Hello everyone!


I just want to quickly introduce myself and how I got here...


Recently I bought 3 old Merc trucks from Saskatchewan and shipped them across the ocean to Germany.
They are 2x51 and 1x52.
As the red 52 was owned by a friend of mine I am going to restore it and will put the other two up for sale to restoration enthusiasts.
I joined this site in order to unveil the secrets of VIN codes and tags that I found on the trucks as well as maybe find parts. I think I did a good job so far and I am 95% done, but if you like you can help find out what "trim -13", "trim-14", "ECPF-2064", "paint- 91" or "HDEN-1191" mean.
Will post pics hereafter...


Ooops... btw, my name is *****

 

block casting number is K1891






VIN code MDA83AHN-30642

 

Looks like a 51 styling to me...






...has small rear window, inserted rather than embossed Mercury tailgate and conturized bed side Panels...






...VIN reads 51 year, engine (which is missing) should be a 239 cube with 3-speed trans...
(what is paint code -91??)




...and dash is not a 51, is it?

 

Trucks's missing the engine and trans... From tags I cannot figure out what the original motor and trans would be... it is probably a toploader gear box as the trans cover has a hole in it.
what's C2C-81B and ECFP-2064?

 

Welcome to the fraternity , always good to see more Mercurys .For parts you will need to use Ford suppliers like . Dennis Carpenter , Mac's , LMC etc . As for Mercury specific parts it will be a hunt on our site , ebay or other internet sources .

 

Nice looking Mercury trucks. Your green one has an earlier cab and box. It's in the '48-'50 time frame. The tailgate with the inserted mercury name is like my 1949 M-47. Can't tell in the pictures what colour the plastic ***** are on the light switch and ashtray door. Could it be a silver/grey under the dirt ? And the speaker grill too ?
Good luck with the restoration and sales from a fellow Mercury truck guy.
Greg M-47

 

Thankx Greg!
Yes, I believe the green one has been repainted once or twice. The speaker grill is grey under the green paint.
I thought cab and box are an earlier year, but I am wondering how it works having a 51 truck by VIN with 49-50 components...

 

I have posted some of the answers you are looking for in the 1951-52 Serial number thread.

 

And that's located here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l-numbers.html

 

Hi Willie, Welcome to the forum! That's an amazing collection of Mercurys you have there. I'm not sure what more I can add to the story that isn't already said. Decoding of the vin is relatively simple;

MD is the model code, M1
A denotes conventional style truck (not cabover, dump, bus, etc)
83 is pickup bodystyle
A or B is standard or deluxe trim
H is Windsor Ont. assembly plant
51 is the year code, which was changed part way through the year to a letter code, with N being 51, P=52, etc.
and finally your consecutive unit number.

The tag on the corner has info lost to time. I even wrote to the historical department at Ford of Canada and chatted with their head historian. They were no help there, either. The only thing I know for sure is on all the tags I've seen, the bottom number corresponds to the paint code on the center tag. The rest is purely a guess. Nothing I have seen on any of the tags made any sense. While there's a definite pattern, the numbers/letters are all totally different, just like yours are.

The early 51 is a definite curiosity. By all accounts, it sure looks like a 48-50 that someone transplanted the nose and swapped tags on. The vin is associated with a deluxe trim truck, and there's nothing deluxe about that interior. You may want to look into that closer, or just let sleeping dogs lay and not know any more about it than you need to.

One thing you can check to try and identify a build timeframe is to check the window glass, if any of it is still original. On my 52, the glass is all date coded. Your 52 is slightly older than mine by comparing the unit numbers. My glass is all dated 5/52, which says it wasn't built any earlier than that, but no way to know how much later.

 

Wow! Thank you all for the support guys...
Yes, I have read the Canadian VIN thread several times and that's how I decoded most of my VIN's almost entirely...
Only some of the codes on the corner tags I could not figure out (which is OK).
Wayne, coming back to N and P as being 51 and 52... Joe posted a list with months standing for each letter, like A-M being 51 and N-Z for 52. This does not apply to my trucks?


Thank *****

 

You should also have the VIN stamped on top of the driver side frame rail more or less in the area of the steering box . Try buffing with a wire wheel to make it come up . In Canada that is the number that is indisputable no mater what the cab number is .

 

No, it doesn't apply to your trucks. That list is a month code list for US production, used only when a model year of production lasted longer than one year. The best case I can describe is the 1965 Mustang, which was introduced in April '64 as a '65 model, and that model year was built for a year and a half. Without a 'second year' code list, build days would be all confused. It sure got Joe confused. It has nothing to do at all with production dates for the 51 or 52 US production trucks, either.

Why Ford of Canada chose N as their new year code part way through the 51 model year is a mystery. But they continued that letter series, omitting O, for several years. N=51, P=52, Q=53, R=54, ...etc.

 

OK, I'll just delete that from my files then...


Do those letters refer to the production year or model year?


I will also check if I can find the codes on the frame rail...


One thing that is interesting too, the only motor left in the three trucks (the gray 51) has a casting number reading "K1891" which is totally different from all the C1BA and C8BA engines that came with the trucks... Almost zero info found on the web about this casting number, only somewhere I read that casting could be a 1951 239ci flathead, which sounded strange to me as I always thought these trucks came standard with the larger 255 cube V8.
But with the info given in the Canadian VIN thread it is even possible this motor is still the original engine, as the corner tag reads 1EE-1818 with the "EE" translating into "239 cui w/ heavy duty 3-speed transmission". So all I gotta do to verify this is look for an 1818 marking on the block... Right?
The heads read 8BA "made in Canada". Also the truck has extra leaf spring packages on the rear end and a bigger drive shaft. This could seriously be a heavy duty package , if there was such a thing back then.

 

Where is that casting number? There was a guy on the HAMB about 7 years ago that had a 59A flathead with that casting number on the back of the block. If the heads say 8BA made in Canada, I'm not sure that it's the original engine, or at least the heads, Ford built both Ford and Mercury trucks then and I believe that the Mercs had Mercury cast on the heads and 8CM.