The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Original 49 ??

I am looking at a '49 Chevy half ton deluxe. It is claimed to be all original. If this is true shouldn't the numbers on the engine show up on the serial number plate, and or also be on the frame?

Thanks,
Kevin

As far as I know, they will not coincide.

Here is the VIN cruncher for the numbers on your door plate.

Someone will come along soon, I'm sure with more info, maybe for the engine casting numbers.

No. The serial number plate on an original will have a one or two digit factory code, followed by GP (half ton), followed by a month letter code (A=Jan, B=Feb, etc.), followed by a production number. Check out the tech tip on deciphering your VIN here at the 'bolt - http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/VIN.htm

On original AD trucks, there was no number on the frame.

Depending on the original location of the truck, the title MAY have an engine number for the VIN rather than the serial number.

The vin # is etched on a flat part of the engine block behind where the distributor drops in

Beaver,
That will be the "vin #" only in jurisdictions that titled trucks with the engine number. Not all places did that. Some states used the serial number from the door post data plate (MO for example).

This reminds me of the time I moved from Washington to Oregon and Washingtion had used the motor number to title 1950 truck. Of course original 216 was long gone. No amount of talking at Oregon DMV was going to convince them of motor # as VIN. So off to appointment with State Police. The trooper tech was determined to find frame stamped VIN. Again no amount of talking would convince him he would not find such. Armed with a wire brush and flashlight he went on a almost two hour mission to find that stamped VIN. He finally gave up, I got a little frame cleaning from him, and DMV just assigned the serial number as my VIN.

Thanks guys!

Kevin
As others have stated there really is no way to document a "numbers matching" truck, or car either from that era. At least not a Chevy. Each series of truck and car had engines, trans. and differentials with serial number prefixes unique to that series, though. This 49 half-ton for example: The body serial on the door hinge post plate will have a 1 or 2 digit number followed by GP then another letter followed by 4 digits - like 21GPD1234. The original 216 motor serial number stamped on the little flat spot beside the distributor will start GBA or GBM only for 49 1/2 tons. The G is the year code 1949. P in the body number is 1/2 ton. A or M in the engine number stand for Flint or Tonawanda, respectively. May I recommend Keith Hardy's online resource here . Good luck.

But you can come close by checking the casting dates on the block, head, tranny case, rear axle gear housing, and several other items. I.E. if the serial number of the truck shows a build date of April, everything should have a casting date of approximately Feb. or March. My 51's serial # shows a build date of March and remarkably all the castings had a date within a few days of each other. The blocks date was March 6 and the head was March 7. Chevy must have been pretty busy as they didn't let those castings "season" very long.

Bob