Featured History Cheap Government Vehicles...

Sure where else would he get one. Remember the Army Surplus stores? They would buy truckloads of stuff and generally sell it for 2-3 times what they paid for it. Most were happy to pay the price since buying from .gov was always a nightmare. When my dad got out of the Army at the end of the WWII they offered him his .45 for $5. He wanted a revolver so didn't buy it.
The government was building stuff as fast as they could. One thing they didn't factor was the speed that Detroit could produce stuff once they tooled up. My dad did the BAR at Saginaw Steering Gear. The initial cost was over $400 each. With GM techniques they got the price down below $120 and made a million of them. The M1 Carbine was the same way. My parents moved to CA on the bonds my dad was awarded for coming up with tooling and techniques to speed production. When the war in Europe was over they finally released him so he could go in the Army.

 

Because we like pics!

 

When the war ended, these Jeeps were lined up in a field. I wonder what happens to them.

This recreated Jeep in a crate is in France. The WWII museum here in Gettysburg has set one up as well.
Most accounts I'm seeing agree that about $975 was a real number one could be had for.
Then you would have to get out the J.C. Whitney catalog and go shopping.

 

....The story goes that they came to be called Jeeps because they would show up in crates labeled G.P. for Government Production. I can just picture some Private yelling out, " Here's another JEEPY "(GP) that we have to put together."...And the rest is history.

 

Aside from selling a free rusty CJ2A, the only one I ever built was in my mind with the catalog!

 

Spent many an hour leafing through one of those. Oh the cars I built...!

 

I know Jeeps for $278.00 and Allison engines for $350.00 sounds dirt cheap. They were probably even great deals for the time. However, I have this inflation calculator for dollars and years and those dollars in 1955 would be approximately $4,000 to $4,500 in todays dollars. The average hourly wage in 1955 was $1.70 an hour with an average yearly income of under $10,000 dollars. So still a pretty sporty amount for the time.

 

It's wishful thinking, but I'd like to think there's still a Jeep in the crate sitting forgotten in the back of some giant Raiders of the Lost Ark type government warehouse.

 

NEVER knew--cool!

 

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I had the Navy version of the 57 150. I think I was 15 when I spotted it. Just the nose sticking out of some weeds at a house down by a slough we used to fish. Told my dad about it, he talked to the owner and struck a deal to buy it, I think it was 50 bucks. We drug it home, literally heh.

My dad bought another cheap car for the engine and trans. With the help from him and one of his buddies I learned how to pull the drivetrain from one car and put it in another. Course there were the million little things to learn that go along with it.

Eventually it was road worthy, and not long after it was on the road I managed to total it. I still have the br*** Navy information tag that was on the dash.
Great starter car but I got a ton of **** because it was a four door.

 

About 1951, my older brother and I lived in a Walnut Creek, California, area called Seranap. There was a daily train going by from Antioc(sp?) to Sacramento (maybe?) and usually dropped a couple of flatbed cars for a few days with damaged Army vehicles. We couldn't get the vehicles off but played on them, but my brother did secure a 30mm machine gun out of a half-track. He had it all his life.

Walnut Creek had an Army/Navy surplus shop where you could buy "pineapple" hand grenades for a dollar. The fuses were missing along with the powder, but if you dug in the pile enuf you could find one with the fuse still intact. We bought one like that as a birthday present for the kid across the street. He was so happy, he pulled the handle and threw it out on the lawn. His mom got a little acceded and ran into the house and hid under the kitchen sink.

. . . back to the subject.

 

They also palletized 6x6 GMC trucks. They were ***embled into running trucks then broken down and crated. Once they landed onshore crews re***embled them.
https://www.lonesentry.com/blog/ordnance-***embly-of-crated-trucks.html

 

A friend got a 58 Chevy 2 door paneled station wagon that came from the Navy.

 

The military used wood-bodied ("woody") station wagons and trucks during World War II primarily because steel was heavily rationed for high-priority munitions, tanks, and ships, leaving wood as an accessible structural alternative.

 

Most of the wagons in the pics were commandeered from dealer's inventories for use later. Various agencies would request a vehicle, & if it involved needing transportation, you might draw one of them.

 

They do still exist. JW

 

GP, actually GPW, stands for General Purpose (Ford) and MB for (Willys). JW

 

When Autopower was the only manufacturer of header plates, they had a pattern for the Allison engine and sold more than a few.

 

There’s also the story that the name originated with the character ’Eugene the Jeep’ from 1930s Popeye cartoons. Eugene the Jeep could go anywhere, including through walls.
No one really knows. There’s probably a little truth to all of them.

 

Thats cool and one never knows, with the Willys Jeep, the first ones were MA which is short for Model A and then the second version became MB short for Model B.
In NZ at the end of WWII my Grandfather was in charge of all post War ***et sales as he was the Government Stores Manager until 1957. He also was incharge of a lot during the War as well like the Lend Lease agrement with the USA. JW

 

when I was like 17 there was a old guy who worked for the DPW, swore to us we could by Harley's in a crate for $50.00, they packed in cosmoline, about 5 of my friends told him we all wanted one. Nothing ever came of it, every once in a while the same story arose. Never knew anybody who got one.

 

My uncle used to buy out old homes and barns for his antique business. One of his barn finds (late 1970's) was a new-in-the-crate 1930's Indian motorcycle.

 

I knew a guy in the 80's who had a bunch of new army surplus Harley 45 motors. You could hardly give them away then.

 

We left thousands of these things all over the Europe and Pacific theaters. It is why every nation on the planet builds a 4-wheel drive vehicle today. We left them the prototypes.

 

Well said...

 

My Jeep, a 1952 M38. last year of the flat fenders. They made 60k of these, mine is number 56500, so near the end of production. Hauling some Vets in a parade here, the guy needing a haircut is me.

 

I remembered this story and pulled it up on Newspapers.com: