30-31 model a body manufaturer id

How do you determine who made the body on an A weather it be Murry, Br;
iggs, or Ford?

 

Most if not all tudor sedans, coupes, roadsters, & commercials were made by Ford. Fordor models, special coach types, and cabriolets were farmed out. Shapes of the door windows and a few other design differences will tell who made the "farmed out" models. Some had body tags and some didn't.

 

The high volume bodies like the roadster, tudor, and coupe were made by multiple suppliers...Ford made the stuff centrally, some stampings were made locally at the bigger ones of the 30 or so assembly plants, and outside suppliers like M and B supplied too. This stuff was all Ford spec and so made as close to identically/interchangeable as possible. Most bodies were I think shipped flat with things like floors, quarter pannels, and cowls assembled separately and then hung together and welded on jigs into full bodies at the plants. Very small plants got complete bodies ready to go.
Low production bodies like the fodors and cabriolets were made outside and arrived assembled and ready to mount.
This site details M and B detail variations http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/murraybriggs.htm
But I do not think they apply to stampings supplied for Ford built bodies...those were made to Ford prints to interchange with all suppliers.
(On bodies entirely supplied from outside like the Fordors they were delivered complete from supplier so no need for interchange. As with the '32 Ford 3W, nearly everything could be different from the Ford bodies)

 

If you would tell us the body type and year you are interested in it would be much easier.

Charlie Stephens

 

Fine that you asked that, but, really, you could have done a Google search yourself (4,630,000 results in 0.34 seconds). But, since you asked, try here:
http://www.mafca.com/rt_briggs_or_murray.html

 

It is a 31 Tudor sedan

 

No doubt your next question would be about whether it is a standard or deluxe. Here, I saved you the trouble:

http://www.mafca.com/data_tudors.html

 

Along these same lines, why did Ford make the 32 style only for one year ? Henry loved to milk a design for as long as possible (even up to the present day........ie, Fox Mustang, same from 79-93, essentially) but he quit the 32 style and went on to the 33-34 style real fast.

Always wondered why.

Don

 

By the 30s Ford knew they had to update the cars periodically to keep selling them.