My 1949 F4 has the following numbers stamped at the top of the firewall 2 KC 8 41 can you decipher them? There is also a stencil painted number on the flat center part of the firewall just below the holes for the accelerator linkage, 1 24 A. They were stenciled in very thick white paint, when I sand blasted the firewall I was careful to blast the area lightly enough to not remove them. The data tag on the firewall has 98RT*158974* and KC branch. I think that I've figured out the data tag, 1949 V8 1 ton with 158974 as the assembly sequence number and assembled in Kansas City, but I don't know what the other numbers mean.
Thanks

Glad to help. You do indeed have the data tag info sorted out. I can add that you have a very early 49 - they started around serial number 140,000 and continued thru approx 185,000.

Firewall: 2 is color code for Vermillion red; KC is Kansas City; 8 is the day of assembly but you're missing a letter that would indicate the month; 41 would be the vehicle down the line - an internal counting system.

Looking at other vins I have collected, I'd guess you're missing the letter "B" following the 8. This would make it a February 8, '49 assembly date.
The model year coincided with the calendar year during this period.

The stenciled characters don't line up with anything else here, I really don't know what they are.

I've heard that Ford assigned a block of serial numbers to each plant and they worked thru those pre-assigned numbers before receiving another group of vins. This makes it just about impossible to pin things down exactly.

Thanks Tim. I suspected that it was an early '49, but I didn't know for sure. The F4 emblems on the side of the cowl are die cast like the '48s.
Thanks again, Mark