question WW2 U.S. Data Plates - Zinc or Brass ????

[N.O.S.]

Why do suppliers offer data plates in both zinc and brass?

Were both materials used for all vehicle types?

 

Am I right in thinking they were mainly zinc, but restorers prefert he look of brass?

 

Any info much appreciated.

[Bodge Deep]

I've seen original Jeep plates in brass but not Dodge ones although someone does offer them. I'd imagine that as the war went on the need for brass for shells etc would necessitate the manufacture of data plates to be as cheap as possible

[abn deuce]

I think pre-war and early World War II the American data plates were brass and late war they were zinc ,Here's a reason brass might have been scarce late in the war just one of countless scrape metal dumps, From The Life magazine site .

 

 

any one want to hazard a guess as to the weight of all this ?

 

answer will be given after the tenth guess

[Stormin]

The only remaining and somewhat corroded data plate on my late Ward La France M1A1 is the boom capacity plate.

Definately original and brass. These would have been used in 1944 at the earliest as all previous models used a different boom. So some brass was available for plates up to the end of the war.

Seems it could have been a local supply issue that determined zinc or brass plates.

[Willyslancs]

RE:- any one want to hazard a guess as to the weight of all this ?

 

answer will be given after the tenth guess . I reckon about 18,000,000 pounds .............:coffee:

[79x100]

There are some strange contradictions in the only area that I know anything about (British WD motorcycles). Pre-war and into 1941 or so, the specification tags on Lucas Magdynos and Smiths speedos were aluminium and the contract plates were brass.

 

Presumably to save aluminium on the first two, they changed to brass but the contract plates were altered from brass to steel !

[N.O.S.]

any one want to hazard a guess as to the weight of all this ?

 

 

I reckon those two 25 tonne loads of aluminium lager cans tipped up in the foreground weigh about..... 50 tonnes?

[Tony B]

Surley aliuminium is the more techniquely intensive to produce, so brass would be the easier material to manufactuer?

[abn deuce]

Willyslanc has hit the nail on the head as they say.

 

I think he peek at the Life mag site :shocked:

 

Still a mind boggling amount of material , The total use of brass for all military uses must have been a Huge amount !!! (Dont ask me I dont know the figure.)

[Willyslancs]

Lol.............

[abn deuce]

the original caption for the photo of scrap brass

 

18,000,000 pounds of scrap brass piled up at a US Army depot storing unused equipment. Location: Tooele, UT, US Date taken: March 27, 1946 Photographer: Charles E. Steinheimer