Body Number tag

bobgc

bobgc

Member
could someone show me how the numbers should appear on my body no tag?
the tag I have for a 34 has -LB- in the center. the correct no.are 40A which is for 1934 and 80 C which is for panel delivery. I am nearing the end of my 4 year restoration project and don't want to get wrong now. It took much longer and cost way more than I predicted when I started but I want it concourse correct and that's It. Thanks if you can help and I'am sure someone can.
 
Not all body styles had a body tag, just the ones made by outside suppliers to Ford like Murray or Briggs. I guess one of your body styles is 34 Panel Delivery what about the other? I am not sure the Panel was made by an outside supplier, if not then no tag. Below is one for a 33 Sedan Delivery with a Briggs body tag . The first digits are the body model style.
 

Attachments

  • Body Tag 33 sedan delivery 850-2022.jpg
    Body Tag 33 sedan delivery 850-2022.jpg
    74.3 KB · Views: 29
Here's a photo of a 1934 Roadster body plate with LB in the middle. The 710 indicates roadster and the 4758 indicates that this was the 4758th body made. I believe(but not sure) that the LB indicates LeBaron Bonney, a division of Briggs Corp. If your vehicle was made at LeBaron(Briggs) then the body plate should read 820-LB-XXXX. 820 is the symbol for a Panel Delivery, LB indicates Lebaron and XXXX is the body number. Please note that it is possible that you panel delivery did not have a body plate. 1935 and 36 panel deliveries were made by Budd corp and had no body plates.
 

Attachments

  • 34 roadster body plate.jpg
    34 roadster body plate.jpg
    47.5 KB · Views: 366
Budd made most of the commercial bodies for Ford. They had superior stamping and drawing capability so they did all the big bodies like the Panel Delivery. I doubt that Budd put any body tags on their stuff but I don't know for certain. Those folks that were into coach building in that time frame could just look at a body and tell if it was made by Budd. No other company had the capability to do it and Ford wasn't going to tool up for low production types if someone else could do it cheaper.

You might check out the Coach Built web site. There is a wealth of info on there. The only other place would be the Benson Ford Research Center.

LeBaron Carrossiers & later LeBaron Inc. was the name of the coach works that the LB stood for. Lebaron Bonney is just an upholstery manufacturing firm from the more modern era. Briggs & Murray supplied stuff but Briggs did more than Murray. There were some other companies that also supplied Ford. Briggs tried to buy out Murray but Henry Ford talked him out of it. Briggs did purchase the LeBaron holdings. When the depression was hitting, the eastern shops were shut down and the work concentrated in Detroit after that.
 
Last edited:
Here is the body tag for my 1937 Ford Fordor.


Is it Briggs or Murray?

Thanks

TonyM
 

Attachments

  • DSCF9428.jpg
    DSCF9428.jpg
    49.5 KB · Views: 67
By 1933 LeBaron was a division of Murray.


With respect, rotorwrench, unlike in the '32 model year where there was roughly a 50-50 split in passenger car bodies supplied to Ford by Briggs and Murray, that changed in the '33 model year with Murray having by far the lion's share, despite a strike at Murray.


bobgc,


All '33-'34 passenger car and commercial vehicle bodies types had a three digit number (40-700 for the Tudor sedan on up through 46-860 for the station wagon).
 
TonyM,


Likely built by Ford as it is lacking either the Murray or Briggs identification.
 
[FONT="Arial Black"][/FONT]Thanks to everyone for the history lesson it appears to me that my truck had no body tag as there are no holes in the firewall to attach I just thought that they all had tags, and the holes got filled in.

THANKS AGAIN bobgc
 
Thanks to everyone for the history lesson it appears to me that my truck had no body tag as there are no holes in the firewall to attach I just thought that they all had tags, and the holes got filled in.

THANKS AGAIN bobgc
 
DavidG said:
Likely built by Ford as it is lacking either the Murray or Briggs identification.
Click to expand...

DavidG, I was under the impression, from other posts on this site, that if the body did not have a body number tag it was produced by Ford and if it did have the body number tag it was produced by Murray or Briggs. Based on what you say, the tag would have some sort of indication if the body was produced by Briggs or Murray. I have a 1937 5w coupe with a body number tag. The only information on the tag is the three digit model number, 770, and the four digit body number.

Thanks for all your efforts to keep us informed of all the nuances of these cars.
 
The body tags differ in what information they include depending on the model year in groups, namely, '32 by itself, '33-'34, '35-'36, and '37 plus, each different from the others. And then there are the Canadian-built body tags which are quite unique from those used in the U.S.
 
DavidG said:
By 1933 LeBaron was a division of Murray.

LeBaron became a part of Briggs after the recession in 25 or 26. Murray did try to buy LeBaron out but it didn't go through. Murray made a deal to set up Ray Dietrich to do their high end stuff.

Briggs was higher in the pecking order with Ford at the end of the Model T era. Ford began selling so many model A cars that he had to sub a lot of stuff to both companies. Murray caught up pretty quick. They could do a lot of wood production in the days before Iron Mountain was set up for most of that.

The depression nearly killed both companies but Ford was still selling cars. Henry Ford would throw them a bone when they needed it as long as they towed the line. The profit margin with Ford was terrible but the unit quantities were so high that they all still made money. The subcontractors paid their employees 10% of what Ford paid theirs so strikes were inevitable. Briggs tried selling steel to Ford with a mark up and they lost favored status. Ford started sending them steel after that. Ford gave some old dies to Murray for a Hupmobile contract in 1933 to prop them up and then gave them a big contract for coupe bodies after that.

When I say contract, I mean that in the form of a verbal agreement of sorts. A lot of agreements were verbal only with no signed contract. Folks would never go for that in this day and age but back then, they really had no choice when dealing with Henry Ford.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I am aware of someone who has developed the correct size, spacing and character style for a CNC router.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top