[David_Hayward (RIP)]

David, these are the 1942 Models known to me:

2842001130 ENGINE # MR3,765,943
2842001192 ENGINE # WR3,765,985
2842001330 ENGINE # WR3,766,091
2842001378
2842001395
2842001422
2842001427
2842001497

Then it is believed that Number 13 Cab production commenced at 284XX01524. This might suggest that C8 production ran to 2842001523 [unless anyone has seen a #13 C8?], and then when did they start? Possibly shortly after 001053. Evidence: known 1942 C15A production anteceding C8, then C30 and then C60S, with 2844201052 being the last known C60S before the C8 batch.

Production ended according to DND papers I have seen in the past in "Late 1941". I have been looking at various data and concluded that the C8s were all built in one batch. However I may well be wrong. Here are three data plates:


GENERAL MOTORS OF CANADA
MADE IN GM CANADA
OSHAWA WALKERVILLE REGINA
MODEL 84-20
SERIAL 2842001130
ENGINE 3765943 BODY SERIAL 155
TRIM MR PAINT F.C.98


GENERAL MOTORS OF CANADA
MADE IN GM CANADA
OSHAWA WALKERVILLE REGINA
MODEL 84-20
SERIAL 2842001330
ENGINE 3766091 BODY SERIAL 300
TRIM WR PAINT F.C.98


GENERAL MOTORS OF CANADA
MADE IN GM CANADA
OSHAWA WALKERVILLE REGINA
MODEL 84-20
SERIAL 2842001192
ENGINE 3765985 BODY SERIAL 435
TRIM WR PAINT F.C.98

Note the body serials do not conform with chassis numbers suggesting that there was a large number of chassis-cabs all lined up and they were then allocated bodies in no order as received. However we can see that there may have been 450 or so chassis.

As to dates, late 1941 might be correct as regards orders to terminate production of chassis. I have been trying to make sense out of the engine numbers and correlating them with other known CMPs where assembly dates are known. My best guesstimate is December 1941 at this juncture, though it could have been early in 1942, but 1942 Models. I think GM of Canada had secided to change the Model Year system for 1942 as it was causing confusion, with MY numbers being allocated to indicate when contracts had been placed. That is why we have 1940 Models being built into 1941 Calendar Year for the Canadian DND at the same time that 1941 Models were being assembled for the British Ministry of Supply. I have the 1940-41 Ford of Canada engine number runs per month and assume that something simialr occurred with them but for 1942 MY production they would have resolved the anachronistic system.

The easiest way to check GM of C production dates before assembly dates were added around 1943, is if the original engine is there, or if the replacement is approximately the same number as the engine installed. On the block is a casting date code, and we can then determine when McKinnons cast the block in St Catherines, Ontario. We must then add say two weeks for Windsor Transmission Plant to build the engine, and then add more time for the engine to reach Oshawa. We know monthly engine production at Windsor so we could establish roughly when an engine was assembled and then add on say up to four weeks for the engine to be installed in a chassis. After that you must add time for the chassis to be railed or roaded to the body-builders of course unless C8A HUPs where Oshawa built the bodies.

I would suggest that Ford of Canada in Windsor had a similar timescale and used casting date codes except that the foundry was more-or-less on site in East Windsor/Ford City as the assembly plant so you could trim some dayes off the foundry-assembly time. However as mentioned previously we know the 1940-41 Ford series and the "2G-" Mercury engines as used in the CMPs continued on until sometime in November 1941, some weeks after other 1941 engines had finished. I would then imagine that 1942 Model Year production commenced December 1941. This would seem to fit in with what Oshawa were doing.