The engine serial number is separate from the alpha prefix letter(s). This is true throughout the Ford Model A and B US and Canadian production era.
The engine number, not a frame number, was the original serial number of the vehicle for title and registration purposes. Any number present is frequently obscured or illegible due to corrosion and pitting from moisture held by the cotton frame webbing between the frame and body. In the 1930's, vehicle theft was actually quite a large problem.Ī check for a possible frame number requires removal of the body and fender splash aprons from the frame. The engine number was assigned and stamped at the Rouge and was usually, but not always, later stamped on the top of the frame flange at the vehicle assembly plant as a backup to aid in positive identification of stolen vehicles. When present, the frame number was a duplicate of the original engine number of that chassis. There is no Ford literature available indicating a frame number was ever intended for any primary identification of a vehicle by Ford. A great many did not have a frame number stamped, and it varied depending on when and which of the more than two dozen assembly plants completed the vehicle final assembly. Actually, not all Model A vehicles even had a frame number. It is popularly but incorrectly claimed that the serial number of the vehicle was a frame number. The Specifications and License Data page above in the Instruction Book is quite clear and specific about this. Model A Vehicle Serial Number and LocationĪs shown above in the 1928 Model A Ford Instruction Book, Ford did in fact specify the engine number to be the 'serial number' of the vehicle, during the Model A (and B) era, and throughout the 1930's.