M38CDN Ambulance

[donjunior]

Thanks to everyone who took the time to post their thoughts regarding my M38.

Based on your comments and photos, I believe this M38 was likely an ambulance at one point. The hood-mounted spare tire and relocated jerry can point in that direction. It would also appear from the manual cover posted by Wayne H. that the tailgate remained in place during the ambulance conversion. The tailgate looks original to the jeep and someone took the time to put bolts back into the jerry can and spare tire mount holes (the paint on these bolts matches the rest of the jeep). Several additional holes were drilled into the tailgate both top and bottom (part of the ambulance conversion?). This jeep also had a hot water heater kit.

Finally, the overall condition of the jeep is quite remarkable. It has two small dents, one crease you can see on the left rear corner and another dent on the lower left front fender. The floors are not wavey and the rear fender wells are pristine (no dents nor holes). There is also no significant rust other than surface rust where the paint was worn away. From my experience, ambulances had a pretty easy life and were normally stored indoors.

I brought her into the shop last weekend for a mechanical evaluation. In addition, I will start removing some of the layers of paint, hopefully getting down to the original semi-gloss OD. I don't think I will try to source all of the ambulance kit (good canvas would likely be impossible to find), but I will keep the spare on the hood and the jerry can on the right rear corner.

I will post updates...