1949 JEEPSTER VIN LOCATION(s)? Engine identification?

[Aspidude]

I just purchased my 1st Jeepster! Always wanted on and found one to my liking. It’s a 1949 6cylinder with OD. It has been unregistered and untitled for quite sometime from Connecticut. I am now in the process of titling and registering in California. DMV is looking for 2 VIN verifications? I know if the one above the glove box, where is a second? Also, how do I identify if this engine is original to this vehicle?
Appreciate your help, and looking forward to sharing my restoration progress with the group.
Dave

[LarrBeard]

The L-148 "lightning", 6-cylinder flathead, was an engine option in 1949, so the engine you have - if is a flathead, is one of the 1949 options. In the last two production years, the F-161 , also named the "Lightning", was available. And, to throw the last engine in the mix, the F-134 was also fitted as an option. The type of engine was original to the year and model (VJ), so you are probably in luck there.

Original Jeepsters were never very common, and even rarer now. Think long and hard before you "new and improve" it.

Since Willys was never very good about keeping model years straight, what you see is what you have.

The serial number behind the glovebox on the firewall is the only location noted in any sources.

Maybe if you take them enough sources saying that it was serialized in only one place, that will satisfy them.

[Aspidude]

Thanks for confirming the VIN issue. All of the resources that I have search have only referred to the 1 location- above the glovebox. I have printed a few of these for my trip to the DMV.
Does this VIN or tag, tell me anything about the engine it was produced with?
As for the engine ID, it is definitely is a flat 6, and matches up with picture of the same. What am I looking at as identifiers for the year it was made, and if it is true to this Jeepster? I see when the numbers are stamped on the block to the left of the water pump. See attached.
As for restoring, I have no plans to update or change anything- it is running, just need to attend to various wiring issues.2991299229932994

[gmwillys]

As LarrBeard referred to, Willys was notorious for not keeping good records on their production. It is often seen that a vehicle may contain different model year of parts, i.e. if the engine plant made Y amount of engines, but only X amount of bodies were built, then the holdover engines would be used into the next model year. The engine plant would crank out engines, not knowing to where they would end up, meaning a portion of engines may find their way into the industrial side for use as a generator, air compressor, or power a tractor. The engine plant didn't do anything but build engines in bulk. Vehicle sales and production numbers would not align, so there would be a lot of left over units that were rebadged as the following model year, and there would be no record of the change. There is no source for line setting records like the other manufactures had in place. It really is a crap shoot to figure out if you in fact have all the original equipment that your Jeepster was born with.

[Aspidude]

So, there isn’t anyway or anywhere to reference and decode the numbers stamped on the side of the engine?

[gmwillys]

In a nutshell. We have all been in the hunt to verify our Willy's pedagree, but we have all been disappointed.