There are two types of body plates.

• First Type: All 48 Series & FJ’s to early 1956

 

The details in the left ID plate indicate that this is an original model utility body. It was the  18767 sedan body built at the Woodville plant. It was painted …….  and had ………….. trim. The month of manufacture was July. The year of
manufacture can only be found on the serial plate of the vehicle, which is featured in the following section.

2nd Type: FJ’s from early 1956

The details on the second plate indicate that this was an FJ Special sedan. It was the 50,415th FJ vehicle to be assembled in Woodville. The trim colours were …….. and ………… The car was painted in ………., with ………….. top – or vice versa, perhaps! 

• Style No

48-215	The original model sedan, November 1948 – September 1953
48-215-257	The original business sedan, July 1953 – September 1953
50-2106	The original model utility January 1951 – September 1953
FJ-215	The FJ Standard sedan, October 1953 – July 1956
FJ-217	The FJ Business sedan, October 1953 – July 1956
FJ-225	The FJ Special sedan, October 1953 – July 1956
FJ-2104	The FJ Panel van, December 1953 – May 1957
FJ-2106	The FJ Utility, October 1953 – February 1957
7405 105	A replacement body shell for a 48-215 sedan model
7405 819	A replacement body shell for an FJ utility

 

• Body No (48 Series)

For the original 48 Series Holden models, the numbering began at 1 for the sedan, 1 for the business sedan and 1 for the utility. If there is a letter S before or after the body number, this indicates that the body was built in Pagewood, Sydney. Production of bodies in Sydney began in late 1952. If there is no letter with the body number, this indicates that the body was made in Woodville.

• Body No (FJ Series)

For the FJ models, the body numbering began at 1 for each of the model built in Woodville, i.e. 1 for the Standard, 1 for the Business sedan etc, and also at 1 for each of the models built in Sydney. Bodies produced at Woodville carried
no letter with the body number until September 1956, when the letter A was added to the last of the utilities and vans. Bodies produced in Sydney carried the  letter S with the body number. On the second type of body plate the style number was combined with the body number.

• Trim No (48 & FJ Series)
  

The digits that come before the dash in the trim number are a GMH in-house abbreviated code for the full paint number given in the next line of the body plate. This abbreviated code was originally very useful for the people in the paint shop, but it now has only curiosity value to restorers and collectors. The digits that come after the dash in the trim number are the trim combination number. 48 Series details are given in Norm Darwin’s book ‘The History of Holden since 1917, pp 218-219. FJ details are given overleaf.

In a few cases, the trim number details do not match the original trim in the car because occasionally dealers changed over completely the trim and seats of two cars, in order to oblige a pressing customer request. On rare occasions, the
Woodville body plant is known to have taken completed bodies and retrimmed them to special order.

The trim code ‘SPEC’ is thought to indicate trim fitted to special order, but precise details are not known.  

• Paint No (48 & FJ Series)
  

The digits before the dash indicate the type of paint used on the body: 253a nd 256-indicate ordinary duco lacquer. The prefix 256- may also appear before some of the 253 colours; 207- indicates metallic duco lacquer, which at
the time was referred to not as metallic, but pearlescent. Aluminium tinter and clear base were added to the paint to achieve this effect; 260 indicates chrome metallic duco lacquer.

The digits after the dash consist almost always of a 1 followed by the four digit Dulux paint number. Colour charts of these paints still exist, but they give restorers only a partial idea of what the original colours were like because the colour samples have tended to darken and change over the years. Even the paint formula details on the charts are of little use to restorers because the formulae all became obsolete when GMH changed over to acrylic paints for the
FB Holden in 1960.

Only two-tone FJ Special models have a second paint number next to TOP. It is supposed to be the number for the colour of the roof. However, on some body plates this number is reversed with the paint number, so restorers should
approach these numbers with caution.

• ACC

It is thought that ACC was originally intended to give the codes for factory fitted accessories but, as there were no such accessories ever fitted to the original and FJ models, the space was never used for that purpose. Instead, next
to ACC there was stamped a number indicating the month in which the body was built, for example 2 = February, 10 = October. 

• RPO

RPO stands for Regular Production Option, that is, an optional extra fitted on the assembly line. This code was used on FJ panel vans specially built for the PMG Department. The code was 292- 293- 297.

Some 1956 body plates begin with BODY IDENTIFICATION, but conclude with TOP and ACC instead of RPO and TOP.

• Chassis Subframe Plates 

Used in all Holden models assembled from 1948 to November 1950 and from September 1953 to the end of FJ production. The first digit indicate the year, ie:8=1948, 0=1950. The other 5 digits represent the body number on each individual state assembly line (of which there where 5). starting at 1001, but be careful as Sydney 48-215’s started at 1001 again in 1949 and 1950, utilities followed their own series starting at 1001 also. A = Adelaide, B=Brisbane, M=Melbourne, P=Perth, S=Sydney. The chassis plate is a 1956 FJ, Melbourne assembly, No 45458 (not 46458!)

• Door Pillar plate

 

Used in all Holden models assembled from December 1950 to August 1953. Shows the original engine number first. Next line  is Year of manufacture (1952), model type (Utility), manufactured by Holden Brisbane (HB) and body no (1197 – not 2197!).

Engine No

Grey motors started at 1001 and ran continuously to 283,372 with the last FJ.

 The following information was taken from “She’s a Beauty”  by Don Loffler and other sources.