Hi Bob.
Yes the order or the photos got re-positioned when I posted my comments.
My 120 has the Bournemouth, South of England tag.
My NZ MkV has the C242, 163 tag
My spare radiator has the P101.
Hope that explains it.
What type tag would you expect on my July 54 120?
Regards, Graham
Graham,
That explains a lot. What is now even more interesting is the question whether the NZ manufactured Mk V’s (I assume as CKD versions) had specially numbered Marston radiators, in this particular case C242. May-be our “Southern Hemisphere” specialist John and Terry know more about the question whether CKD cars destined for NZ were taken from the Coventry production line (with continuing chassis numbers) or specially organised (and ordered) combinations of parts or a combination of the two? If Marston would receive dedicated orders for CKD radiators destined for NZ (and possibly other countries) then C 242 could be an example of such a special batch.
Marston numbers for July 1954 built XK 120s are typically P 102 21 with serial numbers between 12000 and 13000.
Bob K.
Mark V saloons built in New Zealand were CKD and had body numbers beginning with PP1101, rather than continuing the G numbers. There aren’t a whole lot left to learn from, a search of saloondata turning up 11, the highest body number being PP1145, so I don’t know much more than that.
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Rob,
Thanks!
The fact that the NZ chassis numbers are different from Coventry production, might lead to the conclusion that also the NZ Marston radiator numbers would be different as it doesn’t make sense to continue the numbering as per radiators for “regular” Coventry production in New Zealand. So I’ll note order number C242 down as “Mark V CKD NZ”.
Your indication is that at least 144 have been made, so radiator number 163 might indicate that more have been made, unless the same Marston radiator order number was used for other CKD production locations as well. Questions, questions,…
Bob K.
There goes my (self invented) logic, Rob. So no explanation for the specific Marston order code C242, let alone the serial number 163… But we’ll keep on searching for an answer.
Bob K.
Hello Bob & Rob,
I recently had my original radiator re-cored and the shop lost the Marston tag. My car is 670203 and being one of the first 1000 cars had the original Marston tag type C267. I am looking for dimensions of the tag as I will have one recreated as suggested in this topic.
Geoff
670203
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Geoff:
The tag on my '53 DHC measures (as in Bob’s photo above): 2 1/2" long and 17/16" wide. Do you need specific measurements? For instance the square border containing the information is 1/8th from the outer edge, or was your original an earlier/different version?
Chris.
Mine are 1" x 2-1/2" exactly. Or if you need millimeters, that’s 25.4 mm x 63.5 mm.
I thought some vendor had already reproduced these.
Hello Chris,
No, I believe your DHC had the later Marston tag with P102 as the type. Bob K posted a photo of the early version above in this topic from 2020 which was the tag that was on my rad and for which I need the dimensions of to recreate one.
Geoff
670203
Geoff, is this the one you want?
Yes, Rob that is the one.
In that case, it appears that some Mark Vs used the same tag, although that may not help you much, as there was not enough flat space on the Mark V radiator, and they had to trim them off a little bit on the top and bottom to fit.
This one I believe is Graham Jordan’s car.
BTW Bob, here is another Mark V radiator tag. I don’t recall if I sent you this one before. This is from a car with the early type heater so one of the first 3866 cars out of 10,500.
Hi Geoff:
Coventry Auto Components have these reproductions. Check their website under the category: “Stickers & Decals” part #9423.
Chris.
Thanks Chris. I will check it out
Geoff,
Although CAC makes a very nice Marston replica plate, the problem is that (as far as I know) the early “Oldfield Lane” version is no longer manufactured. That’s the penalty of having something “special”.
Rob,
Thanks for the update with yet another Mk V plate. So clearly, the “order number” for the Mk V was P101 and we now have seen suffixes (= repeat orders) from 1 up to 16.
I think the Mk V also had the “Oldfield Lane” type of Marston tag, so I cannot fully explain this later “Leeds only” version. We should not exclude that this is a later modified version, also the order number is stamped with very large numbers.
For comparison I’ve added a Mk V “Oldfield Lane” tag with P101/1 which I think is original.
Bob K.
It would appear that Mark V had both the earlier Oldfield Lane Drg No version and the later the Order No Serial No version.
Here is the one currently in my Mark V.
So if Geoff has a run of these Oldfield Lane versions reproduced, he will have a market in Mark V owners as well as XK120 owners.
Or a Mark V specialist parts vendor would buy the excess.
Perhaps the Oldfield Lane version was used with Mark IV? We could do a survey.
Thanks Bob! Yes, I already verified with CAC that they only have the later Marston tag, similarly with other vendors. Hopefully, someone with an early car with an early Marston tag can provide measurements.
Rob,
Although we’re drifting away from the initial subject (which is not uncommon on this website 
) you might be correct.
As we’ve seen for the XK 120, there was a “pre-production run” not indicated with a Pxxx number but with a Cxxx number. Whereas the XK 120 had the code C267, the Mk V had code C242 (which is earlier than the XK 120 code C267).
Possibly after the formal OK from Jaguar. Marston would change over to a production order number: P101 for the Mk V and P102 for the XK 120.
Marston used their new coding system (P101) for the first time on the Mk V, as the Mk IV had a totally different Marston tag (see below) with a (probably) continuous sequence number (for the Mk IV I’ve seen plates in the 12000 range upto 44000).
The change-over from “Oldfield Lane” to “Leeds only” tags may have taken place at the same date for the Mk V and for the XK 120. For the latter we know exactly when this took place: August 1950.
If anyone has a better insight in the production numbers of the Mk V assembly line, the change over around August 1950 should manifest itself in the introduction of the new “Leeds only” plate. The Marston plates with P101/9 show production numbers around 7000. So we may conclude that the change-over to the “Leeds only” plate took place at the latest when about 7000 Mk V cars had been built.
Had a quick look at the “Saloon Data” site and used the Mk V Saloon 3.5 body numbers as a reference. Production started in March 1949 with body number G1000 and body numbers around G8000 were built in August 1950.
So we’re tempted to conclude that Marston changed the tag lay-out around August 1950 throughout their radiator production. Could even be checked for other car manufacturers that also used Marston radiators, like Jowett and AC.
Bob K.
