[Rollbar]

Willys never furnished pioneer tools for Jeeps, only the brackets & straps. Each unit furnished tools, drawn from stores.

Tools fitted to Jeeps, etc. were either OD or unpainted, my guess is that the tools were sold to the army unpainted, and then (likely) painted- sometimes- depending on what each unit preferred. Appearance (meaning making the tools look good, color-wise) was a not a major concern. There is also reason to believe that some units left the pioneer tools off altogether.

I do not believe that any of the tools (axe, shovel) were painted black for or by the Army. After 50 or 60 years anything can happen.

Lacking original photos of your Jeep when new, or photos of vehicles in the same unit, it would be equally correct to paint the wood with a clear finish or OD. I've seen tools painted OD on everything, wood, metal & all, but right now I don't know how "correct" that would be...but if you did that yourself, it would be difficult to say it's wrong, for the above reasons. Your choice.

There are very many photos of WW2 Jeeps taken in WW2, but very, very few ones of M38's taken when they were new, but had been fitted with the tools. Even so, it's not easy to make out exact colors when looking at old black & white photos, due to bad angles (of whatever you're looking for), fading, shadows, snow covering details (on one well-published of M38's lined up for delivery), and so on. I also find that asking veterans who either used or serviced these vehicles have sometimes fuzzy and innacurate recollections of picky details....sometimes (actually very frequently) they don't even remember which exact Jeep they drove!

The manuals aren't usually much help either...other than how parts fitted together, and which parts were (probably) used, and a listing of thousands of parts, sometimes field upgrades aren't mentioned, illustrations are wrong or missing, and what colors parts were painted is simply not mentioned at all.

From the "G".

[Jim B]

Rollbar, on Mar 2 2006, 06:13 PM, said:

Willys never furnished pioneer tools for Jeeps, only the brackets & straps. Each unit furnished tools, drawn from stores.

Yes and most were black and bare wood. You can see this in some vintage pictures also.

During the war when the Willys or any truck would come in for maint or paint they would just go crazy and paint all OD. So any look that you decide to give your 2006 home depot shovel would be ok.

Don't worry, I've seen pics of your vintage shovel.