Judkins Production Data, 1931 Berline bodies

I have been trying to nail down the number of two-window Berline bodies (Style 213A) produced by the Judkins Company for Lincoln for the 1931 Model year. I believe I may possibly have the last one, as it was completed and shipped to Lincoln on 23 July 1931. I have confirmed this from the CCCA archives of Judkins records. Notes from a previous owner state that 117 Berlines were made in 1931 (2-window only? 2 and 3-window? calendar year or model year?). The Standard Catalog (Kimes) states that 171 213B (3-window Berline) bodies were produced in 1931 but lists no figure at all for 213A bodies. The auction listing for a 213A Lincoln sold at Amelia Island in 2008 states 72 2-window bodies were estimated to be produced. You can see why I am uncertain.

My research on the Internet indicates that a Lincoln Owners Club Member named Frank Rose published production data for Lincoln Model L cars and indicated that additional data on Lincoln K's were available, but I have not been able to locate a source for such data. Perusal of the CCCA Archives has not yielded this information. Any additional help in establishing a firm production data would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Bill, I have a lot of copies of correspondence that was written in the early 1970's by John Dobben who was the head of Judkins shop. This correspondence was to a fellow restoring an early Judkins Packard coupe , and was the basis of an article I wrote on Judkins for Hemmings Classic Car magazine. Although Dobben didn't get specific for the Style 213A two window Berline , from what I read of his notes (which due to space limitations not all that was mentioned there could fit into the article in HCC) my educated guesstimate from 45+ years of research into custom coachwork would say that the figure of 72 - 2 window bodies being estimated as being produced is very accurate. Judkins did a huge volume of coachwork on the Lincoln chassis. Dobben stated he did not like the individual body built to order "one of a kind" as he said they lost money on everyone that came through the shop, in fact he would suggest that that particular customer go down the road to the Merrimac Body Co. for an individual custom so that they (Judkins) could get on with the volume (say 50 or more) production for a particular car manufacturer. This isn't an exact answer to your question, but hope it helps some. Cheers.

Walt G - thanks for the reply. All information is helpful and fleshes out the provenance a bit.

After some detective work on associating Lincoln and Judkins style designations with each other, I believe that I have been able to decipher the individual production cards in the Judkins Archives on the CCCA Museum website. For whatever it is worth, here are my findings:

The Lincoln style associated with Judkins Berline bodies for 1931 was style 213 - however the Judkins code for that style was 1131. Judkins code 1131 corresponded to Lincoln style 213-A, a two-window Berline; the CCCA Archive has a factory photo documenting this. Judkins code 1131B was a 3-window Berline (per another factory photo), while 1131C was a collapsible Berline (the rear quarter actually folded down - there is a rendering in the CCCA Archives of this design). There were three separate orders from Ford (A-42545, A-48871, A-51836) for style 213 during 1931, consisting of 75, 50, and 50 bodies respectively, for a total of 175 Berline bodies. On the Judkins production cards, the designation of "1131", "B" or "C" is identified for each individual body. Counting individual bodies delivered from Judkins, I found that code 1131 bodies totalled 124, with one 1131C, two other non-standard bodies, with the balance of 48 bodies being 1131B bodies, or 3-window Berlines. I conclude that the number of Judkins two-window Berlines delivered for the 1931 model year was 124.

I would be happy to hear input from anyone who could refine the numbers I have come up with, but I believe I will go with these for now. I would be glad to share my assumptions and methodology with anyone who is interested. I believe this could be applied to any other Judkins body style.

I want to apologize for and correct an error that appeared in my most recent post and that may mislead some readers.  I incorrectly stated that the Judkins body code for a 1931 Two-window Berline was 1131 as compared to the Lincoln style number of 213A.  The correct body code is 1191 for the Two-window Berline, 1191B for the Three-window Berline, and 1191C for the (semi)-collapsible Berline. Photos of the body styles showing the Judkins style numbers can be found at:

http://cccamuseum.org/Explore/Archives/ArchiveViewer/tabid/116/Default.aspx

 I regret the error and hope that no one has been unduly inconvenienced.