My 1950 Mercury pickup, this is off the plate from under the hood on the firewall.

Engine OEE-1775
Model MD83
Trim -16
Paint - 21
Serial - MD83H50-25534
When I got it it had flat side box with the raised side fenders, but I have a feeling that the box sides were changed as there was a loose Mercury Tailgate with it that was for the older style sides. It has the small rear window and has a heavy duty 3 speed floor shift transmission, as with all Canadian made trucks it has a 239 flathead v8.
Don

 

I went to the Canadian Mercury site and Came up with this



MD83H50-25534
M = Mercury
D = 114" W.B
H = Assembly Branch - Home Office - Windsor Ont.
50= Model Year 1950
25534 = Consececutive Job Number at assembly point

The other Info

Engine - OEE-1775
O = 1950
E = 239 cu in piston displacement, 3 speed light truck Transmission
E = I don't know what this one is
1775 = consecutive engine number

Trim 16 = This is the interior trim level and color I haven't figured this out yet.

Paint - 21
2 = Vermillion Red
1 = Black

Model
MD83
MD= Mercury Division
83 = Body Type = Pickup 114" Wheelbase 4700 lb G.V.W.

Thats all I have figured out so far
Don

 

1950 F3

vin 98ry500547*sp
all original as far as i know was told it was a farm truck in montana or idaho
4 speed non syncro tranny running flathead v8
floor transmission
small window
stamping is m9p28L44 59 868

from what ive read its a very late 1950 built in saint paul and possibly originally meadow green but seems to be off white now model # is 9ry any info would be great

 

For starters, Welcome to FTE and thank you very much for contributing your information. You seem to have a pretty good handle on the numbers. I will do my best to decode this.

98RY 500547*SP

9 = 1949/50
8R = V8 100HP
Y = F3
500547 = A pretty late 1950. Of the I only have two numbers 130 or so VIN #'s I have been able to collect, I only have two higher than yours.
SP = Twin Cities (St. Paul) assembly plant

The firewall stamping is a bit trickier but I will do my best:

m9p28L44 59 868

m = Meadow Green
I am almost certain of this but cannot provide a 100% guarantee. Check for places that may still have the original paint like behind the seat, overspray behidn the headliner, etc. to verify. I would be interested to know what you find. Meadow Green was a dark green.

9 = Any chance this is an "S"? These stamping can be very difficult to read. Things would make a bunch more sense if it was an "S". If it is a "9", I have no idea.

P = If the previous character is in fact an "S" and not a "9", this would be "SP" and would indicate that the truck was built at the Twin Cities (St. Paul) manufacturing plant.

28L = My best guess is that this indicates your truck was built on November 28, 1950.

44 59 868 = No idea what all of them mean but some (not all) of the digits are certainly a sequnce number of some sort. No idea what the rest may be. Perhaps the truck had some special order add ons of some sort?????

Does your truck have an 8foot pick-up bed or some other type of bed? This may expalin the additional digits in the firewall stamping. Also, do you have any pictures and what are your plans for the truck. It's nice to have a runner. Noen of mine een have engines in them.

Thanks,

Carl G.

 

dont have any pics as yet havent taken the time to pull out the camera yet. It has an 8 foot wood floor pickup bed. Needs the steering looked as its a bit slopy also plan on modernizing it a bit with a 289 that i have in my garage waiting for me to build it and the 4 speed trany out of my 67 mustang. Of course that means 12 volt system (including lights) but hopefully i can do it with out too much money being spent. Would like to modernize the brakes to disc but thats too much right now. With the 4.86 rear end and a lively 289 should be able to blow the doors of some decent muscle cars (at least from light to light) other wise i love the look and plan on keeping it as close to original on the outside as possible. just some minor safety changes and so i can go faster than 55 on the freeway.

 

Hello all, I'm new to the site and finding it very interesting, especially this thread on 1949/50 vin# split. My dad and I just bought a 1949/50 Ford panel truck that we are starting to work on. The truck came from texas without an ownership and I came across this thread and was really hoping to determine the correct year, but looking at other owners' vin's, I'm not quite sure what year we have.

