Re: 1949 Station Wagon VIN ID #

Posted by HH56 On 2021/12/15 20:02:41

The number you mentions sounds like it is the body ID or more commonly called by many the theft proof number. The number is embossed on the firewall usually inside a set of triangles and was used internally at Packard and not for any official use by any registering agency. I believe all those records disappeared with exception of a few numbers that have survived and were found on the official documents that accompanied the car delivery to dealers. Owen_Dyneto has been collecting those numbers over the years and there is a slim chance it might be among those in his collection but I doubt it would do any good as far as being anything you could use.

Some states used the motor number as the official number and other states used the 22xx number. No idea what WA might have used but do not feel alone as CA also has the same policy of purging the data if the car has not been registered for 5 years. We too have to call in a verifier or take the car to the highway patrol for inspection. On my 47, even with paperwork, since the embossed number is the only number on the car that can not be removed the inspecting officer insisted it be used as the official number and so it was.