Army / Navy Surplus Stores and StoriesMilitary Vehicle Surplus Sales - Yards & Dealers
Brian's Military Jeeps of WWII - Surplus WWII Jeep parts & Accessories
Speaking of Army Surplus... What about those $50 Jeep in a Crate Stories?
Military Surplus - Remembering what it used to be like
Army / Navy Surplus Stores
| Often noted for their low prices, an "Army Surplus Store' or "Navy Surplus Store" is a retail store that sells surplus military and/or surplus industrial inventory. Military surplus are goods, equipment, clothing and other items, that the governments military branches found to be in excess to their actual needs. These surplus items were sold at public auction by the government when no longer needed by the military. Entrepreneurs would then buy these goods cheaply and then resell them at surplus stores after a slight markup. The surplus was almost always military, government or industrial excess (although now some items are being produced in China specially for the 'Army Surplus' trade, since the real US Military surplus has been almost entirely sold out for several years). Surplus stores sell items such as clothing, jackets, helmets, canvas packs and pouches, and general equipment that was intended for the various branches of the military, but that the military never got around to using in many cases. Usually the goods sold by the military at the government auctions are clothing, equipment, tools, and hardware of a generally useful nature. Only very rarely does a Government Surplus Auction include weapons, ammunition, or vehicles. (For more info on buying Government Surplus Jeeps, there is a link at the bottom). In spite of that, guns and ammo are often found at surplus stores. Sometimes the items being sold in the Army Surplus Store are in used condition and other times the items are NOS - New Old Stock - meaning the item was purchased new, stored, but never used by the military. Many items are in new condition because the item is no longer needed by the military as the technology of warfare makes older versions become obsolete. Surplus stores may also sell items that are past their use-by date but are still usable. Surplus stores often sell hiking, backpacking, and camping equipment as well as survival supplies. |
 Helmets, K-Rations, C-Rations, mess kits, bayonets, camouflage nets. These were the kinds of things you could commonly buy in the 1960's and 1970's at Army / Navy Surplus stores in the US. |
The world of military surplus has changed. Gone are the days when every town had an Army / Navy Surplus Store. A typical refrain in the 1960's & 1970's was "Tell mom I'm heading off to the army surplus store to get some stuff". Hours later you'd return with bags of goodies. Some made of stinky canvas - a special smell to many - other stuff covered in a wax like grease called Cosmoline. Ahhh, those were the days. There were some great places like Western Surplus in Los Angeles, and Long Beach Surplus on Garden Grove Blvd. in Westminster, CA. These places had bins & bins full of ammo pouches, pistol belts, canteens and shovel covers umm I mean "Entrenching Tool" covers, and the bins measured about 2 ft x 2 ft x 3 ft deep. Each item had it own huge bin, which was full to the brim & spilling out onto the floor. All with prices tagged, penciled or inked (not good) on to them. Prices like 39 cents, 75 cents, with the expensive ones going for $1.50 each - even at those prices, I didn't think they could ever run out. There were just too many bins full of NOS WWI & WWII dated Army Surplus for them to ever run out - or so I thought. After 10 great years of always being able to run down to Long Beach Surplus and pick up as many more as I wanted, I arrived one day to find several bins empty, and most others seriously depleted. "What happened to all the stuff"? "Some dealers from Belgium came in last week and cleaned us out of most of our WWII stuff" I was told by a long time employee. "What?" Why would THEY be coming over here - way over here on the West Coast, don't they have this stuff at home? Didn't we leave boatloads of it on the docks when we sent the troops home after the war ended? Isn't the East Coast closer to them? What's the deal? This was taking place in the heyday of faxing. The world was becoming a smaller place. (As a side note... remember when you used to get jokes FAXED to you instead of being fwd, and fwd by email? Too funny huh. When was the last time anyone faxed you a joke or cartoon LOL). The long & the short of it was that things were drying up. More people were wanting it, and with faxing helping to put surplus operators, buyers, and middlemen in contact with each other, it was disappearing fast! I sure wish I had bought & put away more of it. I also wish I had taken pictures. |
Galveston, Texas *If anyone has photos of the Army Surplus stores I mention - please email them to me so I can add them. THANKS!
|
Colonel Bubbie's Strand Surplus Store in Galveston, TX
was another
on the 'Old Time, huge inventory, stocks everything' surplus
stores.
I went there while in town for the Galveston MVCC (MVPA)
convention.
