[tomnt]

Can someone help me decode this trim tag, or point me in the right direction.
Nothing I have found makes sense for this tag.
VIN# 824F001153, would that make it the 152nd car produced? Very early production. Possibly using 1963 codes?


PONTIAC DIV. GENERAL MOTORS CORP.

1220 PONTIAC MICHIGAN 2-1


STYLE 2227 BODY BF 90

TRIM 016 PAINT SS A

ACC A49 B9O 37



BODY BY FISHER


Scanner wouldnt work tried too reproduce.

[tomnt]

I can get the Style 2227. 2 Pontiac 2 Lemans GTO 27 Sport Coupe.
Non of the rest make any sense, to me.
VIN 8, 8 cyl 2, Lemans GTO 4, 1964 F, Fremont CA. 001153 Sequential Unit #

[John V.]

In '64, each assembly plant that built Pontiacs or Tempests or both (home plant at Pontiac, Mich only plant to build both) started with 1 VIN sequence set, unique to that Plant.

Didn't matter if V8 or 6 cyl, the cars were assigned a VIN from this unique VIN set. Each sequence set started from 1001 and each Pontiac or Tempest was assigned the next in line.

Only the Pontiac, Mich plant exceeded 100,000 units, they went from P001001 to P280000 or so.

The Fremont Plant as I recall built short of 40,000 Tempests, so they went from F001001 to about F038000 or thereabouts. As an aside, the Olds A body was also built at Fremont and had a near identical VIN format as used by Pontiac. But they avoided any overlap confusion because the Olds VINs started from F100001.

Yours is definitely early, my own '64 Fremont GTO convert is an 11D build (Nov. '63) and is VIN around F005700.

Your VIN means yours was the 153rd (if 1001 was the 1st, 1153 was 153rd) Pontiac A body Tempest produced at Fremont for the '64 Model Year.

To the best of my knowledge, Body Nos. were dependent on Model Series and Body Style.

Yours was Body No. BF 90, meaning it was the 90th Body Assembly in the 22 Series Lemans and 27 2 dr. Sports Coupe (post style coupe) Body Style that was put together by the Fremont-Fisher Body Plant at Fremont. The Body Assemblies weren't necessarily assembled in Body No. sequence. Once they were conveyed to the final line Body Bank, the sequencing to the line was determined by scheduling clerks there.

AFAIK, the VIN was NOT assigned until final assembly in '64, although that has never been certain. It seems to have been the case at the Pontiac Plant, but could have been different at Fremont.

It would seem a bit high for them to have produced 153 Tempests total and for 90 of them to be Lemans Sports Coupes. It is possible that they counted all Sports Coupes (20 series Tempest, 21 series Tempest Custom, and 22 series Lemans) in a single count. I have studied Body Nos. a lot and every time I think I have them figured out, something odd is seen. It is hard to get info on Tempests because they are less collectible. So you can believe yours was the 90th Lemans Sports Coupe body assembly assembled by Fremont-Fisher Body or the 90th Pontiac A body Sports Coupe total for all 3 model series'. Either way, that was pretty early.

Okay, after writing that out, I go to look at your Data Plate codes and now understand your confusion a little better.

In the upper left, you would typically see the Time Built code.

I know the KC & Balt Plants used a weird code early year, but I have not seen that before on a Fremont build.

Yours appears to show 1220. I have to admit, nothing comes to mind to explain that.

The 2-1 is a "Gate No." This would have identified the specific fixture that Fisher Body used to put the Body Assembly together from the panel parts. That way if they determined some sort of problem, they could trace it back to that fixture for quality control.

I'm guessing Trim 016 is a coding error or else Fremont hadn't yet settled on coding the interior by the 3 digit code when yours was built.

Either way, I'm sure your car likely has the code 216 Lemans interior, identifying the Saddle color Lemans interior trim combination.

The Paint code SS A means the exterior is Saddle Bronze lower body color, Saddle Bronze upper body color (S is the paint code for '64 Saddle Bronze). 2 characters were always coded even when the car was painted a solid single color like yours.

Fremont-Fisher Body always coded the wheel color on the '64 Data Plate, code A on yours means the wheels were painted Regent Black. Generally, all builds with full wheel disc options got Black Wheels. If the standard content small hub caps had been installed, one of a handful of coordinating colors were used for the wheels. With Saddle Bronze, the coordinating wheel color would have been Saddle, which was one of the colors used.

A49 means your car got the Custom Front Seat Belts with Retractors. The retractors were the somewhat cheesy winder type but that made them "custom" as opposed to the A20 Standard Seat Belts option. In either case, belts only provided for the driver and outboard passenger positions.

There was a recent interesting thread on the '64 belts, if yours are original you might report if they have the stainless or plastic buckles. Also whether yours still have the plastic or rubber sleeves on the outboard ends to cover the bolt at the floor.

B90 identifies the side window reveal moldings. These were standard for the Lemans, so it is a little unusual that they would be coded, normally Fisher only coded those items that were NOT standard content. For some reason however, Fremont did code the B90 on the Lemans Sports Coupes.

On your PHS document you will see the B90 listed as an option but it will be preceded by an asterisk which means it was standard content on this model (the Lemans) so not extra cost.

37 indicates the Load or Sequence No., another no. that will be listed on the PHS.

I don't think this no. is definitively deciphered, but it is a "count".

Interesting to see yours as in my experience they were always 4 digit nos. By the time they got to mine the count was up to about 6000. Once they hit 9999, the count restarted. Depending on the time of year, you could determine if the count was 1234 or 11234, or 21234, or even 31234. In other words, whether they were on their first time around or if the count had rolled over 1 or more times.

I once compiled a list of these Seq. Nos. vs. VINs to see if I could detect any relationship. But they were variable thru the year, sometimes pretty close, others not so close. I think the "gap" kinda grew thru the year, but it never pointed to anything specific that I could tell.

Yours seems to be the first with the Seq. No. (37) being lower than the VIN seq. (153).

As a matter of interest, at a Chevelle site I found a very early Fremont Malibu that did not show any Time Built code on the Data Plate (it was blank in that spot). So I'm guessing Fremont didn't start coding the Time Built code right away. 1220 might have corresponded to some other thing like an order no. maybe. Wonder if the PHS record would provide any other clue?

[tomnt]

Thank you, this is a big help.
Ordering PHS now.
I'll have to check for seat belts, not much interior left.

[Tempest]

Thank you for taking the time to share all that info John V. , very interesting

[tomnt]

Received PHS documents.
Production date 9/16/63 D.
1220 Load sequence number. Upper right hand corner of build sheet, under Vin..
Trim is 16 on build sheet.
No seat belts, most of interior missing.

Car has all GTO badging, all weathered like the rest of the car. No extra holes filled in.
Shows evidence of rear end collision repair.
Flat hood and 7/8 bar. No engine or transmission. Rear axle is not oe.
Automatic car, has frame bracket for z bar and hole in floor.
Looks like nice racecar project.