1927-1928 Dodge Bros. 4-Door Sedan (which one?)

[Matt Harper]

I have JUST aquired a 1927 or 1928 Dodge Bros. 4-Door Sedan. I can not find a serial number, or anything. In all my Books (Standard Catalog of American Cars...) it looks to be a 1927. But, it seems as though it could be a 1928, based on the photos from this site. The car has wooden spoked wheels with one body line running from front of cab to rear of cab. There are no body lines on the front cowl (right infront of the windshield). Any ideas or things to look for? Matt

[Guest Shaffer]

Not sure, but here is a photo of my grandfathers 1927 Dodge sedan. Perhaps you can tell by his car what year your car might be. This was taken last month when it was still in North Carolina. Another photo- see following post.

[Guest Shaffer]

Photo #2

[P M Bohlig]

27 or 28:

Is your engine a 4 cylinder or a 6 cylinder?

1. What does your title say. Models 124 and 126 were 27 116 inch wheel base 4 cylinder cars

2. Models 128 and 129 were 108? wheel base 1928 4 cylinder cars

3. If your car is a 6 cylinder vehicle it gets a bit more complicated. Do you have the wooden floor boards from the vehicle. There was a vehicle ID plate tacked to the wood on the passenger side inside the cab? What does it say? If you don?t have that then carefully remove the oil fill pipe inside the engine compartment on the drivers side. Use duct tape to keep crud from falling into the oil pan. Carefully scrape where the engine is bolted to the oil pan just behind where the oil fill pipe was. There is supposed to be a number there for the engine block. You might have to use a nut pick or sharp item such as a very small drill bit to clean the crud out. If you find a number let me know.

Best of luck

[Guest imported_DodgerDave]

Make it simple,

Behind the right front leafspring most rear shackle

on the frame you will find the frame number to the car.

Post that number and I can check it with catalog I have.

You may need a wire brush to clean any dirt from that

area but that is where you'll find it. Also if you

have the six cylinder than it is at least a 28. Dodge brothers

did not have a six cylinder engine until 28.

The engine Nubers are as follows:

4 cyl will be located on the upper left hand corner

of the block just below the headgasket seam closest to the

fire wall.

6 cyl will be located on the right hand side forward corner

just above the manifold assembly and below the headgasket

seam.

Post that number and we should be able to tell if the engine

is original to the car or not.

GoodLuck

[Guest john h miller]

Dave, I am new to the site. My brother bought a 1927 DB four dr. I don't have a frame number but any info on the engine # will be of great help, i will contct him and get the frame number asap

engine number is D i think, from a photo i have 901-565

hge is in CA. Iam in Portland OR. but want to help him out.

 

thanks for you time.

[robert b]

Series 126 with carburetor on left side  and engine with " D" prefix, three point engine mount single plate clutch.

db4_ dates_serial_no.pdf

Edited October 24, 2016 by robert b (see edit history)

[panelbeater1234]

[22touring]

Matt, I just thought I'd chime in to mention how production vs. registration year worked back then.

If any of you more well-informed types find any mistakes in the following, please correct me.

 

During the 3rd or 4th week of July of each year, the DB factory would shut down production while the employees all went on vacation. The only employees who worked during the vacation week were the assembly-line changeover specialists and the parts procurers.

 

DB considered vehicles produced prior to the July vacation week to be that year's production, but they considered the cars produced after the July vacation week to be the following year's production.

 

The states, of course, adhered to the calendar year in determining the model year of the vehicle.

This can sometimes create confusion about the model year of cars produced between July and December. 

[Chrycoman]

 

Calendar Year - Starts January 1 and ends December 31.  Production, shipments and registrations were all recorded on a calendar year basis.  Production was the number of cars that rolled off the assembly line.  Shipment reports were the number of cars shipped from the assembly plant(s).  Not all cars were shipped the day of, or the day after, or even within the week after they were built.  Thus shipments and production reports do not jive.  Production of the 1st series 1949 models (model year began on December 1, 1948) came to an end in the last part of January, 1949 but shipment reports show the last models shipped from the plants in March.  Bet those cars shipped in February and March were discounted to get them off the lot.

 

Registration reports were the number of cars registered for the first time.  This number included all cars registered for the first time regardless of model year.  Not all cars sold were registered in the U.S.  Cars sold in Canada were registered in Canada, etc.  Again, in the case of reports on car registrations, the reports will not match production or shipments reports.  

 

Model Year - Dodge Brothers (and most manufacturers in the 1920's) began the model year on July 1st of the year.  Naturally there were exceptions to this "rule".  Thus in calendar year 1921 the cars built from January 1 to June 30 were 1921 models while cars built from July 1 to the end of the year were 1922 models.  Reports were done on model years but were rarely published for public consumption before WW II.   We seem to have gone back to that era.

 

Chrysler Engineering, as well as the engineering departments at Graham-Paige, Hupp, Pontiac and others, had a model year completely different from the July 1st start.  This model year depended upon when the model went into production.   If a model went into production in May, 1921, it was a 1921 model.  An October, 1921, start was still a 1921 model.  However, the sales / marketing people still sold the cars according to the July 1st start of the model year.  Thus you get people calling the model Q Plymouth a 1928 model (Engineering model year) and others a 1929 model (sales / marketing model year).  

 

As for the individual states and provinces, they followed whatever regulations they had laid out.  If the DMV believed the model year was the year the car was first registered, your Dodge Brothers coupe built in October, 1921, was registered as a 1921 model.   And if your October, 1921, coupe was first registered in 1923 it was registered as a 1923 model.  If you lived in a state where they registered the car according to the sales invoice, your October 1921 car was registered as a 1922 model regardless when it was registered.  Couple all that with using either the engine number or the chassis number as the serial number, things got confusing.

 

Bill

Vancouver, BC