Neat find on the '63

[vping]

I was excited to find this still intact after 46 years. Vin #12968.

 

[bob67bgt]

My 69 had the same thing. I wonder how long the factory did this? Bob

 

[vping]

That's cool. I think my GT still has it too. I know the '65 has it.

 

[rick_ingram]

My 1969 MGC had it written under the bonnet. The paint man "took care of it" for me.

:frown:

 

[testaj]

Factory did it right to the end(1980) Bodies were painted and put on the assembly line. They would take the hoods (bonnets) off the cars to install the the engine and transmision and put them off to the side until the drivetrain was bolted up. Hence the number scribbled in the hoods, so they could match the correct hood with the car and not be off by slight color variances in the paint.

 

[testaj]

My 1969 MGC had it written under the bonnet. The paint man "took care of it" for me.

:frown:

a blue pencil and some sloppy handwriting should solve that problem for you.

 

[Jack_Long]

And to think that the guy who wrote it may well be dead of old age!

 

[davester]

Peter Egan wrote an article a long time ago that referred to such markings as ghosts, while discussing how much stuff should be removed and "cleaned up" when doing a renovation.

 

[PAUL161]

When I was stripping the 72 to restore, I found some scribble under this light.

What was so cool about it was, the scribble was the initials PJ. How ironic. I guess I was destined to have this car. Shame I didn't get it when it was new. I was told that some of the painters put their initials there while the paint was still wet. Looks like he used a pencil eraser or something similar. Even though the area was painted over, I never stripped the paint under the light and the impression is still there. I guess if I get rid of the car, it has to go to someone with the initials PJ. Cool!

 

[tony barnhill]

I think your car was repainted at some time before you took that photo, not sure; just a hunch.....look up under the dash at the backside of the radio support & tell me if the paint under there is the same as the paint that was on the body before you stripped it.

The only green available in '72 was Mallard Green but that's not what was on your car in the photo.....'71's got either the Mallard Green or New Racing Green but the green in the photo of your car is too bright to be NRG....the color in the photo looks sorta like '77's Brooklands Green.

 

[PAUL161]

Your probably right Tony as the car was repainted. Looked like an Earl Schibe job, you know 29.95! But there were masking tape marks on some parts of the lights, actually all over the car, which leads me to believe they were never taken off for painting. I remember that the paint was a deeper color and very shiny under the lights. Wish I took a closer look at the time. The thin ring of paint behind the head light rims and behind the side chrome strips were darker also. Nothing was taken off, just taped up and sprayed.