I was there for many hours and did ferret out some treasures, only to
be
disappointed when after doing all the work to find them, the Col.
wanted
about 2x the going rate from high end dealers like Hayes O. Needless to
say it all went back into the catacombs. From reading their not
too
favorable reviews on Yahoo
Travel, it doesn't look like anything has changed there. It makes me sad that the heyday of
Army Surplus
stores are over. They are almost a thing of the past now.
|
Military Vehicle Surplus Sales - Yards &
Dealers
 Cosmolined military vehicle engine parts
overflow from shelves.
|
I made frequent trips out to the old Surplus
City Jeep
Parts warehouse when they were located in Sun Valley, CA.
After
I became better known and became a dealer myself, I was allowed behind
the counter and was allowed to rummage around in the barn like
warehouses.
I wore out the people who accompanied me, as well as the employees sent
to help me find what I was looking for. I wasn't looking for
anything
specific, just neat stuff I didn't have. As the months passed, they
began
asking me if I knew where stuff was. I had gotten to the point that I
knew
the rafters, 2nd story, and dusty cubbyholes at least as well as, if
not
better than, the counter guys. ;-) I was proud of that. I
took
it as a great compliment that I was allowed to investigate like an
archeologist
through the stores of a competitor. But we weren't really competitors.
They had me hands down on the mechanical stuff - gears, crankshafts,
pulleys,
pistons, rods, etc. They had the mechanical parts & the
know-how
for all sorts of early civilian & military jeeps. I was happy to
let
them be the source for all things like that. My interest was
always
with the odd-ball accessories and subtle differences between Early
&
Late, between Ford "F" marked and Willys. I liked all the special
military only stuff - the stuff 'Farmer John' always tossed in the
trash
when the MB/GPW went to work on the farm. So Surplus City and I
lived
a great coexistence. I sent them all my customers who needed mechanical
parts. And I know that they sent customers my way as well for the
really
rare stuff that I always carried. I should at this point say a
special
"Hello" to Chuck Heindell of Surplus City's Northern Calif. operations.
We've both watched each other grow up. Every 6 months we would see each
other at Patterson, then Woodson Bridge, then Big Bear, and now at
Tower
Park and at the Surplus City camp out. Surplus City has since
closed
their Southern California store & warehouse and moved everything up
to Oroville.
I also made trips to visit Roy Van Wicklin of 4wd by Van, and Phil MacDonnald of Highland Truck Parts (now closed). Phil always had great stuff - he's retired to Canada last I heard. Van always had stories. If I was at Van's in Calabasas for 2 hours, I knew Van would fill the time with 3 hours worth of stories. If I had 4 hours, then Van would come up with 5 hours worth of stories. Funny thing about Van, he's got a story for everything. He's quite a character. I never bought much there, as he usually wanted way too much money. Eventually he too closed up shop in LA and retired to Las Vegas. Terry was the mechanic at 4WD by Van's. He was a good guy too. Eventually he left Van's and teamed up with Kerry from Surplus City to start a small WWII jeep operation. They called themselves "The Outcasts". I bought 3 Ford Script body tubs from them and a few boxes of miscellaneous parts from them. They were also involved in the infamous Cuervo Gold tequila induced "Brian & Kerry's Stretcher Bearer Taxi Service" at the Woodson Bridge rally about 1988 or so. In this incident one of the Ford Script GPW body tubs previously mentioned landed on top of me when I tripped, fell, and slid under it, knocking the 4 jerry cans it was sitting on out from under it. So even today, I can with great certainty inform you that Ford Script body tubs are both heavy and have pointy poky things sticking out of the bottom. These pointy poky things, when combined with the weight of the tub, can and do cut, scrape, and otherwise bring to an end the fun & frivolity of a jeep camp out evening of running around the park with another like minded individual offering free stretcher rides to people out for an evening stroll. It took me a decade to live that episode down. Oh, to be 26 again. I outlasted my 2 competitors in Southern Calif., Surplus City & 4WD by Van. Maybe they had sense to get out of the crowded LA basin and go to a place where there aren't so many people and a jeep can run in real dirt. There's almost no dirt left in Orange County, Calif. It's all houses & malls.
