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ORIGINAL SHEET METAL for MGA - HS-110

On 07 Nov 2005 Morris Wadds from B.C., Canada wrote:
"I had all the body parts soda blasted this week and a mysterious brand appeared on the sheet metal of the right front fender. It appears to be etched into the metal. It is about 10 cm (4 inchs) in diameter with the bottom cm cut off similar to a horse shoe."
Branding stamp on MGA sheet metal
"The following is writen in capitals around the permiter.
GREW - VALE
Then underneath and written horizontally
14
?9776
V48 59
R.T.& B.

The ? reflects a character I can't make out. The GRE of GREW are very faint, however the W is quite obvious. The characters, GRE are all flat topped so the G could be an F or E. Can anyone tell me what the mark is and what it means?

This mark appears on the outside of the right front fender on a 1960 MGA, number HNL 86334. Using the car number it was probably assembled late Feb or early March 1960".


On 07 Nov 2005 at 13:58:41 UK time Iain MacKintosh, Highland, UK wrote:
"The numbers are obviously batch numbers, grades etc but the GREW Vale will be EBBW Vale and this is the town in South Wales in which the steel sheet was rolled. RTB is Richard, Thomas and Baldwin which was the actual name of the company which was part of the Steel Company of Wales before the government of the day nationalised the steel industry when it then became British Steel Corporation - Ebbw Vale Works. BSC ultimately became part of Corus along with Hoogovens Netherlands and Ebbw Vale works is now closed."


With a few faint pictures in hand, it appears to me that character in front of "48 59" may be a "W" (maybe). The marking W48 59 may be a production date in the 48th week of 1959. The brand appears to have been rubber stamped with an etching agent. - Barney

EBBW - VALE
14
?9776
W48 59
R.T.& B.
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