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MG MGA - Body Numbers

Can anyone tell me if body numbers had a letter prefix before the number? The number tag on my 1958 Roadster was painted over at the time of restoration and is just about illegible.
Dave Barron

Roadsters - The 1500 and early twin cam did not have prefixes. The 1600/MkII/late twin cams were prefixed with the letter B - Clausager, page 99, first column.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Dave, I have two 58's. The body numbers are 46094 and 46863. Let me know if you need my serial or engine numbers for reference to yours. Regards, Dennis


Dennis Suski

Dennis

I am guessing your cars are early 1958, possibly January/February? Mine is late August and number 66058, Chassis 55600.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Dennis

The last four numbers appear to be 7999 with what looks to be a B or P in front of them.
Maybe it's a 4.

I may remove the tag and try to carefully remove the paint.
Dave Barron

Steve is correct that mine are early 58 (and perhaps even late 57 as the cars may have been titled in 58). If it helps Dave, the serial numbers match the body numbers as follows:
46094 - HDR4335317
46863 - HMR4342944

Hope this helps...Dennis
Dennis Suski

Dennis & Steve,

Thanks for the input.

It is likely that the body number is 47999 as the chassis number is: HDK2347342. I think it was made in the UK somewhere around January 1958 and it was first registered in New Zealand on the 26th June 1958.
Dave Barron

Dave

Your chassis number 47342 would put your car between Dennis and mine for age. I don't have my Clausager in front of me, but I would guess around March 1958. That would tie in with your 47999 body number.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Just to add a little convolution to this thread...my roadster was built the week of april 15, '59 and the body number is 83. I'm guessing it had something to do with the change to the 1600 model that started a couple of months later.

Randy myers
Santa Rosa, CA
Randy Myers

Oh, That seems against all MG numbering conventions. Interesting one to investigate further. They usually started not below 1001 or had their Abingdon pre war phone number 251 (Abingdon 251) as a start point. Weird.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Dennis & Steve.

After masking off the body number tab, and applying paint stripper, the number revealed was 57999 not 47999 as previously assumed....
Dave Barron

I rechecked the body number again and took a pic. I smeared some car wax on it and wiped all the wax around the number off. You can barely see the 83. I've looked carefully and there are no other numbers on the plate.


Randy Myers

According to Clausager, "CKD cars assembled abroad may not always have been issued with body numbers"
Maybe 83 was the number stamped on the plate by the importer or dealer....
Dave Barron

Randy,

Is it possible to apply masking tape around the number paint and clean off the paint with paint stripper? Dave did a good job with his plate.
This number "83" could lead to some interesting discovery.

Dave,

The Australian CKD cars had the normal MG factory body number, but also a local body number stamped into the heater shelf. The main MGA CKD countries were Australia and South Africa. I don't know what they did in South Africa.


Mick
M F Anderson

Randy,
It would appear that the answer to the puzzle of your low body number 83 lies in Barney Gaylord's MGAGURU website. http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/buying/buy101.htm#body_no
Robin Barker solves the problem in his article....

Dave.
Dave Barron

Dave,

You get the Adrian Monk award today.

From Clausager via Barney's site - "For some unknown reason, after MGA 66600 the body #s seem to have started at 1. The owner of MGA 66883 reports engine # 15GDUH5727 and body # 205. The owner of MGA 67176 reports engine # 15GDUH5871 and body # 473. There are many other reports of low body numbers like this. The highest is from MGA 68833 with engine # 15GDUH7540 and body # 1941."

My car is # 66796 so that makes sense though a little less exiting than the mystery is looked like at first.

Thanks for your help,

Randy Myers
Randy Myers

This thread was discussed between 24/02/2009 and 27/02/2009

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