Fisher Body Number Plates - Preface

[  Preface  ] | [ 1964 ] | [ 1965 ] | [ 1966 ] | [ 1967 ] | [ 1968 ] | [ 1969 ] | [ 1970 ] | [ 1971 ] | [ 1972 ]

1964 through 1972 Chevelle Fisher Body Number plates preface.

Before reading the series there are some things you should know first so they will not have to be explained in every year's page.

Each plant in each model year had their way of presenting information on the Fisher Body Number plate. One should not think a trim tag is not authentic just because it does not look like the one on their car; many other factors must be taken into account. Each plant and each year should be looked at in and of itself. It is also not uncommon for a particular plant to change the basic format of their trim tag within a single model year. In 1964 the Baltimore final assembly plant changed the overall appearance of their trim tag in mid-year as did the Fremont final assembly plant in 1966.

Plants had different ways of showing the body assembly date, some would pad a single digit month (1…9) with a leading 0 (zero), some did not so where one plant in any given year would show January 3rd week as 1C, another would show 01C.

The assembly week letter (A…E) has never really been defined. By that I mean, to one plant, the week letter “A” may mean the first full week of a given month regardless of the actual dates involved such as April of 1964 where the first full work week of April are dates 6 through 11. April 1, 2, and 3 could be considered the “D” or “E” week (4th or 5th week) of March by some plants but April 1, 2, and 3 may be considered the “A” week of April. How else would one explain some plants having an “E” letter 5th week letter and others not for a given month or how at least one plant, Fremont, having 3 consecutive months with “E” week coded tags (September, October, and November of calendar year 1966)? Some plants may not have an "E" week the entire model year where other plants will for given months. Bottom line; take the week letter with a grain of salt when trying to determine a date range. The physical calendar days that week letter may represent to that plant at that point in time is probably lost to history.

The STYLE number on most plants trim tags has no meaning as far as the car being assembled with a V8 or L6 engine. Generally Fisher Body didn’t care what type or size of engine was to be installed. Fisher Body built the body itself from the firewall aft. See the table below for a matrix of plants/years and what's been found so far.

Some plants (1965-1968) would use a hyphen character (-) between lower and upper paint codes (such as F-F) where others did not (such as FF). Beginning in 1969 paint codes changed from a letter to a 2-digit number for lower and upper body paint colors.

The same holds true for several years of interior codes (1965-1967). Some plants will show a black bucket seat as code 763-B where others simply show it as 763. In most cases, the “-B” is redundant since trim code 763 is for black bucket seats anyway, the corresponding black bench seat is code 761 which, like the 763 example, will be shown as 761-A. Beginning in 1968 this -A and -B designation disappeared. Beginning in 1972 bench and bucket seats no longer had unique trim codes for the same color & material. Instead, either the seat type code A51 or A52 would follow the trim code where A51 would indicate bucket seats and A52 would indicate a bench front seat.

Paint designation codes varied between plants in the early years. Fremont in 1964 used 3 letters to designate the upper body color, the lower body color, and the steel wheel color. Fremont in 1964 was the only plant in any year to list the upper body color first followed by the lower body color. Other plants in 1964 used a 3-digit number for the paint code. In 1964, only the Kansas City plant used a 4th digit on convertibles to designate the convertible top color but Van Nuys (and Atlanta convertible bodies built at Euclid, OH.) would use a single digit number after the trim code to designate the convertible top color.

From 1964 through 1967 some plants would include group option codes while others did not. Beginning in 1968 this feature disappeared as well.

Concerning Chevelles built in Oshawa, Ontario, those built for intended sale in Canada and those that were "imported" into the U.S. under GMs banner have vastly different trim tags than Chevelles built in the U.S. for U.S. sale. GM of Canada did not always offer the same body styles and in some cases, engine options that the U.S. did. For example, in  1965 and 1966 GM of Canada did not have a 300 Deluxe series but GM of Canada did have a 300 series convertible that the U.S. did not. No El Caminos were built in Canada, all were "imported" from the U.S. The 1970 LS6 engine was not available in a Canadian-built Chevelle in 1970 but GM of Canada documentation shows 231 U.S.-built Chevelles with the optional LS6 engine were sold via Canadian dealers but all of those LS6 Chevelles were built in the U.S. so they would have the appropriate U.S. plant trim tag.

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Table of known assembly plants and whether they support odd 3rd digit in Style number or not

Plant ↓   Year →	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972
Arlington, TX.							unk	unk	unk
Atlanta, GA.	No	unk	No	No	unk	No	unk
Baltimore, MD.	unk	No	No	No	No	unk	Yes	Yes	Yes
Euclid, OH.	unk	unk
Framingham, MA.		No	No	No	No	No
Flint, MI.			unk				unk
Fremont, CA.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kansas City, MO.	No	unk	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Van Nuys, CA.	No						unk	Yes	unk
Oshawa, ON.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	unk	Yes

unk ~ To date, no odd 3rd digit trim tags have been found. This does not mean an odd 3rd digit was never used, just one has not been found to date. Any "unk" entry is still questionable. Anyone finding a trim tag from one of these plants with an odd 3rd digit is encouraged to email a photo of the tag to me and I'll update this page.
No ~ Those noted No are known to NOT have used an odd 3rd digit and known even 3rd digit trim tag style numbers (such as 13617) have L6 VINs (such as 13517).
Yes ~ The trim tag style numbers match the series/body style on the VIN.
          ~ Plant did not assemble Chevelles in this year.

Download the matrix as a .jpg file - right click and "Save"

[  Preface  ] | [ 1964 ] | [ 1965 ] | [ 1966 ] | [ 1967 ] | [ 1968 ] | [ 1969 ] | [ 1970 ] | [ 1971 ] | [ 1972 ]