The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Original Factory Markings

I'd like to duplicate the marks that workmen put on a '50 half-ton while it was running down the assembly line, especially any that might have been on the firewall or fender liners, etc. that would be visible when the hood is raised.
Anybody have info on this? I only found one when I was tearing down the truck. It was a large "82" on the underside of the hood in black. Another thing: What material did they write with? Was it like one of those markers that junkyards use to ID their parts? Or was it a grease pencil or crayon of some type?

Sorry, can't help. All my markings were removed as part of dealer prep.

Tim

If you can zoom in close enough on the link photo below, you can see a "170" written on the center of the firewall. This was written with what looks to be a grease pencil. It is a factory assenbly marking.

This is on a 52 GMC.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/58753176/58833494PeYffM

I believe this was kind of an individual truck thing and probabably varied from assembly plants and also who worked the assembly line and where on what day. My 51 1/2 ton built at Norwood OH. has sbox and the no. 70 in white written on the firewall while my 50 1/2 ton built at Kansas City has no markings at all that I can find. Both have clean, original paint firewalls so I think there pretty accurate.

Mine says 157 in a couple different places.

My early '53 which was built in sept of 52 (I think) in Norwood, had a "31" mark both on the firewall and on the underside of the hood. It appeared to be done with a white crayon/grease pencil kinda thing. I took pictures before I stripped the cab with a conventional camera for my scrap book documentation. Is there any significance to these numbers?

1953 1/2 ton Mariner Blue Semi-STD cab

those marks are the same kinda thing as the little papers ya find in the pocket of yer new shirt - "quality inspected by #71".
lets someone further down the line know who passed the f-ups along. just meaningless consumer- goods-factory doodles.

Bill

This has been interesting. After putting all of these responses together, I've come up with the following theory: "31", "sbox","70", and "170" refer to the 3100 truck. The 70 and 170 are shorthand for the frame length of 173 1/8 inches, which would therefore be the 1/2 ton PU with the short bed. I believe the "31" under the hood indicated which emblem went on the side under the Chevrolet emblem. My hood, which I don't know the origin of, had "82" on it. It might stand for a model 3802. So I put a "14" on mine, to stand for 3104, the 1/2 ton PU. But I could also have used a "31" there. Seems that different plants used different shorthand or maybe even different crews made up their own.
Question for afu45: I viewed your photo. Your "170" had to be written there before the cab was joined to the chassis. Once the cab was mounted, the number would be covered by the engine. When it came time to mount the bed, they couldn't have seen it, right? So what was the point of writing it there? I must be missing something.

My 54 didn't come with a heater. The little circular cover that covers the place the heater motor would poke through the firewall has the number 157 engraved in it. That same number is written in yellow on the firewall and I believe in another place or two. It might mean no heater in this case. So the numbers might just be ways to note the options that were supposed to go in a truck.

pknauth: I don't think the 170 is shorthand for frame length as my pickup is a long bed. You are right about the 170 having to have been written on the firewall before the cab was put on the chassis. You could see it when the cab was on the frame with the engine, but not very well. I really thing a lot of these numbers were randon like mentioned above as inspection numbers.

I have seen two pickups, same year built in different plants with many differences between the two. One that pops to mind clutch head screws on one and phillips head on the other. Different plants had different markings.

Thanks. I guess I need to erase the 170 and put a 31 there instead. I have also noticed phillips heads where others have clutch heads.

This is an interesting topic. My only thought on this is that the markings were there to keep track of certain units, like firewall stampings. Maybe the shop superintendent wanted to keep track of the number of firewall stampings made so that when a certain number of them had been made available to be sent to the assembly line, the press operator could switch the dies in the press to produce something else that was in short supply, say, like inner fenders. I dunno', Jacques