# Anyone want to try and decode these body panel stampings?



## Shake-N-Bake (Jun 16, 2015)

When the body came back from media blasting and powder coat epoxy primer....I noticed a ton of date stamps on all sorts of stuff. Most of the alpha characters are Z, X, W or A. I also noticed a 2 digit number of 17 and 18 that seemed to appear quite a bit.

There were several stamps on the firewall. The one by the heater box wasn't a partial VIN though. That stamp read "Z18 10227"
Dashboard near the radio was stamped 6814 X19. Qtr window access covers had XL11 on the left and XR12 on the right. The "L" and "R" are obvious stamps for those items. Floor brace had Z18 stamped on it.

I am guessing that nobody really knows what these stamps mean. I am guessing the 2 digit number might be the day of the month. Not sure what all the W, X and Z stamps mean. I have no clue on what the 4 and 5 digit numbers might mean.

These stamps were found on a 1968 GTO convertible. Fisher Body tag shows assembly began during the 4th week of May.

If you have any ideas how to decode these stamps.....I am all ears.


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## Shake-N-Bake (Jun 16, 2015)

I found some info online that seems valid. Towards the very bottom of this page:
Camaro VIN, Cowl Tag, and other Numbers Decoding

According to this info....the first letter (sometimes two letters) represent the Fisher plant that stamped the parts. Most all my parts were stamped at plant W, X, Z, A and AA. I don't know if there were multiple plants at a single location or if each stamping plant was located in a different place and the parts were shipped to the Fisher Assembly plant in order to build the body. Does anyone have more info about the stamping plant code?

The 2 digit number that follows the plant code is the week of the year. All of the parts on my car were stamped in weeks 17, 18 or 19. Only one of the inner fenders was stamped in week 20 but that was the only part I've found so far that was stamped in the 20th week. The Fisher Body tag says the body assembly began in week 21 so the dates of all the individual parts pre-date the Fisher Body tag so that sounds correct.

I still don't know what the 4 or 5 digit numbers mean though. Not many of the panels have this other number. There does appear to be a pattern where the 4 or 5 digit number only appears on parts that are for the left or right side of the car or parts that may be unique to certain body styles (convertible vs hardtop for example...)

I'll post more info if I discover anything useful...


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

Have been studying the stamped Fisher Body date codes on '71 Pontiac A-body sheet metal for many years. 
Original fenders, coresupports, hoods & front & rear bumpers. 

Have not paid much attention to common stampings, like those used in floor pan reinforcements that were shared amongs several GM divisions A-body's at multi division A-body Fisher plants like Fremont & Lakewood. On all original '71 Fremont usage A-body hoods, I've come across a date code on the flange area on outside of the hood adjacent to where the passenger hood hinge bolts up. Original '71 fenders will have a date code on the inside off the stamped metal flanged area that holds the '71-72 marker lights. Bumper date codes have addressed several times on PY board, on the bumpers the first digit(s) are a number which coresponds to a month of the year, then there is plant/die number, followed by what many of us believe is the day of the month.


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## Shake-N-Bake (Jun 16, 2015)

Pinion head said:


> Have been studying the stamped Fisher Body date codes on '71 Pontiac A-body sheet metal for many years.
> Original fenders, coresupports, hoods & front & rear bumpers.
> 
> Have not paid much attention to common stampings, like those used in floor pan reinforcements that were shared amongs several GM divisions A-body's at multi division A-body Fisher plants like Fremont & Lakewood. On all original '71 Fremont usage A-body hoods, I've come across a date code on the flange area on outside of the hood adjacent to where the passenger hood hinge bolts up. Original '71 fenders will have a date code on the inside off the stamped metal flanged area that holds the '71-72 marker lights. Bumper date codes have addressed several times on PY board, on the bumpers the first digit(s) are a number which coresponds to a month of the year, then there is plant/die number, followed by what many of us believe is the day of the month.


That is super helpful...thanks!
So I looked and found a stamp on one of my fenders. 5A14M. This doesn't follow the pattern of the common sheet metal components that I listed earlier but it does fit your explanation nicely. 5 could be May....."A" Arlington plant?....14 day of month....no clue on the "M". May 14th is just a couple weeks before the May 27th invoice date so that is cutting it close, but still possible. My car is an Arlington car which is plant code R for the VIN but could it be plant code "A" for body panels? Hmmmmmm

On your 71 parts....what was the alpha character for the plant that stamped the part and where was the car assembled?

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

The GT-37 was built in Fremont, plant Z, will have to double ck on the fender codes. Due to a very light waviness in the front where hood was repetitively slammed down, I swapped the original hood out on the GT-37 near 25 years ago with a perfect hood off a same week Fremont plant built T-37. I could not find a date code in the flange area on the original hood of the Post car, it was the first '71 HO Coupe built, billed out to Pontiac Engineering, Milford Proving Grounds. Within the month, will be moving all loose '71 & 72 fenders, all are wrapped up in fender wrappers, will post back as move these fenders.


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