bodies stacked in a railway
car enroute to the factory for assembly on a jeep. By looking at the hat
channel floor supports, one can see TWO DISTINCT VARIATIONS in the same
railway carload.
The term "Script" refers to these early jeeps only.
****** Most collectors tend to think of it that way, but as some earlier and
later jeeps, both military and civilian, also have the maker's name in
raised letters (see my other memo of 199 DEC 07 and add Willys MA, Ford GP,
Willys Quad (?)) I also classify them as 'script'. I suppose one could be
really technical and say that only the Ford GP and GPW and M38CDN (and some
or all US Willys M38?) were "script" since the name (Ford or Jeep) appears
as handwriting 'script' whereas the WILLYS is in block letters. The Oxford
dictionary describes 'script' as "imitation of handwriting in type". The
M38CDN with "Jeep" in script on the face of the tool box would also qualify
under that definition.
I don't think the Ford GPA was script ... or was it? Not just "F" script
bolt heads and pintle hook but the whole name "Ford" in script stamped into
the body in raised letters?
Colin Macgregor Stevens
MVPA Member 954 (since 1977)
& member B Coy 1 Canadian Parachute Battalion (Living History)
Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada
E-mail: colin@pacdat.net
Personal web site: http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net
1944 Willys MB
1942 BSA airborne bicycles (2)
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 05 2000 - 22:42:07 PST