1932 5W VIN please help

Take a look at the pictures that I posted on thread: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231215

You can clearly see the old style font on a fairly late '32 frame. The "1" on the frame is very close to the partial stamping that you are reading as a "4". I have had titles for '32's which did not state the 18- prefix. I have also seen an original '32 frame that had no prefix on the frame numbers.
 
Ford had a good number of final assembly plants around the world. The engine transmission packages were stamped after assembly. The frames weren't stamped until the engine trans package was installed at the assembly plants. There are all sorts of variations due to this practice. I've used enough steel stamps to know that they do wear out when in everyday use. The stamps were hardened when they were manufactured but even hardened steel can only take so many blows. They likely had times when they used what ever stamp was at hand at the different assembly plants until replacements were available. Production sure wasn't going to stop due to a dull stamp.

Frames were generally marked with the serial number is two or three places so not all of the stampings had the engine/transmission prefix designator stamped on.
 
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