MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - build date/final inspection

I had always assumed my TF's build date was probably 11/27/53 because of the "Final Inspection" form found under the upholstery. It indicates it was undergoing various adjustments and paint touch ups from 11/25-11/27/53.
When I finally checked to see the official build date today I was surprised to see that it was 12/15/53.
Now I am thinking this is the inspection report for the body only. Has anyone else found one of these forms when restoring their cars?

JK Barter

Can you tell us what the form says
DLD

I have not spent the time to decipher exactly what it says, a lot of abbreviations or shorthand is used. I has my TF's body number, the dates of inspection by various inspectors with their initials, and something about retouching parts of the body paint and something about the doors.
JK Barter

Yes, that will be for the bodyworks and shows roughly how long between body completion and car completion at the end of 53. The sole identifier is the body number.

Matthew.
M Magilton

Hi JK:

Your "Final Inspection" form is a rare original piece of MG documentation. Would you be willing to share a copy of it just so we can all see what it looked like? Posting a scanned or a good digital photo would be very much appreciated.

Godspeed in Safety Fast
Jc
John Crawley

You did not see and capture his attached image John?

Matthew.
M Magilton

My TF 0900 body number 9579 had the same form under the upholstery with the same hand writing,with green overspray, dated between 1 Oct to 6 Oct 53
Neville
N J MANN

John: You can find a higher resolution copy here:

http://www.mg-cars.org.uk/mgtd/mgtd_documentation.htm
Christopher Couper

Chris, any idea what the serial number referred to on the Nuffield export cards?

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

Chris,
Thanks for putting the image on your web site so the document is available for viewing.
JB
JK Barter

My car, TF2689, had the inspection report in the upholstery. Larry
Larry Brown

That makes three known final inspection reports so far....
JK Barter

That makes three known final inspection reports.
JK Barter

TW: I have no clue what that serial number on the export card is referring to. Nothing on my car matches that number that I can find.

It's a mystery :-)
Christopher Couper

Chris, I think the serial number is associated with each individual car because chassis numbers in sequence have serial numbers in sequence. I love a mystery :-)

Tim
TW Burchfield

I started another thread on this topic of serial numbers just for the heck of it.
Christopher Couper

The serial number will be Nuffield Exports way of documenting and tracking their exports.

Matthew.
M Magilton

Matthew, why not just track the export with the chassis number? Why introduce another numbering system?

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

Because when you deduct Home Market cars that leaves big holes in the count. There could also possibly be a combination of Y types here too if they are listing this as "MG units".

Matthew.
M Magilton

Matthew, the serial numbers are not in order either. They would present the same tracking problems as missing chassis numbers.

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

They are not in order on the despatch cards because that is not the order they were received by N.E.
The despatch cards are a selection for each dealer by N.E, maybe based on colour. So they possibly collected the cars for despatch from a big yard then noted down the serial numbers from when N.E. received them previously. Thus the cars arrival at N.E. is logged and so is the cars departure meaning that N.E. has one big sequential list for all the cars it handles (and any theft would be spotted). Every branch has their own sequential list (chassies, engines, bodies, even radiators) but when the components come together as a complete car, or on a despatch card, they look to us to be out of sequence. Just my thoughts.

Matthew.
M Magilton

That's possible but tracking cars by an out of order serial number just doesn't seem very efficient. The pro forma number would be a better number to use in my opinion. The PF numbers are specific to each export card and could easily be referenced by looking up the card by PF number. Imagine going to a central file of export cards filed by pro forma numbers. It would be a simple matter to look up a car with a certain PF number. You would need a separate filing system for the serial number since the export form could not be filed by serial number in any logical manner.

But on the other hand, I still think the chassis number is probably what was used for record keeping, including exports. PF numbers and serial numbers were probably listed on papers attached to the car. But they could be removed or damaged. The chassis plate was an immutable number that would survive an ocean journey and the unloading process. Obviously more export cards would be of value in sorting out our theories.

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

I should give a bit of insight to the Export Card. Each of our cars came with one at some point. The one pictured came from my car. You will note there are 5 other cars on that form and it looks like it could handle up to 8.

It's a heavy card. As heavy than an index card or a bit more so. I always thought it was weird that you had 'cancelled' written in the areas of the other cars like it was a multipart form and you just got a copy in the stack for your particular car.

So I am not sure how these were produced except by hand typing. Remember this is prior to computers or teletypes. So why have so many cars on each form when you had to manually make all of them? And was their one of these that had all of the cars listed in the clear with no 'cancelled'?

I believe my father said this was on the windshield when he got the car. On the TD website there is another one of these shown too but they are pretty rare. They were probably not given to customers in most cases or were thrown away quickly.

Christopher Couper

More information about the cards and the system behind it can be found on page 34 of the June 1950 issue of "Motoring" and page 17 of the May 1950 issue of "Nuffield News Exchange".
No info on the numbers and codes used on the cards though...
Hope this helps,

Nick (TD3232)

PS: The cards were made on an "Addressograph-Multigraph Model 50 "Duplicator": an early form of computerized printing ???
Nick Herwegh

Nick, are those issues available on line? Do you have a site where that can be viewed?

Tim
TW Burchfield

AFAIK these magazines are not available online. I would make a scanned copy though. Unfortunately my scanner is on the blink....

Nick (TD3232)
Nick Herwegh

This thread was discussed between 06/03/2016 and 14/03/2016

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG TD TF 1500 BBS now