The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Newbie from Louisiana with a 1959 Apache and an ID question

Hello All,

Greeting from extreme south Louisiana.

Recently acquired a 1959 Apache from a friend that decided he didn't want to deal with rust repair.
That said, kind of my thing, so I have replaced floor, door jams, steps, cab corners, and the roof.

Removing tags from the door pillars I found a small brass oval tag and really didn't pay any mind to it at the time.
Now that I'm at the point of finish body work on the cab, I started on the dash where I found a military tag on the glove box door.

I have done some moderate searching and discover it was some sort of DOD truck.

So, my question is there any information sites to decode these tags?

Thanks

Welcome to Stovebolt Doug!

Best suggestion I can start with is to suggest you post some pictures of "all" the ID plates, Chevy original and military as we can better see what you see and might offer some helpful info.

On your question about information sites to decode the DOD tags, unfortunately not really down to the nitty-gritty serial numbers. Once the vehicles are no longer part of the government inventory (usually sold off at auction), the majority of their historical records/files get disposed of/destroyed. Some folks like myself, who have had many past years experience with DOD equipment and vehicle data plates, can possibly offer some info once we can actually see the plates.

Most of the info was used to ID the equipment, by original DOD Contract purchase order numbers, military assigned make/model,classifications and sometimes special equipment if installed. There were also sometimes added plates for equipment issued to/assigned to specific installations for inventory and life cycle management of the equipment. Again, we can help best if we can see what you have.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your project!

Dan,

thanks so much for the reply
Ill have to get some pictures posted

Here you go Dan

Removing those tags is illegal in some states and problematic in most.

Louisiana requires a permit to be issued PRIOR to removal for restoration purchases.

Good luck.

The only one that counts for that is the small one on the lower right with the serial number on it. That's the one that Chevy put on the truck. The rest are just additional info. The Govt contract tag is pretty cool though. Definitely put that one back on.

Doug - The plates on the right are the originals Chevrolet attached to the truck from the factory, with the most important one as Kevin said being the original vehicle serial number plate that was spot welded to the cab door upper pillar post. Interestingly that one has extra characters stamped "C - 59 - 8" (I think???) which would not have been done by the factory.

The one on the upper right is the vehicle data plate which was riveted to the lower drivers side cab door door pillar. It provides details on engine equipment and paint codes, which in this case is indicated as "SPEC" which matches up with it being originally ordered/built to fill a DOD contract order using a standard military paint color.

The larger upper left plate, if from the original truck sold to the government, will have a serial number that matches the one on the original Chevrolet plate in the lower right. It also provides standardized DOD military specifications (MIL-SPEC) identification info to identify and track the vehicle through it's government owned life cycle.

The oval brass tag on the lower left is a mystery at the moment as the picture doesn't provide enough detail to define what all is on the plate. I can think of a few possible things the plate might represent, but would like to get a better focused and close up pic to see as many details as possible before trying to offer more on that. Perhaps you can get a better picture?