Buz pointed me to this story title “Gus and the Miracle Jeep”, publish in the August 1950 of Popular Science Monthly.  The story is part of the Gus and the Model Garage series.  I’d never read any Gus stories, and Buz didn’t tell me much, other than I should read it.  So, I didn’t know what to expect.

After reading it I suggest you read it too.  It just begs the question, what other things did the Army try?

http://www.gus-stories.org/august_1950.htm

That is just one of more than 500 stories about Gus and the Model Garage, written by Martin Bunn over the span of three decades.  Who was Martin Bunn?  That was a pen name for a variety of authors who churned out a monthly story designed to describe car problems in ways the average person would understand.  In a way, it’s like Encyclopedia Brown (which I loved reading as a kid) for people interested in automotive mechanics.

Thanks to Mike Hammerberg, there is an entire website devoted to Gus and the Model Garage stories.