I am trying to find the original color for my cutlass. It appears it has been painted several times. Also am in the process of changing my fenders because the upper part doesn't line up right. It appears the fenders are from a 70 or 71 model that has the chrome around the side marker. My car is cutlass supreme.

Here are the numbers from my crow tag. My interior is a saddie brown color leather bench seats with arm rest. There was a vinyl top but it has been removed but the black lines or whatever you call it under the top is still there. Any help is greatly appreciated.

ST 72-34257 Z 06849 1 BDY

TR 979 A65 11 G PNT

 

72 = 1972
342 = Cutlass Supreme
57 = 2 dr Hardtop Coupe
Z = Fremont, California Assembly Plant
068491 = Fisher Body unit # no relation to VIN
979 = Saddle color themed interior with Strato bucket seats
A65 = Custom Sport Front Seat with center armrest and bright moldings This is a bench seat and 979 = Saddle in color buckets 989 = Saddle in color bench seat
11 = Cameo White lower body color
G = Green vinyl top

I hope this helps, maybe your cowl tag does say 989 instead of 979?

Scot

 

I will verify my cowl tag. I can't image a green top with saddle interior.

 

Scot - I would have said the same thing as you about the 'G'. I decided to look up if there could be anything else that would be just 'G' and the paint stripes are listed that way too.
An FYI (I'm sure you saw the thread I started about this) - 1972 vinyl roofs were supposed to be double letter; like GG, but I've yet to see that on any 72 vinyl roof car. This would be an interesting find for your S.O. thread if that was the case? I've never seen the lower/upper color combos list the stripe instead of a color though.

The big question is whether this car might still be hiding a build sheet seeing as it's a Freemont build? That plant seemed to leave build sheets in the cars quite regularly. One of the guys at our show yesterday had a Freemont car, and a build sheet from it!

72cutlassdog 979 is the correct code for the all vinyl saddle colored interior. One of the ways you can usually tell what color your car was originally is look somewhere on the car that would have been painted by the factory, but not by a quick spray artist. (like under the roofline weather stripping, under the door water shield, or maybe the interior of the trunk deck. Original color will likely show under the window fuzzies too.

You are right about the side moldings. What you are describing is the wide molding that went along middle of the body from front to rear. It was common on all 70-71 CS with the SX package IIRC. It may have been available to the CS just as an option too. Anyway, the 1972 models didn't have that. You will also notice the wheel opening molding is not full length, it stops at the point where the side molding contacts it.

You should check your fenders to see if they have the crumple ridges. If they do - they are 71/72 style. If they don't - they are 70 and early 71 production. If you have 1970 fenders in great shape - you could prolly sell them to serious 70 collectors who are looking for them, and get a decent set of 71/72 replacements from some of the guys here who have decent OEM fenders.

 

Hey Allen R what do you mean by check my fenders to see if they have the crumple ridges. Where should I be checking for that? I was wondering am new to the site instead of checking my emails through my yahoo account is there a way I can just sign on here and keep my message or is the other way standard procedures?

 

re: fenders. Have a look at the pics I'm attaching. On the horizontal ridge (about 1" wide) that runs the length of the inner fender, all 70 and some early 71 Cutlasses have a flat panel. ALL 72 fenders should have little ridges at even intervals of about 8".
They look like this:



Here's a pic of 70 (and very early 71 fenders) - you can see there is no crumple ridge. They were discontinued due to safety concerns and meeting federal legislation at the time. As you know now, every new car built nowadays folds like a deck of cards when it gets hit. This was the start of that IMO.



re: email notification? Once you post to a thread you are subscribed to it. You will be notified by email for the 1st post after yours. After that you are on your own to check. In the USER CP, you can see what threads you are subscribed to and check in if you wish.

Also, when you sign in at the top right of the forum, enter your user name & password, then check "remember me" before hitting submit. This will keep you logged into C.O. until you decide to log out.

For convenience to see what's going on? Hit the "new posts" tab and it will show you what's currently in discussion here. Hope all this helps you. If you run into any other site navigation problems, send me a PM (private message) and I'll walk you through it to the best of my ability.

 

Thank you very much for the pictures and your help.

 

Lady has the 979 A65 combo also. I also question the 979 and 989 meanings.

She is also code 11 Cameo white...

 

Rob, the 979 is actually code 979v which is all vinyl - part of the 4257 interior color codes. Straight out of the 72 Assembly Manual.

 

Was looking to decode my cowl tag, read a lot of posts. Mine is similar to this post, just attempting to figure out my original color, the car does have saddle color buckets in it now. Is the pint code 63 T, any help would be appreciated.

ST 72 34257LAN431041 BDY
TR 979 63 T PNT
3E A65 B35

 

ST72=1972
34257=cutlass supreme ht
LAN=Lansing, MI
431041=build sequece
979=bucket seat saddle vinyl
63= saddle bronze
T=? TT by the chart is covert beige Vinyl top
the others, some one will have to chime in I am short on time today

Pat

 

72 =1972
34257 = Oldsmobile (3) Cutlass Supreme (42) Hardtop Coupe (57)
LAN = Lansing Michigan Assembly Plant
431041 = Fisher Body Unit #
979 = Saddle in color themed interior
63 = Saddle Bronze lower body exterior color
T = Covert Beige Vinyl Top
03E = 5th (E) week of March (03) begin build date
A65 = RPO code for Custom Sport Bench Seat
B35 = B85 I assume which means RPO code for Bright Side Window and Sill Moldings

Hope this helps

 

Perfect, thanks! That also tells me the dual gate shifter with buckets is after factory, A65 Bench Seat.