MY CAR NUMBER, EXTRA DIGIT?

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2017: MY CAR NUMBER, EXTRA DIGIT?
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Paul Sherman Tacoma WA on Friday, October 20, 2017 - 02:15 pm:

This is the number that is stamped on the right front floor riser of my '23 Touring that I am putting together. 80404702. The calendar year of production chart shows that 8040470 would have been produced in 1923. My question is what does the extra digit 2 stand for at the end of the number. I hope to have it inspected in the Spring and then get a title. All comments are welcome


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tim Eckensviller - Thunder Bay, ON on Friday, October 20, 2017 - 02:17 pm:

Second (replacement) block that number got stamped on? My T also has a questionable looking number but I registered it as what the block said and have lived hassle-free ever since.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne Sheldon, Grass Valley, CA on Friday, October 20, 2017 - 04:24 pm:

Front floor riser numbers are almost never the car's serial number. The "8" in your number could very well be a "B" for Beaudette, one of the larger body suppliers used by Ford for many years. While Ford was building most touring car and runabout bodies "in house" themselves by 1923, they still used outside suppliers for coupe and sedan bodies as well as the occasional touring or runabout to fill in shortages in the in house production. (Occasional in this case means hundreds of them were bought and used by Ford still.)

Several states (especially Califunny) encouraged changing the VIN (although they did NOT call it that in those days) to a frame stamping rather than the engine number. In Califunny, it is common to find frames with serial numbers stamped onto the frame. There was not a required location, and several places were preferred by different people doing the stamping. Some places also encouraged numbers be moved to door jambs, firewalls and other body attachments. In that sense, a floorboard riser could be a possibility. But I have never heard of it being used as a preferred location for reassigned serial numbers. The floorboard riser was the preferred location for Beaudette and a few other body suppliers for their record keeping numbers. My old '24 Coupe had the body supplier's (Fisher?) number codes on its front floorboard riser.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Hap Tucker in Sumter SC on Friday, October 20, 2017 - 04:26 pm:

Paul,

I am losing the battle with my computer....
Please see the posting at: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257/113666.html?1257717505 Thank you Dave Hjortnaes for posting the photo below of the Beaudett body number from his May 1920 T.



Note Ford did NOT put a vehicle number there. That number was placed by the company that made the body for Ford. Ref: http://www.mtfca.com/encyclo/doc15.htm where it says:

JUN 26, 1915 Factory Letter

"Hereafter when ordering body panels for 1915 cars, please give both the car and body numbers. The body number will be found on the right sill just inside the front door. This number will be preceded by a letter which indicates by whom the body was made.
"The above information is necessary as panels for bodies made by our various suppliers vary somewhat."

I suspect if you clean that area you will possibly find a body manufacture letter and in a different size at the end the year the body was made -- if it was made by Beaudett.

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l915 cut off


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By James A. Golden on Friday, October 20, 2017 - 04:43 pm:

Paul, if you clean the number, you may find that is a B and not an 8.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tim Eckensviller - Thunder Bay, ON on Friday, October 20, 2017 - 05:11 pm:

Disregard my post, I somehow missed that it was a number on the body. I don't know if I read it as the engine number or a number on the frame but I do know I wasn't properly caffeinated yet.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Paul Sherman Tacoma WA on Friday, October 20, 2017 - 06:52 pm:

I am going assume that the "8" is a "B" for Beaudet as the rear seat heel panel had a "B" and no longer worry about it. I have an 1919 starter engine. I will let to WA DOL give me any damn number they like.
Thank you all


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne Sheldon, Grass Valley, CA on Friday, October 20, 2017 - 11:44 pm:

I don't know how Washington is, but Califunny insists on a serial number on the frame or body of the car. Since they began encouraging owners to have numbers moved onto the frame clear back in the early 1920s (and I have read a 1931 California rule book myself where it stated that preference very clearly), it makes it possible to find such numbers on many frames. Of course, bureaucratic incompetence also allows many people in Califunny to use the engine number even though it is expressly forbidden in their rule books. (And people wonder WHY I call this state "Califunny"?)
It has been done in Califunny, and maybe it might work in Washington? Using the reproduction brass era data plates that have a place for a "car number". They can be mounted onto the firewall, or maybe the body. May not be (is not) totally correct, but I have heard of several times that state DMVs have accepted it.
Personally, I have never tried that here myself. And have no plans to do so.

Then again, as long as they do recognize it as the antique that it is (getting to be a bigger IF these days), a new assigned VIN does work, and I wouldn't say no to one.
Good luck!


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