Small metal tag on passenger side firewall says: 98RC 272520 CGO
Stamping on firewall (below seam) : 11CH 14L 650J

Any ideas ??

 

Mark,

Welcome to FTE and thanks for adding your information to the mix. Yours may be a bit tough to discern but let's take a shot at it.
98RC 272520 CGO

9 = 1949/50
8R = 239 c.i.d. V8 engine
C = 1/2 ton (F1)
272520 = Vin sequence # This one is right in the middle of the "gray" area. It is either a real late 1949 or a very early 1950. The latest confirmed 1949 I have so far is VIN # 268181. I found VIN # 272057 listed on Ebay as a 1950 but it has been modified signifiacntly , has a GM drive train etc., so no tellling if it really is a 1949 or a 1950. I do not have the firewall stamping from that one to confirm. I suspect that yours is a 1949 and I will explain why shortly.

CGO = Chicago assembly palnt would be my best bet unless the CGO stands for Cargo VAn or something like that.

Firewall stamping: 11CH 14L 650J

11 = Paint Code of some sort but 11 does not match with anything I have. Any chance this could be an "H" or an "M"

CH = Chicago Assembly Plant
14L = November 14, 1949 Whcih would make this a 1949 in my book. My understanding was that they did not begin building/selling 1950's in May of 1949 as would be the case today. Perhaps someone else would like to opine.

650J = A plant specific sequence #.

Hope this is of some help. The VIN # should also be stamped on top of the frame rail in the engine compartment along the passenger side.

 

Thanks texan2004 for the response. The vin# on the frame does not match the number on the firewall. Someone has installed a volare front clip and the body mounts have been modified to fit the panel truck body, so I figure they swapped out the frame from a pick up maybe. The number on the firewall does appear to be an 11 as shown by the attached pictures. Again, thanks for the info. Mark.

 

I agree with Carl's deductions point by point.

Re: color - any chance you can tell us what the original color was? Check behind the dash or under weatherstripping or under the seat - being that late, there's a good chance it's one of the '50 colors even tho it was built in '49.

In '49 they used 5 colors. Beginning in '50 your choices went to one of 10.

 

Help with the original color would be good to have, especially for one in the 49/50 gray area like yours.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. There's some of the original paint on the firewall still, as well as underneath where the license plate was on the rear door. It is a light shade of gray. Hope this helps. Mark.

 

Mark,

Thank you very much for the infomation on the paint. Sounds like the truck was either a grey color called "Silvertone Grey" (1950 color), a grey color called "Birch Gray" (1949 color) or the vehicle was painted by whoever owned it initially after it was sold by Ford. This is a distinct possibilty as I suspect these were primarily commercial vehicles. This is a very good data point for us. There are a set of paint chips on Geroge the moderator's Gallery ("Earl"). Take a look and see if you can tell which gray you have. It may solve the mystery of whether your vehicle is a 49 or a 50 once and for all (Assuming you can differentiate between the two different grays).

For now, I am adding this color code as being either Silvertone or Birch Gray. I do have color code #4 listed as Birch Gray but I don't know why. One good thing is going to come from this. I am going to start referencing where/how I came up what the color codes so I can verify them later without having to scroll through the nearly 200 VIN #'s I have already.

 

Sorry for delayed response. I viewed "Earl's" colours as well as the chips found on www.autocolorlibrary.com and it seems more like silvertone gray, rather than birch gray. I realize paint does fade over time, especially after 56 (or 57) years. The best place on the truck I found was on the firewall since this area of the truck shouldn't fade as much as the rest of the body. I did a bit of cleaning and I think it looks more like silvertone gray. Mark

 

Thanks for helping out. Hopefully you can get some picutres of the whole truck in that gallery of yours.

 

engine 9j-11096 model df83
trim 16 paint 22
serial df83h49 28842
this truck has f68 chrome on fenders chrome on grill and hood it has a full size box
unfortinatly for your studies that all i know of truck i bought it on a 77 frame
it is heavily modified not unfortunate for me