Body number plate?

[Jim_Newman]

Had this car for 15 years and always wondered about this.
The plain aluminum rectangular plate at the top of the firewall has two numbers, the body number (4 digits) and another immediately above it. In my case that number is 3047BN7. This is not the chassis number (which is on a different plate). What is it? Why's it there and what does it tell me?
Cheers

 

[Johnny]

I found in Clausager's book "Original Austin Healey" on page 88 the "Chassis Plate" and in addition a "Body Number Plate" with the suffix BN. Also listed on page 89 he talks about a "..maker's guarantee plate" for the early BN6 models. So it appears that your car (3047) is a 1959 model "two seater model".

Hope this helps.

 

[Jim_Newman]

I found in Clausager's book "Original Austin Healey" on page 88 the "Chassis Plate" and in addition a "Body Number Plate" with the suffix BN. Also listed on page 89 he talks about a "..maker's guarantee plate" for the early BN6 models. So it appears that your car (3047) is a 1959 model "two seater model".

Hope this helps.

Thanks Johnny. I may have to investigate further as documentation for the car back to 1981, says it's a BN7 (as does the "plate" 3047BN7).
Cheers

 

[Healeysince59]

The number above the body number is an accounting number sometimes referred to as the batch number.

Marv J

 

[pan]

G'day Jim,
As you probably already know, Austin-Healey cars (except for the Sprite) were built by Jensen, then shipped to Longbridge or the MG factory at Abingdon on Thames for final assembly. The small plate you refer to was installed by Jensen as a way to account for production. Healeysince59 is correct in that the first group of digits is a batch number. This number will be found on several cars, indicating they were produced in the same batch. The second group is the body number, and is unique to each car. As the chassis number issued by Austin and later BMC was part of a sequence that included other models in the range of cars produced by the company, these identification plates are a good way of tracking where each car fits into the production sequence.
When I was restoring my BN1 I had to make a replacement body number plate as the original one had long since disappeared. I knew the body number as this is found stamped on various parts of the car. To get the batch number I found two BN1s with the same batch number, one with a body number earlier and one later than my car's number. Only an 'anorak' would care about such detail!

 

[Jim_Newman]

Thanks mate.

 

[BJ8Healeys]

G'day Jim,
As you probably already know, Austin-Healey cars (except for the Sprite) were built by Jensen, then shipped to Longbridge or the MG factory at Abingdon on Thames for final assembly. The small plate you refer to was installed by Jensen as a way to account for production. Healeysince59 is correct in that the first group of digits is a batch number. This number will be found on several cars, indicating they were produced in the same batch. The second group is the body number, and is unique to each car. As the chassis number issued by Austin and later BMC was part of a sequence that included other models in the range of cars produced by the company, these identification plates are a good way of tracking where each car fits into the production sequence.
When I was restoring my BN1 I had to make a replacement body number plate as the original one had long since disappeared. I knew the body number as this is found stamped on various parts of the car. To get the batch number I found two BN1s with the same batch number, one with a body number earlier and one later than my car's number. Only an 'anorak' would care about such detail!

The body number plate can also be useful for spotting "remanufactured" plates when the batch and body numbers on the plate do not agree. I've seen several that have the correct body number for a car (that can be obtained from a BMIHT certificate), but not knowing the batch number someone has just made one up. The body plates are also useful to identify the original VIN that the body plate belonged to via the data in BMIHT archives if the VIN plate itself is missing or has been exchanged with another car. There are WAY too many cars out there with mixed up identity plates.
As the BJ8 registrar, I have been documenting BJ8 batch/body numbers for many years to determine the exact number of bodies included in each of the 41 BJ8 batches. When production became stable, there appears to have been approximately 500 bodies per batch, which I believe corresponds to a purchase order from BMC to Jensens for a quantity of 500 bodies. The BJ8 batch numbers are not continuous (e.g., 3198 and 3201, but no 3199 or 3200), and I assume the missing numbers were assigned by Jensens to another type of car. So far, the body endpoints of batches 3216, 3218, 3226 and 3227 have been identified, and only one more body remains to be identified in batches 3209/3211 to complete those. So far, batch AND body numbers have been identified for 2166 BJ8 bodies of the 17,712 built. Anomalies have been found and verified in several cases (either mistakes in stamping the original plates, or body number out of sequence in a batch it doesn't belong to). These anomalies reduce the certainty of getting the correct batch number by reference to other cars from 100% to something less.

Steve Byers (BJ8 Anorak #1)
HBJ8L/36666
BJ8 Registry
Havelock, NC