Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

1941 - 1945, MB, GPW Technical questions and discussions, regarding anything related to the WWII jeep.
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onaway
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Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by onaway » Wed Apr 18, 2018 5:36 pm

So I went to the old site and found a few numbers close to mine and calculated out an estimated hood date for my Jeep. There were a few more numbers that seemed really out of order so I removed those.

S/N 409356 Jan 23 estimated build date.

407294 1/16/1945 20673794
409356 estimated 20675911
412487 2/1/1945 20679127

Does this seem reasonable?

I also came across an old photo my Dad took in Germany. I really like this photo as shows the guys looking at a circus truck with animals and then there is the little girl with the old bike wheel and stick which was her toy. I wish the girl was standing off to the left a bit more.

My Dad still talks about passing out Hershey bars to the kids and how much they liked the candy.

Is the font on the Jeep common?

1945-12a.JPG
1945-12a.JPG (41.81 KiB) Viewed 956 times
font.jpg
font.jpg (7.38 KiB) Viewed 953 times
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dpcd67
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by dpcd67 » Wed Apr 18, 2018 7:11 pm

You have to consider that when the order came out to over paint the blue registration numbers with white, that was done at organizational level, by whomever had a steady hand and with whatever stencil, or none, they could get. So, bottom line is, they vary.
My uncle who was in Patton's third army with the 26th ID, told me about giving candy to French girls on the streets they passed through. And the one that told him and his buddy, in perfect English, to "Eat it yourself; you look like you need it".
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by dpcd67 » Wed Apr 18, 2018 7:24 pm

I have my stencils made by the local graphics company; they all now have laser plotters and can make stick on stencils that do not give any under spray. Of course if you want to duplicate an original motor pool job, then you can do whatever you like; hand painted, etc. Factory letters are two inches tall; yours look like 3 and have the flourish type font. Look at more pics; you see all kinds of letters on them.
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by Thunderbird712 » Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:56 am

What do you mean "few more numbers that seemed really out of order"? Just be cautious about removing anything. Willys was running two assembly lines so hood numbers would not run sequential with the S/N and DOD. There are many other factors that went into when a particliar jeep recieved its Hood # and DOD. For example my MB is 430923 with a DOD of 3/28/1945. Another MB 430910 has a DOD of 3/29/1945. Neither hood numbers were recovered but you get the point. Just that one sample would throw a wrench into things. I'm just curious what was removed.
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by HankII » Thu Apr 19, 2018 2:27 pm

My Dad still talks about passing out Hershey bars to the kids and how much they liked the candy.
Lore has it candy was used to bribe the children into telling you where their parents hid the beer & wine. ...
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by onaway » Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:51 pm

Here is the listing of numbers around my Jeep. The two in yellow seemed out of place to me. I understand they may have been pulled from the line and held up but the rest of them were in order and I just went with that.

I ended up going with the lowest and highest and just averaged it out.

hoodnumber avg.jpg
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by onaway » Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:56 pm

Lore has it candy was used to bribe the children into telling you where their parents hid the beer & wine. ...
I'll ask him about that next time I see him. It is funny he remembers more from that time period than now but at 96 his memory is still pretty good.
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by sjalbert » Thu Apr 19, 2018 6:03 pm

onaway wrote:
Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:51 pm
Here is the listing of numbers around my Jeep. The two in yellow seemed out of place to me. I understand they may have been pulled from the line and held up but the rest of them were in order and I just went with that.

I ended up going with the lowest and highest and just averaged it out.

hoodnumber avg.jpg
The 20636945 is out of line. All of the 2067xxxx numbers are likely good even the one in yellow. Willys only ran one line, but the jeeps were not inspected sequentially (i.e. in the order that they came off the production line) and did not get there hood numbers in sequential order.
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by Henk » Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:20 am

Between 01-05-1945 (hood # 403585) and 07-20-1945 (hood # 454724) the best-fitting correlation between frame # and hood # is:
hood # = frame # + 20266562. So in your case the hood # would be 409356 + 20266562 = 20675918, which is almost equal to your estimation.

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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by onaway » Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:58 am

Thank you for everyone's comments.

I did this exercise last year and the number I came up with at that time was already being used. I can't remember the site where I saw that number but will have to dig through some of my files to make sure I don't double up on it.
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by dpcd67 » Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:10 am

Don't place too much credence to that data base; remember that it was created 70 years after the things were made, and who says that the hoods weren't changed at some point, and/or, the guy typed them into the computer wrongly.
One data point does not make a trend; so go with the main trend line and ignore the outliers.
My bet would be a changed out hood; the owner would have no way of knowing the history.
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by Thunderbird712 » Sat Apr 21, 2018 9:51 am

Willys only ran one line,
Not a true statement. Maybe in the early years they did but at some point it went to lines. Plenty of pictures that show this.

I would contact Tom Woldbolt. He could help verify your numbers.
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by Swedejeep » Thu May 10, 2018 12:05 pm

HI from Sweden.
I have a d.o.d 01-03-45 and i managed to get almost the whole number visible. Just missing the last digit... My hood number is: 2066932?-S
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by GSS » Thu May 10, 2018 7:19 pm

In terms of font size and shape for the hood numbers, Rick Larsen’s stencils were 100% identical to the blue drab numbers that I recovered on my April 1945 MB.
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Re: Hood Number for my Jan 45 MB and font question

Post by ghiltgen » Sat May 12, 2018 8:27 am

In John Farley's reference: "The standardized War-Time Jeep 2". In Jan 1945 the Willys Overland made 9,498 Jeeps. All were under US Army contract W-33-019-1885. Chassis Serial number range is MB403237 thru MB412735. The registration number range for these Jeeps is 20670580 thru 20680078.

Your jeep serial number clearly is in this range and registration number will be as well. Hope this helps.
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