Old truck, new questions. Bumper markings revisited
Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2018 6:53 pm
Hello All,
It's hard to believe that I've had my '64 M37 for 9 years now. I found it behind a barn when I was in school, bartered for it and ever since then I have driven it, been married in the back of it and taken care of it without giving much thought to it's history. I was fortunate to have unit markings visible on the bumpers when I bought it, along with the registration number and all of the other stencils and a few sharpy marks from some fire department mechanics. I know that it was used by the 92nd Aviation Battalion under the 124th Air Reserve Command of the 6th Army somewhere between '71 and '79. I also know it was loaned under the civil deference program during or before '79 and was operational as a fire truck until at least '83. Between '83 and '09 it accumulated less than 500 miles.
Over the last few days I have been hard at work, I have pulled the motor and transmission, replaced a few leaking gaskets and cleaned up some rust. I've been careful to note what color everything has been. Being a later production truck I have found some variability with what is conventionally considered correct. I found the motor along with the oil fill tube and dipstick tube to be silver, with black being the original color for the caps, rather than red. I am also reasonably certain that the engine is the original, having only silver on the upper works, OD on the oil pan and no rebuild tags present. I also noted a lack of OD inside the front frame rails and chassis black primer inside each joint on the fender assembles. Becoming curios, I started sanding down the front bumper only to find the drivers side had clearly been sanded to bare metal, primed with a red oxide primer and repainted at some point. The passengers side however, yielded many layers or numbers and markings, the bottom most of which match the drivers side rear bumperette. I am reasonable certain the bumpers are original to the truck and a matched set.
The markings in question are layered in the following order, I have not had much luck figuring them out so I thought I would let you see if anything makes sense.
6A 124ARC 92AVN 13 Two inch vinyl lettering. This one I know, see above.
? 12C-R ? ? Two inch painted lettering. 12th Cavalry Regiment? Between '64 and '71 these guys could have been anywhere depending on the unit. Appears that the first number group includes the triangular symbol for an armored division.
? 12C-R ? ? Same marking as above but older and 3" tall lettering, also painted, also appears to designate and armored division, but the number for it is absent.
USAR EP ? ? Three inch painted lettering. I'm lost US Army Rangers? US Army Reserve?
USAR 'EM' or 'FM' or 'EM-1' or 'FM-1' ? ? Three inch painted lettering. Hard to tell where one layer stops and the next starts. USAR moves around but is consistent.
USAR EP-1 ? ? No doubts on this one, four inch lettering and plain as day. The paint layer over this one was not applied properly and came off when subjected to a steam cleaning. The paint underneath is a single layer over chassis black primer and appears to be factory applied.
As of right now the exact unit history of this truck appears to be lost, but if I can figure out what major organizations it was used by I can at least fill in the gaps a little bit. Any ideas or help would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
Collin
It's hard to believe that I've had my '64 M37 for 9 years now. I found it behind a barn when I was in school, bartered for it and ever since then I have driven it, been married in the back of it and taken care of it without giving much thought to it's history. I was fortunate to have unit markings visible on the bumpers when I bought it, along with the registration number and all of the other stencils and a few sharpy marks from some fire department mechanics. I know that it was used by the 92nd Aviation Battalion under the 124th Air Reserve Command of the 6th Army somewhere between '71 and '79. I also know it was loaned under the civil deference program during or before '79 and was operational as a fire truck until at least '83. Between '83 and '09 it accumulated less than 500 miles.
Over the last few days I have been hard at work, I have pulled the motor and transmission, replaced a few leaking gaskets and cleaned up some rust. I've been careful to note what color everything has been. Being a later production truck I have found some variability with what is conventionally considered correct. I found the motor along with the oil fill tube and dipstick tube to be silver, with black being the original color for the caps, rather than red. I am also reasonably certain that the engine is the original, having only silver on the upper works, OD on the oil pan and no rebuild tags present. I also noted a lack of OD inside the front frame rails and chassis black primer inside each joint on the fender assembles. Becoming curios, I started sanding down the front bumper only to find the drivers side had clearly been sanded to bare metal, primed with a red oxide primer and repainted at some point. The passengers side however, yielded many layers or numbers and markings, the bottom most of which match the drivers side rear bumperette. I am reasonable certain the bumpers are original to the truck and a matched set.
The markings in question are layered in the following order, I have not had much luck figuring them out so I thought I would let you see if anything makes sense.
6A 124ARC 92AVN 13 Two inch vinyl lettering. This one I know, see above.
? 12C-R ? ? Two inch painted lettering. 12th Cavalry Regiment? Between '64 and '71 these guys could have been anywhere depending on the unit. Appears that the first number group includes the triangular symbol for an armored division.
? 12C-R ? ? Same marking as above but older and 3" tall lettering, also painted, also appears to designate and armored division, but the number for it is absent.
USAR EP ? ? Three inch painted lettering. I'm lost US Army Rangers? US Army Reserve?
USAR 'EM' or 'FM' or 'EM-1' or 'FM-1' ? ? Three inch painted lettering. Hard to tell where one layer stops and the next starts. USAR moves around but is consistent.
USAR EP-1 ? ? No doubts on this one, four inch lettering and plain as day. The paint layer over this one was not applied properly and came off when subjected to a steam cleaning. The paint underneath is a single layer over chassis black primer and appears to be factory applied.
As of right now the exact unit history of this truck appears to be lost, but if I can figure out what major organizations it was used by I can at least fill in the gaps a little bit. Any ideas or help would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
Collin