radiator number plates

[sculptart@aol.com]

To all, For those of you that still have a Morris Motors serial number plate on the radiator, could anyone give me the format of the numbers stamped in these plates and the meaning of them? There appears to be two fields of numbers on the TD and TC plates. Are these related to the year of manufacture, job number, particular car, etc? If nobody knows, send the numbers to me and the car number you have and maybe I can make some sense of the system used given a large enough sample. Thanks to all! Ben

[Chip Old]

On Mon, 22 Oct 2001 sculptart@aol.com wrote:

> For those of you that still have a Morris Motors serial number > plate on the radiator, could anyone give me the format of the numbers > stamped in these plates and the meaning of them? There appears to be > two fields of numbers on the TD and TC plates. Are these related to > the year of manufacture, job number, particular car, etc? > If nobody knows, send the numbers to me and the car number you > have and maybe I can make some sense of the system used given a large > enough sample.

Now there's a bit of MG trivia I'll bet nobody has explored! I don't know about the Morris serial numbers. The plate on the radiator in my TC8710 says: SERCK RADIATORS LIMITED NEWCASTLE 2056 108 FACTORIES AT (followed by a list of 20 UK cities) The "2056 108" is stamped into the plate. The rest is embossed. I've seen "Serck" plates on several other TCs, all of which (like TC6710) were (I think) Home Models that spent their early years in the UK. I've always assumed that Serck is/was a supplier of replacement radiators, or a chain of radiator repair shops, but I've never been concerned enough to investigate. The only other MG radiator I have lying around at the moment is from a wrecked YA Saloon. It doesn't have a plate, nor is there any sign that there ever was one (no old solder patch). -- Chip Old 1948 M.G. TC TC6710 XPAG7430 NEMGTR #2271 Cub Hill, Maryland 1962 Triumph TR4 CT3154LO CT3479E fold@bcpl.net

[Joe Gates]

On top of the tank section, TC 8675 (original engine XPAG 9255, subsequently replaced with XPAG 3111) has a brass plate stating in relief "Manufactured by Morris Motors Limited, Radiators Branch, Osberton, OXFORD", followed by two stamped numbers, LHS "34973" and RHS "01231". On the underside fins (facing motor), another brass plate states in relief "Covered by the following patent numbers 495125 (below on the left), 531303 (below on the right), Copper (centrered, below the above numbers, and below which are the following two numbers) 1649 (on the left), 2302 (on the right). Hope this helps. The import of the patent numbers is obvious, but for the rest, I cannot say nor figure them out! Regards Joe Gates TC 8675.

----- Original Message ----- [b]From:[/b] sculptart@aol.com [b]To:[/b] mg-tabc@yahoogroups.com [b]Sent:[/b] 22 October 2001 06:53 [b]Subject:[/b] [mg-tabc] radiator number plates To all, For those of you that still have a Morris Motors serial number plate on the radiator, could anyone give me the format of the numbers stamped in these plates and the meaning of them? There appears to be two fields of numbers on the TD and TC plates. Are these related to the year of manufacture, job number, particular car, etc? If nobody knows, send the numbers to me and the car number you have and maybe I can make some sense of the system used given a large enough sample. Thanks to all! Ben Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

[Charles Hill]

Ben, I checked my 2 TCs and found the following numbers: TC 7387 (1949 EXU) stamped on radiator header tank: 33326 and 02235 TC 0857 (1946 Home)stamped on radiator header tank: 37198 and 00398 Didn't find the second tag referred to by the other listers. And I have no idea if these are the original radiators in these cars. BTW, leaving tomorrow for Dallas/Ft. Worth tomorrow for a Porsche 914 meet. We'll be at the Westlake, TX Marriott 10/24 thru 10/28 if you are in that area. Regards, Charles Hill

[David Lodge]

