Hey Fella's I Got A 48 Ford Coupe And I Cant Find The Damn Vin# Anywhere, Checked The Door Jambs And The Firewall, Please Help!!!
Top of front frame rail, somewhere between steering area and radiator, also top of trans bellhousing.
It's there somewhere...get a wire brush and a strong flashlight. Start at firewall and move forward. Begins and ends with a star.
i can't find that # anywhere, i looked from the firewall to the radiator, could it be under the steering box mount? or on the side of the rail?
Shouldn't be...what do you have, original dirt and rust or new paint?? The actual sequence number without the prefix also is in tow other places on rail, but those require removing the body to see if they've rusted off or not. Check out this excellent page: http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_serialnumbers.htm
well there's a number on the title, and it starts with 89A but i can't find it anywhere on the car, and the guy i got it from is dead so i cant really ask him, i brushed down through the black paint to bare metal and no #, is it a deep stamp or light?
Bruce, was the VIN on the trans on the '48 cars? I have seen '48 light duty trucks without the stamp and heard this was the standard for them in '48. Another thing I have heard is that for the trucks they started to stamp the top of passenger side frame rail. Maybe check there also?
'48 truck is new generation like '49 passenger...no number on trans, I think body became main numbered unit with a serial number/spec tag. '48 passenger is still early Ford...trans and chassis numbered. I have heard some late '48's in some plants had the assembly plant ID section on patent plate extended to allow serial there, but I've never heard that this eliminated frame/trans number. I've never actually seen such a stamped plate on a '48.
mine has a plate on the driver's side of the firewall, i scraped it off and there's nothing on it, just a blank plate.....
Normally on early Fords that plate has only patent numbers. Many '46-8 onl;y have a tiny box in there stamped with assembly plant ID...and allegedly some late '48's have serial box there. I've never seen one with any info particular to the car there.
Thanks Bruce. I know that '48-'50 the trucks were still using the same trans as the older ones, just without the VIN stamp, so I thought that it might cross over to the cars also. One day I was out looking at a bunch of '48 + 1/2 tons in a local junk yard (looking for a 3 spd for my '46). I was interested in looking at VINs on the frames but couldn't find any where my '46 was. I was later told by people in the know that I was looking in the wrong place on the newer truck. I wouldn't have expected that the cars were also put on the passenger side but without confirmation it was a hope. I love learning this stuff -- thanks again.
Did you check the passenger side top of frame just around the firewall, my buddies 46 coupe had it there. 53-56 ford trucks have it there.
yes , it should be there on the drivers side between the firewall and the front crossmember..but after 60 years who knows what happened to it. it could have been ground out ,rusted , sand blasted , or the paint is so thick you can't see it. you say the car has a C4, so we know that someone has done some modifications..if the car also has a mustang II front suspension and the vin was by the original front crossmember it may be lost forever the good news/bad news is it should be stamped in two more places...both under the body. that won't help much if you don't plan on removing it check this out: http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_serialnumbers.htm
There is another question, is this also different between the car and the truck? My truck had only the stamp by the steering box. I asked on a truck site and everyone else that had removed their body said they looked for additional stamps and was unable to find any. So as far as the 3 locations thing, is that for cars only or did they just quit doing that sometime prior to '46?
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