[Bob Bidonde]

Marshall,

The Victoria Association's data of surviving 190As indicates that some prior publications about the 190A are not accurate. The Association's data was extracted from membership applications which I believe paints a more accurate picture of how the changeover from Leather-Back to Steel-Back took place.

I hope the following data gives some useful insight into the changeover of Leather-Back to Steel-Back 190As. In retrospect, it was likely phased in at Murray in mid to late 1930. Production of Leather-Backs continued though 1930 although declining, and Steel-Back production started and increased to meet demand and phaseout of the Leather-Backs.

The incentive for the change to the Steel-Back was cost reduction by significantly reducing the number of wood parts and roofing materials in the body. The timing of the changeover was a function of the new deep draw tooling availability at Murray. My research suggests that the tooling change at Murray took place in mid to late 1930. In my opinion, the 190A designs, prototyping and production startups all took place in 1930.

The ranges of surviving 190 Murray Body Numbers in the record are:
> USA Leather-Backs with Murray Body Numbers 108 - 28202;
> Three Canadian Leather-Backs with Body Numbers ICA 1, ICA 1576 and ICA 343;
> Steel-Backs with Body Numbers 28269 - 43230 and two more outside of the range distribution, 50304 and 75132.
> One Canadian Steel-Back with Body Number, ICA 215 which makes no sense.
Unfortunately, I have no way of coordinating Murray's body numbers to Murray's production dates.

The record of surviving 190As shows what I believe to be reliable information:
> Unrestored Leather-Back with Murray Body Number 27924 has Engine Number 4435827 which dates to assembly at a Ford branch circa March - May 1931;
>Unrestored Leather-Back with Body Number 28202 has Engine Number 4217869 which dates to assembly at a Ford branch about December 1930 - February 1931;
> Original Steel-Back with Body Number 28618 has Engine Number 4362440 which dates to assembly at a Ford branch about February - April 1931;
> Unrestored Steel-Back with Body Number 28704 has Engine Number 4389939 which dates to assembly at a Ford branch about March - May 1931.

As can be deduced from the above data, the changeover dates varied at different Ford branch assembly plants. The reason for the variation would have been the supply of bodies:
> Attrition of Leather-Back bodies;
> Phased availability of Steel-Back bodies.