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MG TD TF 1500 - Serial Numbers

One of the mysteries of the TD and TF are serial numbers. Note this is not the car number or the engine number, but a mysterious serial number assigned to a car during production or delivery. I have no clue what this number represents.

What you cannot see in the image is that the serial number does seem to have some association with the car number (for at least the cars on my form).

For example my car number is 19629. My s# is 7080.

Another car on the card is 19626 and its s# is 7077.

Still another 19646 with s# 7097.

A fourth is 19647 and s# is 7098.

But another one is 19727 and its s# is 7280 so it broke the pattern.

And its companion is 19726 with s# 7279.

So it's not like we can predict what serial number any car might have had. Also what was the starting serial number? Did it get reset every year? There were 10838 TD's built in 1952 and the card shown is in Sept of 1952 so its possible.

More research needs to be done unless someone has insight to what this number represents.

Christopher Couper

Body Number?
MG LaVerne

It could be Nuffield Exports way of tracking the cars. Y types or other models may be increasing the ratio.

Matthew.
M Magilton

We know that all cars that started on the assembly line did not necessarily make it off in the same order. Some cars get nicked and have to be repainted or there are Quality issues that have to be reworked. It also appears that special cars/colors etc. occasionally got on the line that had different car numbers. Wondering if this was used at the end of the assembly line as something of a way to track shipping.
Bruce TD4139 Cunha

Have these numbers been spotted on anything other than Nuffield Exports paperwork?

Matthew.
M Magilton

the order no is in seq, but as the colour changes then the ser no changes, so if a production of cars in red was produced, then the next available blk car would join the order maybe.
mog

One thing that is for certain is that the pro forma number at the top of the page lists the range of cars by number on the P/F No. line. No big revelation, just a piece of information. BTW pro forma in Latin means for the sake of the form. So I think the PF number was just a tracking number and had nothing to do with the actual vehicle information.

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

I wonder if the serial# became the commission # for later cars, or an order sequence from orders from distributors. A way of tracking orders.
Just a thought...
C.R. Tyrell

I would think that if the serial number was related to a shipment of cars to one distributor they would be in sequence for that shipment. But they seem to be associated with the chassis number. I think the pro forma number would be a much easier number to use in tracking shipments to particular distributors. The P/F numbers were in sequence for each shipment. The import cards could easily be searched once the pro forma number or date of shipment was known. Of course speculation is not determination.

Tim
TW Burchfield

This thread was discussed between 12/03/2016 and 16/03/2016

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