Factory Markings

[v12 man]

I read a post a while ago on one area of this forum about factory markings and as you can see i am not a regular poster on here and of late have been very busy with one thing and another. I am currently restoring my V12 E-Type and inside the tailgate behind the trim i found a number wrote in chalk and decided being very sad to save this and to lacquer over this when painting as to preserve it. Has anyone else seen a number like this?

Matt

[Phil]

Hello Matt,

yes , I had (and still have) a similar mark : mine is 55157 and is written in red colour over the original sable paint. I kept this part of the tailgate in sable with the marks , Rest is now dark blue... It is the body N?. I also had several other tags with dates on it (in the boot, and behind the instrument panel.).
Best wishes with your ongoing work !

[v12 man]

Thanks for that Phil and yes that make sense now with the body number, I over looked that as you know its part of a longer chassis No. As yet this is the only number I have found having stripped the bonnet ,doors and tailgate, but there is still a Jaguar lable attached to the rear light wiring harness.

Phil your car ( the photo shoot article ) aswell as other things has driven me to get working on mine so thankyou :)
My car is very original, father and son owned since 1978 until I bought her in 2003 and garaged throughtout these years and although neglected in some ways, it is perfect in others.

I will start a thread in the restoration section over the weekend

Matt

[christopher storey]

The body number is quite separate from the chassis number, and does not form part of it. In the case of an S3 coupe it will have a 4S prefix followed by a 5 digit number in the 50000+ range

[Phil]

Matt,

thanks for your comments. Glad my car could motivate you to bring yours to a new life ! I have my car now since early 2002 and after body work like you are facing now, I had to keep an ongoing step by step(year after year) restoration to bring the car where it is now, while driving it during the driving season.
It is good you know the history of the car and who cared for it before you while keeping its originilaty. (it can be a debate for some ...).
My car had one owner between 1973 and 1998. Was then for sale, back to Europe in 2000, through classic car dealers and purchased by me early 2002.

I will go through my photo archive and post some photos of what I found in mine.

Christopher is right, body and VIN N? are different, what you have found is the body N? without the 4S prefix.

[v12 man]

Yes my mistake about body number/ chassis number. To be honest i've not studied the whole number thing and thats probably looked straight past it, but thank you for correcting me.

I'm currently re-assembling the bonnet so my mind is on that job :)

[Phil]

I am back with some more photos to illustrate some factory markings/identifications for the S3, based on what I found on my car :

a) the obvious one is the car identification data plate in the engine bay on the firewall showing the 4 identification N?



- the car N? is also stamped on the inclined face of the bulkhead in the engine compartiment under the heater box .Also on a metal plate attached to the front windscreen, on the driver side

c) a decal on the rear door jam ,with date of manufacture as well as car serial n?



Based on readings on the Jag-Lovers fourm, it is strange to see that some cars show a manfucature month/year date on this decal which can be before or after the date built recorder at Jaguar : mine is showing 8/72 altough my JDHT certificate states dat built is Oct.4th 1972, which is much more in line with dates found on tags/decals as you will see further on.

d) the engine N? is stamped on the crankcase at the rear between the cylinder heads



as you can see mine is also showing a date (16 10 71 ), probably the production date of the engine. From reading the books and searching xkedata.com it is obvious that engines and gearboxes were produced but not in the same sequence and timeline as the cars. And engine production was quicker than car production, so the factory people took what was available inthe factory along the production line.

e) the body N? is appearing on a small embossed aluminium plate and is riveted behind the rear license plate bracket n 1974 US-Canada models and behind the stainess steel trim (under the rear bumper) on 71-73 US-Canada models and 71-74 UK models.



if still present on original paint, you maybe happy to find that the factory people also wrote in chalk the body n? without the 4S prefix on the tailgate (behind the trim) (this is what Matt also found in his car)



f) factory tags or stickers/decals : I found four in my car as you can see below, each of them with a date on it :

- behind the door of the instrument panel/dashboard : 22/4/72 for my car and the body N? is also written



- two different ones in the boot area; with the rear light wiring harness and near the fuel pump : one dated from 14 march 1972, the other one from 8 sep 1972.



- another one on the steering column in the driver compartiment (dated 22/9/72)



as you can see my car started on the prodcution line in March 1972 (or earlier?) and was finished end of September 1972, confirming the JDHT built date of 4th Oct. 1972, to be dispatched to Canada on October 18th 1972.

7 months in the production line...(there were strikes in summer of 1972...)
she has been taken care of 8)

I would be interested to know if you also found some of these tags/decals or more/others ?