The 'E' Type Forum

Could Somebody tell me where my Body Number Tag should be. My car is a RHD build date September 1961 chassis 850166. I thought a small tag with R 1767 stamped should go on the bulkhead right hand side but I have a tag in the boot on the left hand side which should be for a later car maybe put there after a respray.
What’s the earliest that somebody has seen a tag in the boot left hand side.

My OTS built early october 1961 has a R 1623 body tag in the boot.

Thanks for the reply it does help me, I note your body number R 1623 is earlier than my body number R 1767 and mine was built in September ? So maybe mine might be correct. Nothing surprises me now about Numbers, Tags, ID's and parts I'm finding out on my restoration.

Don't worry about body numbers as stamped on the body tags of early cars, they may be "wrong".
Lots of threads on the issue on Jaglovers.

According to "JAGUAR E-Type Six-Cylinder Originality Guide" by Haddock and Mueller, p-106: "The location of the body tags was initially on the firewall, above the brake and clutch reservoir mounting bracket on the upper right side of the firewall. The location was moved to the left bulkhead in the boot at or about the time of transition from outside to inside bonnet latches.
- For reference, 885020, the last outside bonnet latch LHD E-type coupe, was built 23 August 1961.

I once owned 1961 JCNA national champion Jaguar E-type coupe 885041, built 18 September 1961. The body tag (V 1043) was on the left bulkhead in the boot.

Mont wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 29, 2025 7:06 am

I have a tag in the boot on the left hand side which should be for a later car

As already outlined, location is correct. Deviation between body tag and no on the VIN plate on early Flatfloor cars exists, but limits to some "10" numbers max.

Wrong,
Well documented now and acknowledged by many experts that much higher digit discrepancies exist since the early findings of Porter, Clausager and Haddock.
I recently had an interesting discussion with Roger Payne in Australia who performed an extensive analysis of such dicrepancies after having interacted with Anders Clausager.
According to his database, usually the mismatch was +/- in the 10 digits, but some cases were in the +/-50 range. He was however not surprised to learn that my Sept 61 OTS had a 205 digit discrepancy corresponding to +/- 1 month of production range in the factory: "that does not necessarily concern me as there are a number of potential factory realities that could explain it".
He also pursued: "There was no checks/balances nor indeed any records of the actual BODY NO tag as fitted to each body going down the assembly line - thus the JDHT had no way of knowing of the extent nor detail of this anomaly - thus my dialog many years ago, with Anders Clausager. JDHT then stopped telling applicants that their 3.8 E-types if with a mismatched Body No, had been rebodied. Unfortunately, these days the JDHT is only able to give Certificates based on the information on the Data Base, that was put together under Anders management, with no one there now having any knowledge nor authority to comment otherwise…"
So, take these JDHT body numbers with a grain of salt!

Hmmm - Whilst I can understand this happening to a limited degree (if a body was taken off the line), would not chaos ensue if the production line lost track of bodies all over the place given trim and hood variations. What I also do not understand is with the body number being written in various places on the monocoque (including on the reverse of both sides of the dashboard) why it should be so different to what is on the Commission plate. At what point in the production process was the Commission Plate stamped?.... Presumably towards the end when components had already been brought together?

One sad thing I would highlight is the practice back in the 1980s and 1990s of unscrupulous people transposing the front and rears of two written off e-types in an attempt to produce a single car from those. The E-Type equivalent of a "cut" and "shut". Sadly, these might account for some monocoque body numbers varying from the commission plate by a large degree (given they would want to keep the Commission plate which matches the engine, gearbox and picture frame number).

Phil,
In my case, the atcual body number was not only stamped on the body tag in the boot but also stamped on the reinforcing angle between wings and centre section of the welded louvres bonnet.

More from Roger Payne on the actual chaos at the factory:
"When an E-type shell is built up, to what is called the ‘body-in-white’ stage it was allocated a BODY No, and the Body No tag attached to the ‘body-in-white’ shell. Bare body shells were then sent to the Paint Shop, which was managed in batches to receive the same paint colour (from the limited range of ‘standard’ colours), and the extremely rare one-off special order non-standard colour.
Painted body shells were then stored/warehoused.
Meanwhile the main production line was moving with vehicles to be built scheduled in Car No order for each series/model - so a batch of say LHD OTS, then FHCs, then RHD etc etc. But in a production environment if the next car on line - say your 875xxx that had been identified as to have Body No R1828, but was also scheduled to be say RED, instead of searching all the RED OTS warehoused body shells for the one with the R1828 Tag, they just grabbed the next readily available RED OTS body to be introduced to the production line in Car No order as 875xxx, and then proceeded to build up this Body as a LHD red OTS, with any other special features to be fitted, as per the build card for 875xxx. So in your case, maybe the body R1623 was the next/most readily available RED OTS body shell… "

I still have a very early FHC body shell that I have conversed about on this forum in the past. The shell doesn't appear to have ever had a body tag fitted, there is no sign of rivet holes in the usual places and Anders Clausager told me that the one number I did find which is on the bonnet reinforcement bracket is currently being used on a DHC registered in Sweden. I decided to give up on the project but now that DVLC are being a bit more helpful it may yet happen.

dxke38 wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 22, 2025 7:18 pm

the one number I did find which is on the bonnet reinforcement bracket is currently being used on a DHC registered in Sweden. I decided to give up on the project but now that DVLC are being a bit more helpful it may yet happen.

It is not unknown to occasionally find a bonnet with a stamped bracing bracket fitted to a different car since, in the event of a front impact or restoration of a rusted-out car, someone might have sourced one from a breakers yard back in the day. What is interesting though is that you have the bonnet from a car that is still in existence elsewhere. May be that car has been brought back from the proverbial dead (i.e. someone has created a car around a commission plate)

paydase wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 22, 2025 3:20 pm

In my case, the atcual body number was not only stamped on the body tag in the boot but also stamped on the reinforcing angle between wings and centre section of the welded louvres bonnet.

That is useful given you therefore have a match between the monocoque and the bonnet itself. I can't recall what approximate date that Jaguar stopped stamping the bonnet bracing plates (I know that it was part-way through the 3.8 production run).