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Brass Body Tags

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angelfj1

angelfj1

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Some of know that I've been making and selling brass body tags for Triumph sidescreen cars. I have also made up a few tags for Standards, Triumph Roadsters, Humbers, and a Morris Minor a few early Land Rovers. Over the weekend I received a call from an old friend whose customer urgently needed a brass tag and he had to have it on Wednesday (today). The customer's car is a 1964 Triumph Spitfire, MK1. This was a surprise, so I asked if he was sure. He and I are the same age (within days) and my memory is not always that great, so I asked him to check. He did. The guy insisted that the tag was original, consisting of a five digit number followed by a space, then an "FC", in other words, "12345 FC". So, not being a Spitfire expert, I was still surprised. However, by 1964, Standard-Triumph had acquired all of Mulliners and that's where the Spitfire body shells were assembled, and if they were consistent in their practice of applying brass tags,etc - well you know where this is going!

So, if you have an early Spit, please indulge my curiosity. Does your car have a brass tag on the bulkhead? Naturally, photos would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Spitfires did indeed have body number tags, and they were indeed in that format, but they were more like those on the TR4 and later. They were stamped numbers, not embossed (and I'm not sure the plates were brass regardless).

Update: found the picture I was looking for:

6ab2_1.JPG


Not the greatest photo ("appropriated from an old eBay listing), but it does show the body number tag fairly well. It's definitely stamped rather than embossed.
 
If they are anything like the TR4, they would be aluminum, and most definitely not embossed. The number almost looks engraved it is a good stamping on the tag, unlike the commission plate which typically looks hand done.
 
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