The VIN numbers on these trucks are located in 3 easily visible places. Those places are, top of driver's side frame rail, anywhere from the steering box mount to the shock mounting area. Next is on the rating plate mounted on the inside of the glove box door, and third is on the top of the bellhousing, viewable when the transmission plate is removed from the floor. Most reliable is the number stamped on the frame, second is the glove box door (since the plate is easily removed) and third is the transmission bellhousing since transmission are often swapped out. The number on the frame will start with a star, then followed by the number, then ending in a star.
Use the table below to help give an idea of what your VIN should look like. Find the ton rating along top row, then find your truck's engine, where the 2 rows intersect is what your VIN should look like. X is used to represent the numbers in the VIN given to the truck, x in parentheses because later trucks had 7 digits in VIN. In Oct of '47 Ford switched to the H series 6 cylinder, when Ford did this the serial numbers changed. Instead of "71G" the numbers switched to "77H". Very few (if any) '47 model trucks had the H series. Note that the VIN decoding only applies to U.S. built trucks.
| | 1/2 ton | 1 ton | 1 1/2 ton (134" WB) | 1 1/2 ton (158" WB) | School Bus (194" WB) |
| 6 cyl | 71GCxxxxxx(x) | 71GYxxxxxx(x) | 71GTxxxxxx(x) | 71G8Txxxxxx(x) | N/A w/ 6cyl |
| 8 cyl | 799Cxxxxxx(x) | 799Yxxxxxx(x) | 799Txxxxxx(x) | 798Txxxxxx(x) | 794Txxxxxx(x) |
6 cylinders have prefix of 71G
8 cylinders have prefix of 79
C = 1/2 ton, Y = 1 ton, T = 1 1/2 ton
VIN range for V8 1,412,709 to 2,071,117
" " 6 326,418 to 414,366 (G series) 512 to 9,038 (H series)
Note that these ranges include passenger car production as well.
