Reference Manual

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Appendix: The Body Plate

The body plate was GM's first attempt at providing service personnel with a method of positively identifing a vehicle, it's color scheme and the options it was equipped with to insure the correct replacement parts were ordered and installed.

Although effectively replaced in 1985 with the Service Parts Identification Decal (SPID), it can still be found in use on many G bodies through 1988.

MODEL YEAR: The last two digits of the model year.

TIME BUILD CODE: Two digits and a letter representing the month and week of the month when built. The first two digits are the month (01=January, 02=Febuary, etc.), the letter is the week of the month (A=first week, B=2nd week, etc.).

DIVISION: Identifies the GM Division (1=Chevrolet, 2=Pontiac, 3=Oldsmobile, 4=Buick, 6=Caddillac, 7=GM Canada).

BODY TYPE: A=A-body, B=B-body, G=G-body, etc.

SERIES: The trim series within the body type.

BODY STYLE: Two digits representing the body style (2dr. fastback, 2dr. notchback, 4dr. notchback, etc.), see Body Styles for body style numbers.

ASSEMBLY PLANT: The final assembly plant (ARL=Arlington, TX, PON=Pontiac, MI, etc.).

UNIT NUMBER: The unit number assigned at Fisher Body. This number will not match any numbers in the V.I.N.

TRIM COMBINATION: The Fisher interior trim combination code, see Trim Combinations for interior trim combination codes.

LOWER BODY COLOR: Standard Color Code representing the exterior lower body color.

UPPER BODY COLOR: Standard Color Code representing the exterior upper body color.

ACCENT COLOR: Standard Color Code representing the exterior accent trim color.

PAINT TYPE: The type of paint used by the factory to paint the vehicle (L=Laquer).

SEAT OPTION: Standard RPO code representing the seats installed.

ROOF OPTION:

PLANT USE: The area reserved for plant use will often contain RPO's, it may also contain other codes that are not RPO's.