MTFCA Forum

According to the serial number on the block and frame of my car, it was made on 12/6/1926.
Is there any way of finding out when and where the body was made by the serial number stamped on it?
Is it 158702B or 158/02B ?

Where did you find the body number? I can't find it on my '26 runabout.

Out on a limb, but I don't know that you will find one on an open car, re the body number (but you might read on). Closed cars were built by outside suppliers like Briggs and might have a number. The exception might be, cars that were assembled at branch plants could have a number/letter stamped on them to indicated which plant did the assembling. I am going with, it's a closed car and that would be the number used by the manufacture for inventory. Lots of these records were lost and non existing. I think in this case, the B is for Briggs and Ford did not keep records of those numbers and am fairly sure the Briggs numbers were lost in a fire.
Re the engine frame number, I do not recall seeing a list that broke down which cars were assembled at which branch plant. I am thinking that when Ford shipped the parts, like engines, frames, etc, the branch was given a block of number(maybe) to used if the chassis was not shipped as a unit. I may be all wet on this but thats what I am thinking.

Mark Nunn - I took this picture from under the car, It was on the front cross sill, right above the U-joint. It was easier to read from the bottom.

Mark Gregush - You might be right. I just thought I'd ask. Thanks.

There is always so much more to learn. Currently I do not have enough of the puzzle pieces to have an answer. But I welcome additional clues.

From: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/29/31535.html back in 2005 Leon Parker was restoring a 1927 coupe with a number stamped on the front floor board sill (in front of the seat riser). That number was 025693B

Ken Lefeber would you please confirm you are talking about the 1927 Coupe listed in your profile or correct us if appropriate?
Ken has a 1927 (probably a coupe) with the number 148702B stamped in I believe the same general area that Leon's number was found.

For the 1926-27 style coupe bodies Ford was producing their own bodies. (That doesn't mean he could not have purchased some from an outside supplier. I have not heard of Ford doing that for the 1926-27 coupe bodies. But for one year of the 1928-31 Model A Fords, Henry did purchase a few coupe bodies from an outside supplier.) So for a Ford produced body the "B" would not be for a body maker. So I don't think the "B" is for Briggs.

Dave Sturges compiled and published At: http://www.mafca.com/downloads/Technica ... Number.pdf for the Model A Ford club has a nice listing of Ford Assembly plants and the letter or letters they used to identify the plant. In that listing there is not any plant that used just the letter "B." However, "BO" was used for Buffalo, NY. And if we look at Atlanta, GA in that same list we see that they used the single letter "A" but also used the combination of letters "AA." And a few others used a single letter "H" for Houston; E for Edgewater etc.
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Note they discuss the general (but not always followed) pattern for the letters as:

Note that most of the letter codes are from one to five letters and there is a systematic
way most of the letters were derived from the city location of the assembly plant. When
assembly plant location cities have a single word, the letter code is generally the first and
last letters (i.e. Buffalo - BO, Charlotte - CE, Chester - CR, etc.)
Assembly plant locations having two words generally use the initial letter from each
word (i.e. New Orleans - NO, Oklahoma City - OC, Twin City - TC and so forth).

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So one possible hypothesis (guess) is that during the 1927 (possibly also 1926) the Buffalo plant used the single letter B for their Branch Plant identification.

REPEAT -- THAT IS A GUESS AT THIS TIME

Does anyone else have a 1926-27 coupe with a number followed by a "B" in that area?

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

Hap - Yes, this body number (158702B) is on the 1927 Coupe that is shown in my profile picture. The serial number is located in the same place as it is on Leon's car that you mentioned.

Ken,

Thank you for confirming the number is from your 1927 Coupe.

Note, "IF" Ford produced the 1926-27 Coupe bodies, then it would be a Branch Assembly Number and NOT a body number. I'm 99% sure the answer to the question, "Did Ford USA produce the 1926-27 coupe bodies" is in Sorensen's book "The Ford Factory" from the Fordiana series of books. I have some notes on that somewhere... But it is in the section on the Louisville, KY plant showing construction of the coupe bodies during the 1926-27 time frame. If I can located that again, I will post what I find.

Again if anyone else has a 1926-27 all steel bodied (yes they still contained some wood but it was no longer structural) Coupe, Tudor, Touring, Roadster body please let us know if you located a number and letter on one of the front floor board body sills. And if anyone happens to have a 1926-27 "all steel bodied" car with a known history that it came from a known assembly plant and it has a number and letter -- that would be really great!

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off