Photo By Keith Hayes | Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Silkowski, director, Fleet Support Division, Marine Corps...... read more read more
A passion for history and a serendipitous discovery has led the director of Fleet Support Division aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif., to restoring vintage military vehicles.
Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Silkowski, director, FSD, can often be seen driving a restored World War II Ford Jeep around base or four-wheeling with it out in the desert.
“I was looking in the Penny Saver for a vintage Enduro motorcycle one day when I came across the ad for a wartime era jeep for sale from a man in Joshua Tree,” Silkowski said. The colonel was stationed at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., at the time.
“I bought the Ford Jeep for $500, which was a good deal, and started restoring it,” he continued. The colonel said it is usually an expensive proposition to restore old cars because you have to do a lot of shopping around to find parts, but such wasn’t the case with this Jeep.
“I don’t like the shopping for parts thing,” he said. “I’ve never bought any part online. Every one of my collectible items has been bought through in-person, at flea markets, by word-of-mouth, and through lots of bartering with friends and other contacts.”
“I used to go four-wheeling with a friend out to Wonder Valley, east of Twentynine Palms, every weekend,” he said. “That was (General George) Patton’s training area for his tanks before he took all of his troops to war.”
Those trips paid off in a big way for the history buff.“ Over time we found enough parts abandoned out there in the desert that I was able to put my vehicle back to original military condition,” Silkowski said.
“You’d always find parts after a rainstorm because stuff magically floats to the surface of the sand or the sand is washed away from around the part,” he said. “I (once) found an entire tub of a Jeep, that’s the part where the driver and passengers sit. Altogether it only cost me about $1,500 to restore this jeep to original condition.”
Ford Motor Company and Willys-Overland Motor Company produced the bulk of the iconic Jeeps used by nearly every branch of the military and allied nations in World War II.
“Henry Ford had a tiff going with the War Department which didn’t want him embossing the script ’Ford’ logo on the back of their Jeeps,” Silkowski said. “So he literally stamped every nut and bolt with a script ‘F’, so every fender, every piece of sheet metal, basically had a big inspector mark on it with the script ‘F’, except for the back of the Jeep.”
After the war ended the U.S. government had thousands of surplus Willys and Ford Jeeps on hand, and that’s when Willys started using the 134 cubic inch, 60 horsepower, 105 foot pounds of torque, 4-cylinder engine common to both manufacturers to make civilian vehicles, such as the 1950 Willys Jeep Station Wagon also restored and owned by Silkowski.
“The original owner abandoned it in the 1960s out in Wonder Valley,” Silkowski said. “We believe he would drive down to Mexico in it and do some shooting. I don’t know if he was a bad shot or some people got drunk but the back end of this thing was all shot up with 45 caliber bullets when I got it.”
Issues like that are the kinds of things a car enthusiast such as Silkowski lives for because they present a challenge to overcome and a good story to tell.
“I had to weld washers over the bullet holes then tack weld the center hole on the washers, then finish and smooth it out,” he said.
Silkowski’s love of his hobby doesn’t only include military vehicles; it’s just that restoring a military vehicle is much less expensive.
“I’ve always been into the restoration of ‘50s cars with lots of chrome, but with the California (Environmental Protection Agency) pressuring the chrome industry, it’s kind of nice to restore a vehicle without chrome,” he explained, “Because to restore a 1950s vehicle I could easily spend $10,000 just on chrome.”
That has not stopped him from restoring a 1956 4-door DeSoto Firedome to near mint condition. The blue and white finned vehicle sits in the garage of his officer’s row quarters.
“I’m tweaking the settings on the engine to get it just right,” he said.
Silkowski has some advice for car hobbyists who want to get into restoration.
“Don’t buy the first thing you see,” he said. “A lot of these cars are going for exorbitant prices at auctions, but if you keep your nose in sources like Hemmings Motor News and other resources you’ll find good deals. It also helps to have a patient spouse, too.”
| Date Taken: | 07.27.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.02.2017 15:17 |
| Story ID: | 243449 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 191 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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