The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Vin lookup issue - 1948 Chevy Dually

Hello everyone, first post here. I've used the vin lookup links found here and about a dozen online lookups but they don't match the sequence shown on my title. Can anyone give me any tips on how I can decipher it? It's AFCM313991. All I know now is that it's a 1948 Chevy dually.

Thanks for any info anyone can give me.

Welcome to Stovebolt Ronman105!

That looks like the engine number for your truck. At least that's what most states used for titling vehicles back in the days of our trucks. I've got a resoruce to help. Just give me a sec and I'll retrieve the link and post soon.

Here's the link to the 1948 Chevrolet Truck Data PDF at the GM Heritage site.

The screenshot below is an extract from that document, showing your AFCM is a Regular 216 built at the Tonawada Plant and originally installed in 1948 3/4 (3600) and 1 ton (3800) trucks. The 313991 is the engine serial number which started at 1001, making your engine the 312991st 216 built at the Tonawanda Plant for the 1948 model year.

There should be a make/model data plate affixed to the drivers door opening front side that will give more details on which model truck you have.

Thanks so much for your help on this. I found the data plate on the driver's door frame but it's completely faded and I can't read anything on it. I'm guessing I have the 3800 since it's a dually.

FYI - That data plate if it's original would have the alpha-numeric characters that identify the truck stamped into the plate. Even though the original printing on the plate info may be badly faded, you should be able to use a piece of paper and a pencil and try to do a rubbing of it to see if it will bring out the stamped characters.

Do this and post a picture of what you find and we can help decode it.

With the serial number stamped on the plate, you can determine the series.
As shown on the clip from the 1948 Truck Vehicle info kit, the first character will be the assembly plant, second indicates the year (F for 1948), third the series, 4th the month built and the rest the serial number.

I was able to clean off the plate and in the bottom center is 14FS-K and in the lower right corner is 3810. Unfortunately there's no decal left to look at.

Good news Ronman! Your stamped numbers on that plate decode as:

14 = Built at the Baltimore, MD Assembly Plant

FS = 1948 Model 3800 (1 Ton)

K = Month of Assembly - November 1948

3810 = Serial Number (All plants started serial numbers at 1001 each year, so yours would be the 2810th built at the Baltimore plant)

The printed decal portion isn't really relevant for identifying your truck as the stamped characters are what counts.

NOTE: All this info is included in that snapshot Kevin attached above.

Excellent, thanks so much for looking that up. Now I know for sure what I have. I was looking at the plate and if you angle it just right under a flashlight, you vaguely can see "ghost lettering" of what used to be there. The only useful information that I can make out is what looks like a 8800 lb. weight limit on it which makes sense now. Now for the teardown....

Late to the party but on the data plate on the door post the printed material only shows that it is a Chevrolet rather than a GMC and the gross tonnage. That the max tonnage you are allowed to put on the truck if you haul loads and have to pay for tonnage capacity. The only other time it means anything is if you were to go across a scales and there was a question on weight capacity, In the past 52 years of owning my 48 no one has ever wanted to see the tonnage listed on that tag and over all of that time the tag has had probably six coats of paint sprayed over it and when I moved back to Washington in 1977 the Washington State Patrol officer who inspected it took his pocket knife, scraped the paint off the area that the stamped number is on and wrote it down on a note pad and that was that and that is the way it has been ever since. The only thing important on that tag is the stamped number and the original fasteners that attach it to the door post.

I have wished for years that someone would make decals that could be placed over the old original door post tags with cutouts for the fasteners and a cutout or clear panel for the stamped serial number. Then you wouldn't get your truck impounded if you get caught with a shiny new tag from Ebay or the truck trinket store you stamped yourself.

The decal you describe could be made by a local sign company. Take a photo of it and they can recreate it digitally and print it any size and color on peel and stick backing or on decal backing.