1940 Ford convertible body tags

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Originally Posted by Mike1940ford

My convertible has a tag in the upper left coroner of the firewall write above where the wire conduit goes through. It was attached with the original drive nails.The tag number is O1A66-971 i have never seen any numbers stamped on my original firewall. If any one would please tell me what these numbers mean. I would like to know. My frame number is star 18 - 5591758 star.

The 971 is indicative of the sequential build of the body (shell).
That makes it an early body. Please note that is the body only. No doors, fenders, hood, etc. JUST the body.
The serial number of your car places it with a probable build date sometime during March 1940.
The two numbers don't appear to coincide: a very early body with a mid-year chassis.
The issue remains we have no way of telling how long the body sat around before it was "made into a car".

During my research, I took the proverbial deep dive into these plates. There were zero definitive notes, etc. that explained them. Also, some bodies got them, others did not.

By the way, numbers stamped INTO the dash panel (aka firewall) were super confusing. Quite scarce and ZERO notes as to why / how / etc.
Different assembly plants occasionally did things differently. Not necessarily according to Ford Motor CO. prescribed methods.
I had restored a well-documented '40 convertible a few years ago with a factory installed Mercury engine, one of 111 built that way. that car had 99 stamped into the dash panel.
That tag, seen in an attached photo is body 4848.
To add to that confusion, I had restored a deluxe coupe, also a well-documented Mercury install at the factory that did NOT have 99 stamped. However, it had a body tag that started with PC.
Again, no idea why and no answers found in the research center.