Briggs body tag

marty in Ohio

marty in Ohio

Well-known member
I've owned this car for almost 30 years and have never paid any attention to the Briggs body tag. This metal tag is on the floor by the right front door. The number on the tag is CL164-641. What does this tell me? Can I find when and where the body was built by this number? Don't know why I never asked this before.
Marty
 
My car is a 1930 Town Sedan. I send Dave an email. Ironically I live about 25 miles from Cleveland, Ohio. There's several Clevelands in the U.S. Was the plant you referred to in Ohio?
Marty
 
I'm sorry, Gary. You said the plant was in Cleveland, OHIO. Did Ford have an assembly plant in Cleveland too. I don't know where my car was assembled but Cleveland isn't far from Detroit.
Marty
 
marty in Ohio said:
I'm sorry, Gary. You said the plant was in Cleveland, OHIO. Did Ford have an assembly plant in Cleveland too. I don't know where my car was assembled but Cleveland isn't far from Detroit.
Marty
Click to expand...
pic of plant from the Great Steve Plucker's book on 28-31 assembly plants and production of the Model A's, Should purchase one from Steve Great info. Also in his second book there is a great article about the plant in Cleveland Ohio and also in Model A News (MARC) Vol 53 No. 5, Sep/OCT 2006
 

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Interesting. Briggs and Murray supplied bodies to Ford, wouldn't they have gone directly to Ford, then sent to branches? Were they stamped after getting to the branch for reassembly, or did the Cleveland build the car from parts? If I could find the tag from my 1929 town sedan, I would check to see if it had branch letter stamped on it too.

Here is a 29 with the CL in front of the number; http://classiccardb.com/ford/55951-1929-ford-model-a-3-window-fordor-town-sedan-briggs-body.html
 
redmodelt said:
Interesting. Briggs and Murray supplied bodies to Ford, wouldn't they have gone directly to Ford, then sent to branches? Were they stamped after getting to the branch for reassembly, or did the Cleveland build the car from parts? If I could find the tag from my 1929 town sedan, I would check to see if it had branch letter stamped on it too.

Here is a 29 with the CL in front of the number; http://classiccardb.com/ford/55951-1929-ford-model-a-3-window-fordor-town-sedan-briggs-body.html
Click to expand...
Assembly plants.
 
Redmodelt,
The Briggs body tag is found by the right front door. its tacked to the floor by the cowl. The '29 that you tagged listed the VIN number as the body number.
Marty
 
Thanks for all the info, Gary. I had no idea that Pluck had a book about assembly plants. I'll have to find a copy.
Marty
 
Ford had a Branch Assembly Plant in Cleveland, OH. Ford ceased production there in 1932. The different engine plants came much later. Many of the Briggs Model A bodies were built at several different plants in Detroit. They did lease some space at the old plant in Cleveland at some point but I don't know if it was during or after model A production. They also leased space from Ford at the Highland Park plant but that was likely after model A production. Briggs and Murray built the complete bodies and then they were shipped to the branch plants for final assembly. Ford may have handled most the shipping since they had routes going all over the country. Not all branch plants assembled bodies but they did do final assembly on the cars.
 
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Marty, the assembly plant was at 11610 Euclid Ave.
still there, now occupied by Case Western Reserve University, I think.
have been past it once or twice when visiting family near Cleveland....
 
Thanks for the tip, Chris. I drove to Cleveland this afternoon and found the building at 11610 Euclid Avenue. It looks the same as in the picture from Pluck's book, but it's now home to the Cleveland Institute of Art.
Marty
 
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