VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 1940 Floor Plate Data

In a recent topic on dash woodgraining floor plate data was touched on and I was hoping for some more input. My 1940 Master Deluxe Town Sedans plate reads 3 K H05 315 I know now it was produced in May- What else can be gleaned from these numbers? Thanks again for the input, Chevy40

K = its was assembeled in Kansas City....are you in southern Ill.?..most northern Ill. cars came from Janesville,Wi and Southern from StLouis.

KH is a 1940 Master DeLuxe

if it was assembeled in May the next letter would be an E -as its the 5th letter in the alphabit.. they didn't use O-it was skipped????.

I bought the car from a seller near Ames, Iowa. I also know the car was always around this area. A post on the "woodgraining" topic said 01 would be jan, 02 would be feb, so 05 would be may ?? Not right? What about the 315 ? Chevy40

Chevgene...I don't understand your refrence to the letter "E".

BB:

I don't mean to butt in BUT, as I understand it E is the month 'code' for May. "E" is the 5th letter of the alphabet and May is the 5th month of the year. It would start with Jan = A, Feb = B and so on. Down to December which is "M."

Gene's reference to no "O" confuses me however. "O" is the 15th letter of the alphabet, so I don't see how "O" would have anything to do with it.

In the date coding that I'm familiar with there's no "I." I guess you'd say "I" was 'skipped.' I presume that was to avoid possible confusion between the letter "I" and the number "1" because they look so similar.

In that coding Sept, which is the tenth month, and you'd think would be "I" is actually "J." That makes December "M." Two letters before "O." There in lies my confusion about Gene's comment about "no 'O'."

I'm anxious to have Gene get me straightened out on this and to answer your question also.

Bill.

Lets try again. Here's how I believe the number 3KH05 315 should be read.

3 = St Louis Assembly Plant

KH = Identifies vehicle as a Master Delux for 1940

05 = Month of assembly = May

315 = is confusing. I believe there should be at least one or two more digits in that grouping since all serial numbers started with 1001 and increased from there. Example = The first Master Delux Vehicle assembled in St. Louis carried serial number 3KH10 1001. In this case the number 10 represents the tenth month or October 1939 and according to my records it was assembled on 10-9-39.

Hey Oldie,

I just rechecked the number on my 1940 and one of the last numbers was very lightly struck in. Maybe you have another digit or 2 that is not showing very well. I do not see any letters other than the KH so still wonder what Gene is referring to on the "E". As 42bill pointed out it is the 5th character of the alphabet, but I don't think Chevrolet used that system in 1940. Maybe at the St. Louis plant they started with the number 1, not 1001 and maybe you have the 315th vehicle produced in 1940 at the St' Louis plant. :)

BigBob

I believe Gene was thinking about serial numbers for some other year of manufacture where a letter designation was used for the month of assemble. Your listed serial number is correct for the 1940 model year where the 05 following the Model designator (KH) is the month of assenbly. In this case it is May.

As stated earlier, the first Master Delux assembled in St. Louis for 1940 carried serial number 3KH10 1001 and was build on 10-9-39. The last Master Delux assembled in St.Louis for the 1940 model year carried serial number 3KH07 37644 and was assembled on 7-15-40. Those two numbers tell me that there were 36644 Master Delux vehicles assembled in St.Louis during the 1940 Model run. Since your vehicle was assembled in May, two months prior to the end of the 1940 Master Delux production, it's safe to say that you should have at least 5 didits in the sequence portion of your serial number. I suspect that your serial number should read 3KH05 315--.

I just went to great length to clean my plate. And it wasn't even dinner time yet! I found well cleaned and with a light rubbing with 30-weight oil the tag is most easily read. The last two digits are VERY lightly stamped, but now I have it! 3KH05 31569 In all honesty, I am only 90% certain of each of the last two numbers. Is there any other place on car that this series of numbers is recorded? Thanks Chevy40

Oldies info. is 100% correct.....last night I was thinking of the later '40's when the month would have been identified with a letter rather than the number/date of the month.As an example a 1949 would have has E rather than the 05.The absense of a full set of numbers at the end further confused my thoughts.I will take action so an error like this will never happen again.

There is no other location on the car with the serial numbers.

Thanks, Chevgene...I never get confused.

Soon you will all realize that I am the source of all confusion!! Don't blame yourselves!! So is there a national registry of 1940 chevs so I can check if my numbers are taken or not? Is there a way to cross-referance serial numbers with paint color or engine serial number to confirm a serial number? Will the Spurs finally win this thing? Thanks to all Chevy40

O K This a rare time I will limit confusion! I dug through the paperwork that the seller provided, and the old title shows that the number is correct as I have read it. 31569 Thanks to all for the info i.e. assembly plant and date of production. I still would like to know if the Spurs will win, but soon we will know!! Chevy40

I humbly apologize for misleading with my "letter" designation info regarding the "month" of assembly rather than correctly suggesting a "number" to ID the month of assembly. It's obvious I've been living in the 50's too long.

It is great to know it all got straightened out beginning with "Oldie" being so kind when he followed up my post by saying "Let's try again" rather than something that wouldn't have been nearly so pleasant. Thanks for not making me feel dumber than I already do Oldie!

Sorry I don't know if the Spurs will win Chevy40. But I sure hope they do! As an EX-Blazer fan it would further sicken me if Rasheed were to 'win' ANOTHER ring!! GO SPURS!!

Bill.

Well, there ya go Chevy 40!!

Congrats to the Spurs for winning the 2005 NBA Championship! It would have nice for Larry Brown to win another one; but I'm sure glad Rasheed didn't win!!! (Call it sour grapes or whatever.)

Incidentally, what goes a guy from IL care about the Spurs???

Bill.

Yeah Spurs!!! I can't Gin-o-believe it! I have always thought that Tim Duncan is one of the Great players- hard-working and fundamentaly rock-solid. The mix of players and skills represented on the Spurs held my interest. And while I care about the Spurs, I admit to caring quite a bit less for their opponents in this series. Nuff said!! Now, not to rub it in, but I'll be leaving in ten minutes for 1 1/2 week Canadian Fly-in fishing trip. I hope the Walleye are biting! Chevy40