Spot on, yet again, Chip! Serck Radiators were indeed in almost every sizable British town and were suppliers/repairers mostly of commercial vehicle radiators. I worked for a construction company with a fair number of vans and lorries back in the early sixties and Serck seemed to be the radiator people of choice. I would guess that our friends rad. is a replacement. Regards, David Lodge Chip Old wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Oct 2001 sculptart@aol.com wrote: > > > For those of you that still have a Morris Motors serial number > > plate on the radiator, could anyone give me the format of the numbers > > stamped in these plates and the meaning of them? There appears to be > > two fields of numbers on the TD and TC plates. Are these related to > > the year of manufacture, job number, particular car, etc? > > If nobody knows, send the numbers to me and the car number you > > have and maybe I can make some sense of the system used given a large > > enough sample. > > Now there's a bit of MG trivia I'll bet nobody has explored! I don't know > about the Morris serial numbers. The plate on the radiator in my TC8710 > says: > > SERCK RADIATORS LIMITED > NEWCASTLE > 2056 108 > FACTORIES AT > (followed by a list of 20 UK cities) > > The "2056 108" is stamped into the plate. The rest is embossed. I've > seen "Serck" plates on several other TCs, all of which (like TC6710) were > (I think) Home Models that spent their early years in the UK. I've always > assumed that Serck is/was a supplier of replacement radiators, or a chain > of radiator repair shops, but I've never been concerned enough to > investigate. > > The only other MG radiator I have lying around at the moment is from a > wrecked YA Saloon. It doesn't have a plate, nor is there any sign that > there ever was one (no old solder patch). > > -- > Chip Old 1948 M.G. TC TC6710 XPAG7430 NEMGTR #2271 > Cub Hill, Maryland 1962 Triumph TR4 CT3154LO CT3479E > fold@bcpl.net > > > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

[Crowsail@aol.com]

[Jorolibb@aol.com]

Ben, I looked at my radiator and the only tag I saw was one from "Commercial Radiators Ltd./Co. London" This is an oval tag and the abaove is in raised letters (embossed?) along with "Job No." and "Date" also in raised letters. The job numbers are stamped, rather sloppily but it looks like 25626 and the date appears to 15 10 51 (Oct. 15, 51) I know this was a home market car (1947, TC 2138) with registration number GCG 865. I purchased this car 10-1/2 years ago as a pretty complete (80%) basket case. I have finished dismantling it after the previous 2 or 3 owners started this process. I have restored some of the components and have them stored around the house and shop, while the bare chassis has been blasted and primed and now hangs from the ceiling in my garage above my rolling J2 chassis. I don't know if this tag will help you in you valiant search for info, but I hope that perhaps some in the UK will recognize either the radiator shop or the registration number. I can only ask and hope. Best regards, John Libbert J2 3118 TC 2138 MGA 70528 (and the only restoration that's done!)

[C Sherriff]

Hi John, This was one a quite a few after market replacement rads - through the 60s 70s and 80s when the cars were everyday sights on the road. pretty much idemtical to the original, Serck are another . Others would remove all Morris plates and put on their own when putting in a new core. They probably used the same components (header tanks etc) that Morris Radiators used anyway. Regards Clive ==================================== Message text written by INTERNET:Jorolibb@aol.com

> "Commercial Radiators Ltd./Co. London"

This is an oval tag and the abaove is in raised letters (embossed?) along with "Job No." and "Date" also in raised letters. The job numbers are stamped, rather sloppily but it looks like 25626 and the date appears to 15 10 51 (Oct. 15, 51) ...I don't know if this tag will help you in you valiant search for info, but I hope that perhaps some in the UK will recognize either the radiator shop or the registration number. I can only ask and hope. Best regards, John Libbert

[Victoria Vernon]

Helo out there, I have two plates that were given to me for fitting to my rad. there fore they bear no relation to my car, the numbers are:- LHS- W49 7 RHS 6770 & LHS 27739 RHS 2184. It appears that on none of the cars mentiond so far, with original numbers has numbers that seem to relate. I guess the header tank was given one and the core the other and like our engines , chassis and body numbers don't relate one to the other. regards Clem TC7218

----- Original Message ----- [b]From:[/b] sculptart@aol.com [b]To:[/b] mg-tabc@yahoogroups.com [b]Sent:[/b] Monday, October 22, 2001 6:53 PM [b]Subject:[/b] [mg-tabc] radiator number plates To all, For those of you that still have a Morris Motors serial number plate on the radiator, could anyone give me the format of the numbers stamped in these plates and the meaning of them? There appears to be two fields of numbers on the TD and TC plates. Are these related to the year of manufacture, job number, particular car, etc? If nobody knows, send the numbers to me and the car number you have and maybe I can make some sense of the system used given a large enough sample. Thanks to all! Ben Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.