I was working on my '56 hood today and found this date. I realize the 5 is the year, which is next? The month or year? Dennis

 

Looks like 5 9 3 (5/93), which would be impossible, as this B6C-16612-A hood was obsoleted in the late 1960's.

 

I believe it is 3 6 5 with the #5 upside down.
And I don't know what it means. Does your 56 hood have the two little bolts near the hood?

 

Looks to me like 5 9 2 Bill, zoomed in on it with the ipad

 

Could it be the inspector tag for who ever looked at the vehicle? Their identification number?

 

It's 5 9 2. Abe, it's the hood from my '56 f 350. Dennis

 

Could it be Feb 59?

 

I found another stamping on the passenger side edge of the hood. 5 7 2 I assumed it was a date stamping. Maybe not. Dennis

 

It would be nice to get some definitive info on these stampings from an authoritative source. I have seen many stampings on various panels on these trucks and have often wondered about what they meant. Right now I am working on a 54 cab and there is a stamping on the right door "3 22 D3" but none on the left door. Some hoods have them on the edge and others under the side emblem as shown in the OP. Some fenders have them on the top flange. Somewhere there is someone who knows what these numbers mean.

 

I believe they are inspector codes. I was told way too many times by a relative when he worked the assembly line in the 60s He was the foreman and as the cars went past their area they had to be stamped with their code as passed . I am thinking each number stands for the plant -assembly code or inspector. It only makes sense maybe they been doing it since the 50s

 

It seems odd to me that an inspector's stamped ID would be found on the outside of a hood.

 

If it's anything like Ford did in the '60's and on, they are date codes. First numeral is month, May in your case, 2nd is the day of month, the 3rd digit would be the shift during which the part was stamped. What is the month your truck was built? May or June perhaps?
This number system I was familiar with when I used to deal in classic Mustang parts, and codes like this are still found on cars like my '86 Mustang GT. This was really only used on sheet metal parts.
These are date codes, not inspection numbers. Inspectipn codes would have been with a paint stamp, not a stamp into sheet metal, again, we see this on original Mustangs and other Fords.

 

I don't know how to decipher the production code as to when it was built. It's 19E 8025. Dennis

 

Without looking at my books, I THINK the 19 is for the 19th of the month, the E is for the 5th month of the year or May. So your date code would be May 19, 1956. Sound right?

 

May 7 1956 was a Monday. The 9th a Wednesday. May 19th was a Saturday. The hood has both date stampings. Would the truck have been made on a Saturday? Dennis