[ihc] The M-5 report: Finally! I found the serial number

[Colin MM Rush <salmineo@xxxxxxxx>]

        I have been trying to find the serial number on our club M-5H-6
truck since before the NWB RoundUp.  I had been told that it was on the
frame, but got conflicting information on the exact location.  I had made
about three trips with a friend down to lay on our backs and look for it,
but no luck.  Finally last month, I went over to visit a guy I know that
lives near me.  He happens to have the same truck, which he keeps on the
street licensed and ready to drive.  (Not something you see every day, a
daily driver M-5H-6 parked in front of someone's house.)  While we were
looking it over, I happened to be under the fender, and remembered to ask
him where his serial number was.  He pointed to it, and there it was,
plain as day.  It is located on the outside of the driver side frame
rail, just behind the front spring hanger, about a half inch above the
bottom edge of the rail.  The first digit was about a half inch from the
hanger, and the numbers are about a half inch tall.  Armed with this
knowledge and a can of paint remover spray and a putty knife, I drove
down to the Powerland.  After an hour of spraying, waiting, and scraping,
I finally got down to the original Marine Corps green paint, and found
the numbers.  They are not stamped very deep, so they were obscured with
in the first repainting.  
        The number is 25598, which proves it was indeed purchased by the
Marines, based on the info given in the parts book.  Since it is the 149"
wheelbase, it had to be either a dump body or a tractor or a bare
chassis.  Since it has/had none of the controls, it probably was never a
dump body, and since it has/had no trailer provisions (air compressor,
trailer wiring), it probably was not a tractor.  So it looks like it was
shipped bare and fitted by the Corps after delivery was made.  Based on
the production numbers listed in Crismon's, it must have been built in
1945.  The body that is on it now was offered during and after the war,
so it could have been installed by the Marines, or later by subsequent
owners.
        From the paint, it looks like the chronology was like this: 
Factory paints it green, and ships it to the The Few and the Proud for
use in the war.  At some point, the (probable) original open cab was
replaced with a KB-6 cab, and the information plates stayed in the
original cab, making future ID difficult.  Afterwards, it gets sold to
the Navy, which paints it with battleship grey paint (fairly impervious
to paint remover) inside and out.  Then it is either turned into a
flightline truck or it is sold to the Civil Defense, and painted yellow
(think Burlington Northern yellow).  Then it is sold again, and the new
owner primes it with redo oxide and paints it with yellow road paint. 
That owner uses it for a while, and then takes it to the museum, where it
languishes for the next 20 or 30 years.  Which brings us to the present
day.  While that paint is part of the reason it is so ugly, that same
paint is perhaps the only reason it is as nice as it is.  Rust is almost
non-existent, except for the platform of the oilfield/wrecker bed.
        For those that care, the frame and chassis on this truck were
painted green from the factory.  Despite coming from Fort Wayne, this
truck does not follow the SOP of all Fort Wayne trucks having their
chassis painted with IH Red #50.
-Colin Rush

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