The M38 had been pretty much stripped of all the small body parts, I will detail all the things that I do to get it back towards original here. I will be adding to this page as I do things, so check back often!
I must also note here that the body is amazingly straight... any you find out why when you start to drill and look for the built in threads here and there. Bondo. The person that painted it blue covered everything up with a layer of the stuff. I will leave it alone and just paint over it when the time comes. If it aint broke dont fix it!
All body related pictures are here.
All of the tool hold downs and parts had been removed, so I had to put them all back on.
I will have to weld the axe sheath on still. I was able to find the threaded holes for the hinged axe head holder.
The original grill was in good shape with one major exception, they had cut the lower small blackout light holes to fit the larger yellow turn signal lights.
They also put in civilian style headlight buckets, but I'm not sure why.
In order to make them fit, they actually did a small weld to attach the headlight bucket to the grill.
I was able to get a stock grill that I can convert towards a military grill with no one any the wiser... sshhh.. don't tell!
I was also able to find the the frontmost holes for the gas tank handle / guard but not the rears. I used nuts / bolts for the rear.
Although this model should not have rear corner handles, I like them and since I'm not trying to do a historic restoration I put them on. Most people wont know the difference.