1969 SS 396

Fisher Body Number Plate - Baltimore, Maryland Assembly Plant (BAL)

Baltimore tags generally have a 1- or 2-digit machine stamped number in the upper right-hand corner; the exact meaning is not known.

It is not known yet whether Baltimore made a distinction between an inline 6-cylinder engine and a V8 engine with the style number as no known 6-cylinder Chevelle trim tags have been found to date. The words/abbreviation ST (for style), BAL, BDY on the second line were consistent along with TR (for trim) and PNT on the third line. The body date, style year and number, body number, trim code, and paint codes were stamped for the specific car as it was scheduled for production. Baltimore did not use a hyphen character between the year and style number such as 69 13637 and the body number is a 6-digit number but no space between the Fisher Body plant designation letters and the body number such as BAL1642269.

The 3-digit trim code number did not differentiate between bench or bucket seat type since the 3-digit trim code itself was enough to distinguish between a bench and bucket seat type. For example, trim code 755 is a black vinyl bench seat whereas trim code 756 is a black vinyl bucket seat.

Body dates of months 1 through 9 were typically padded with a leading zero to make a 3-character body date. Several 1C and 1D body date stamps have been found but this may be due to the leading ‘0’ being stamped near the hole used to attach the tag to the firewall.

Baltimore has one or more of several letters stamped on their trim tags. The meaning of these letters is not known. These letters include B, F, M, and L. Sometimes a letter will be stamped by itself, sometimes in conjunction with a second letter. Probably the most controversial of these letters is the letter “L” which many believe indicates an external trim change to SS Equipment trim and badging. To date there has not been any corroborating documentation from GM or Fisher Body to confirm or dispel this theory but probably 99.9% of all known SS Equipment optioned Malibus and 300 Deluxe models have this letter “L” on the trim tag. To date, these letters have been found on the following series/body style trim tags.

Letter	Found On
B	Found on Malibu sport coupe, Malibu sport sedan, Malibu 4-door sedan, Malibu series Custom El Camino, and 300 Deluxe sport coupe. Sometimes found by itself, sometimes in combination with letters F, M, and/or L.
F	Found on Malibu series Custom El Camino. Sometimes found by itself, sometimes in combination with letters M, and/or L.
M	Found on Malibu sport coupe, convertible and Malibu series Custom El Camino. Sometimes found by itself, sometimes in combination with letters B, M, and/or L.
L	Found on Malibu sport coupe, Malibu sport sedan, Malibu series Custom El Camino, and 300 Deluxe sport coupe. Probably the most controversial letter. It's strongly believed this letter L indicates external SS396 trim but this has NOT been confirmed by any direct knowledge or GM documentation. The letter L has been found on at least 1 non-SS396 optioned Malibu and at least 1 known SS396 optioned Malibu has been found without this letter L. While using this letter as a way to determine if your 1969 Chevelle is a true SS396 or not is up to you, there is no 100% guarantee but there is strong evidence that it does. Never found by itself, sometimes in combination with letters B, F, and/or M.

Baltimore tags also have a 6-digit number on the right side of the 3rd line. This is a concatenation of a 3-digit unknown source number and the last 3 digits are found on the Trim inspection sequence card.

Special paint Chevelles from Baltimore have been found with several variations. Most common is a dash, or hyphen, character in place of the lower and/or upper body color code and/or the Fleet & Special Order number such as A1313 after the body date.