The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Identifying a 3100

Researching body number.

I have a 3100 I purchased back in '95. The truck was last titled in Arizona and has a "newer" metal sticker on the cab door post that was probably put on around that time. There is no other evidence of an earlier door plate.

The truck was actually titled a '49 but judging by the existence of pull down door handles, vent windows and engine number, it appears to be a 1950. I've read about some years having a plate riveted to the firewall with production information, there is no plate on mine.

But there is a letter/number combination stamped in the engine compartment on one of the flats on the driver's side of the firewall. I haven't seen any info in chevy truck forums that might help with identifying what this number might be. It appears to be JBA308473 .

There are some faint outlines of what I think are military identification numbers on the front bumper, so perhaps this was a number added for their inventory records.

Thanks for any advice.

Welcome to Stovebolt

The number on your firewall JBA308473 is an engine serial number. The engine serial number will be stamped on the passenger side of the block next to the distributor. Pre 1955 the engine number was the number used on the title by most States. This number was never stamped on the Cab by the factory (your numbers look hand stamped, not machine stamped). If you engine was replaced at some point the mechanic could have transferred the number there to connect the title to the truck.

Your number breaks down as follows...

JBA = 1951 216 engine from a 3100 truck built at the Flint engine plant.
308473 = unit number out of Flint starting with 1001 for the model year.

Does this number matches your engine and/or title?

What's the number on the door post?

Mike B

Vent windows appeared in 1951.

Pull down door handles were replaced by push buttons in 1952.

If the doors are original to the vehicle, that makes it a 1951 at the oldest. We know the doors are no older than 1951.

Does the cab have a driver side cowl vent? 1950 was the last year for that feature.

A 50 did not have vent windows. That started in 51. Both the 49 and 50 had pull down handles.

Let see some more pics of your truck.

I was concentrating on the engine number and overlooked the door info...pull down handles AND vent windows make the doors 1951 only...but they could have been swapped onto a 1949 cab at some point in time.

Check the spotters guide out in the Tech Section

https://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/...potting%20Guide/AD%20Spotter%20Guide.pdf

Mike B

TomKatOhio,

As others mentioned, Welcome!

I see you’ve managed to master posting pictures. 👍 How about adding some more, especially ones of the faded markings on the front bumper and the “newer” metal sticker.

The bumper pics might take some different angle shots to try and really highlight what is still there.

We can try and offer more ID help once we can see what you have.

Looking forward to more details and pics of your truck.

Dan

Wow - this is great information. Thanks for all of the replies!

I did uncover the engine number and that number does match it exactly. As Mike B mentioned, it does look hand stamped. This definitely confirms the engine build date.

The truck does not have a driver's side cowl, only passenger side so that along with the vent windows and pull-down handles would also point me to a '51 body.

Before I bought it, the truck appears to have have been modern-titled first in Arizona the briefly in Texas with the door sticker attached in Arizona. The number was assigned by the AZ DOT and is not an engine number. The evidence from both titles show it as a 1949. The number from the Arizona sticker was transferred to my Ohio title.There are no other original plates. The Arizona sticker may be covering the holes from the original.

The lettering on the front bumper are very faint and difficult to get a good photo of but as near as I can tell are AMG GAFB. It's been a long time since I served but I thought the vehicle numbers back then had numbers and unit identifications. My original thought was the "AFB" stood for Air Force Base.

I purchased the truck back in '95 and drove it just locally for about a year. It never ran that great and I parked it, planning to get back to when I had the time. I hear the comments all the time from other old guys that the time just slipped away - and here we are 27 years later! After retiring this year, I decided to get the truck back on the road but found the 216 locked up. After tearing it down a bit, I finally freed it up. I do however have a 235 that I had professionally rebuilt back in the '90s that I plan on replacing the 216 with. Since my auto mechanical experience is limited, II've already found awesome information on this forum that is helping me go through the process of the swap. Thank you all again

That starter is a 12v (red tag) with a solenoid, neither of which were used until 1955.

Since your data plate is missing any hope of knowing where and when your truck was built are lost for all time. The good news is the State of Arizona gave your truck a clean bill of health and issued it a new VIN number.

I have a 1978 ex Navy Jeep and when it was auctioned off by the Navy they listed it as a 1976. I call my DMV to get the title corrected and even though they see's the mistake (as the VIN number lists the model year) they can't change it because the Gov't got it wrong on their paperwork...you could have the same issue.

At car shows I'd call it a '51 and just leave the 1949 title date out of conversations, it will make life easier.

Mike B

Gosh. Will this turn out to be another Frankentruck?? At least you are all pulling together some good data for identifying it.

Yup with wing windows, sure does look 51ish.

I'm thinking the truck is fine, it's the paperwork that got a typo somewhere along the way.

Mike B

What style of brakes does it have? Huck or Bendix?
I am trying to figure out how the '49 aspect of the mystery came about.
Back in time, if a fella had a '49 truck with a good title, but the only salvageable part of truck was the frame and drivetrain, he could have added the '51 cab and '51 engine, and then somehow coordinated getting the title straightened out at a DMV.
Adding the hand stamped engine # to the cab would be a way to indicate to the DMV, "There, you see? The engine goes with the cab."
All of this, even though the title says '49. The DMV does not know how to decode engine numbers, nor how a '49 cab looks different than a '51'.
I have no problem with what was done to make this truck legal in the eyes of the DMV. I just enjoy mysteries.

Good question on the brakes. Do I need to pull the hubs off to tell the difference? (see photo). Also did '49' have the knee-action shocks?

Going by suggestions, I agree the best thing to do is not mess with the title and use the historical evidence if I ever needed to explain it's actual age.

Thank you all for your input - it has been a great help. Now to the process of the 235 swap out!

Yes, 1949 had knee action shocks. 1950 was the first year for tube shocks.

Take the rear brake drum off (its easier) to see if you have Huck brakes or Bendix brakes. Do you have a shop manual? If not, get one on ebay for about $20. You'll see the difference in the brake styles immediately.

If you're used to working on drum brakes, the Huck brakes don't look like anything you've seen before. Here's a picture of my front Huck Brake

Those are Bendix brake drums as best as I can tell. You also have factory riveted on tube shock mounts.
There seems to be nothing on this truck which predates 1950. In fact, as a whole, it is made up of 1951 parts, if not a genuine 1951 truck.
Since the original ID plate is missing from the hinge pillar, other means were necessitated at some point in time to come up with a legal title from the DMV.
It puzzles me how "1949" ever got into the discussion and was assigned as the legal description of the truck on the new title.

My truck title says it is a '49 but everything (ID tag, shocks, doors, etc.) says that it is a '50. I don't know how it was ever identified as a '49 for the title but I am not going to worry about it as I am not keeping the truck original so nobody really knows/cares if it is a '49 or '50.

Unless you're trying to come up with a definitive ID as to the year model for insurance purposes, etc., it's probably best to leave that can of worms unopened, especially where your local department of motor vehicles is concerned! Bureaucrats love red tape- - - -it makes them feel like their jobs are actually worth the paychecks they collect!
Jerry