Coming Soon - BERG's "King of Jeeps" and other Army Jeep Mail Order Catalogs |
 Pueblo Auto Parts - Pueblo, Colorado WAS
full of NOS WWII Army Surplus
Jeep parts
|
PUEBLO AUTO PARTS
a.k.a. BIG 4 AUTO PARTS in Pueblo, Colorado. People don't
believe me
when I try to describe it to them. This was the only place like it I
have
ever been. It was unique and if you never saw it for yourself, you
won't
believe that a place like that existed. I have made at least 3 trips
there
with a year or so between visits. They were 2-day visits. They had to
be
to do it right. There was just too much stuff to see and dig
&
crawl and climb through. Pigeon poop being a large part of the contents
of the building. The 122 year old building was a multi-story hotel
built
before the turn of the century. Add to that the 3 level basement.
Everything
was full of parts, even the elevator shafts. Everything was full of
shelves,
crates, piles, boxes, stacks, bundles, sacks, etc. of antique (20's,
30's,
40's, 50's) auto & truck parts - mostly military vehicle parts. The
hotel room doors were removed for easier access. The rooms were full of
shelves. Rows & rows of shelves. The problem was that the shelves
had
all fallen forward onto the shelf unit in front of it. It was like a
big
stack of dominoes in the process of falling. The contents of
every
downward facing shelf was piled high on the floor in front of it, while
all the up facing shelves were jumbled and mixed up and hard to get
at.
So imagine a 3 ft pile of stuff at the base of EACH shelf unit, where
you
had to crawl under the tilted shelf unit to try to get to the bottom of
the pile. You had to move the pile to see what was on the bottom shelf,
because the bottom shelf tilted the least so it didn't travel far. Most
people took one look and said forget it! The more adventurous dove
right
it, but I would guess that many never got to the bottom of the
piles.
Now visualize room after room after room like this, then go up another
story and find another floor like the one that just took 3 hours to go
through. Ok, sounds like fun doesn't it? Well the bad news is
that
many windows are broken out on every floor, and pigeons by the score
have
decided to bury all the auto parts in poop & feathers. Now it's not
so fun anymore. There were spider webs, and dust piles the size
of
small rats. I'm pretty sure they weren't rats as they didn't
move.
Lighting was also an issue. There might be 1 single incandescent bulb
in
the center hallway and that was it. There you are 40 feet away in
another
room wondering if maybe that isn't a dust pile after all and sometimes
it wasn't. Sometimes it was a rat, and sometimes he had
friends.
I am not about to let some stupid rats come between me and those NOS
Ford
GPA mufflers in the corner. When I emerged hours later, I didn't look
human.
I think this is the filthiest I have ever been. The 1st trip was a
success.
I spent hundreds of dollars and was happy as a clam. Well as happy as
any
filthy, stinky, pigeon poop covered clam with a truck full of NOS WWII
jeep parts could be.
The 2nd time I went to Pueblo Auto Parts I went far better prepared. The first time I went not believing the stories I had heard. The first time I went unprepared. I didn't make that mistake again. I was going in for the long haul and going in loaded for bear. It was me against the pigeons and their poop, the spiders and their irritating webs, the dust bunnies/dust rats, and the various dirt, trash, and broken glass. I came with several sets of gloves, extra batteries, flashlights, backpack & canvas bags, dust mask, a headset walkie talkie, and 2 bottles of water in a butt pack. I ate before I went in. I was working my way through crawl spaces where gravity could be my undoing if a shelf unit decided to give way and finish the trip it started towards the ground. CRIKEY! <tipping hat to Steve Irwin> I loved it!. I spent 8 hours in there. They kicked me out at closing. I got a hotel room down the road because I wasn't done yet. I loved it even more the 2nd day! Hundreds more $ spent. Ohh, but they were deals. A couple of years later I was back again for more. I am glad I did it and I am sorry I can't ever go back there to do it again. It's gone! ;-( Downtown fixture Big Four Auto Parts waits for progress to bring a buyer. (The Pueblo Chieftain) Dec. 20, 1995 The Big Four auto parts building looks every bit its 110 years; and its windows are full of shiny auto parts.Pueblo, Colo., Auto Parts Store Closes after 70 Years in Business. (Knight Ridder/Tribune) Nov. 30, 2000 Nov. 30 -- Decades