townwagon Posted September 7, 2013 Report Share Posted September 7, 2013 (edited) Guys, I just managed to document a truck I first saw in 1998. I knew it was odd as the body tag is mounted on the passenger side firewall and the outline of the serial number tag was on the front of the drivers side cowl. The truck is rusty so the frame number took a little work to find, but it is number 220 in the 1948 B-1-B production. I've found other 1948 trucks with the serial number tag on the firewall, but this is the only 1948 truck I've ever found with the serial number tag on the cowl and the body tag on the passenger side. Check out the pictures here: http://www.townwagon.com/4853registry/display.php?serial=82044220 Does anyone else have a truck with an odd body tag location? How about other trucks with the serial number tag on the cowl? Is this the earliest B-1-B known? Does anyone have a truck of a different model from 1948 that was early production? The body tag is 4712-503. Does anyone have an earlier body tag than 503? Generally speaking it seems like most standard cab trucks had the body tags run sequentially. Based on that any truck built before this one would have a lower body tag number. That would not hold true for a panel truck or a COE or any other truck that didn't use the 4712 body tag number. The total number of B-1-Bs made in 1948 was 48,128. That means there were nearly 48,000 trucks made after this one. The chances of finding one of 219 trucks out of 48,127 is small, but it would be great if someone has an earlier one to compare details with. Eric Edited September 7, 2013 by townwagon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggdad1951 Posted September 7, 2013 Report Share Posted September 7, 2013 wow, poor old guy! Cool find! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apittslife Posted September 7, 2013 Report Share Posted September 7, 2013 (edited) Hmmm, didn't know that the frame number would be different from the rest of the vehical numbers. That kinda sucks as I scrapped my frame, so I will never know it's number anymore. But I do have the other two tags. Just not at home where I can access them. VIN Number is : 83322596 She is a B!B Edited September 7, 2013 by Apittslife Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TodFitch Posted September 7, 2013 Report Share Posted September 7, 2013 Hmmm, didn't know that the frame number would be different from the rest of the vehical numbers. That kinda sucks as I scrapped my frame, so I will never know it's number anymore. But I do have the other two tags. Just not at home where I can access them. VIN Number is : 83322596 She is a B!B That's a B1C according to Phil Street's decoder over at http://www.t137.com/registry/help/decode.php Serial Number 83322596 Year 1948 Make Dodge Model B-1-C Engine 217.76 Flathead Six Wheelbase 116 Rating 3/4 Ton Engineering Code T144 Plant Detroit, Michigan Build Number 8596 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
townwagon Posted September 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2013 The number on the frame and the number on the serial number tag are supposed to match. That is how I was able to ID this truck using the frame even though the tag was gone. Take a look at this page I wrote to see some common locations for the frame number: http://www.townwagon.com/4853registry/help/framenumber.php What makes the truck I posted about interesting is how early it is. Most of the time the 1948 trucks I find are number 6000 out of the total made or something like that. Finding a truck under 500 is pretty unusual and given that 1948 was the start of production for this body style of truck it is neat to see early odd details like the strange locations for the tags. Finding truck 220 out of 1949 production is not as interesting as production was well established and it is unlikely that anything odd would show up. Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apittslife Posted September 8, 2013 Report Share Posted September 8, 2013 That's a B1C according to Phil Street's decoder over at http://www.t137.com/registry/help/decode.php Serial Number 83322596 Year 1948 Make Dodge Model B-1-C Engine 217.76 Flathead Six Wheelbase 116 Rating 3/4 Ton Engineering Code T144 Plant Detroit, Michigan Build Number 8596 Thankyou! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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