USA NUMBERS

[joel gopan]

The DOD was not necessarily the date the truck came off the production line. The Ordnance Inspector for the plant had to ensure that the truck was complete, and that it had passed its road test, only then were the Crossed Cannons along with a Date stamped on the Nomenclature Plate. This may have happened days after production, and the truck may have had more than one road test in order to pass inspection. By the time it was inspected the correlation betweer chassis number and DOD were way out of sequence. The Trucks were parked at random at the factory, and the USA Registration numbers were painted on the trucks with out regard to correlating them with chassis number. This even got more mixed up in the TUPs (Two Unit Packs) of CCKWs that were crated, as the hoods may have gotten switched when the CCKW was assembled at an overseas assembley area. There are many instances of earlier chassis numbers on data plates having later DOD stamped on them. Same for the USA Number. This has been a well established fact that has evolved since early days of MV collection took hold in the 70s, and have been confirmed by the Icons of our hobby, Lawrence Nabholtz, Bryce Sunderlin, Lloyd White, Sterling Parkerson, etc, they have spend hundreds of hours studying at Government and Factory Archives. I would like to add that they were the earliest members of the MVCC/MVPA,and thier hard work has made this topic easier for the rest of us. Sterling Parkerson was a Motor Officer throught WWII, and my good friend Lawrence Nabholtz, started in this hobby with a NOS MB at the end of WWII as a teenager, and served as an Ordnance Officer during the Korean War. To Lawrence, his Army Service centered around Army Jeeps and Trucks was like being a kid in a candy store.
Joel

[42cckw]

Hi Joel

Do You Have a Way To Figure Out A Hood Number For My Truck. What I Do know Is The Truck Was Built Early January 1942 (source gmc trucks at war) Serial # 71993 A1 . Would The Letters Be 4 Inch ?

thanks JIM 42CCKW

[joel gopan]

Possibly, I have two reference I can compare using contract numbers. It might work. 4" letters is what your truck left the factory with. I have 4" GM stylestencils being made up for mine. Come see it in the spring, if you like the result, you can copy it.

[joel gopan]

The font changed in the ETO and all kinds of 4" patterns resulted.

[armydriver]

joel Would the font have changed in the Pacific also, or were they not as particular in the Pacific as they were in Europe?