difference between the 1936 Model 48 & 68

[Steve in Denver]

I was just looking at:
https://itstillruns.com/specs-1936-ford-8274352.html
and it talks about the 1936 Model 48 and Model 68. Both seem to have been offered in the same body styles. Would appreciate knowing the difference.

[uncle buck]

My understanding is the model 48 designation is for and model 68 designation is for 1936. I have never read anything about the model 48 production numbers he states , but I am no expert either.

[RalphM]

Model 48 is a 35 ford, and the model 68 is the 1936.
Ford used a separate designation number such as the 48–720 A’s a 1935 3window coupe. And the 68-720 as a 1936 three window coupe.

[Jembow]

Basically they are very similar, really it's only a front end styling change.

[Don Rogers]

Steve, The author of that article may have gotten a little confused. There were not (2) 1936 models. Ford did continue to manufacture the 1935 Ford (Model 48) after the 1936 Model (68) was introduced. This was necessary to fulfill foreign requirements for the 35 Ford. Some 1935 body styles continued to be produced thru 1939.

[RobR'35]

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I believe there is more involved than a front end styling change.
Fenders, front and rear, bumpers, wheels, brake drums,
to name just a few. Both are beautiful, but not the same.

[DavidG]

Utter rubbish and a testimony to the author's ignorance of the difference between calendar years and model years. Models 48 are the North American '35 model year offering and Models 68 are the North American '36 model year offering. In fairness, on a world-wide basis very likely some Models 48 were produced in the 1936 calendar year and no doubt you could have bought an unsold Model 48 in the 1936 calendar year in the U.S. and Canada, but that does translate to Ford offering both models in 1936 in North America.



All this article does is create confusion where none need exist.

[Byron Warwick]

I thought the 1936 engine was the first to go from babbitted bearings to insert bearings.
Cheers, Byron W.

[RobR'35]

Correct. Around October of '35 they started manufacturing that style engine. The LB (loose bearing)
Flat head.

[RobR'35]

Need to correct myself. LB (large bearing)

[RalphM]

Originally Posted by Don Rogers

Steve, The author of that article may have gotten a little confused. There were not (2) 1936 models. Ford did continue to manufacture the 1935 Ford (Model 48) after the 1936 Model (68) was introduced. This was necessary to fulfill foreign requirements for the 35 Ford. Some 1935 body styles continued to be produced thru 1939.

Thanks Don,
I learned something new today! I did not know with the 35’s were produced that long. They must’ve been a very popular model with the foreign market.
Ralph

[rockfla]

To Don and David's point.....sold, titled and shown as 1936.

[rockfla]

What "I" Find interesting about this car is the 35 grill is different.......the horizontal bars in the grill are behind and not as prominent as the regular 1935 grill. (Sorry for the small pic's)

[Don Rogers]

Rockfla, Your images are of a European Cabriolet, not a 35 North American model.

[rockfla]

Don
yes Indeed it is!!! I submit that the "general" answer (if queried) most would say its a 1935......it was to re-enforce the whole concept of a "model 48" being sold into the "model 68" model year as you stated!!!!


ALSO my point being, in the second post, that even though the "general" look of the grill is 1935, it is different than ANY other 35 grill I have seen.....as I stated.....the horizontal grill accent bars are behind the vertical grill bars!!!!

[Steve in Denver]

Thanks everyone for the clarifications.

[DavidG]

Not to beat a dead horse, but to elaborate on Don's mention of the lags in the production of a given model year's vehicles abroad into subsequent calendar years, this occurred with regularity throughout the 1930s and beyond (and likely previously). Usually this was the result of later Job #1 startups at the foreign plants. For example, Job #1 for the '32 models in the U.S. was in early March, 1932, but Job #1 for the Australian '32s was in August, 1932 (and I understand that such a lag in Australian model year production continued on well into the 1950s).


Ford world-wide production records of the 'thirties show Model As still be produced abroad into the mid-1930s and the last 1932 model chassis was produced in 1936 in Europe as other typical examples.


Hence the blurring of period model years and calendar years was commonplace in Ford's worldwide production.

[Steve in Denver]

So how do chassis numbers differ? My chassis number is 18-24278I4. From my research it was produced early December 1935. What are Canadian, Australia and Argentina chassis numbers?

[DavidG]

The short answer to that complex question is that period U.S.-manufactured V8 engines were serialized either 18-1 on up and fours AB-5000001 on up to B-5062386 and B-5063387 on up (engines destined for large truck chassis had either a ABB or BB prefix).



Canadian engines were serialized in groups of a two-letter prefix (CD, for example) followed by either a 18 or B (for fours) and the engine number, usually in groups of ten thousand and then the second letter in the prefix was changed and a new group of numbers was started at 1.


Dagenham, England was assigned batches of engine numbers from the series used by the U.S. for use on the engines manufactured there.


There was no engine manufacturing in Australia in the period and the engines were sourced from Canada within the usual Canadian serialization in the case of V8s and both Canada and England in the case of fours.

Regardless of the engine source, if the engine was destined for a RHD chassis, the letter F was added at the end of the prefix. (For example, engines destined for Argentina, Japan, Paraguay, and Uruguay chassis were of U.S. manufacture and would have prefixes of either ABF, ABBF, BF, BBF or 18F, but the actual number following the prefix would be in sequence with all of the engine destined for LHD vehicles for the U.S. domestic market


It gets progressively more complicated starting in the middle of the thirties with the start of Model Y and 60 HP engines production in England and B fours in Germany and so on. Further, despite specific instructions from the home office on how the engine numbers should be stamped on the chassis frame rails, exceptions abound.