worth of inventory at the Big 4 Auto Parts store Downtown on Santa Fe Avenue will be auctioned Saturday. The sale, beginning at 10 a.m., marks another step leading to the demolition of most of the buildings on the west side of the 200 block of North Sante Fe Avenue to make way for parking for the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center. <Link>Liquidation Auction at Landmark Pueblo, Colo., Auto Parts Store Draws Crowd. (Knight Ridder/Tribune) Dec. 4, 2000 Dec. 4 -- Charles Miller was like a kid in a toy store when he walked into the Big 4 Auto Parts store Saturday morning. "This is awesome," said Miller of Denver as he perused box after box in aisle after aisle of the 70-year-old auto parts store. "I haven't been this excited about stuff since I was a kid," he said. "I don't plan to leave here without at least a couple boxes of stuff." Miller joined hundreds of other auto part, antique or simply nostalgia lovers who gathered at the Big 4 store at 201 N. Santa Fe for a gigantic one-day liquidation auction. Everything ... <Link> *If anyone has photos of Pueblo Auto Parts or other surplus yards I mention - please email me so I can add them. THANKS! |
Brian's Military Jeeps
of
WWII
Surplus WWII Jeep parts
&
Accessories - World War Two US GI Accouterments & AAF Gear
 MA, T-1 Air Compressor, other rare
Willys, Ford, and Bantam Jeep parts  Willys MBT Jeep trailer, "F" Ford GPW,
and Ford GP Prototype Parts  Decontaminiator, Early Galvanized Jerry
cans, and other rare WW2 Jeep parts  WWII dated Jeep mechanics tool boxes
packed full of NOS MB/GPW jeep parts      Fuel Filters, B/O marker lights, and
other rare W.W.II collectibles.  World War Two trailer full of Gas Cans,
Combat Rims, and 6:00-16 NDT tires. |
In 1983 I purchased my 1st WWII Jeep. A running and drivable
1942 Willys
MB. It was missing everything Military though. I searched high
&
low for the parts I was missing. Although I was attending college, I
tried
to buy extra WW2 jeep parts whenever I found a good deal on them. I
started
trading extra parts through the mail to get supplies of trading parts
that
no one had in the local So. Calif. area. Real Estate in Orange
County,
CA is too expensive to store inexpensive things like 30 cent piston
rings.
It only makes sense to store the really valuable (and hopefully small)
Jeep parts. I always liked all the accessories and goodies that WWII
jeeps
either came with or had Modification Kits for, so this worked out well
for me. I bought up all I could find of the things that met those
prerequisites
for size, value, and rarity. Years later when I decided to take
advantage
of a job opportunity with several publishing companies, it meant I
wouldn't
be around home very much. This traveling salesman job made it too
difficult
to sell parts, but it didn't stop me from buying as much as I could and
stocking it away for a time when I would be working close to home
again.
Now the walls are busting with stuff. It's packed full and
overflowing
everywhere. I just started opening up boxes, crates, and barrels
of WWII Jeep Parts & accessories that I had locked up & stored
for between 10-20 years. The majority are NOS. I am now cleaning,
degreasing,
in in some instances glass beading & painting these rare
parts.
Some finds so far are MA headlight brackets, Slatgrill Brass Windshield
Clamps, Decontaminators, 1st Aid kits, Red Stimsonite reflectors, Spare
Parks Kit Firestone Spark Plugs, Machine Gun Mount pieces, Ford
&
Willys Pintle Hooks, Ford Ignition Switches, Gearshift Knobs, Handcrank
Clamps, Grease Gun Adapters, Sirens, Harley Davidson Blackout Lights,
WWII
Jeep Axes, WWII GI Hand Axes, WWII Slatgrill Shovels, MB/GPW shovels,
Entrenching
Shovels, WWII Vehicle Equipment Pick Ax, GI Entrenching Picks, WWII
General
License Plates, Jeep Windshield Defroster Kits, Ford & Corcoran
Brown
BO Lights & Guards. There are some photographs posted to the sides
and below of what it looked like to open just some of these boxes and
crates.
Pristine pieces will be sold AS IS in NOS condition. In cases
where
something was NOS but had some flaw such as rust stains or badly
flaking
paint, then my goal is to make these parts be ready to install in a top
notch restoration. To have them be in the best condition for sale, they
might
be degreased (cosmoline removed), if there
is storage wear or any spots of surface rust, the parts might be
stripped chemically, then touched up with a glass bead machine for
maximum
rust eradication (if any) and for best paint adhesion. Parts would then
be primed and painted and ready for sale.
