Chassis number?

[B-Watson]

Mick......& US members.........I'll give some details of what both my cars have, should have & might have which may or may not help...........I have had the 1940 Dodge Sedan since 1971, I purchased it registered, what you guys in the US would call tagged & licenced.......it was stock, an original car, built in Oz & was still in more or less daily use.

Its a D15D model, which from what I have been able to work out is a Canadian sourced, built in Oz by T J Richards car. It has on the Oz passenger side upper firewall in front of the wiper, under the hood, the letters "D15D" with numbers "475" beside that hand stamped into the firewall. Beside these numbers and letters is a T J Richards brass plate 1" x 3" in size with "King Of The Road" embossed onto this plate and the words "Body No. H 92255 " (see the attached chromed plate also another original brass plate from a car that I wrecked & used for parts many yrs ago). Note that this body number is NOT used by the state registration department for registration(titling & licencing)......from my registration papers the following details are noted.......the year, make & shape, the engine number and VIN/Chassis number.....which in my 1940 Dodges case is 3938637. This number is correct from what I understand and have read in both US and Oz workshop manuals jto indicate a 1940 Dodge "Serial Number". I have NOT found this number myself either on a plate on the body or stamped into the chassis anywhere.

Your Dodge D15 chassis unit was built at the Plymouth Lynch Road plant in Detroit. All Canadian-built cars from the end of the FEDCO era in 1931 through to and including 1957 had serial numbers starting with "9". Thus your 3937637 was an American-built D15, serial number sequence starting at 3937901 and ending at 3939123. Canadian numbers were 9669926 through to 9673662.

The engine in your car should have engine number starting with either P9 or P10 with no "C". Canadian D15 engines had prefix D15 and suffix C.

Also, the engine in your D15 is a Plymouth 23" block, 3.215" bore and 201.3-cid. The Canadian D15 used the 25" block, 3.375" bore and 218.1-cid.

Ther serial number should be stamped on the frame, right side of the car, around the front axle. Cars of that era had the number stamped on the frame as many body-less chassis were shipped to foreign countries and the frame had to have an identification number to clear customs.

[Andydodge]

What side is the "right" side.......US drivers or passenger side?..........you are far better to indicate this rather than right or left as sometimes I can't even find my right foot......lol...........andyd

[Andydodge]

Shel.....rant is fine, I don't take offence, and was actually not really tongue in cheek as due to the fact that I am from a RHD country and I'd like 10c for every time when talking to someone in the US that the side I am referring to gets mistaken for the opposite side........so thats why I asked and coupled with the fact that after 40 yrs I have still NOT found the chassis number where experts tell me it should be............lol.........my rant over.......lol..........and I KNOW that my car has never had any structural repairs that may have removed/masked this number........andyd

[James_Douglas]

Should also point out the engine number should be on the left side of the frame. Cars with leaf springs up front had the number stamped either on the top or the side of the frame just by the left front spring's rear hanger. Models with coil springs had the number somwhere between that location on the frame and the front axle.

In the 1950's the serial number was stamped on the right side of the frame just around the front hangar for the right rear leaf spring. Some have been found on the side of the frame facing the curb while a few have found it stamped on top of the frame when they removed the body.

With unibody construction, as the cars no longer had a chassis frame the serial number was no stamped on the car. During the 1968 model year things changed and cars had to have the VIN, or at least partial VIN, stamped on the body, engine and transmission.

I just had the frame off of my 1949 Desoto S-13-2 and the serial number was on the driver side top of the frame rail. It was hard to see the whole thing. Part of it was struck deep and the actual unit number was fainter and done with a different die.