Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Does the vehicle number on a 1936 120B convertable coupe appear in another location on the car other than the serial number plate that was mounted to the firewall of the car? I have puchased a car that is missing the firewall plate and my DMV wants me to prove that my car is actually the vehicle that is listed on the vehicle title. My car is a resto-mod so the engine, transmission and rearend are not original. Thanks for your help. RayShort

I believe that once the patent plate (vehicle # plate) is removed, there is no way other than through old documentation if available, to recover your #. There is the extremely slim chance, about 1 in 100,000 that I might have a record of it if you will provide the thief-proof #, the large embossed # on the engine side of the firewall.

Gee, it seems like 25% of the Packards that are surfacing these days are missing the patent plates, what is happening to them all? I know there are some folks that strip them and sell them on eBay, and I understand that once in a while one might get lost in the process of a restoration, but that hardly seems to be enough to account for the numbers that are missing. What a shame, you loose any chance to connect with the car's past.

Some folks have speculated that in a few years the # also appeared on the frame, but I've never seen one nor had it confirmed, either in person or by any Packard documentation.

Was there ever a common policy of removing number plates when a car was scrapped. I remember in high school (late 50's, New Mexico) a buddy wanted to get an old car from a junkyard-- had money, found a cheap car he wanted but when we looked and talked about it, yard said they couldn't sell that one and pick another. Of course all the others were "not cool" or out of his price range.

That yard had two sections-- cars that could be sold and was sort of like a used lot with mostly junkers and then those in the section where we found the car and which supposedly couldn't sell because they were no longer sellable. Forget the term but basically, all ID and papers had been removed and surrendered to motor vehicles so car was now only good for parts and scrap.

We always thought parents had found out his plans and told yard not to sell but after all the cars with missing plates seem to come up am wondering if there was such a policy.

Get a set of metal punches and stamp the number on the frame rail yourself.

Or order a reproduction Patent Plate from PI, punch it with the original numbers from your CA title, and reinstall it.

G'day Ray,
to PackardInfo. Wish you well with your request, Kev's suggestion appears to have a lot of merit and is a realworld "fix" for your problem.

But a request of you, could you please include your '36 120B Convertible Coupe in the Packard Owner's Registry here, together with a pic, any known history and how you acquired it?

And Kev, could you merge the other thread in the V8 Forum into this one?

Hi, Thanks for the quick reply. The body ID number that is stamped into the firewall is # 243986. Thanks for you help.

Regards, Ray...

Vehicle id tags are usualy removed when they do not match the title that was acquired with the car or in cases where a title was acquired AFTER the car was made road worthy or other such situations. Engine number was used for title.

There are also instances where the id tag Matches some modern vehicle. Case in point, i had a 1945 Jeep MB with a serial number that matched a currently registered 82 Arrow motor home.

Other situations involve vehicles from staes that never had titles. Some states as late as the 1960's did not issue titles. IIRC New York, Alabama, and a few others.

Also especialy during the war years and prior many of the big cars were butchered up into wreckers or other utility type vehicles. If the body was changed back at one time then the id tag removed from donor body to eleminate title contridiction.

Any number of various situations could explain a missing ID tag.

Duplicate Topics Merged. Thx.

Sorry Ray, I have no data on #243986. It was a long shot at best.