Mercury Model Numbers

[DD931]

I've been going through some parts and have come across some stuff that must be Mercury - judging by the part numbers. Can someone give me a fast list of years/model numbers for '39 - '48 similar to Ford (Like 1939 is 91A, 1940 is 01A, etc.)? For example, what is 09A? Thanks!!

[Bruce Lancaster]

First number is year, second denotes engine series..."9" for the 239.
09A=1940 Merc. 99A, 09A, 19A, 29A...

[DD931]

Thanks!! Just what I wanted.

[rockfla]

@Bruce Lancaster

Do you know if the first digit after the "A" denotes the month of manufacture, for example 99A100006 "might" be Oct 1938 and 99A3000756 "might" be Dec 1938, etc. etc.???

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by rockfla

@Bruce Lancaster

Do you know if the first digit after the "A" denotes the month of manufacture, for example 99A100006 "might" be Oct 1938 and 99A3000756 "might" be Dec 1938, etc. etc.???

I'm curious WHERE you're seeing the additional numbers AFTER the "A". I know of nothing that refers to date codes like you suggest with early Ford stuff. Now GM stuff is a whole 'nuther story. DD

[rotorwrench]

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There is always a hyphen after the three digit prefix. FoMoCo did have a code built into the numbers following the beginning prefix. When you look at the first page of a chassis parts book, the beginning code started with the wheel, hub, & drum grouping in the 1000 range of four digit numbers. A person needs the parts catalogs to realize what all groupings there are in the early Ford numbering sequence. FoMoCo changed this system beginning in the late 40s but they still used the same sequence groupings. They just added to the prefixes to denote the year and model codes.

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by rockfla

@Bruce Lancaster

Do you know if the first digit after the "A" denotes the month of manufacture, for example 99A100006 "might" be Oct 1938 and 99A3000756 "might" be Dec 1938, etc. etc.???

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

There is always a hyphen after the three digit prefix. FoMoCo did have a code built into the numbers following the beginning prefix. When you look at the first page of a chassis parts book, the beginning code started with the wheel, hub, & drum grouping in the 1000 range of four digit numbers. A person needs the parts catalogs to realize what all groupings there are in the early Ford numbering sequence. FoMoCo changed this system beginning in the late 40s but they still used the same sequence groupings. They just added to the prefixes to denote the year and model codes.

Whirleybird.....I know the numbers of which you speak AFTER the hyphen. I was curious as to where he got the -100006 and the -3000756 numbers from. Never seen a suffix # that large. DD

PS......Are you old enough to remember "Whirleybirds"? DD

[Bruce Lancaster]

Anything after the A in the serial number is just a sequential number in the production of all '39-48 239 vehicles. At the very end of early Ford production they added a year digit at the front of the number and a model identifier at end of prefix...
So for '47-8 vehicles you have 799 and 899 for '47 and 8, then a veicle type identifer, then the sequence number...so 799M was a '47 merc, 799A a Ford passenger, T for truck, etc.

The big number is the sequence of engine builds '39-48, so somewhere there's a '39 merc with a serial of 99A-1, and the last serialed 239 early car in 1948 carried a number in the 2 millions.
The sequential numbers include all 239 vehicles, merc, truck, etc. 221 stuff was in a different series.


Numbers here:
http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/f...ialnumbers.htm

[rockfla]

I was trying to shoot from memory on the actual #'s for both our 39 Mercs. Our sedans Frame # is 1006. the 39 Coupe is 31401. We believe that the coupe was a December 38 production car and our sedan we believe is October 1938. All the glass is bugged 10-38, there are several differences with parts and pieces of our car from the coupe and cars of later manufacture and the sedan has the FORD/MERCURY hub caps which we know were only on the very early cars. So how does one tell the month of manufacture based on those #'s?

[Bruce Lancaster]

You really cannot. You can tell sequence of engine build, so one of your cars is early and the other 2 or 3 months into the production year...that allows reasonable guesswork.
Glass marks and the stamps that are sometimes on backs of instruments are additional clues, but as with engine, how do you tell how long it took a piece of glass to reach assembly?
I don't know whether Mercs were produced centrally as a special somewhat limited model or whether the parts were sent out all over the place to regional assembly plants like Fords.
New parts could likely hit assembly in Detroit same or next day, or much later at distant plants.
I think engine build can be dated by Rouge records, so your number can be dated but probably not when it actually went into a car.

[DD931]

My question was about part numbers, not serial numbers!!

[Bruce Lancaster]

OK...parts prefixes indicate model and year of initial use of that part...same year/engine family system as merc seraials, except that anything unique to Merc started off with the 9 numbers. If you look at merc parts book, you will see that much of car is Ford with Ford numbers, special merc stuff has numbers in 9 series. The numbers stay the same if used in later years or different model Ford products.

[Fordestes]

I remember whirlybird ,If I remember it was a Bell Helicopter, I have always wondered what make the plane Sky King flew called the Songbird.

[ford38v8]

Originally Posted by Fordestes

I remember whirlybird ,If I remember it was a Bell Helicopter, I have always wondered what make the plane Sky King flew called the Songbird.

http://midatlanticnostalgiaconventio...y-of-sky-king/


Cesna T-50. Google is your friend.

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by Fordestes

I remember whirlybird ,If I remember it was a Bell Helicopter, I have always wondered what make the plane Sky King flew called the Songbird.

My avatar IS Sky King's Cessna T-50.

The first "Whirleybird" was a Bell 47 G2. The later one was a J2. DD

[rotorwrench]

I remember the Whirlybird series but I was just a youngster. They still had Parsons wooden rotor blades back then. I've worked on a lot of the Bell 47 models over the years and still do now and then. There aren't as many folks around these days that know much about the old birds.

As to the high parts numbers, the chassis parts books didn't get much over the 18000 except for some of the kits and stuff. The body parts books went higher in to 60000 range but I don't recall much over that. In the actual parts numbers though, they would include the body style like 72 for coupe, 73 for sedan, & 76 for convertible. With those numbers added, the number could get over 6 digits.