> I looked back into my collection of message archives and found a message
> from Jim Rice, where he said,
> "Ford GPW s/n 112001 dod 9-43
> Ford GPW s/n 101343 dod 5-43".
>
> So, you can safely say your GPW's date of delivery is later than 9-43.
> I know that's not much help, but I was in your shoes a few months ago,
> so I know that this kind of information can be hard to come by.
I don't think that's necessarily the case. I have seen pretty late GPWs
with pretty early serial numbers. Ford built and stamped all their engines
in Michigan and shipped them out from there to the assembly plants.
Consecutively numbered engines might hit the assembly line months apart
due to shipping delays (shipping by rail to the CA assembly plant probably
accounted for a 2 week delay) and the fact that since the engines aren't a
perishable item, so stock wasn't rotated to keep the units "fresh". Since
GPW serial numbers were derived from the engine, which was stamped at
assembly and then that number was stamped into whatever chassis it ended up
in and then transferred to the dash tag during final assembly the GPW VINs
have the same weird skew that the engines have but that's why the GPW
engine numbers match the frame (or more correctly the frame numbers match
the engines). (They didn't have guys walking through the factory looking
for the right engine for each chassis.)
JP
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