FISHER BODY NUMBER PLATES
FISHER BODY NUMBER PLATES ANALYSIS
GENERAL DECODING
Atlanta, Georgia (ATL)
Baltimore, Maryland (BAL)
Framingham, Massachusetts (FRA)
Fremont, California (BF)
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI (KAN)
Oshawa, Ontario
[ Atlanta ] | [ Baltimore ] | [ Framingham ] | [ Fremont ] | [ Kansas City ] | [ Oshawa ]
Kansas City final assembly plant trim tags were fairly straightforward with 4 lines of information and consistent throughout the model year.
The first information line has the body assembly date consisting of the month as a 2-character number and a single letter (A…E) designating the week. When the month is a single digit month (January through September) the month number is padded with a leading zero (0) such as 01, 02, 03, etc. This body date is embossed below the GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION stamping. In the examples, 09D is the 9th month (September) and “D” represents the 4th week. The 4-character number is obviously some internal plant tracking code but to date it has not turned up on any paperwork so it's significance is unknown.
The second information line contains the abbreviation ST (for Style) followed by the model year (66), a hyphen and the Fisher Body style number. Next is the designation for the plant location, KAN for Kansas City, and the Fisher Body unit number followed by BODY. It should be noted that the Fisher Body style number (13667 for a Malibu convertible in the example) has nothing to do with the GM VIN series/model designation. That means the 13667 does not indicate a V8 engine just because the third digit is an even number. Fisher Body did not care if the car was to receive a V8 or L6 engine. In this case of style of 13667, one cannot know from the style number if the car was built with an L6 or V8 engine. Generally, the Fisher Body unit number, 233 in this case, was sequential for the particular Style number.
The third information line contains the abbreviation TR (for Trim) followed by a 3-character number, a hyphen, and a letter indicating the seat type and color. The letter "A" indicates a bench seat, the letter "B" indicates a bucket seat, and the letter "S" indicates head rests. Next is a 2-character sequence indicating the exterior paint color with the lower body color represented by the first letter, a hyphen, and the upper body color represented by the second letter, and finally the word PAINT. When the second character is a number, it indicates a vinyl or convertible top color.
The fourth information line contains various letters and numbers indicating the various option groups (1 through 5) with a number and letters for various options the car was ordered with within those groups. It should be noted that the first group of options does not have the number “1,” but all other groups are preceded by the numbers "2" through "5."
One oddity is sometime between 10D and 11D the paint letter "G" for Granada Gold became a much smaller letter. The reasoning for this is unclear but this continued through the 1968 model year at Kansas City as well. It's not like the letter "G" die was broken and never replaced; note the letter "G" in the 2nd group options, it appears to be a normal size.