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I have a dumb question, but my 52 m37 has been repainted several times over the years and the numbers are since gone. Where can i find what numbers belong on my truck? im in the middle of doing a light restoration and would like to put the stencils back on. All of the tags are still on the dash and legible. Im sure this is a silly question to most of you, but im still new at this. I appreciate any help you can give me.

The numbers still might be under all the paint. This is a link to G503 and a post about how to recover them if any trace of them remains.

http://www.g503.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=112487

That is certainly not a silly question, most of us have sanded our hoods carefully, looking for those numbers!

Most all of us want to know our truck's history.

im going to go to napa after work tommorow and pick up some of the paint stripper that Jim talked about in his post. I greatly appreciate the help. I cant wait to find out the heritige of my m37. Thanks again.

Careful, careful.... my numbers were actually buried twice since the truck had been painted over 2x and renumbered. WE ended up with a partial and Rick the stencil king has a reliable reference chart for the data plate number and hood numbers when I called him to order. He is very reliable. I would not use paint stripper, start sanding off the area where the number are so you can see how you sand the layers down without being agressive - the old paint can get zipped off pretty quick with a DA sander.

well.....bad news...i tried paint stripper and it just made a mess so i decided to sand it. i started sanding very lightly and started to see the numbers. i sanded in the areas that were still green and as lightly as i was sanding i must have went through the numbers. i was so upset because now one side of the hood is worthless as far as finding the numbers goes. i still have the other side to do , but i dont know what kind of luck i will have. is there any way possible to get the numbers from somewhere else, data plate on the dash...etc? if anyone can help, i would greatly appreciate it.

220 grit or less on the other side, move fast do not sit in one spot for long with a DA. NO STRIPPER. When you start to see anything quit! Dust the area with black buzz bomb< let dry wet sand lightly, the numbers should stick out. Just my.02

You've got to use very fine paper, maybe as fine as 600 grit. Once you've found the edge of a number, stop there and try to find the same level elsewhere on the hood. Less is more for sure.

Your bumperettes should have numbers on them too, as well as the front bumper.

The sides of the door might as well.

i will try that method as well. is there a registry or list where i can send me number once i find it to get more info on it? sorry for all the questions

There are no records on hood numbers (The USA number).

If you uncover any bumper markings post them here we maybe able to decipher them and you will know what unit your truck was assigned to.

"CARNAC," on the Steel Soldiers web site may be able to help you. If it was AF, Navy, or USMC, he won't have access to the information. If it was an Army truck, he'll need the vehicle type (M37), VIN, build date, delivery date, and anything else you can come up with from the data plates. He provides this service for free, but he'll probably request a donation of $15.00, which goes to support the web site.