Tony.
It does seem odd the ‘5’ is a constant on all data plates, and is always to the extreme left of the Date Box on the data plates. You might be correct in that it has nothing to do at all with the build date.
I know nothing about the CKD production process, but suspect the vehicles were never fully assembled by GM at their Oshawa plant. Assembly likely went only so far and then everything else was packed in the crates for shipment. It would make no sense to fully assembly the vehicles, test them and then strip them all down for crating.
So, if the CKD vehicle reaches the end point at the production line, technically for the GM plant in Oshawa, the assembly/build is not complete on a particular date, but all the pieces would be ready to go at some point in any given month and year. The ‘5’ might, therefore, be a reference code used internally by GM to denote a ‘Complete, but not assembled vehicle’ that is ready for shipping.
I think the work at GM’s Oshawa plant for GM would have only been the Cab and Chassis part of the CKD. The CKD body would have been shipped knocked down from its separate builder and/or sourced locally at a foreign Assembly Plant.
I have only ever seen one CKD complete vehicle. It was a Ford Cab 13 15-cwt GS. The cab data plates did not have ‘CKD’ on them anywhere as I recall, but the body data plate on the rear of the box did have ‘CKD stamped into it. The box came from a plant in Tillsonberg, Ontario as I recall.
Maybe it might be worth checking other CMP weight classes for surviving CKD vehicles from GM and see what their cab data plates have to say. The same ‘5’ stamp might show up on them as well as these cute little trucks.
Just my 2.5 cents worth.
David
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