surplus markings? Or something else?

[themoose74]

Hello all-

I was sanding down the door of a '53 USAF truck today. I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing while going over the lower, right outside corner of the driver's door. Murphy's Law- I didn't expect to find anything in this area and ended up finding A LOT of white letters over the strata blue...but I think I did too much damage before I noticed it.

I think I see:

PROCESSED BY _________________
THE TUMPANE_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
VEHICLE ________________ WASHINGTON
____________

The long blanks indicate another word, but difficult to tell how many letters. I am giving my best educated guess at the six words I think I see. Any of it make any sense? I am wondering if it was possibly the markings from when it was suplussed out. Any thoughts?

I went to the other door and carefully sanded away, but could not find anything in the same area.

There is red paint over the strata blue. I did find 53K7141 on te red paint on the rear bumper some time again ago. So my surplus theory might be kaput if the truck was tranferred to the base fire department.

Dummy with the sander-
Bo

[themoose74]

maybe all isn't lost.

While searching the internet, I found this old post:

http://www.g503.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=26509

About half way down the first page, the seller of the jeep makes reference to a K-38 trailer with this marking on it:

PROCESSED BY
THE TUMPANE CO.
VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON
DEC. 18, 53

So I go back out to my truck and I THINK I can now read:

PROCESSED BY
THE TUMPANE COMPANY (or maybe CORPORATION)
VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON
4 FEB 5X

I can't find anything out about the Tumpane Company, though. Was this, in fact, the surplus markings then?

Thanks,
Bo

[cuz]

Here's a couple of google hits. I'd guess they managed a Navy facility back then and were probably contracted to process the vehicles for the Navy.



Tumpane Services Corp
10011 Nw 24Th Ave
Vancouver, WA 98685
360-883-2199
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Companies with biggest federal contracts located in this zip code (VANCOUVER, WA):
TUMPANE SERVICES CORPORATION (805 BROADWAY ST STE 740; small business): $15,894,912 in 72 contracts from 1999 to 2001 Contracts for Facilities Operations Support Services by Navy
Signed by year: 2000: $7,549,592; 2001: $1,873,157; 2002: $0; 2003: $0; 2004: $0; 2005: $0; 2006: $0.

Biggest contracts:
$6,258,270 with Navy for Facilities Operations Support Services. Taking place in FL. Signed on 2000-11-13. Completion date: 1997-09-30.
$6,032,255, same as above. Signed on 1999-11-01. Completion date: 2000-09-30.
$504,309, same as above. Signed on 2001-10-23. Completion date: 2001-09-30.
$258,704, same as above. Signed on 1999-10-22. Completion date: 2000-09-30.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Lifer]

The "51K 7141" indicates that your truck was originally a USAF truck. If it was painted red with white lettering, it was most likely assigned to a base fire protection unit after serving elsewhere. The number would have been assigned to the truck when it first came into the AF inventory and would not have changed, no matter what unit it went to.

As far as the Tumpane Co. info is concerned, your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps the company had contracts with the AF as well as the Navy. You could try to contact them at the address or telephone number that Cuz provided and see if they might be able to shed a little light on the subject for you.

[themoose74]

Thanks Wes, Lifer for the info.

I have been searching for these Tumpane Co. guys this weekend and have thus far only found very vague information. So this is a start.

I feel fairly confident that the doors have been with the truck for it's lifetime since the exact multiple layers of paint were removed off of the doors matched what has been removed off of the rest of the truck.

As for the processed date by the Tumpane Co. that was found on the Strata Blue: I know it says either 4 FEB 54 or 4 FEB 64. My original thought was 54, but now I am not as confident, so I am thinking the 5 might be a 6. The Date of Delivery for the vehicle is MAY 1953. It makes no sense why it would have been surplused less than one year after delivery. And then sent to a fire protection unit?!?

I sanded down the entire passenger door today and got no further clues. The paint was true throughout the door except for a convenient 15" circle in the middle where the Strata became very intermittent. Oddly, when I removed the cover on the rear of the door and peeked inside, I could see a lot of Strata Blue except for in the middle where I could plainly see a perfect circle of surface rust and no paint. It was identical on both doors...which is why I could not find any other markings.

[cuz]

The equipment surplus and disposal was handled thru the DRMO (Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office). They were set up by regions and supervised by DOD not the individual services. For example, if the Air Force was ready to declare your truck surplus to it's needs they would turn the truck over to the regional DRMO for disposal. Regional DRMO's use whatever government property that meets their needs to operate from so you can find DRMO's on Air Force, Navy, Marine Corp, Army bases as well as other government properties. The DRMO would first try to find the truck a new military home, then a new government agency home and finally if the truck has no federal agency wanting it they make the truck available to state and local agencies. If still no takers it went on the public auction block. Now this Tumpane company has a history as a contract facilities manager in Washington State. It is very likely that the government property that regional DRMO was on in 1964 was managed by Tumpane Company.