Hello, I find this car for sale and I need your advice. Went from Denmark to USA and back now in The Netherlands. It's a european Fordor, with a US hood. There is a '37 - '38 V8 flathead fitted in it but a 4 banger rear axle. The VIN of the car is Z 83209 E. For sale as a V8 '32, I' ld to know if this car is an original V8 or not.
The VIN that you show is most likely a number ***igned to the vehicle for registration purposes. If you can provide a photo of the transmission shift tower it may date it to a correct 1932 tower. The factory stamped the serial number on the bellhousing and that will help identify what you have. Should the transmission have been changed at some point then I suggest you post the number found under the left front fender. It will be stamped on the top flange of the frame near the foot of the firewall and just past the steering box.
Oh, and the round flange on the torque tube was the early style but I think they used that until relatively late in the model year. It was used on both 4 cylinder and V8 cars. When I enlarged the photos I noticed that the rear radius rods are missing. Taking a closer look I see the firewall feet are not bolted to the frame, and also the bolts that adjust the cowl and doors are missing in the "L" brackets rivited to the lower edge of the cowl. When all that is considered I wonder if that Fordor body has been mated to another ch***is at some point in it's life.
Minor correction. The number on the frame is not under the left front fender but next to it where it is visible without removing anything. Charlie Stephens
Thanks for your answers. Yes, there is a lot of part missing, like the running boards and the dashboard. You can see on the NL import doc, the VIN and his location (75cm from the front left side). Note that the engine digits are 1 8 25210 and is registred as a 3000 liter (184 c.i.). The seller says the frame and the body are partially restored. So probably a frame off restoration.
That serial number is nothing like the US numbers, but I can't tell you if it might be correct for European cars. I do know it should match the number on the frame. Check the top of the frame rail right in front of the firewall foot, on the left side for US cars. Might be the others side for Euro cars? Don't trust the transmission number as the transmission can be changed in an afternoon.
Yes, it s not the original engine. I try to find if it s an original v8 car or not. Maybe some details on the firewall ? Holes for the 4 cylinders motor mount or the battery support ?
The ***le shows a "motornummer", or an engine number of 1-8-25216 which may coincide with the frame number and also possibly the transmission. If the frame matches that number then yes Harold, it is from an original V8 automobile. On my Fordor sedan the number is mostly obscured by the fender, frame numbers were hand stamped and there was no official directive on exact placement. '32 numbers are usually found near the previously mentioned area by the firewall foot, another on the frame near the B pillar area of the body, and lastly on the rear kick-up of the frame rail. Commercial vehicle frames only had the one number stamped by the firewall.
The firewalls are the same for 4 cylinders and 8's. Only difference is the transmissions, and if you car wasn't originally an 8, the trans should not match the frame. Find that frame number.
It's also missing the gas pedal. On a 4 banger the pedal shaft on the firewall side is about 12" long as were a v-8 is about 6". So sometimes you can tell where the pedal mount holes are. But then again this is also a part that can be changed out.
I owned a 32 that came from Copenhagen plant and it has the VIN only near the K member. Hope this helps. It also was a V8 car. It was a late # but no frame reinforcements in the rear section as the US manufactured.
Hi. U.S. cars did not have VIN #'s until the 1960's. Prior to that the plates on the firewalls were either body or engine #'s. I am not a ford guy but someone should have one of the old ford service manuals that would tell what the #'s on the ID plate stand for. Good luck, Jimmie
There is no ID plate so there will be nothing to decipher. There is a serial number on the bellhousing which may or may not match the frame number. Some bodies do have a tag that shows the model number designation of the body and it's sequential number as produced but that's it.
The question is solved, the car is sold. But thank you very much everybody for your advice. I keep searching a complete and matching number car.
FWIW, the 18- 25210 mentioned on the do***ent would seem to be the car's original (V8) number, but that's a 1933 number! 1932 Fords were ***embled in Europe and England at least into 1935, but I do not know if these cars used stockpiled 1932 engines or the later engines as available. At ant rate, the number used as a "VIN" on the paperwork is not Ford at all and is presumably something issued by some government to re-***le a car with missing paperwork.
That number (25,210) represents a relatively early V8 considering a little over 203,000 Model 18's were ***embled. I think you added a digit to the number of the car in question Bruce.
You can't trust the Dutch import papers since the customs mostly fill in what you tell them. I have and had several European 1932 Fords and most of them don't have the regular American numbers. Most European V-8 models start with a letter and then i'm not meaning AB-B or BF what was used for 4 cylinder cars. Nice car imported by the late Jill Broere in 1984 (see paper) who had on of the biggest private Model A collections at least in Holland with some 30-40 cars in an old school behind his house. Hennie
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