VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Need help to identify vehicule

Hi everyones

I am attempting to put back my chevrolet 1930 truck on the road , it has not been plated since 1992. On the paper it says it is 1929 chevrolet with a 4cyl and vin number 64003 , but it is all wrong , there is no 64003 number on the truck , it is a 6 cylinder and it says it's a Universal on the i.d plate so it is a 1930. Maybe sometime somebody did a mistake , my grand-father bought it in 1979 and he has a transaction paper that says it his an 1929 chevrolet with the price he paid it and no more information . So now I need the more info i can get because they want to know what it is and if it's not stolen to let me plate it. You have to know this is a CANADIAN truck so I need canadian info not USA .Here what I have . Link to see the truck
https://picasaweb.google.com/111920967548676741333

835501
M209
and a chevy logo than 1H (this is on the block )

836273
F240 H1 ( this is on the head )

GENERAL MOTOR
of CANADA

OSHAWA WALKERVILLE REGINA
MODEL UNIVERSAL
SERIAL no.
487076
Engine no.264803


Any info I will get will be helpfull
THank you all for your time
Nicolas

Vintage Vehicle Services Canada..........frank.agueci@cc.gm.ca

frank runs a specialized company with most of the information on GM vehicles.

They charge for their services if they can help you.

mike lynch

Both the engine block casting number and the cylinder head casting number indicate that you have a 1930 engine. The engine casting date of M209 means that your engine block was cast on December 20, 1929, making it a 1930 engine block. However, the engine number of 268403 is an early 1929 engine serial number. Also, the cylinder head casting date of F240 indicates that your cylinder head was cast on June 24, 1930.

According to the photo of the instrument panel your truck is definitely a 1930.

It all looks like 1930 to me but M is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet?

Correct. However, it appears that apparently in Canada for the casting date they skipped the letter "I" which would then make "M" the 12th letter of the alphabet as seen in this case. The letter cast onto the block in the photo as part of the casting date is definitely the letter "M".

That would explain it, it is something I have never come across. It doesn't explain the early 1929 engine number though and why they would skip the letter I.

They probably did not use the letter "I" because it looked too much like the number "1".

Hence modern numbering, well per ASME anyways does NOT use "I" "O" "Q" "S" or "Z" as they can easily be mistaken for Numbers, and well "Q" could be an "O" or "0" Zero, if the curly is hard to see :)

A couple of suggestions: \
1. Check serial number on engine to see if it matches the serial number on the cowl plate. It's possible the '30 block/head are not original to the truck.
2. Recheck ssrial number for engine on cowl tag. Although cowl tag indicates this is a '30/Universal cowl, the use of a '29 serial number for engine would be an interesting conundrum. A couple of possibilites include that the seriel number was punched in wrong, or alternatively, that some left over '29 engines were shipped to Canada and used in '30 trucks, a practice that was not unheard of back then. Often leftover previous years partts were shipped out of the USA to foreign plants to use up in later year models.

If serial number on '30 block is completely different from cowl # it suggests current engine is a replacement. I understand truck engines in Canada at the time had a T at start of serial number, indicating they were installed in a truck. My '30 engine (in my '31 Coach) had a serial number starting with T and I was advised in was a truck engine, although there is apparently no difference between car and truck engines at the time.