I just lifted the body on my 32 Ford tudor, and found that the Vin number begins with ABxxxxxxx. I thought that all the four cylinder cars began with B and the V8's began with 18. Is this an early 32? I can read the number on the back of the block and I thought it began with a B but upon closer inspection it begins with an AB. The engine number and the frame number match. Any thoughts?
The "A" was dropped from the prefix in April and at that time all 4 cylinders serial numbers had 7 digits,,all beginning with 5. BTW,,the car has a early model 14 front bumper.HRP
I think perhaps that you have opposite. The 4 cylinder cars began with an 18 and the v/8 cars began with 5's? I did look this information up when I recently bought a 32 chassis with title. I may be mistaken.
I NEVER PROFESSED TO BE A EXPERT. The early production of the 4 cylinder engines which begin in November 1931 and the prefixes were AB,ABB,ABF and ABBF,,this was dependent on the particular application,,commercial,passenger car,RHD or LHD. HRP
32 numbers in the USA were prefixed with 18- if the car had the V8 and either the B- or the AB- if it had the B four cyl motor.
I have a 32 cabriolet(roll up windows with a convertible top) vin originally was F18xxxx.I was told by those "in the know" that F meant rt hand drive,18 means v8,and the remaining 4 digits suggest it is a very early built car(possibly mar-April of 1932)
AB numbers were used from Nov 1931 starting with 5,000,000 to April 1932 ending in 5,062386. All numbers after April are B numbers.
An oddity is that since the B had none of the production problems the new V8 had, they went right into manufacture as soon as Ford began finalizing the manufacturing system for complete cars. A large number of B engines were built and warehoused in anticipation of startup. Then Henry decided that no fours would be built until some V8's were ready to go to the line. The end result is that while you can spot an early B, you can't tell how early the car might be because the engines came out of the stockpile in whatever order they were grabbed. Usable V8s from the first runs were rare ( lots had to be scrapped before casting procedures were worked out) and any that survived run in went immediately into a car. By the middle or so of the model year, V8 production was under control and most cars were built as 8's, with B production falling off toward nothing. The 5,000,000 starting number was because the B was considered to be a continuation of the Model A engine family and a continuation of that serial number series. That was a generous rounding off of the nearly 5 million last A cars, leaving room for serials for the many A engines and A or AA vehicles still being built in Europe and the A engines still in production here for industrial users, replacement engines, etc.
I was normal for ONE in Ford 1932 serials...any 6 or 9 should have a spine with no curve. A number between 1 and a little over 200,000 (is yours 174,XXX, which would fit that) would be a proper '32 221 number. Since the main number with the 18 would have been on the transmission, it was not unheard of for the frame to carry just the serial with no prefix. The stampings farther back on the frame were apparently always just the numerals. Since the B was above 5,000,000 and V8 was between one and a bit over 200,000 there's no question what the frame would have carried. This # isn't a problem at all as far as I'm concerned, but you mileage may vary with the DMV!
Thanks for the reply, Bruce. Sounds like it is an early V8 car? It is a 3 window, originally with a rumble seat. There is a six, it has a straight spine, almost like a lower case 'b'. The numbers are irregular, not stamped squarely, out of alignment, almost running off the outer edge of the rail. I'm guessing hand stamped in a hurry. IIRC the front crossmember had motor mount holes. I know the V8 had mounts on the water pumps. Did the 4 cylinder have a different crossmember?
The four and eight used the same crossmember but there was an early and a late crossmember (and maybe a few more). Charlie Stephens
Since we're talking decoding stuff here, look at the body floor cross channel that the front of the seat would bolt to. In the middle or towards the driver side you should be able to find a stamping. It should have a letter or two followed by some numbers. The letters signify the manufacturing plant and the numbers are the number of that body style created. So if you had a tudor sedan with a "R4556" that would be the Rouge plant and the 4556th Tudor body made there. My 32 Coupe and 32 Truck are TC (Twin Cities MN) and my older bro has a 32 Tudor with DM (Des Moines).
Unfortunately, the original floor and cross channels are long gone. When I found the car in 1969, it had been channeled over the frame by hacking out the floor and bolting the subrails to the bottom of the frame. The car had not been completed in this state and was setting with the subrails in the dirt for who knows how long, allowing the lower few inches of the body to slowly rust away. The front and rear rails had been torch bobbed.
Frame and trans match . Any one that can decode a Murray tag ? My car is a 190 that's a Vicky but is the next set just production? Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The next number on the tag is the number of vicky body built. Does it say it's the 140th (hard to read)? Your V8 is really early. I have a frame from a V8 in the 5,000 range.
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