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MG MG Y Type - Build Date help?

The Y-type I refer to in the "Registration" thread earlier, is car no. Y/3348 and engine no. XPAG/SC/X 13216. On the firewall is stamped (and plated) 2632 - body number? While there is some info in the archives, can anyone help me to confirm reasonably accurately the build date? Thanks in advance - John.
J.P. Hall

Dear JP

Production records for the Ys have been missing for many years and are presumed destroyed, however, using original UK log books and a bit of applied sense, we can deduce that your car was probably built around October of 1949.

Unfortunately, that is about the best that we can do for you. If the car was originally a UK sold car, and was licenced on records at the DVLA prior to export, I might be able to be more specific if you have a UK licence plate number.

Paul
Paul Barrow

Dear Mr. Hall,

although Paul is correct with regard to the loss of Y type production records, I find his estimate that Y 3348 is an October car does not conform to information I hold as Registrar. I would suggest that it was probably manufactured in late June/early July.

I base this estimate, and bear in mind it is just that, on details I have regarding the date of first registration of cars in the UK. To give a couple of examples, Y3316 (built not that long before the car in question) was first registered on 18th. July 1949 and Y 3444 was first registered on 9th August 1949.

In your first thread ('Registration') you say that the car had either a UMG or a YMG registration mark. I would suggest that the UMG plate was far more likely as YMG plates were issued to YBs built in 1952/53.


Sadly, I've checked our records and we have no previous information on Y3348

Best Regards,

Jack
Jack Murray

Jack has much more info than I - I am happy to bow to your better knowledge there Jack. I was going from some of the guesstimates we have made on Ys on Parade. If you have time Jack and would like to go through the '?' ones I would be happy to have your corrections and put them in place.

Thanks

Paul
Paul Barrow

Paul and Jack - thanks very much for your responses - but I may have confused you both; Y3348 is not the one my uncle had, but sits in my garage here in Queensland. She was originally the bronze colour, but subsequently overpainted in 2 or 3 shades of green. I've always had in my mind that she was built in 1949, but I'm keen to narrow it down a bit. I will look for more clues, eg date stamped on certain parts, or inscribed behind the instrument panel. Any other feedback always welcomed. Thanks guys! Regards, John.
J.P. Hall

John: one clue to actual vehicle build date (at least down to month) is to be found on various of the Lucas components, which carry their date of manufacture stamped on them somewhere: the control box, wiper motor and dynamo are the most accessible. On the top face of the base of the control box, alongside the version number (almost certainly RF95) you will see a month/year stamp - mine says 3/51, for example, for a car later registered in London in May 51. It's reasonable to assume that the components were made at least a month before the car for which they were supplied.

You will find a similar date stamp in the centre of the dynamo body.

Of course, this only helps if the components are the originals!

If your car was originally an export vehicle, built at a time when the industry was gasping to ship everything it could, and there would have been no inventory standing around, I think it might be fair to assume the components were made a month or two before the car? It will be interesting to know what you find.

Tim
Tim Griggs

Bingo Tim! - 5/49 found on base of control box and also on dynamo. Shall we say mid-June for a build date? That coincides with our wedding anniversary (25 just gone) and will keep me in credit with 'er indoors, whose favourite car it is. She has also just reminded me, somewhat curtly, that it was 1995 when I took the car off the road for a few routine maintenance jobs! Thanks as ever. John.
J.P. Hall

Hi John

That is about where Jack placed it too - he is usually pretty good with these sorts of things as he has the full, most complete records of Ys anywhere in the world as he is our Registrar.

Paul
Paul Barrow

Paul - Noted with thanks. I will place 3348 on your Register later today if I'm indoors. I might add by way of trivia that I've taken out Queensland rego YMG 49 to put on her when she's back on the road. Regards, John.
J.P. Hall

You can use the glass in the windscreen as the dots around the etched makers data is a code for month and year, but then the glass may have been 'in stock' for quite a few years as the Y was a slow seller.

NC.
Neil Cairns

TRIPLE ‘X’ Code.

Many of the older classic car veterans will know of the TRIPLEX glass code. TRIPLEX were the company the majority of UK car makers used to supply their motor cars window glass in the post war period. This glass is toughened and carries the British ‘kite’ mark. The actual etched in marks on the glass are the word ‘TRIPLEX’, with three ‘X’s in the centre underlined by the word ‘TOUGHENED’. Under that the kite mark might be placed. Specially toughened windscreen have the word ‘ZEBRAZONE’ where ‘TOUGHENED’ would be. This is a screen with a central ‘clear’ area when broken so the driver can still see through it.

The code is etched into the glass during manufacture by TRIPLEX. It assists in determining when the glass was made. This can lead to assisting to decide the age of a car, or more accurately the approximate age of the car. The two letters at each end of the word TRIPLEX, that is the ‘T’, ‘R’, ‘E’, and ‘X’, will have a small dot under one of them. These four letters equate to the quarters of the year; so T is for Jan, Feb and March; R is for April, May & June; E is for July, Aug and Sept; and X is for Oct, Nov and Dec. Both the words toughened and zebrazone have nine letters. The dot will appear under a letter indicating the year, No dot at all will be 1950 or 1960. The first letter which might be the T or the Z indicates 1, so it will be 1951 or 1961. Then the O or E will be 2, 1952 or 1962; then the U or B will be 3, and so on until the last letters of either D or E, indicating a 9.

So if a windscreen in a M.G. TD or YA/YB, or any other window, has a dot under the dot under the R in TRIPLEX, and another under the T in TOUGHENDED, ( or the Z in ZEBRAZONE), this would indicate it was made in the first quarter of 1951. So cars for approximately the first six months of 1951 might have those indicators. If the same dots appeared in the same places, but on a MGA or Mk3 Magnette, or a Midget, it might be a 1961 model, with glass from the first quarter. Try your own car and see if it works.

If someone has restored the car, or it has had a broken windscreen at some time, you need to check all the windows to eliminate any error. Few cars get side or rear windows broken.

Neil Cairns

Neil - Unbelievable stuff! I'm thinking plenty of threaders didn't know that one! Will scurry out and check windows tonight and report findings. Thanks so much. John.
J.P. Hall

This thread was discussed between 19/06/2008 and 24/06/2008

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