Re: Thief-Proof Numbers (body serial numbers)

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2011/3/14 8:56:58

Thanks for thinking about it. I'm guessing you didn't read either of the two articles in TPC about it, so let me give you a super-brief background.

Body dash numbers began in 1929, perhaps with 000001 but the lowest we know of is 000050. They progressed, more or less in order but with special blocks of #s reserved in some years, for example early juniors. There are some overlaps, for example when they produced the 21st and 22nd series concurrently. They reached 990,621 in 1950, and perhaps 999,999. Then rather than go to 7 digits, they retained 6 characters but substituted an alpha prefix for the first digit, starting with A. The A series ("A" followed by 5 digits) was completed and the B series began in 1951. The B series continued into 1953 which also began the C series. All 1954s are C series. The V8 era began with the C series and ended with the D series. South Bend-built Packards did not use thief-proof numbers.

Where we have data for consecutively vehicle-numbered cars of the same chassis and body style, there is not a precise 1-to-1 correspondence of vehicle number, body dash number, and motor number, though they are normally VERY close to each other, with the exception as I noted before of RHD cars, customs like Dietrichs, etc., commercial cars like Henneys, etc.

If you'd like a copy of the two articles, PM me your mailing address and I'll xerox for you.

PS - But I do believe the randomness of the 55/56 data may very well be attributed to difficulties and chaos Packard encountered taking back the body business from Briggs. There are also a few strange anomolies in late 1940 when Packard apparently started transfering the body-building business to Briggs.