The Bill of Sale – Documented History

The following study concerns the Ford Factory or Assembly Plant’s Bill of Sale’s to the dealership and the Dealership Bill of Sale’s to the public.

There is a lot of information on these Bill of Sale’s that one can use to closely determine just how long it took to assemble a car or truck from the time it took the engine and related parts to go from the Rouge plant in Dearborn, MI to any one of the 31 other assembly plants in the United States.

The Ford Factory Bill of Sale’s can tell us just where and what Ford Dealership took those vehicles, but the Ford Dealership Bill of Sale’s do not tell us what Ford Factory Assembly Plant they came from.  To closely determine just what Ford Factory Assembly Plant your car came from, you can determine it in two ways: 

• 1) The first way is to look for the assembly plant code of at least 3 letters and a series of numbers such as “SFA 123” which would be the 123^rd car or truck that came from the San Francisco Assembly line.  This “SFA 123” is found stamped into the top of the body cross rail between the wooden floorboards and the front seat riser;
• 2) The second way is the Dealership Bill of Sale.  One of Ford’s ideas in getting the vehicles to the customer was to manufacture near the source of supply and assemble near point of distribution.  That being the case, if the dealership was near a specific assembly plant, more than likely that is where the vehicle was assembled.  However, there may be instances where this may not be the case.   

Each individual Ford assembly plant had their own Bill of Sale’s as did the Dealerships. 

If you have any of these and would like to add the data to this database, please contact me.

Thanks.

Steve