The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk '54 Serial Number

This has probably been asked many times before but since I'm new on here, can someone tell me how to decode the last six numbers on my serial number plate reading 051990? These should show the production number of my truck but how do I read/interpret it? I understand the first four letters & numbers but am not certain about the last six numbers. Also, anyone know approximately how many '54 Chevy 3100s were manufactured in 1954?
Thanks for your help.

That number would be sequential number from the plant the truck was built in, usually starting with 001001.

DC: welcome to the site! Lots of great info out here. In the 1954 calendar year Chevy sold 325,515 trucks of all types. Of that number 170,842 below 5000# GVW were produced. Those last 6 digits are a production sequence number: there were 51,989 built before yours came off the assembly line for that model year.

As Bill posted:

51990-1000 = 50,990th truck off that plant's assembly line that year.

Flatblu4749,

That is interesting information regarding vehicles sold in the 1954 calendar year. I have seen GM documents for 1950, 1952, and 1953 (all truck models). Do you have a GM 1954 truck production report?

Thanks,

Tim: I pirated that production info from "The Standard Catalog of American Light Duty Trucks" by John Gunnell-Editor-1987. Seeing that you have your own 1954 AD site I could copy/send you the 3-4 pages dedicated to your year?

No thanks, I have seen it (I have it).

I like to find/use "primary"/original sources/documents, if they are available.

Tim, ok cool, I get it....best to not risk corrupting the General's actual numbers by using figures from a source that may possibly be incorrect.

Thanks Flatblu. I was "assuming" that was the way to read it but wasn't sure.

Tim--So was my production number 51,990 per Flatblu or 50,990 as you stated? I'm still a little confused. Why take a 1,000 off the number?
Thanks
DC

Because the first truck off the line was numbered 1001.

As shown in the Specifications Manual.

DC: I stand corrected....yours was #50,990 off the assembly line, the other guys are probably right. It may not make total sense, and I'm sure there is some logic to starting at 1001. Trust that you can get some good information from this site regardless. Welcome to the site.

Regards,

Dave

"It may not make total sense, and I'm sure there is some logic to starting at 1001."

Our is not to reason why . . . (of course we could speculate, but I will leave that for others - we will never know)

Ok, now I see. Thanks for clearing that up for me.