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By Half-dude - 8 Years Ago
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Hey there guys,
I'm wondering if anyone can help me figured out the date plate code for my car. I've found a few decoder sites including the page on Gil's Garage. The weird part is that several parts of the code including the entire production code doesn't make any sense in the decoder. I'm mostly wanting to find out the paint codes for my car, but the codes on the panel and the actual paint on the car doesn't match up.
Here's a picture of the data plate on my car:
Now the serial number is fine, I've got that totally decoded. (8 Cyl-OHV - 272,1955, Production Plant: Kansas City, Town Sedan (Fairlane),19,838th car assembled)
The problems start with the paint codes which appear to be E and G considering my Fairlane is a two tone. Though it's interesting that it's shown as E-G when the examples I see show it as EG. However while E is shown to be Snowshoe White, G is Sea Sprite Green. But as you can see I've got a blue and white Fairlane:
Could it be possible someone at the plant put a G instead of a C? Because C is Aquatone Blue
The trim code also makes no sense, on mine it's 20A but in every example I've seen, the trim code is only supposed to be a letter.
Now the production code is really weird! It's supposed to be the date it was produced along with the number of car it was. Only the month is supposed to be a letter and the first one or two characters should be numbers.. but they're not.
Does anyone have any idea what's going on?
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By PF Arcand - 8 Years Ago
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Don't know for sure, but some possibilities are;
Cars been repainted.
Had a major accident & was rebuilt using another car's plate.
Stolen at some point & re plated.
.. Another person on this site had a similar situation. The data plate apparently was from another car. The car had been stored for years, possibly stolen, but I don't know the final outcome?.
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By Dobie - 8 Years Ago
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Fake data plate.
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By paul2748 - 8 Years Ago
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Do you know the history of the car? Anything could have been changed over the years including paint and interior.
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By Lou - 8 Years Ago
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"E" car left the factory solid color white
"G" trim code Blue cloth & medium blue cloth
"20A build date January 20, 1955
"DS" sale district Des Moines, IA
"4129" number of cars shipped to the Des Moines sales district so far this month (This meant different thing at different plants , can also be dearer order number
"C" Third car in this order
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By Half-dude - 8 Years Ago
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Well dang, how about that.
You know, I actually could believe that the blue was added on later, you know? I've always noticed the subtle sloppy painting right under the headlights where the two colors come together. Guess that also explains why the inside of the headlight frames are white. Makes even more sense because her first owner was a doctor who did house calls.. makes sense he'd have her in ambulance white.
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By mgcookwv - 8 Years Ago
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They didn't put that combination color on Fairlanes until 1956, when I purchased my new plate I had the original color on the color code, my car is the same color as your. I didn't want to represent it as something it wasn't. Same way with interior, I have cloth seats and they only offered vinyl in 1955 in my color.
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By mgcookwv - 8 Years Ago
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Also I agree the person who made the data plate didn't use the original data but used what is on it now, which is okay as long as you tell someone if you are selling it to them.
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By Lou - 8 Years Ago
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You lost me, what color didn't Ford offer until 56?
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By Half-dude - 8 Years Ago
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mgcookwv (4/18/2016)
They didn't put that combination color on Fairlanes until 1956
Do you know the color codes for those two colors?
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By mgcookwv - 8 Years Ago
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The color on your car wasn't offered until 1956 Fairlane, I have the same car and same color but on my data plate I used the original color code, I ordered a plate from the same people that made the plate you are showing. The closest they came to that color was an all blue which was the original and the interior was vinyl not cloth. The guy that sold me the car was telling me how important it was to keep them stock, then I found out mine color and interior wasn't stock and I was entering it into car shows as stock and one day this old gentleman was looking at my car, he said you the owner, I said yes, he said you know this color combination didn't come out until 1956, that's when I started checking and found out he was right. So I converted my to an alternator, put Petronix in the distributor and eliminated the points, since the I converted it to 12 volt system, currently getting ready to put a 1957 intake manifold and a new Holley carb with a new electronic distributor so I can enjoy driving my car with power and without hesitation I have with the stock system. So if you bought this as color oriented for 55 somebody didn't tell you the truth but it doesn't matter, you have a beautiful car and that color turns heads everywhere you go.
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