[Rhys]

So, I've just been stripping the orange paint off the brass model plate on the side as it appears my Bantam has had a spray over at some point. Not complaining as it looks good.. It's also had a Honda GX140 5.0hp engine fitted, as the original must've conked out. At least it's reliable except it needs a new tank since the one on it id bent a bit and lets petrol evaporate though the ill fitting cap.



As you can see the plate has been painted over on the side of the rotor cover.


After some nitromorse/petrol and a lot of rubbing (plus losing a screw in my back yard) I managed to clean the plate up a bit and try to make out what it says..








The serial 'machine' number appears to be 4239. I don't know if a year/date can be got from this?


Any help in dating would be appreciated, purely out of interest.

[shedmeister]

Going by the prov numbers I would say July 1948. Going back to my days welding lorry trailors that was how we stamped the id plate. Posibly the 27th made that month

[Rhys]

Thanks. If that's the case, then it's pretty old. I guess they made stuff to last in them days, not like nowadays where everything has a built in obsolescence.