1932 ford vin # question

[Conair007]

Using the vin# how do you determine when the vehicle was manufactured? Like month and date. Or is this possible. Thanks all. G-Man

[Charlie Stephens]

If the car came with a V8 engine there serial number will start star 18 followed by a serial number and another star. If the car came with a 4 cylinder the number will be star B (or AB for early vehicles) followed by a serial number and another star. You can find the serial numbers in "The 1932 Ford" book from The Early Ford V8 Club (earlyfordv8.org). You should have a copy. The book (it is actually a 2 volume set) will answer questions you didn't even know you had. The numbers were assigned to the engine and transmission assembly when it passed inspection at the Rouge plant. The assemblies were then shipped to the various vehicle assembly plants around the country (as well as some foreign sites). Depending on how far the assembly plant was from the Rouge plant the assembly of the vehicle may have been a couple of months later. As a quick fix while you are waiting for your book to arrive post your serial number (using XXX for the last 3 digits if you are concerned about posting your number) and someone will look the information up for you.

Charlie Stephens

[Conair007]

Thanks for that info, but on the ford barn some time ago there was a thread that wanted to get a count of how many three window coupes were left that had the Murray tag on them. When I submitted my tag along with the vin# the thread interrupted that by my vin # my car was produced in Aug in 1932. My question is how was it determined that the car was produced in August with the vin. Or did the Murray tag determine that? Thanks all. G-man

[fourfords]

For me, What I did was find out how many 1933 fords were built in the USA. Divided that number by twelve and then compare my VIN # with the month that had my VIN#. I then could approximate what month my car was manuafactured. This was useful for parts changes during the year and glass bugs.

[DavidG]

If your VIN is original and has not been altered over the years, it will inform you when your engine, but not your car itself, was manufactured. From that date you can safely assume that your car was not built on or before that date. The specific information as to how much time passed between the engine manufacture date and when that engine went into the chassis of your coupe no longer exists. In other words, the best you can do is to determine the "not before" date. Similarly, there is no surviving record of when a particular body was manufactured so the body number is only a general indicator of the "not before" date. (All of the deluxe coupe bodies were built by Murray and were shipped to the various Ford assembly plants so there was an independently varying lag between the date of the body's manufacture and when it was placed on a chassis in an assembly plant.)

The "divide by 12" idea is imperfect because the magnitude of production of vehicles varies considerably over the period of a model year, with way more than half of the production occurring in the first half of that year compared to the last half of that year. (In the case of U.S. built '32s, that year consisted of only eight and a half months and for only 10 months for the '33 model year.)

As there were a number of running changes made to the '32 deluxe coupe bodies (and chassis), the absence or presence of the revised components is another indicator of a car's "not before" date. These include the sun visors, the glove box, and the number of screws in the rear window garnish moulding.

So, as to August, 1932 in the case of your coupe, it is a "guesstimate" at best. It cannot be documented with surviving archival data.

[Bob C]

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Vince's web site has a list of engine numbers buy the month,
scroll down near the bottom of the page for B's.
http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/ABenginenumbers.htm#C1

Bob

[Conair007]

Thanks all for your awesome help. G-man

[Randy]

Here's the chart for 1932s, from original production logs:

[DavidG]

Randy,


Those are the dates of the engine build, not when it ended up in a vehicles. That gap could be a week or less in the case of a very early '32 V8-powered vehicle built at the Dearborn Assembly Plant or weeks or a month or more at a west coast assembly plant depending on the month of vehicle production relative to vehicle job #1 at that outlying assembly plant.

[VeryTangled]

I was wondering about Randy's numbers and how that related to what DavidG said in post #5 about the distribution of production over the months.

51% of the numbers fall in June or July. 83% of production was from May thru September.

[DavidG]

And then there is the distinction between model years and calendar years. For example, according to the log kept at the engine plant at the Rouge, there were no '32 V8 engines produced in December, 1932. All of those listed in December,1932 in the data above in #10 were '33s. The first '33 V8 engine was 207867 and the last '32 version was likely 208787, both produced on November 14, 1932.


Without the benefit of viewing the vehicle production records at the Benson Ford Research Center, the above engine production data have led some to the erroneous conclusion the '33 model vehicle job #1 took place in December or even November, 1932, when the vehicle production records are unequivocal, '33 model vehicle job #1 was in January, 1933 at the Dearborn Assembly Plant.

[Bubsyouruncle]

David G,
My daughters purchased your books for me several years ago. What a wonderful trove of information.
Have a question for you on body build timing.
It is a model 45.

The visors are rectangular rod constructs with two separate holders attached to the header panel. Other than up and down are not adjustable. Mac's list them as 1933.

Does this present a good clue to body date or not? And if, what does it say?

[corvette8n]

Was the glass date coded in 1932. i.e. glass bugs., it may help narrow it down.

[DavidG]

Bubsiyouruncle,


The change from the single center-mounted hinge type of visor to that with two pairs of clamps per visor is indicative of a fairly late '32 closed car body, including B-45s, one of my favorites. That type of visor continued to be used throughout the '33 model year and on into the '34 model year on standard closed cars. The Ford archives photo below shows the late version of the visors in what is likely a B-55.