Car Collector's Corner, Memorial Day Edition: 1952 Ford Jeep M-38 Korean War Vet

J Sutherland
by J Sutherland

Lee Stronach has two passions in life. He’s a military history buff, and he’s a vintage vehicle buff. This Jeep M-38 was the perfect marriage between this afflictions. Ford built the Jeep M-38 under contract for the Canadian military; its relatively low numbers make this military machine a fairly rare piece of military history.

Despite its Ford roots, this Jeep came with the 65 horsepower Willys engine as part of the manufacturing agreement. The Jeep served from 1952-72, and was looked after in the motor pool as a “town” car. Basically this means the Jeep wasn’t thrashed to death in a severe combat environment. Lee had a great starting point for his tribute to a Canadian military war pony.

Lee has it outfitted as a radio jeep. It is bristling with period correct electronic equipment in addition to standard military options. The winch is another rare item.

This Jeep has a functional look that spells out military business circa 1952, but Lee has more upgrades ticked off on the wish list. Eventually, he wants to equip this Jeep with some period correct firepower. For now, he’s really happy with the radio car look.

Lee likes to drive this military mule to local shows. The “screaming engine at 45 miles per hour” thing limits his enthusiasm for 2000-mile excursions across the country, but he revels in the leisurely pace of the old Jeep.

Lee loves to let kids sit in this rolling museum piece. He hopes they’ll be encouraged to take an interest in the old car hobby and get a look back at the history of the Canadian military in areas like Kapyong Valley and Hill 187.

He likes to think about the future so the old Jeep is destined to stay in the family on a permanent basis because his sons are penciled in as heirs to the classic old Ford.

The Jeep is a magnet at every car show but Lee is limited by his refusal to “trailer queen” the proud old veteran of the Korean conflict. That’s why his M-38 has signal lights.

For more of J Sutherland’s work go to mystarcollectorcar.com

Picture courtesy mystarcollectorcar.com

J Sutherland
J Sutherland

Online collector car writer/webmaster and enthusiast

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  • Ex Radio Operator Ex Radio Operator on May 26, 2012

    Having driven and maintained an M38 much like this one brought back memories of the times I spent as a Battalion Commanders driver and step and fetch it. Soon after that I went to Germany and we transitioned to the M151A1. Both accomplished the same mission,but, in a different way.

  • Gedrven Gedrven on May 27, 2012

    Way cool. But why no under-hood shot? (or the classic "flex" shot)

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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