Re: Body Dash Numbers

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2008/10/14 12:53:33

Kevin:

I would be interesting in knowing if you have ever seen any pattern between the Briggs body number and VN number as far as the offset between the two numbers.

The only pattern that is apparent is in the 22nd/23rd series and only then for the cars that were not renumbered by the factory (to avoid selling leftovers). Regardless of body style, the Briggs number is never more or less than 25 away from the VN, often matching, and most often between 1 and 5 numbers apart. Of course a factory-renumbered bathtub might have been 2392-25000 with a Briggs number nearly matching, but might have emerged with the new factory VN plate as 2392-5-75000. For example my factory renumbered 23rd series Custom 8 sedan was renumbered to 2352-5-5346 and subtracting 2001 leaves 3345, far more than were produced in the entire series. The apparent reason is that when the factory renumbered, in addition to adding the -5- or -9- (for 22nd series), they started with a new base number, for example 50001 instead of 2001. Bob Neal is exploring this in more detail and it will be interesting to see what he comes up with in his new book on the 22nd/23rd series.

For the 42 thru 47 Clippers, there appears to be no pattern at all, most Briggs numbers are with 300 or so of the VN, but I've encountered a few where the difference is about 16,000.

For the 1951-54, I simply don't have enough data but the few I have the VN is within 25 of the Briggs #.