Currently i'm restoring my BSA WM20. While doing this, i'm wondering if i have to put the C-number on the tank or on the mudguard board? In an earlier topic i've seen a picture where they have sprayed the number on the mudguard board as in the picture you can see in this photo link:
http://imageshack.com/a/img924/8370/vVoZFk.jpg
The related C-number is C4197199, which is just 3 numbers away from a m20 in the picture.
Nowadays when I look on the internet and in real life, I see similar bikes (with having a mudguard board), where the C number has been written down on the tank instead of the mudguard board. They have sprayed the mudguard board totally green. Is there a reason for doing this?
Gerrit, the locations varied. It depends whether you want to portray 'just in service' or later.
Pre-war, British Army motorcycles had civilian number plates so the only position for the WD serial was on the fuel tank. The civilian numbers ceased at the start of the war but numbers remained on the fuel tank.
At some point in mid 1940, instructions were give to the manufacturers to apply the serial numbers and this was done on the now vacant number plates - front and rear.
However, this was something of a waste of steel and with the introduction of the WD rear tail light, the number plates disappeared altogether. How quickly the number plates of existing machines were removed will have depended upon location and type of unit but by the end of 1942, there are few numberplates appearing in photographs so they had generally been removed by then.
