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Old 21-04-08, 17:04
rob love rob love is offline
carrier mech
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Shilo MB, the armpit of Canada
Posts: 7,595
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Track dates would not be a good way to get a build date as track replacement would have been likely. You should be able to get a year on most of the brackets, it will be stamped near the area of the FMoC marking.

Serial ranges for the mk1 carrier range from around serial number 1 to, I believe, around 18000, when they switched over entirely to mk2 production. Earliest carriers I have seen were 1941 production. Lowest serial number I have seen on a carrier to date was 48.

If your hull number is indeed in the 800 range, then yours would have had early features like the horn, the baffle type air cleaner, and possibly the ratchet type track adjusters. It may have also had the large brass plate on the right fender with all the serial numbers on it, although I am not sure of when the cut-off was for this. If your carrier did have this, then it would not have had the serial numbers on the front armor. Yours, unfottunately, has the typical book size cut out for the driver which gets rid of many of the numbers. As was suggested by Ledsel, check the angle iron behind the co-drivers head and you will get another serial number which, on the early carriers, should be relatively close to the other number you have already found. On earlier production, these numbers tend to be relatively close....as production went further, the numbers could be several hundred apart.
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