I have recently started the body work on my 1920 Touring. I noticed what looks like a serial number on the right (passenger) side of the floor board support. I was aware that the brass era cars had a serial numbers but didn't know if it carried over to later years.
Did Ford I.D. these years or it the marks from a shade tree mechanic from years gone by? hard to tell if they are numbers need to clean up better.
John

Most likely the manufacturers body number. Funny that Hap Tucker hasn't been along to tell you about it and ask you to give him the information. Maybe if I bump this to the top he'll spot it. These often have a date code buried in those figures somewhere. Looks like a good project!

Looks very similar to the numbers on my touring. Hap might even show you what mine are so you can compare and see if you have all the numbers.

Warren and Dave thanks for your input. I could probably do a search and find his posts. I have read in the past Hap's post regarding body #'s but I thought it was always 1916 and older T's. Just started getting into body resto. Rear floor pan was shot and upon removal some selective pieces on the driver's side sub rail wood need replacing. I am just replacing pan and re-riveting to original side and toe kick pieces. Warren - Saturday I picked some steam bent tack strips from a gentlemen from NY state at the swap in Owatonna (Mark's). He said they were for earlier T's but they fit to a T (pun intended). It cost but will save me a lot of aggravation trying to cobble together. John

Warren & Dave – thank you both for bumping the posting up so I would see it. I had missed the previous times (honey do list – actually daughter’s list – I’ve been helping paint the new apartment she will be moving into.)

John – the body numbers I have been trying to track are primarily 1914 to 1923. I have the most information on the 1915-1916 Beaudett bodies and they clearly have a “date” as part of their body number. And I have the least amount of information on the bodies produced by Kahler and the Kelsey. But I am always looking for additional information on 1903-1927 bodies.

Dave is correct; your body number looks very similar to his. But his is much easier to read. It could be as simple as there is dirt and paint in the stamping or as difficult as the stamping was poor to begin with and was damaged over time by someone dropping a heavy object on the number. Below is the body number from Dave’s 1920 touring that has a May 1920 engine serial number.



Note that it starts with a B has 6 more digits that like the B appear to have been stamped in by the same method and that the last two digits appear to be a different font and/or stamped differently. My theory (guess) is the last two digits were stamped in a large number of the right front metal floor board risers. Then before the riser was installed the serial number of the body (not the car – but the body) was stamped into the riser or the riser was installed and then stamped when the body was in production at the body maker’s location. Note also that the number begins with a “B” which stands for Beaudett (also spelled Beaudette and usually referred to as Pontiac in Ford USA records). At http://mtfca.com/encyclo/A-B.htm Bruce has a table showing the number of bodies Beaudett supplied to Ford for various calendar years.

1909-1912 unknown
1913 53,794
1914 101,369
1915 170,027
1916 277,621
1917 361,292
1918 113,298
1919 293,067
1920 290,381
1921 230,434
1922 109,913 (until July 20)

In the case of your body number I cannot really tell if there is a “B” at the beginning or not. I would guess there is – but I could not break it out when was looking at the photo you posted. Sometimes you can look at the number from several different angles and be able to figure out what it says. And sometimes if you provide a higher resolution photo I can change the colors and zoom in and figure out what the numbers and/or letters are. Below is what I did with the last three digits of the number. I reversed the colors and changed the contrast and made it larger.



You can clearly see that the third from the last digit is a “4” and I believe the second from the last is a “2.” I would guess but it is a guess that the last digit is a “0.” As you are cleaning up that area – please let us know what it really reads. Especially the last two digits and if there is a “B” at the beginning of the number or not.

Where that can come in handy is for dating the body but also for knowing what body panels to look for. The different body makers sometimes had slightly different sheet metal and/or wood parts. That is why Ford said the dealers should state the body number when ordering sheet metal replacement panels.

You body will be very similar to the other bodies produced by the same company from 1915-1917 and then 1920-1922. For some of the 1918-1919 bodies they went back to the early 1915 wooden seat frames. In the case of Beaudett – I do not think they did that as I have a May 1918 Beaudett touring body and it still has the metal seat frames. Of course they may have changed to the wood ones after May 1918 or they may have produced both styles during that time.

From your profile it appears you are new to Ts but from your posting you have had the car for a while and have restored the chassis (great job!) and are now getting ready to restore the body. You also are in contact with the local T club and that is great. They can be a good source of encouragement and information to you. There are also some other good photos of the metal Beaudett front floor risers with the body numbers stamped into them at: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257/113666.html?1257654140 Also, if you would please let me know what month and year your car’s engine serial number indicates – especially if you think it is the same one that came with the body.

And again thanks to Warren and Dave for bumping the posting. If anyone has items like that and you see that I missed them – please send me an e-mail or private message – just click on my name and my e-mail is the third line down.

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

Warren and Dave - Just a follow up to this discussion. I wire brushed the area and Hap was indeed correct. It was a B prefix body # just as your Touring Dave. I also noticed the rear seat riser has a B embossed on it perhaps for Beaudette. I emailed Hap with other info but I thought I'd post pics.
John

John thank you so much for the e-mail and for posting the update with the photo on the forum. I’ve saved that photo and someday I hope we can make some type of correlation between the body numbers and the month the body was produced. For the earlier Beaudett bodies they clearly stamp a month date in addition to the year date along with a number.

And if others have body numbers etc. please send them my way when you have a chance (just click on my name – the third line down is my e-mail).

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

John and Hap

I will have to look up my engine number tonight. Then you can compare my engine number and body number to John's numbers to see if they correlate. If the engines were never swapped out then you might have a close answer.

I am thinking my engine was produced in March or may of 1920. Looks like my body number is 251838. Johns number is 309484. Was his car built later in 1920?

I would be very surprised if the body were put on the chassis in sequence, but they might match to a certain week of the year. Verrrrrry Interesting?

My engine number is 3,955,795. Maybe the number on the body only relates to the touring bodies. We shall see what Hap can come up with. What percent of cars built in 1920 were touring?