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I've had these two M38 chassies for years and dug them out . I would like to make a good runner out of the two for the kids to have fun with it.
Does anyone know of good mods that I could include? I would love to upgrade the suspension with real oil filled shocks for example and replace all the bushings with ball bearings. Alternative wheels would be awesome as well. Looking for any info and a possible list of all ball bearing sizes.

Have You ever driven one of those
I´d say it´s near impossible to make it a reliable ride. It´s cog is just too high and the stance not wide enough.

It´s very funny to drive on the beach, where it won´t get trashed when it rolls - on tarmac it takes good skills to keep it on the wheels.

You should be able to find the bushing/bearing sizes in the manual?. As for shocks, I´d would go for 1/18 AE shocks.

Oil shocks would be useless as you really don't need any dampening. these jeeps live on their rear wheel or on their top.

I was thinking to use a light shorty lipo battery to lower the cog and add weight in the bottom of the chassis. It might actually change the behaviour?
In the end, knowing me a bit, I will built one with all the best parts and will no more have the guts to drive it.

If you want it not to roll or wheelie then you need an Audi Quattro or Opel Ascona , they have a longer chassis with a lower mounted battery but otherwise the same transmition and suspension , i had an Ascona back in the day as well as a Willie's wheeler , both were plenty of fun .

There are no known wheels easily available to retrofit M38... only the Quatttro/Audi/Wheeler original wheels. But they are also smaller and they run higher gearing in gearbox to compensate.