1940 Ford truck ID please

[John Mackie]

Most Fords in this era had chassis numbers stamped on the top flange of the chassis near the right hand front egine mount. It may be BB18F xxxxx , 2Gxxxx or 3Gxxxx Prefix. I have 5 and they all have chassis numbers.

[ccooperaus]

Thanks John.

Will investigate the chassis # on rt hand rail.

I am intrigued by the stamping on the firewall 11 T 81 then underneath 6269. I noticed both your Fords are 11 T.

The T is made up by a 1 with another 1 stamped horizontally on top. Well it looks like the two 1s are meant to make a T. Wonder what body it had on it.

Cheers, Charlie

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by ccooperaus

Thanks John.

Will investigate the chassis # on rt hand rail.

I am intrigued by the stamping on the firewall 11 T 81 then underneath 6269. I noticed both your Fords are 11 T.

The T is made up by a 1 with another 1 stamped horizontally on top. Well it looks like the two 1s are meant to make a T. Wonder what body it had on it.

Cheers, Charlie

11T 81 is the model number of the basic truck chassis; 1941 Year Model (ie '40-'41 build), 134"wb Truck with model 81 engine (1938 pattern 221ci, 85hp).

6269 is the body number of the cab.

[ccooperaus]

Thanks Tony
Truck ID now known
What I hadn't twigged to was the T made up of 1 vertical and 1 horizontal on top till my son, Tom, suggested it.
Thanks again Charlie

[ccooperaus]

Hello again Tony

# on gbox seems to be BB18F6673xxx
and #s on engine &AV2Rx7xx& and N or(W or V)59xx7xP
The engine came from same source but not same truck as far as I know.

Cheers, Charlie

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by ccooperaus

Hello again Tony
Truck ID now known

# on gbox seems to be BB18F6673xxx
and #s on engine &AV2Rx7xx& and N or(W or V)59xx7xP
The engine came from same source but not same truck as far as I know.

Cheers, Charlie

See my statement in Post #7 above. The engine is a dealership-supplied reco engine and could well be from this truck, the original being long gone and traded in for the reco.

If you can read more of the bellhousing number, we might be able to ID the the truck's ARN, and what variant the truck was.

I read the serial number on the rebuild tag to be AV2R6782. Does the other number, N or(W or V)59xx7xP, appear to be poorly hand stamped, or factory? A photo would be good, I suspect it will be crudely hand stamped, and will tell you why.

[John Mackie]

Hi all, I realised that on post # 9 I did not mention that the engine numbers in Australia are suffixed with thr letter F for forign , right hand drive here in Aus.

The 81 in the cab number indicates a closed cab. From one of my Ford books lists the folloing.

78 Sedan delivery 112 wheel base.
80 platform (whatever they mean by this.) 122 w / b and 134 w / b regular truck and 101 and 134 w/ / b cab over engine trucks.
81 closed cab,
82 panel delivery 112 w / b
83 pickup 112 w / b.

Ford also used body numbers to indicate the body styles on cars , they ranged from 67 A De lux coupe with auxilary seats. All the way to 79 station waggon 118 w / b.
The number for a body part number went like this,,
11T 81 then the base number ie. 03100 .
11T means 1941 truck with 221 ci. engine.
19T means 1941 truck with 239 ci. engine
81 means closed truck cab.
03100 is the base number for the windscrean and was esed will into the 1980's and may still be used.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Tony Smith

I read the serial number on the rebuild tag to be AV2R6782. Does the other number, N or(W or V)59xx7xP, appear to be poorly hand stamped, or factory? A photo would be good, I suspect it will be crudely hand stamped, and will tell you why.

This number has been issued, and applied, by the NSW Police Force to supercede the factory rebuild number. At one time, a vehicle with this engine number No. AV2R6782 has been stolen and the engine number "red-flagged". Subsequent to that, the vehicle has been recovered and either returned to the owner or sold through an insurance auction. To legitimise the stolen engine, the original number is voided and a new one issued and applied with hand stamps by NSW Police. The new number will be shown on the registration records and any receipts for sale.

This practice hasn't been used for many years (in fact, the "59" in the number indicates it was issued by Police in 1959) as nowadays all records are digital and centralised and it is much simpler to correct and update to avoid any inconvenience to a legitimate owner, but back in the day of paper record keeping, it would be common for some police not to receive the latest status updates on stolen and recovered vehicles.