Mercury VIN Decoder

B

biggieou

Senior Member
Can someone point me in the right direction for a VIN decoder for my 50 Merc?

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VIN numbers don't really exist on early Ford and Mercury vehicles, what they have are serial numbers with limited information in coded.
 
That's what I'm noticing. The Van Pelt link doesn't really help (or I'm just not looking in the right area).

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biggieou said:
That's what I'm noticing. The Van Pelt link doesn't really help (or I'm just not looking in the right area).

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LOL, your looking at all there is! What are you attempting to find out?

Note A: The 1949-50 and early 1951 Ford passenger cars did not have a Patent Plate/VIN tag with any breakdown data for the specific car. Late 1951 models included a stamped data plate, which included the vehicle serial number and a production code (defining color, trim, etc). The date plate with serial number and production codes continued with 1952 models and thereafter. The data plate chart for 1949-59 has a limited amount of information for the 49-51 model years. More production code numbers/letters were stamped in the cowl (dash panel) of 1949 to early 1951 models. The Early Ford V8 Club of America has additional information for these in its 1949-51 Restorers Guide book.* Station wagons from 1949 to 1951 had special serial number codes with the A prefix. There were exceptions on the wagon serial numbers.*

The other link is: http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_serialnumbers.htm

1950 Mercury V8 - Model: 0CM Serial Number Starts at: 50-100,001M

(j) On 1950 thru 1953 models (and beyond) any additional letters between the basic model letters and serial numbers denote the assembly plant.
 
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1949 was the first production year for the "new style" Mercury as it was delayed from its intended 1948 introduction. Ford did introduce the new bonus built trucks in 1948 but that was the only 8BA family of product that got out the door in that year. The 1950 & 51 have distinct body & patent plates in the upper right corner of the cowl but the 49 models didn't have that yet. Their plates were just right of center near the heater hose carry through and just below the upper body pinch weld of the cowl behind the engine. FoMoCo didn't have a complete code system quite set up for them yet but a good bit of information can be gleaned from the numbers on the two plates. The codes for the later 50/51 vehicles is in the Body Parts Catalog but there isn't much to be found for the 1949 there. There is some information in the Lincoln Mercury overhaul manual for 1949 through 51 in the body section.

The number should also be stamped in the frame just forward of the cowl on the right side. The numbers are shallow and hard to find but should be there.
 
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rotorwrench said:
1949 was the first production year for the Mercury as it was delayed from its intended 1948 introduction. Ford did introduce the new bonus built trucks in 1948 but that was the only 8BA family of product that got out the door in that year.
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According to my Ford FAst Moving Parts catalog Mercury cars and trucks were available from 1939 and onwards with a break in production for the war years. A friend in high school drove a 47 Merc sedan and I've seen 47 Merc trucks with the fancy chrome grille. Of course this is Canada so maybe things were different here.
 
1950 Merc's had both a Body and a Patent plate attached to the firewall. The patent plate had a stamped serial number that identified the model year, assembly plant, serial number and car line code. The Body plate had 2 codes that identified the Assembly plant, body type, body color, trim code, day of month, month and rotation number.

Please see enclosed images that show plates and code translations.

Hope this helps!!
 

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Don Rogers said:
1950 Merc's had both a Body and a Patent plate attached to the firewall. The patent plate had a stamped serial number that identified the model year, assembly plant, serial number and car line code. The Body plate had 2 codes that identified the Assembly plant, body type, body color, trim code, day of month, month and rotation number.

Please see enclosed images that show plates and code translations.

Hope this helps!!
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I needed! Thank you sir!

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RalphG said:
According to my Ford FAst Moving Parts catalog Mercury cars and trucks were available from 1939 and onwards with a break in production for the war years. A friend in high school drove a 47 Merc sedan and I've seen 47 Merc trucks with the fancy chrome grille. Of course this is Canada so maybe things were different here.
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I think what rotorwrench was trying to say is the 1949 was the first post-war year where the Mercury models were distinct, and not just rebadged Fords. The 46-48 Mercs (US) are essentially 46-48 Fords with different trim.
 
I forgot to add the "new style" in the Mid century Mercury description so I updated it after RalphG's post.

I've noticed that 1949 had some trim and color codes that were different in 1949 than what was in the 1950 listing but they are close and many cross over. If a person had a body parts manual, you can find the different color combinations in there for trim. I think there were some different "named" colors in 1949 that might have been carried over from previous years and some of the names changed by 1950 so the 49 models can be a little more difficult to ID some of the codes.
 
Don Rogers said:
1950 Merc's had both a Body and a Patent plate attached to the firewall. The patent plate had a stamped serial number that identified the model year, assembly plant, serial number and car line code. The Body plate had 2 codes that identified the Assembly plant, body type, body color, trim code, day of month, month and rotation number.

Please see enclosed images that show plates and code translations.

Hope this helps!!
Click to expand...

Good input Don!
 
To round out this post, my Merc was built July 11, 1950 in L.A. Originally laguna blue with blue gray mohair.

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the last section on my body no. portion of the tag is 48B if that was the 48th car made that day what is the B? its is a 1950 mercury sport sedan




15-52-31e-48b


so laguna blue with blue two tone plain broadcloth on the 31st of may just not sure about the 48B
 
Don't hesitate to start a new thread on stuff like this. Bringing up old ones doesn't get the same response sometimes.

The break down is in the 1950 Body Parts Catalog if you don't already have it. Your info matches that. The alpha letter after the 48 may have to do with the shift but it's not in the book as a code. There were a fair amount of assembly plants at that time. They sometimes did things differently from the next and the 1950 was a change over from the way they did the 49 models. By 1951, the way they stamped things was pretty predictable.
 
Not to hijack this thread but I’m trying to decipher the body tag on my ‘51. 13-68-10D338. Any help in finding the info would be greatly appreciated.
 
13= Sheffield Green external finish code. 68= Green Stripe Broadcloth interior trim code. 10D= The date code for 10 April 1951. The number 338 is the sequential number for that date.

All of this information is in the 1951 Mercury Body Parts Catalogue.
 
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