G503 Military Vehicle Message Forums

Hi Luke,

The metal spoke wleel is the one with A3 added to the GPW part number. The new type tenite wheel is the A2 part number type.

Tom....any chance we can get a summary of all this? I'm not sure of what this all means, so if you can tell us what your know, what you think and what we don't know, I'm sure it would be helpful..

1) Your data did not address the "First Contract" so we don't know what the first 15,000 +/- GPWs had....but would you say they had the BLACK Shellers? Is this what you refer to as "RUBBER"?

2) Your data concerned the 2nd Contract, so Ford bought 16,906 "RUBBER" wheels (again, is this the BLACK Sheller?) so perhaps from 15,000 onwards for another 16,906 jeeps a restorer might want to consider one of those?

3) The next 14,463 were "1st TENITE"....are these the GREEN Shellers? If so, then from around GPW 31906 onwards a GREEN Sheller might be considered by a restorer? So perhaps from there up to GPW 46369 would be the GREEN Shellers.

4) You also said that they purchased 31,727 "New Style" and that was the "A3" spoked wheel.....however if this is all correct so far, then around GPW 46369 they went to this style......

Here are the listings in the TM 10-1348s:
March 30, 1942 - GPW 3600/WO A-535
Sep. 15, 1942 - GPW 3600 A/WO A-535
Mar. 10, 1943 - GPW 3600 A/WO A-6858 (Is this the "A3"?)

My guess is Ford went to the spoked wheel much earlier than Willys did based on the purchases you furnished, in fact they would have run out of GREEN Shellers around July 1942.

What still is not known is if Ford sold "spares" to QMC/ORD or if Sheller bought them directly, because that would have used up the supplies mentioned in the Accounting document even sooner for each type.

Disclaimer: The five plants would not give hard numbers to stop/start a change necessarily so I have used straight-line estimates and the DODs in AAW as sources....

Hi Chuck,

You posted

Tom....any chance we can get a summary of all this? I'm not sure of what this all means, so if you can tell us what your know, what you think and what we don't know ( There is not enough bandwidth in the world to tell you what you don't know ), I'm sure it would be helpful..

1) Your data did not address the "First Contract" so we don't know what the first 15,000 +/- GPWs had....but would you say they had the BLACK Shellers? Is this what you refer to as "RUBBER"?

I do not have data on First Contract Steering Wheels.

2) Your data concerned the 2nd Contract, so Ford bought 16,906 "RUBBER" wheels (again, is this the BLACK Sheller?) so perhaps from 15,000 onwards for another 16,906 jeeps a restorer might want to consider one of those?

I can not say what Rubber wheels are. The documents only say rubber. You are the one adding Black Sheller.

3) The next 14,463 were "1st TENITE"....are these the GREEN Shellers? If so, then from around GPW 31906 onwards a GREEN Sheller might be considered by a restorer? So perhaps from there up to GPW 46369 would be the GREEN Shellers.

From photos 1st Tenite appear to be green sheller. The 31906 to 46369 sounds about right.

4) You also said that they purchased 31,727 "New Style" and that was the "A3" spoked wheel.....however if this is all correct so far, then around GPW 46369 they went to this style......

I have not said the 31,727 " New Style " is the A3 spoke Wheel ( you have said this ) the 31,727 should be the A2 new style Tenite OD steering wheel.

Here are the listings in the TM 10-1348s:
March 30, 1942 - GPW 3600/WO A-535
Sep. 15, 1942 - GPW 3600 A/WO A-535
Mar. 10, 1943 - GPW 3600 A/WO A-6858 (Is this the "A3"?)

I would say the WO A-6858 could be the A3 GPW metal spoke steering wheel but I am not at home so I can not say for sure.

My guess is Ford went to the spoked wheel much earlier than Willys did based on the purchases you furnished, in fact they would have run out of GREEN Shellers around July 1942.

Your numbers above are in error so the above statement is in error.

What still is not known is if Ford sold "spares" to QMC/ORD or if Sheller bought them directly, because that would have used up the supplies mentioned in the Accounting document even sooner for each type.

The numbers in the Ford documents that I have are from vehicle production data. The numbers are not from Ford spare part contract production.

Disclaimer: The five plants would not give hard numbers to stop/start a change necessarily so I have used straight-line estimates and the DODs in AAW as sources....

This is not a correct statement. There were change in parts forms to be filled out by each Branch plant.
[/quote]

To summarize due to my bad math:

First Contract GPWs 1-15,000: No information
Second contract GPWs 15,001 - 31,907: "rubber"
Second Contract GPWs 31,908 - 46,370: "1st Tenite (green Sheller)
Second Contract GPWs 46,371 - 78,098: "2nd Tenite (new style)

So when you get home, please check if at the end of the "New Style" Ford went to the A3 which is the spoked wheel...according to AAW, GPW 78098 was around November 1942....

Based on your info and my own assumptions to fill in what you do not have:

GPWs up to GPW 31907 should have a Black Sheller.
GPWs from 31908 to 46370 should have Green Sheller w/small plugs
GPWs from 46371 to 78098 should have Green Sheller w/ large plugs
GPWs from 78099 onwards should have Green Spoked Sheller

My disclaimer was designed to observe that factories would run out of the steering wheels at different times, and use up the motors for a specific contract at different times as you have posted many times. So there will be some leeway with the designs and serial numbers....

Hi Chuck,

Your last post looks about right to what I have seen.

The one part that is in question is the timeline in the 3rd contract when the metal spoke wheel ( A3 ) replaced the new type Tenite ( A2 ).

Tom, if Ford bought 16,906, 14,463 and 31,727 = 63,096....

The Second Contract was for 63,146 jeeps so it seems that the change to the A3 Spoked Sheller would have been right at the beginning of the Thrid Contract, would it not?

Looking at AAW, that would be at GPW 78098 (first 15,000 plus 63,146 = GPW 78146), the difference is perhaps some wheels left from the first contract? In any event, this would have been around early Nov. '42.

That's great since guys have been wondering about the different wheels for their jeeps, and we have your trip to the Ford Archives to thank for that information.....the Willys guys might still rely on the Nabholtz change to the spoked wheel as being Jan. 1943....

Hi Chuck,

I must have wrote the 31,xxx number wrong. It is 31,777. Total is 63146.

The paperwork does not say tha Ford bought 31,777 of the new type Tenite. It says they used 31,777 on the second contract. That is why I am not setting a date of change to the metal spoke at this time. Third contract GPWs show-up in photos with the solid OD steering wheels so the date of the change needs more study.

Next trip to the Ford archives is donation dependent.

GPW1098 DOD 19 Feb 1942 has a black steering wheel.

GPW<>38679, DOD June 9, 1942 has Green with Green plastic on spokes.

Mike, I may have confused you with my original post; my wheel is entirely green plastic, NO metal spokes. Thanks, David

on my GPW 30653, DOD 5-14-1942, the sterring wheel is black Sheller

Serial#11567 3-27-42 has whats left of a black sheller.
Have a real good feeling its original. Grab it hard and it cracks in your hand.

GPW 1674 has a Black Sheller wheel.
John Killelea

GPW 287: Black Sheller

Not a VEP GPW (December 7, 1942), but GPW #83753 (Hood number 20195545) came with a green Sheller wheel. I am positive that it is the original--my grandmother bought the vehicle surplus in 1947. The wheel hub has graffiti carved into it (initials). The vehicle was entirely stock when she bought it.

Dan Thompson
GPW 83753
GPW 287