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

[Steven Stegmann <steve.stegmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Great story!

Steve
--- Colin MM Rush <salmineo@domain.elided> wrote:

>         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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