The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Wow! VIN Number help!

You guys have done a great job here! I used frame sketches, and wheelbase to get a good idea the '38 1 1/2 ton dually big bolt is legitimate! Now, decoding the VIN.
6 TB O 53580
I can't figure out the month code!
Oakland, CA 1938 1 1/2 ton, dual wheels, 52,579th made. (Am I missing something? Whats the 'oh', or zero??
Thanks!
Tom

I think you're putting the space in the wrong place. It's most likely 6 TB 05 3580 which would make it made in May of 1938.

If the numbers started at 1001 yours would be the 2580th one made. I don't know why but many people think they need to subtract 1001 from their number. Not so. 1001 was number 1, 1010 was number 10 and so on. You need to subtract 1000 not 1001.

Tiny - according to Barry's tech tip, the month code was one letter, not 2 digits, so indeed, what month does O refer to? seems to me there are letters left out when using them to indicate months, but I don't recall anyplace to find that - I think that's a particular problem with actual production, because the model year production overlapped the calender year, so would 'A' indicate Jan of the model year or, whatever month in the previous calender year that production commenced?

.... and Cletis, Barry also specifically indicates the '1001' is subtracted, which is likely why Tom does so [although I think you're probably right]

edit: I also see on that tip that the 56-59 are shown to have numbering starting 001001 [6 digits] when it should be 00100001 [8 digits]

Bill

That would be something good to find out. It seems that with some of the years listed in Barry TT, if it says "1002" ... it's the 2nd truck. One says "10020" and it's the 9019th truck.

Gosh, I had a stack of books here on the table trying to re-do the 41-46 identification web page that spun out into cyber space somewhere.

Maybe we'll go thru a bunch of clear up, clean up, update. Me thinks me has a helper ... soon.

Tell me if you find something concrete ... or asphalt.



Peg

Vehicle serial numbers start at 1001 in 1938.

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/chevyresto/3809.htm

It is hard for me to believe that 'start at 1001' means the first truck was numbered 1002.

reminder on the resto packs made me check later years .... the 56 truck pack shows the numbers still starting at 001001 - the 57 truck pack direct from GM shows the same - the 58 seems to be where the change was, starting with 100001 ... always learning

Bill

Bill my unit serial number in 5 HB 05 XXXX. The fine folks over at VCCA told me that decodes to 5 Kansas City HB (Master) and 05, the fifth month of 1938. That's what I'm using to advise the poster. If they are wrong so am I. Since my '38 was one of the first cars sold at the brand new Tubbs Motors dealership in town after it opened in April of 1938 I suspect the May build date is accurate. My car was first purchased by Elijah Morris Hamm, a local farmer and letter carrier, in May of 1938 and later given to the person I bought it from. Tubbs grand opening ad.

My '38 wasn't carry over stock. The previous dealership (Ark City Motors) was liquidated when the owner (E.J. McMonagle) died in his sleep in February at 40 years old. <CLICK> <CLICK> <CLICK>

just pointing out the tech tip Tiny, no idea where Barry got the info [or the VCCA guys either!], too bad the GM resto pack doesn't appear to say anything about the date code ..... be interesting tho' if Chevy only planned for production of under 9,999 units from any one plant

Bill

It's probably worth mentioning that there's a notable separation between the character groups of the serial number of my OEM data plate. The 5HB05 are slightly separated from the numerical sequence. The numerical sequence number is also a slightly smaller stamp size.

OEM Data Plate

I have never looked at Barry's tech tip until now.

His info on decoding the 1932-1952 serial numbers needs to be amended. The month is identified with 2-digits on vehicles built from 1942 back.

The Letter identifing the month came out sometime after 1942 and before 1946. The letters start with "A" as January even though the model year may have started in October.

Unit numbers started at 1001 which as stated would be the first vehicle, so you only subtract 1000 to find your actual unit number. It was very common for the assembly plant to go to 5-digits (over 9,999 units) during production.

Mike B

I have pulled out a bunch of stuff and hopefully we can come up with one truck ID tech tip, with sections or whatever.

I was thinking last night (in keeping with Cletis post), if you start counting at 000 by the time you get to 005, you will have six trucks (sorry, I couldn't work with four digits / 1001):

000 - first truck
001 - second truck
002 - thrid truck
003 - four truck
004 - fifth truck
005 - sixth truck

So, yea. We'll need to find out what the scoop is and fix that.

Just to let you know, I realized this last night when our Grand daughter was putting together her number puzzle. It starts with zero.

This is an old Tech Tip. We were new. We were young. We were poking around in the dark.

And THIS my friends is a living document. So LET'S GET IT RIGHT!!! Eventually.

Peg

It states in the 1938 specifications the numbers start at 1001. It amazes me there are so many interpretations of this. There was no 000 or 1000. The first one at each factory was numbered 1001. The 5th one 1005. The 100th one 1100.

To ME, that makes sense! I think the way it's wording in our tech tip (and maybe other places) may be what is confusing.

Also may a brain malfunction.

We'll add this to the fixes.

Peg