"FE Plate" above radiator.

[JC T ONE]

The chassis number on the chassis place is considered unacceptable by our authorities as it is not stamped/welded to the bodyshell.

Here in Denmark, its the same, so our BMC (later BL) import, had to stamp the no from the chassi plate into the body.

[bwaminispeed]

Old thread, but, I'm surprised no one has mentioned that the (always spot welded on) FE tag, is in fact just pop riveted on.........

Both the plate and the body shell could be from anywhere, rendering identification of the shell, pretty much not possible.......

And, is probably the reason for the out of sequence/date numbers......I'm think definitely re shelled with a later body....

[AndyPen]

Old thread, but, I'm surprised no one has mentioned that the (always spot welded on) FE tag, is in fact just pop riveted on.........

Both the plate and the body shell could be from anywhere, rendering identification of the shell, pretty much not possible.......

And, is probably the reason for the out of sequence/date numbers......I'm think definitely re shelled with a later body....

I'm not sure what you mean, can you clarify as my cars all have them spot welded on, or is this just a UK thing?

[bwaminispeed]

Post #4 shows a pop riveted FE tag.......It should be spot welded, so, pretty sure the car has been re-shelled at some time......

[bnicho]

I have two UK built cars - 1966 Austin and 1965 Morris. Both have the FE plate spot-welded on.

Cheers,
Brett.

[1071 S]

So Brett, do VicRoads (or who ever they are these days) place any requirements on what constitutes a "vehicle ID" on your cars??

NSW Rego just wanted a number "permanently" attached to the body. I chose to use the Body # ...as that was actually recorded on the Heritage Cert.

..... Which leads into my continued amusement as to the reverence people attach to Heritage Certs..... especially given the "accuracy" of the one shown above (Noting that in any instance of concern one should prefer "stuff up" over "conspiracy" every time )

And as to why anyone would prefer and therefor pay for a fake ID plate rather than use the genuine article ...

Cheers, Ian

[bnicho]

So Brett, do VicRoads (or who ever they are these days) place any requirements on what constitutes a "vehicle ID" on your cars??

NSW Rego just wanted a number "permanently" attached to the body. I chose to use the Body # ...as that was actually recorded on the Heritage Cert.

..... Which leads into my continued amusement as to the reverence people attach to Heritage Certs..... especially given the "accuracy" of the one shown above (Noting that in any instance of concern one should prefer "stuff up" over "conspiracy" every time )

And as to why anyone would prefer and therefor pay for a fake ID plate rather than use the genuine article ...

Cheers, Ian

Hi Ian,

For a Club Permit, VicRoads is happy with whatever is on the RWC.

For full rego, it can depend on who you get on the day. For my Hilux they wanted to see the number stamped in the chassis. I had to crawl under there with a rag to find it. For my Land Rover Series 3, the chassis plate riveted to the firewall was enough.

I learnt ages ago to just accept whatever they want and walk out with plates.

Cheers,

[IAIN]

Post #4 shows a pop riveted FE tag.......It should be spot welded, so, pretty sure the car has been re-shelled at some time......

I might be wrong, but looking at the FE tag picture yes it's riveted on but it looks to me as if it's fitted on the outside of the inner wing not in the engine bay. Is the inner wing the original one ?

edit.
Having looked at the picture again you can see where the tag has been removed off its spot welds, so must have been riveted back on as an after thought probably after a repair.

[charliedawn23]

Hi all. Thanks for including me in this group. My Clubman has the FE 350405. Please does anyone know what this denotes. Thanks for your help and sorry if this is a daft question.

[AndyPen]

Welcome Charlie

Your FE / Front End number can be used to check if you have a correct era shell, but that's about it as the records of the Front End builds are lost, if they ever existed beyond the manufacturer's stock records. These complete Front Ends were delivered to the assembly lines, as you will see in some of the old videos.

We have life long enthusiasts like Simon on here who have built up their own list over many, many years of looking at cars, so they can check to see if the shell's FE number maps correctly to the period when it was built.

Wiper motors tend to survive and they have dates on, and may other electrical items too. Add all that into the picture and you have a good idea how genuine a car is

Hope that helps to explain it

[charliedawn23]

Thanks so much for your the speed of your reply!

[Simon776]

Hi all. Thanks for including me in this group. My Clubman has the FE 350405. Please does anyone know what this denotes. Thanks for your help and sorry if this is a daft question.

The Clubman/square front Mini's have a separate FE numerical sequence to the round fronts.

[AndyPen]

Hi all. Thanks for including me in this group. My Clubman has the FE 350405. Please does anyone know what this denotes. Thanks for your help and sorry if this is a daft question.

The Clubman/square front Mini's have a separate FE numerical sequence to the round fronts.

Well I certainly didn't know that!!! Makes perfect sense of course!

[Jug Hed]

Hi all. Thanks for including me in this group. My Clubman has the FE 350405. Please does anyone know what this denotes. Thanks for your help and sorry if this is a daft question.

The Clubman/square front Mini's have a separate FE numerical sequence to the round fronts.

Hi Simon,

Could you please tell me how you determine the ages by FE numbers, and if this also apply to Floor and / or Body Numbers too.

Is there a method, or have you a reference document or did you work it out from original research etc?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Best Regards,

Steve.

[1071 S]

Hi Steve,

FE numbers are dated through their association with some other dated feature as recorded by some diligent record keeper (but not the original BMC ledger keepers .

ie someone determines that "FE123" was attached to a car built in April 1965 (and writes it down). Then they find that "FE130" was attached in May 65.

They are then able to surmise that "FE128" was probably attached in May 65. Collect enough numbers and you can reasonably identify how a particular FE number relates to an approximate date (give or take a bit... as you data base will tell you that cars were not built strictly in order of FE number....

I would suggest Floor numbers work the same except that they are far more vulnerable so less likely to be recorded.

Body number are different in that they (or at least a lot of them) are recorded in the BMIHT ledgers against a specific car built on a specific date.

(Once upon a time) you could give the BMIHT archivists a body number and they could tell you when that body was built, what kind of Mini it was, what colour... and perhaps even its original registration number...

Cheers, Ian

[Jug Hed]

Hi Ian,
Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

Ok, well that kind of makes sense I guess! I've been doing some similar original research myself from photographs of cars that appear to be unaltered, to see if there is any correlation between FE / F / Body / Commission / Car Numbers, & VIN's etc.

What I think I've discovered is that as the bodies were built by Pressed Steel Fisher (PSF) Division, any records of the numbering system & sequence would have been most likely created and held by them, rather than the main arm of BMC, BL, Rover etc. I may take a trip to Gaydon this year to see if they hold any records in their archive to verify this.

As you say though, there does seem to be some approximate match, although it tends to be inconsistent, but gets you into the right ball-park.
Weirdly, my own cars VIN actually contains all the same numbers as the Body Number, but in a slightly different order!

It would be interesting to hear from somebody who used to work at PSF, who could help by imparting some of that valuable knowledge to us. Is there anybody out there?

Cheers,

Steve.