Mercury truck VIN numbers?

M

milomac99

New Member
Hi,

New guy here so let me introduce myself - Milo out of Calgary. Working on a 1963 Fairlane Sports Coupe and possibly a 1964 Mercury M-100 truck.

I spotted a post on your site on the topic of the Mercury truck VIN numbers which seemed relatively correct, by a gent named Slim going back to 2012 who seemed knowledgeable on these Mercury truck VIN numbers. So if you are out there Slim, or anybody else that has info on this VIN sequence, any help would be appreciated .

Here goes on the help required....


I’m told by the current owner that this VIN is for a 1964 Mercury M-100 truck with the original 292 CI Y block in it.
VIN is 1991028L-182185A and I’m hoping for some further detail on the following digits I do not have accurate information on - the first digit and the sequential build digits ( 9 through 14) - I've listed what I believe to be correct and what is missing below:

First digit =1 = Engine code? Anybody have a list of the engine code/VIN numbers? I’ve seen 1, 4, 5 so far but don’t know what the designations are.

Second and third digit – 99 = styleside or fleetside box
Fourth and fifth digit – 10 = M-100

Sixth and seventh – 28 = 128 inch wheel base
Eighth = L = Left hand drive

Digits 9 through 14 – Should be the sequential build number from Oakville Ontario Ford plant? Anybody have a list of sequential build numbers by year?

Digit 15 – A = GVW Light duty 3,600-5,600 lbs.

Any insight into these somewhat unique Canadian Mercury truck VINs appreciated.

Thanks,

Milo
 
Milo: being as it's a MERC, (beyond) safe bet it's a CDN built truck :)

So, if you leave me an email address, I will take a pic of the Page in my 1964 Ford & Mercury 100 thru 350 Series Shop Manual that breaks down the vin tag & email it to you.

Or, if you would rather not put your email out there for all (the spammers) to see, you can call me, my ph # is listed in the "Rodside Assistance" link off the Main Page (**Read the instructions, & insert a space)

James
 
James if you have a copy of the 64 vins post it to the web. there was a good source Mercury pickup. com but the site seem to be dead. Good Canadian information is getting hard to find. 1-V8.... 5- inline 6 .... 4-?...designated ford but that was from earlier model years
 
Sorry, the Shop Manual doesn't actually list VINs, it just has a page that shows what all the charachters on the vin tag mean, as well as table below listing all the possible charachters and their definitions........
 
James, if you want to email me a photo of the page you have I could probably post it up on Photobucket. I've got the 1961 manual and 1962 supplement at home that I could reference as well.

Even the page decoding the unique Canadian tags would be helpful for a lot of folks I think.
 
Thanks James!



The first digit is listed as "Make Code":

1: Mercury (8 Cyl.)
4: Ford (8 Cyl.)
5: Mercury (6 Cyl.)
6: Ford (6 Cyl.)

Page 2 of the 1964 manual:



So I guess the remaining question would be how to link a specific Consecutive Serial Number range to a specific year. Looking at this thread, we see an example of a 1964 Canadian-built Ford tag for comparison. The engine is listed as RR, which decodes to a 292 MD V8. So it would seem that R=1964.

Here are pages 3 and 4 of the 1964 manual for comparison, which deal with the U.S.-built trucks:



 
Last edited:
James has also kindly provided this field guide that may help identify the year of your truck, so long as the original grille hasn't been replaced with one from another year. ;)

 
Last edited:
D'oh!!

Homer-Simpson-Doh.jpg


I just discovered more codes on the next page, I have taken a pic, cropped it, and emailed it to Jason, so I expect he will add it to the post with page one above once he gets the email.
 
1961 Canadian-Built Ford & Mercury Truck Data

As promised, here's the data from my 1961 shop manual, which covers all of the Canadian built trucks of that year, both Ford and Mercury. Note the VIN is listed in the opposite order of the 1964 trucks, with the Consecutive Serial Number listed first. Also of note is that there is a character designated as "Year", in this case N, which also appears in the engine code. According to the pages James has provided, this does not appear in the 1964 numbers, but is still incorporated into the Engine Code.



The second section of the '61 manual also covers the U.S. built trucks, and contains the page below:



It's unclear whether this applies to Canadian-built trucks as well, or if the Oakville plant had it's own set of numbers. I suspect they may have a separate system, as the Canadian tag decoder refers to "Consecutive Serial Number" whereas this page refers to "Consecutive Unit Number".
 
Last edited:
Im pretty sure 65 was the last year for Canadian only numbers then they all followed the US system. I wonder if the add on to reference US built trucks Might of covered the Unibody's . Its a good possibility they were imported .? . I have read some ware that some of the last mercury trucks destined for the west coast market came out of California . Again thanks for taking the time to post this it's dam near impossible to find on the web.
 
slim said:
Im pretty sure 65 was the last year for Canadian only numbers then they all followed the US system. I wonder if the add on to reference US built trucks Might of covered the Unibody's . Its a good possibility they were imported .? . I have read some ware that some of the last mercury trucks destined for the west coast market came out of California . Again thanks for taking the time to post this it's dam near impossible to find on the web.
Click to expand...

No problem. I'm looking at buying a 1962-63 shop manual supplement to fill in the blanks. :)

I've never heard of the unibodies being imported. Body type 66 (integral cab, a.k.a. unibody) is listed in the Canadian section of my manual, and my uni does have an Oakville tag. I think the U.S.-built section is just for general reference, likely for Canadian shops that might encounter a U.S. truck (it's also in the '64 manual the James has). Although I suppose the sheetmetal may have been imported and the trucks assembled in Canada.

I do remember reading on the old Mercury Pickup site about the last run of Merc pickups being Fords that just had the trim replaced at the dealership level. That site was pretty much the sole resource for this info, and it seems every time I do a web search the results invariably lead to a dead link there. The person who now owns the mercurypickup domain name is on the Slick 60's site however, so hopefully we see some updates at some point.
 
So to further add to the confusion, I believe the 1962 trucks simply used an engine code of P with no prefix for the 223 6, as my truck lists "P-3L/D", denoting the 223 with light-duty 3-speed. I recently ran across an image of a 1963 VIN where the engine code prefix appeared to either an O or a Q. Still need to confirm that though.

So as an example, I believe 61-64 trucks with the 223 six would have the following engine codes:

1961: NP
1962: P
1963: QP
1964: RP

Which makes sense if O and P were skipped in the sequence.
 
Thans from Milo - Calgary

Gents,

It took a while to get back on here but Thanks all around! Some very good information here that should help me a lot in my hunt for a restorable Merc truck. Special thanks to James and the Big M for posting the details from the Merc manual. I would be pleased if anyone wanted to drop me a line on personal email with further information at milomac99@yahoo.ca anytime.

Thank you all.

Milo
 
Here's the latest addition from the 1962-63 Shop Manual Supplement:





I suspect these pages just show a generic layout for both years, so I'll have to wait until I have the actual book in my hands to confirm if it makes any distinction between engine codes for 62 and 63. Based on what I've observed I believe what I posted earlier is correct. That is, 1962 did not use an engine code prefix, and 1963 used 'Q'.
 
Last edited:
Hello everyone,

Any suggestions on where to find the Identification sheets for a 51 Mercury M1. Having a tough time trying to find out what the paint code 24 is. Thanks for any help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom