Yes, Alan, I can comment relative to BJ8s.
The mass of data (7,707 cars) in the BJ8 registry suggests that there was no
particular effort at BMC to assign VINs in ascending sequence in sync with
the ascending body numbers. But the correlation is usually close enough
that exceptions to the pattern are easy to spot, and is one indicator that
perhaps the car itself has lost its original identity. I can tell you there
are a whole bunch of BJ8s out there now with the body plate from one car and
the VIN plate from another.
I believe that the batch number was Jensen's way of accounting for all of
the bodies in a single purchase order from BMC, and therefore that in
general deliveries were made of cars all in the same batch. There might
have been overlap deliveries at the endpoints of the batches, however.
As for configuration changes such as the turn signal/parking lights, it's
hard to say for sure after 45 years have passed, with ample opportunity for
original parts to have been replaced with "incorrect" ones. But again there
is plenty of evidence in the BJ8 registry that the factory assemblers didn't
pay too close attention to the parts manual when they were building the
cars. A good example of this is the dash-mounted rear view mirror. Last
time I counted, there were over 100 Phase 2 cars in the registry with the
"Phase 1" mirror installed. I would guess that many cars originally like
that have been changed back to "correct" with the installation of the Phase
2 mirror during restoration.
Steve Byers
HBJ8L/36666
BJ8 Registry
Havelock, NC USA
-----Original Message-----
From: healeys-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:healeys-bounces at
autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Alan Seigrist
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 10:12 PM
To: Michael MacLean
Cc: Healeys; mike brooks
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Number next to mine (BN2)
I think the deal with the batch numbers is Jensens would make the bodies by
batch and then pile them up in the yard, and depending on when and how often
the deliveries were made to Longbridge (and later Abingdon), they would
arrive in a different order. Often enough the earlier bodies of the batch
being assembled later on the line (i.e. first in last out).
I have an early Phase II BJ8 (with single indicator lights) and there seems
to be no rhyme or reason on when the actual switchover happened to the later
Phase II cars, with some later style cars build before the earlier body
style. I'm sure Steve Byers can comment on this.
Alan
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