Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Number on bulkhead

As I was tidying up the paintwork around the engine bay I noticed a number "82" stamped into the bulkhead just below the bonnet hinge. I know that the bulkhead had been replaced at some stage in it's 48 year lifetime. Any clues what this may indicate? Year perhaps? 1974 4/4.

Doing the resto on the '75 4/4 I took everything back to bare metal ... I came across several panels with stamped numbers ... I guessed they were identification numbers for that particular panel and varied model to model ... made sure they picked up the right panel for whatever they were building? .... could be wrong though

K

Ps ... just been out and looked and my bulkhead has 77 stamped in the same place ... mine's a 4 seater which I think has a different scuttle profile from the 2 seater possibly hence the different bulkhead 'pressing number' ... TBM has a 4 seater very much the same age as mine ... if it also has 77 then it's likely a reference number rather than a date stamp

I'll have a look at the weekend, see what mine has

The numbers are actually the clock numbers for the sheet metal worker who made those individual parts.

Until early 1990's, the tin bashers were on piece rate so as soon as they had finished each part they would stamp their number into it and it would be tallied up at the end of the week to calculate their pay/bonuses.

Steve Barnes at VSM was able to tell me who made the bulkhead and inner wings on my 1971 4/4

Arwyn

Thanks everyone. An insight into older ways of working before computers got involved. Thats one number accounted for. Just need to work out what the number on the back of the engine block is now!

Arwyn ... now that's excellent .... much better than a stock or date number 🙂... thanks for the info.


K

Ps ... I wonder who 77 was in 1975

As mine is a replacement I've no idea when it was made, so identifying the fabricator could be difficult.

Gizmo ... I doubt they have a vast turnover of staff so even if they reuse the clock numbers you'll not likely to have a choice of more than a couple of possibles to narrow it down from.

K