VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Data Plates/ Tags for 1929 4-Door Sedan

due to inclement weather and not being home a lot lately due to work I am shifting gears to keep things moving on my 1929 Restoration.

Looking at Data Plates/Tags:
looks like all of them were hand stamped with the numbers/ info

1-ID Data Plate: DP-29
Original one: gone when I got the car
--Where is it located in/on the car ?!?
--CAR NUMBER is the Engine Serial Number ??
--How is it secured to Car ??


2-Generator Tag: RW-29
Original one: has lost color and beat up
--MODEL is 943J
--SERIAL NUMBER to Match existing


3-Starter Generator Tag: RW-29
Original one: has lost color and beat up
--MODEL is 714L
--SERIAL NUMBER to Match existing


4-Distributor Tag: RW-30
Original one: has lost color and beat up
--MODEL is 833G
--SERIAL NUMBER to Match existing

any and all help/pictures would be appreciated. I plan to order the Plates/ Tags from TFS this weekend.

1. The car serial number plate has been discussed here many, many, many times in the past. The plate is located on the passenger side wood main sill, in front of the front seat and facing the passenger side door.

The car number is not the engine serial number. The car number consists of the factory number and the number of the run in that factory.

The plate is secured to the wood main sill with little nails.

ugh, so that means I am at a lost to reproduce the factory tag with numbers, since i have NO numbers to apply :(


so that means it would be on the seat frame itself, since this is a four door sedan ?
which means it would have to be nailed here, near where i put my Cut out Switch. on the black fabric ??!
Passenger Front Seat Frame

The plate was not on the seat frame if the seat adjusted forward and back. Only seats that were permanently mounted had the car number plate nailed on passenger side near the front. All the rest had the plate nailed to the main sill near the passenger's right foot position.

If you have the original engine with serial number, know the assembly plant and/or have the casting dates or serial numbers on the transmission, rear end housing the approximate car number can be calculated. There are lists of the first car number at each assembly plant by month. Also lists of engine, transmission and rear housing serial number by month. Using those numbers it is possible to calculate the approximate assembly date and therefore car number. It has been done many times in the past. Don't know of anyone having a duplicate number yet, though it is possible.

Thanks chipper, been reading older post on here, and think i found the location of the original PLATE !!! Right Sill Assembly, at the seam of the front cross seal and the removable floor board. Found 2 nails in the Sill, then 2 holes where nails used to be ?!?
Serial Number/Data Plate Nails 01
Serial Number/Data Plate Nails Close Up

As stated above:

not sure of the manufacture plant/facility car was in Central Indiana as far back as I can trace History for it.

Info/Pictures I have:

Engine:Pict01
Casting Date: E__1__9
Cast No: 835501
Bowtie: 12
Serial No:653xxx

Transmission:Pict01 Pict02 Pict03
Casting Date:
Cast No: 59031
Letter under Casting: B
Serial No:AV387xx

Rear End Housing:Pict01 Pict02
Casting Date:
Cast No: 352287
Serial No:1476xxx

Anything more please let me know, and appreciate the help with this.

Engine was cast May 1, 1929. The engine serial number fits into that time frame. More than likely the car was assembled approx. May 15+/- 1929. Could have been Flint, St. Louis or Janesville as they were the plants closest to central Indiana.

How do you determine the Cast Date of the Transmission ?? via Serial Number or ??

and then no true way to determine which plant produced it ??

There should be a casting date on the transmission.

where should i look ?? i took pictures when i repainted, and posted them above, did not see any other dates, numbers ?!

a little ecstatic at the moment, was scamming through an envelope PO gave me with some pictures and in there was:
1-Driver License of Owner from 1940
...cool paper license with name, age, race, eyes, on the front, then on the back, a reminder to use proper hand signals when driving with graphic of each :)
2-Fisher Body Tag
...goes on the passenger side front corner
3-Serial Number Plate
...rough looking but think i can make out the info !!

Serial Number Plate
Serial Number Plate - Car Number

Looks to be 9 AC 42xxx

which would put it Norwood, OH Facility ?!? and a 1929 Chevrolet

Very cool.

Bear, those nails and holes are where the plate is on my coupe.
The transmission has casting numbers on the drivers side between the two raised mounting holes where the emergency brake would mount on a right hand drive car. There is also a casting number on the top cover just in front of the shift lever which I believe is different than the number on the side.

Yup, plant 9 is definately Norwood Ohio (Cincinnati area). AC is a 1929 Chevrolet. I will need to look up the '29 number sheets.

so none of the pictures i posted above for transmission have the casting info in them ?!?

saw the casting number, then a few random letters, nothing i could make sense out of

Transmission # 590391 is 1929, the B I believe is Buffalo, NY.

Got my data tags all back

Data Tags

Also talked with a gentleman that had an ad in the VCCA magazine, and ordered a NEW Fisher Body Tag, have to say WOW !!

He did a great job and from the time i sent the info and check till i received the tag back was less than 2 weeks !!

Original Fisher Body Tag

NEW Fisher Body Tag

Contact Info w/ Tag
DataTags Website

wow, a repo fisher body tag, that's amazing.

mike lynch

Thanks Jerry I will keep his info.

On the three data tags (generator, starter and distributor) how much were they each with the stamping?

No Problem, and yes it looks better in person than in pictures !! He advertises in the G&D under services offered, plus i have read about him on many other forums, he does a TON of the stamping plates, most makes & models, and if not he will make the tooling and such to do it !!

I got the tags from TFS, then had a local trophy shop stamp them for me from pictures of the originals :) she charged me $20 to do all four, which included my Serial Number Plate. So approx $5 each, NO i did NOT argue with her. smiled and paid her. Been dealing with her with work and personal things for 20+ years, she has done a TON of them for other AACA members locally.

Distributor Tag Small................RW-30........$8.50....1 Reqd
Generator/ Starter Tag Large.........RW-29........$9.50....2 Reqd
Car Number Plate.....................DP-29........$21.00...1 Reqd
(got Car Number plate off eBay from a gentleman who had surplus for sale)

what kind of NAILS were used to hold the data plate to the sill ?!?

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