Deciphering Your 1967 Oldsmobile Cowl Tag

Also check out Deciphering your VIN

The Cowl Tag Body and Style Numbers

The body and style numbers are stamped on a plate which is mounted on the left upper cowl (firewall) in the engine compartment (near the master cylinder). A five-digit number, called the car series and body style designation number, identifies any car as to series and style. Reading from left to right, the digits represent the following:

• The first digit indicates the General Motors division
• The second and third digits are Fisher Body Shell Designation. The third digit also is used to designate the L-6 or V-8 engine (odd numbers indicate L-6 and even numbers indicate V-8 engine).
• The fourth and fifth digits are body style designation.

L6-equipped Body/Style Number

Deciphering Your Cowl Tag

Here is an example of a cowl tag, this one taken from mine:

The numbers on your cowl plate will reveal the following things:

Style Number Body Number Trim Number

Paint Number (Color Specification) Accessories Time Built Code

Follow along with me as we attempt to decode the above example:

• O1D - Time Built code - Numbers are the month of production and the letter represents the week of the month. Thus, it is impossible to come up with the exact date of production, only the week. Generally, most date-coded components were built 2-8 weeks before the build date of the car, although there are exceptions.
  
  01=January, 02=February, etc.
  A =first week, B=2nd week, etc.
  
  Thus, 01D would indicate my car was built the last week in January.

• ST 67-33817 - (ST=Style) Model Year and Body Type - The first two digits (in this case, "67")  denotes the production year. The "33817" dictates the series and body style. The 33800 series is a Cutlass F-85 with a V-8 engine, and the 17 is the body code, in this case, identifying a Hardtop Coupe (Holiday Coupe).
  
  Use the chart below to figure out your series:

• BODY BF - All Fisher Body numbers are prefixed by a letter or letters indicating the plant at which the body was mated to the chassis/driveline, and final assembly procedures were performed. This is a 1 to 3 character code and must match the assembly plant code in the VIN. F-85 bodies are coded as follows: 'LAN' - Lansing, Michigan; 'BF' - Fremont, California; 'FRA' - Framington, Mass.;
  Thus, my car was assembled in Fremont, California.

04028 is the sequential production number, beginning with 01001, of all Oldsmobiles produced at the Fremont Plant (not just F-85/Cutlass models). Remember that the Fremont plant built Buick, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet and Pontiac cars. (I know they built all the mid-size, not sure if they built full-size.) This number will not match any numbers in the VIN and is not significant to identification or restoration purposes.
Thus, my car was the 3027th car off the Oldsmobile assembly part of the Fremont plant .

• TR 984 - (Trim) - Indicates the interior trim color and seat style. In this case, "984" dictates a Champagne-colored interior and a bench seat with Champagne-colored bench seat with vinyl trim. (You can see in the photos in the Photo Gallery that the color of the original door-panels and dashpad support this.)

There may or may not be an additional code following the trim code that identifies the type of seat in the car. These codes break down as follows:

• A41 = 4-way power front bench
• A46 = 4-way power front bucket
• A51 = Front Strato-bucket
• A52 = Front bench
• A75 = Heavy-duty front bench
• A81 = Strato seat with headrest
• A82 = Standard seat with headrest

Use the following table to decipher your trim code:

• B80 - Option B80 would seem to indicate this car came with chrome roof drip moldings. (See the Options page for option codes.) However, it also seems there was some variances in code numbers used between assembly plants, and the B80 option was actually standard equipment on this model, so it would not be listed on the tag as an option. Thus, it will be necessary for someone wanting an exact interpretation of these numbers to find an option list from the plant at which their vehicle was produced. The same seems to hold true for the two following codes:
• H58078 - ???
• 210165 - ???

This is as far as I've gotten in my research. I'm still working on finding the properties to the H58078 and 210165 on my cowl tag. If anyone reading this has access to production codes from the Fremont, California plant (or any plant-specific codes), PLEASE e-mail me.

Other Factory Assembly Plant Accessory Codes: (added as they become available) 5VY - Deluxe Seat Belts (Lansing-built cars?) 5VXY - ?

A special thanks to Andrew Coard and Terje Larsen for helping with some of the information presented here.

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This page last modified on February 15, 2003.