This is pretty much going to be it. I don't foresee finding any more warehouses or hordes of WWII MB / GPW Jeep parts. I haven't seen those since 1990. So out of the bundle of 12 Jeep Axes, I am keeping 4 for my jeeps, leaving 8 for sale. There might be another Ax that turns up, but all the jeep parts were pretty well organized when I put them all away years ago. So when those 8 Axes are gone, that's it. I will post as much info on each item when I offer it for sale. As much as I would love to chat & email back in forth and answer questions in great detail, I can't. If I do, nothing gets done. Nothing gets opened, degreased, glass beaded, painted, photographed, cropped & uploaded. No ads get written, auctions run, items boxed up, & taken to the shipper. It's a one man show here. Since I will be in the shop wearing various hoods, gloves, working with paint, chemicals, air tools, etc., I won't be anywhere near a computer to answer questions or look at your 'want lists'. Sorry. I spend too much time on the internet as it is and I need to cut way back as it seems I never get the jeep jobs started let alone finished. Also, re: wants lists. I am trying to get all similar parts ready at the same time to the best of my ability. All the shovels, all the WWII Jerry can spouts etc. Usually the parts were put in as groups originally, so they should be coming out in groups. I don’t have a map to locate specific parts; I just open the boxes as I work my way farther & farther back. Then I take the boxes down to the shop for clean up and preparation for sale. Last thing is: I don't know who I should sell the parts too.
Do I sell
to the guy who mailed me a letter 8 years ago looking for something
because
he's been waiting the longest?; The guy from the local jeep club
because
I've seen him at the meetings for 15 years; The guy who is a total
white
glove museum grade restoration because I know he'll worship it?; The
guy
who really uses his jeep because he drives the jeep weekly and wants it
to keep it running?; The new guy who lives 2 miles away and just
got his 1st WWII jeep because he's close? Join
my email Notification List to find out immediately when (and what)
items are posted for sale. See the
sales flyer.
|
Cosmoline - What's that?
The military was very concerned that the spare parts being sent to overseas theaters arrive in new pristine condition after their months of ocean transit. The parts would be exposed to salt water, salt spray, high humidity, rain, possible oil and chemical spills, as well as rough handling and dirty conditions. The military went to great lengths to preserve their spare parts. The most common method of preserving parts was to coat the parts in cosmoline, and/or place them in a cardboard boxes and then coat the boxes with cosmoline and wax paper. Cosmoline is the trade name for a general class of rust preventatives, very similar to petroleum jelly in properties, appearance, and thickness. Cosmoline is the purified ointment like residue obtained from the distillation of petroleum oils. Chemically, cosmoline is a homogeneous mixture of oily and waxy long-chain, non-polar hydrocarbons. Cosmoline feels very waxy or oily and has a petroleum-like odor and taste. Cosmoline can be found in several colors and shades. It can range in color from white to yellow, light-amber, or green. Other times a nice light opaque brown, and still other times it is dark and black as coal. Cosmoline melts from 113–125 °F (45–52 °C), has a flash point of 365 °F (185 °C), and can differ in viscosity and shear strength. Besides military vehicle parts, another common use for cosmoline was in the storage and preservation of firearms. In fact it is used to preserve from very small to the very large items. In the past items as large as vehicles and even larger coastal artillery pieces have been preserved for future use with cosmoline. In the jeep realm, the older, long time collectors can remember needing a pocket knife to scrape off the thick cosmoline coatings so you could read the contents label when exploring the old truck surplus warehouses. You never really knew what you had found until you could scrape off enough layers to be able to read the label under all those layers. It was a dirty, filthy job, yet oh how I miss those days. It seems now everything is repro, or used. Very few items are still found 'In The Cosmoline'.
Rumor has it you can make Cosmoline yourself as follows;
1) get, mix & melt equal amounts of lanolin and petroleum jelly (large tub) in a double boiler.
2) Apply it warm.
Be aware it will harden like concrete and is hard to get off.You can still buy it outright as well;
"Cosmoline, rare item. New 10 Lb bricks new in cardboard boxes. Just heat in old pan until melted and dip your valuable parts in. I have found parts treated this way in old Surplus Yards that have been laying outside for 40 years and they are still like new. Works great for gun collectors also. $14.95 a brick"
Army Surplus Warehouse
P.O. Box 1523
Idaho Falls, Idaho 83403
Phone: 208 529 4753
asw@armysurpluswarehouse.comMidway sells a product they call Cosmoline: http://www.midwayusa.com/rewriteaproduct/267557
Brownell's has RIG rust preventive grease It may or may not be Cosmoline, but would probably work as well. http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=10073
Perhaps instead of wanting to put on cosmoline, you want to get rid of it and remove it - if so, here is a good link on the topic.
Speaking
of
Army
Surplus...
What
about those $50 Jeep in a Crate Stories?
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