VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 '28 Chev "Serial Number" Location?

The title for a 1928 Chevrolet 2 dr sedan references a "Serial Number" 1AB104954. I cannot find a matching number on the car. Under the hood there is a Fisher Body Corp tag which gives
Job No. 8170
Body No. F42010
Am I missing what they refer to as "Serial Number"? Where do I look?

Hi,



Your car was assembled at the Flint MI plant late Aug and was the 103954 vehicle assembled in 1928. Job number 8170 is a 5-passenger coach built in Flint Fisher Body Plant.

The vehicle serial number of "1AB104954" is located on a plate inside the vehicle on the wood main sill.

Ray,
Thanks for the helpful Reply. I looked at the block behind the distributer and it gives a #4902506 which again doesn't match. If the title references a number on the engine block, what happens if a previous owner replaced the engine with one from another car??

Where is the "wood main sill" you refer to located?

The number "1AB104954" that appears on your title is actually your car serial number, not the engine number, therefore that number will not appear on the engine block. The car serial number is stamped on a metal plate (if it is still there) that is nailed onto the passenger side wood main sill (next to the floor board) facing the front door...several inches forward of the front seat.

The number "4902506" is your engine serial number and it is located on the engine block as you have found.

JD,
I found the tag you refer to just inside the pasenger door on the wood floor under the piece of carpet that has been tacked to the floor. The number on the tag matches perfectly. I feel better now.
Thanks!

There you go! You were lucky that the metal plate was still there.

Very lucky...

I have seen several 1928 Chevrolet sedans (Fisher bodys) and one 1924 sedan with the car number plate nailed onto the outside of the driver side seat rizer ( the part that holds the cranking handle, rim spreader, water pump pliars, sparkplug wrench, and other assorted tools, tire tools and jack) about 4 inches from the front of of the seat.

It probably depends on the factory and/or the model of Fisher Body. The Chevrolet built bodies (open cars) usually have the serial number plate attached to the front seat "kickup".

JYD, is that the front of the kickup or the side of the kickup? maybe the side isn't called a kickup? eh? I know about pickups and hickups ...but not too much about kickups!.....

That's because you are from Texas! At any rate, the plates that I have seen were on the front of the seat "kickup".

...I like 'em pickups...but not 'em hickups....

The Chev 4 Coach has the Car No. nameplate nailed to the floor since, there is no place suitable to nail it to the folding seat frame. The later Chev 4's that have a true front seat with a seat base, the nameplate is nailed to the right door side seat base. On commercial models or speedsters that use the Chevrolet commercial dash, the nameplate is rivited to the middle of this dash.

I believe Engine # 4902506 was assembled in Flint Motor Plant towards the end of August/early September 1928, and therefore the car was a '1929 selling season' car assembled perhaps in September 1928. The s.s. ran from August each year although it was truncated in 1928 as by December the first 6-cylinder cars were on stream. Am I right Ken?

I can send you a photo of Pre25Chev4 inspecting one of these ID plates (Aussie talk for Car No. nameplate) on a 28 roadster down here in Aus. where he joined us on the recent Chev 4 tour
Chris

It's nice to know the engine was in fact assembled in 1928. Is there any way of determining whether the engine is for sure the original one for this particular vehicle?

The Oshawa built 1922-28 Chev 4's used a brass Canadian name plate that listed both the engine and Car No., but I would say your numbers seem to match with this coach assembled in Flint in late summer of 1928 about the end of production at the end of October at engine #5068876 and in Flint after building 129349 cars and comercials.
Look under the engine serial # pad on the right rear of the block and below the Bowtie is a date code like H 13 8. What does your block reads?

My block reads H 18 8

Yes, it sure appears the engine # and block date code, and your coach Fisher Body # and Car No. are time wise a match. The head date code sould also be close to an :H: August date too. If this is the original cyl head the engine # will be stamped on one of the exhaust ports on the top gasket surface under the gasket.

Doesn't sound like the number on the head is readily viewed....

Just remove the valve cover to reveal the casting number and the date code. If you really want to get your feet wet, remove the exhaust manifold, clean the area on the head that it was bolted to and see if you can find a series of numbers. If you do see if they match the number that was on the pad on the right side of the engine behind the distributor. If they match, they left the assembly plant together, if they don't match then either the block or the head has been replaced somewhere along the line.

Thanks to all for the advice & comments.

I got the motor to run today (sustained).

Life is good.

I meant to add the above post to the subject "Starting a Mothballed Engine".....