C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

[Brad K.]

We are working on a 1959 customer car and I have discovered a three digit number, written in what I believe to be a #2 pencil, not grease pencil, on the back side of the driver side door hinge fiberglass vertical panel. Its on the back side of where the VIN plate is located. The kick panel (near where the high/low headlight foot switch is located) has to be removed in order to see it.

The number (283) is located within a couple inches of another aluminum body support panel.....which means the number MUST have been written on the fiberglass PRIOR to the body being assembled. It is very difficult to see and you must use a flashlight and lay on your back in the driverside floorboard to shine the flashlight backwards to illuminate the very tight area.

Is the 283 number coincidental with the CID of the engine or does it mean something else? The orange colored glow is the light from the flashlight.

My question is.....has anyone ever spotted this type of number before in this location?....This my first time!
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[Frank D.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

It is the daily production job number for your car for that day -- they ran up through number 500 then started over...
My number is all over my '63. On a C1 you may also find the original color in crayon (along with HT if it had a hard top) behind the driver's seat bulkhead.

[Brad K.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

I'm familiar with the job numbers but I have never seen one in that location on the car and I have never heard of one put on a body panel prior to it's actual construction. Were job numbers assigned to body construction as well? I thought the job numbers were assigned after the car order was placed. Also...the number 283 is unusual as all cars in 58 thru 60 were 283 CID.

[Pat H.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

My 59 had the same pencil markings in the passenger door. Don't remember what the number was, but it was a 3 digit. I did have a greenish number 97 on both sides of the speaker hole on the dash. Could the greenish number be the daily job number? If you consider they built approx. 90 + cars per day on average That would make sense. The pencil marking I have no idea.

[Brad K.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

Thanks for the reply, Pat....Was your door number actually on the door like Frank's or was is concealed on the backside behind the VIN number?

[Pat H.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

The number was on the inside of the door skin. Once everything was out of the door, it was visible

[Gary C.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

Brad,

To answer your question "Were job numbers assigned to body construction as well?" Those are the job numbers for body panel assembly as I understand it. On 1957's I've seen penciled numbers on many of the various body panel parts. From my observations the numbers weren't always visible on the same parts on different cars. Don't know if they were rubbed off over time or what?

Are they different from car assembly numbers? I don't know the answer to that question.

Gary
....

[Brad K.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

Interesting....This particular car had no other numbers written anywhere, penciled or in crayon or whatever. I'm quite sure this car had been painted many times and all visible numbers were previously sanded off. Another unknown which will probably never be known.....Unless we could find some old timer that actually worked on the line and can remember details that far back!!

[Chris S.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

Brad
The 59 I have here - has the exact same crayon markings - green crayon
number is 202
the number is on both door posts - also in the middle of the doors -
The paint color "ivory" was in the trunk back panel - in green - RR side
The car is an orig hardtop car - the is a large "HT" on the seat back on the RH side and on the dash in front of the speaker.

[Brad K.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

Thanks for responding Chris.....I was beginning to think that no other C1 had these markings in such an inaccessible spot behind the aluminum body structural support. Do you have any idea other that these numbers were monthly "car" sequential numbers from 001 to 500, then reassigned to number 001 at the beginning of each month? I hate to be bringing up this old "dead" topic....but It seems odd that the numbers were placed on individual body components before the body assembly began.....

[Richard M.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

I would think only the unique pieces had job numbers. Doors in particular, as some were power windows and some not. Probably tracking certain pieces for unique assembly items was needed to keep inventory efficient.

Off the wall but that penciled number may have been a quantity tracking number when the pieces were being made. They could be job numbers but we'll probably never know. If the same number shows up on inner door skins and under the dashpad or other areas then yes that would confirm better.

At any rate, in February of 1959, someone placed a pencil hidden in this body, which could be the one that was used to write your number "283" on that piece of yours. When I removed the nose from this '59, I found a little surprise hidden away on the "shelf" of the A-Pillar......

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Someone must have had it in their ear or shirt pocket, used it to mark something, then stuck it in a convenient place so as to not drop it. Then probably left for the day or went to lunch, came back and forgot about it. The fender got bonded on and about 50 years later I found it. I still have it tucked away in my cabinet with a note where I found it. Kinda' funny.
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At first I thought it may have been placed there as a spacer before the fender was bonded on. But it doesn't show up as a Part# in the AIM.

Rich

[Brad K.]

Re: C1 - Penciled Number behind Door Post

Wow! That was a unique find and quite an unusual story to tell your grandkids! I agree that we'll probably never know the true story about all the various numbers located in all the myriad places on our cars.

We have in our small town of Jackson, Missouri, a man in his late 80's,who worked at the St. Louis Corvette plant....He worked as a part of the Warehouse organization and drove a fork truck delivering supplies to the production line for over 25 years. When I spoke with him, he was able to confirm that he and all the rest of the employees were in fact "factory workers" that did not really appreciate or understand that they were creating these historical cars that we are fascinated with today (almost anally). They figured in the 50's that these cars were a "flash in the pan" that America would soon lose interest in. They did not care that each car produced was in fact identical to all the others....if they were out of a certain type of bolt, they slapped it together anyway with whatever they could get their hands on!