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MG TD TF 1500 - Assembly Line Dash Numbering

I recently acquired TC10,000, and found the chassis number written in chalk on the passenger side of the inner dash. It's nice to know the car has not been restored before!

Tom Lange
MGT Repair

t lange

Tom,
my TD 19435 had never been restored jet and the dashboard was also signed 19435 on the back side of the facia above the glove box lid. They used yellow oil chalk in Sept. 1952 at the factory.
Seems the faclas were customized to every single tub.

Ralph
R.S. Ralph Siebenhaar

Is that the next to last TC? If so, how did you find it? George
George Butz

George - it's a cool number (which is why I am keeping it), but not the last by quite a few cars. The first TC made was TC0251 (the factory phone number), and the last was TC10,251, or 10,000 TCs made. So the odds of my finding THAT number are 1 in 10,251, just like every other TC. Remarkably, I just heard from a friend in the UK that he just sold TC10,001, the sister car!

Last month I bought TWO TCs sight-unseen from an ad in Craigslist in Chattanooga, TN, after 45 years of storage. The seller is a very nice gent who bought and drove one in 1967, and he bought the second, disassembled and without a body, in 1971. He planned to build one good TC out of the two and never got around to it, but I assured him that there were two cars to be made, not one - especially since both had titles. I didn't even know I was buying TC10,000 until he sent me copies of the two titles, to verify his ownership. I found it hard to believe that the number really was 10,000 (especially since the other title gave as its VIN the UK license plate number, not the chassis number...), but it indeed is!

The first car is together but needs a bit of work - a true barn find - and I am beginning to lay the parts for TC10,000 out on the garage floor, to learn what all is missing. Come Spring I'll get the together car running, and will then sell it - I have more TCs than I could possibly need!

Anyone interested in a bargain TC, needing work but as-is?

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Tom, I know a guy looking for a bargain TC. Something theoretically driveable perhaps. If you have info, I'd be happy to send it to him or put you two in touch.
Steve Simmons

Steve - Put us in touch - I'll look forward to hearing from him/you. 207-479-3695.

Tom
t lange

I sent him your info. Hope it works out.
Steve Simmons

Tom, I have TC10,018 EXU. I believe this car may well be the last TC sold new in the United States, sold by Inskip in New York City on May 2, 1950.
David.
D. Sander

Neat story! George
George Butz

I dug my original dash up this weekend. There are numbers or letters scrawled in the same area, but are not my chassis number. Will try to snap a photo at some point and post. George
George Butz

Interesting what we find on these cars. I restored two MGBs in the past and found the painters initials behind the tail lights made in the wet paint. The 72 I restored for my wife was on the left and the 71 was behind the right light. Looked like they were wiped on with a finger. To my surprise, the 72s initials were PJ! Never could find out who that was. PJ
Paul161

A few years ago I restored a 1963 MG Midget and this too had its chassis number written on the back of the dash in yellow crayon plus a lot of other letters.
It appeared that the letters were a simple code for the trimmers on how to assemble a dashboard. For example "MPH" stood for: "install a speedo in Miles Per Hour", "W/W": install a Windscreen Washer pump in the dash, "H": install a Heater control switch etc. etc. Furthermore a colour was written down in full ("Black", "Red" etc) obviously indicating the colour of the vinyl trim used on the dash.
Maybe this coding was used on the TD's too; much simplified of course as there weren't many options on the dash. However you would expect a colour and a mention of either "MPH" or "KMH"...
Just my 2ct's

Nick (TD3232)
Nick Herwegh

Nick - since the VAST majority of LHD TDs were sold in the US, they would all be MPH. KPH was the exception, and maybe they are marked.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

"Not quite impossible"
as Spock would say to Kirk....;^)
Nick Herwegh

Hhmm...mine is a RHD with KPH...all original.

Tomorrow I'll take a look!

Jasper
JL Nederhoed TD3966

My dash has been covered in red vinyl since my Dad bought the car in 1962. What type of wood was used to make the dash in an early 1952 TDC?

Erick
EB Blackwelder

Plywood.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

This thread was discussed between 06/01/2016 and 19/01/2016

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