I am in France. I own a 1929 AC International Phaeton Chevrolet. It is a right hand driving. Apparently model which was expired/shipped to Argentina and then to France. The engine Number is R934232. I have a Number on the front right hand side. It does not seem to be original. It shows: RPA 116891. I am searching for the right body number that would match the engine number. Can someone share this information with me?
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There maybe a vehicle number such as 22AC……. Which would indicate that the origin is from Tarrytown New York, it may have been a complete Phaeton shipped to Argentina, or a body built in that country. Bodies were built and fitted to exported chassis as in here in Australia, but more likely shipped as complete car.
Here in Australia ,(Right hand drive) an Aluminium or brass chassis number plate was nailed to the Right hand side of the seat frame, and smaller aluminium body plates were nailed to the floor sill on the rh sill next to the front seat. Some USA vehicles have been known to have other numbers scampered directly into the timber frame structure.
The number you are looking for can be found on a plate attached to the support for the front seat at the right hand side of the car. It may also be on the floor at the right side near the front seat. It is held in place by four nails. They are often missing, so you may not find it.
Attached is a photo of the plate from my 1930 Phaeton. The 1929 Phaeton plate is essentially the same.
That is correct for closed cars, but open cars (roadsters and phaetons) did not have a body number. The bodies were produced in-house rather than by Fisher and were not assigned a body number. So the open cars had two identifying numbers: The engine serial number and the car number in the format XXYYZZZZZZ, where the XX identifies the plant in which the car was produced, the YY indicates the model (in this case "AC" for 1929), and the ZZZZZZ is the car number.
A 1931 roadster assembled in Stockholm Sweden. Has a car number with prefix XBAE. I am unsure of when the export codes or assembly plant codes changed from a number prefix to letter prefix, Chip, as you have 29, 30 phaeton you would be able to confirm if it was 1929 or 1930, I am fairly certain here is Aus. That up to 1928, still used 22 prefix, and 1929 looks to have dispensed with prefix codes from the export plant, South America may have continued , or changed to letter prefix in 1929.
