The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1941 fire truck vin tag

I am new to this forum and have a question regarding a truck I am considering purchasing. The truck is a Canadian 1941 3/4 ton fire truck and the story goes that it was an RCAF runway crash truck originally, and then was sold to 2 fire departments after that which can be seen by the department names on the doors.
The truck has a bit of a strange plywood bed with plywood locker doors, and I am not sure if this is original or was added by the first civilian department.
The vin tag is there and I am looking for some help decoding it to see if it matches up with its history.
The tag reads as follows;


" General Motors Canada Limited"
Model 1533
Serial 1-153381551
Engine T3719829
Body Serial 93
Trim (blank)
Paint 134

Any help in deciphering this tag would be greatly appreciated!

We have a specific Forum for Firetrucks but I’m going to leave this here for more exposure. Please drop by the Welcome Center and introduce yourself.

I will do, and I can't seem to find the fire truck forum on your site; it could prove to be extremely helpful if I do buy this 41!

Click on the Big Bolt Forum which is the Forum right below this (General Truck Talk). The fire truck forum is a sub-forum of Big Bolts. Lots of forums you need to browse around a bit.

Thanks for the heads up; I was stuck on the weight thing as this one I'm looking at is a 3/4 ton.
Cheers!

Fire Guy, Welcome to the site.
Post a few more times and then you can post pictures.
All old emergency vehicles are cool and they will draw a lot of attention.

Check out the one my wife let me keep, below in the gallery.
The story is pretty good too.

Don

Don; very cool truck; if I do indeed buy this 41 I will post up some pictures for sure!

One more post and you are a full fledged member with all the privileges that accompany that honor.

Excellent; hopefully someone can chime in and help me with that vehicle tag decoding!

The problem being that Canadian numbering is different from US numbering from what I've read. You might try registering over at VCCA.org's forum. They have a fair number of Canadian members who can help.

Hy fireguyfire, welcome, your serial number breaks down as follows 1 year, as Canadian Chevrolets only used one digit to identify the year of production we must verify by body design, you say yours appears to be from the forties so 1941. 1533 is the model number (part of the serial number) this identifies a 2 ton chassis with cab with a wheelbase of 134 1/2" the balance of the serial number is the regular production number which identifies that particular truck. Your truck left the factory with an engine that has been largely forgotten a 224 cubic inch inline six cylinder Chevrolet engine which has a 1/16" larger bore than the more well known Chevrolet 216, hope that helps.

Thanks 3B for the translation. I’m assuming the paint colour 134 was red? It doesn’t appear to have been any other colour even though the story is this was a Canadian runway crash truck initially.
You will appreciate the history of this fire truck being from BC; it was supposedly a crash truck on a BC ww2 air base, and the doors are painted Port Moddy Fire, and then Mayne Island fire over top of that.

Here’s a strange question but I am not a GM Guy; this truck has a GM build tag, and a Chev motor from the factory; is this truck a GMC or a Chev?

possibly 1= 1941 -1 = Chevy

Did Chev or GMC build Firetrucks? Cab/Chassis shipped out to the firetruck builders to be outfitted.

The next numbers indicate chassis and cab, yes. There is also some information that back then with all supplies being used for war/pending war, that GMC and Chevy parts were mixed to complete a truck. A fire truck would be one item built for Military use. But nothing in the numbers given can confirm that.

Hy fireguyfire and guys, In Canada Chevrolet serial numbers start with a 1 the serial number begins with the digit after the year identifying digit, the GMC serial number in Canada begins with a 9 also the first digit after the year identifying digit, hope that clarifies.

So a couple of more engine questions;
1) So this is a Chev 216 engine except for the bore size, correct? Just thinking of parts sourcing, lots of 216 stuff out there.

2) What colour would this engine have been painted when it left the factory?

Hy fireguyfire, yes basically a 216, most likely gray, hope that helps.

Post questions about engines and engine parts sources in the Engines Forum please.