Looking at car with body tag as follows:
ST. 70-33687. BF08294. 5DY
TR-930. 580 55 BN7
04E. 446383 600163

I understand some of this ,but a lot more numbers than I am used to seeing
Any help would be appreciated

 

You might want to post a good, clear photo of the tag as it is easy to make a mistake in reading it. I think I see at least one error in what you wrote, and some of the codes don't look like they're where they're supposed to be.

We can make out this much:

70 = 1970 model year
3 = Oldsmobile
36 = Cutlass Supreme V-8
87 = Holiday Coupe (2-door hardtop)
BF = Fremont, California assembly plant
08294 = Fisher body sequence number (you wrote "5DY here, and I think it should "BDY as it is, I presume, to the right of the 08294)
TR 930 = black vinyl bucket seat
04E = 5th week of April 1970 assembly date


Not sure what those number are to the right of the 930. To the far right of the second line are usually the paint codes, but there would be only two of them with "PNT" or "PAINT" usually at the far right.

The 55 is a paint code for Galleon Gold lower body color. The B by itself would indicate a black vinyl top. There is no "N" or "7" in a paint code according to my source.

No idea what the 580 is.

The two big numbers at the lower right are common on Fremont body tags and have never been decoded as far as I know.

 

One of our members has created this great link to decoding cowl tags

http://datatagdecoder.com/_beta/form.html

Try it and then thank Chris for it


Larry

 

I understand all except there is a 5 stamped over the B, what could this mean.
Thanks Chris , site worked great

 

The "N7" you think you see to the right of the "B" is actually "PNT" meaning Paint. The "55" and "B" are the lower and upper body paint codes respectively. As explained earlier, the "B" actually indicates a Black vinyl top. If the car were a convertible, it would indicate a black convertible top. If a two digit number (like "55") replaced the "B" it would indicate a painted top.

I don't know what that "5" is above the "PNT".

 

love to see a picture of your car! i too have a galleon gold #55 Cutlass

 

Appears the ''5" is an imprint (debossed) rather than all the other normal characters which are embossed. Perhaps a line related routing number (mnemonic device)?

Brett

 

Which is why it's so important to post a photo of the cowl tag, not just copy it. We've seen characters like that 5 on cowl tags before, but they're usually higher up on the tag and not stamped right over another character. As far as I know, no one has ever figured out what those single stamped characters mean, and you're probably right in that it had something to do with production at that plant.

 

in the Mopar world - the oddly placed stamped characters are considered (random & as required) "inspector stamps" - I wonder if that could be the case at Oldsmobile (GM)?

 

I'm guessing that this is a Fremont car? My 442 had all those extra numbers that don't show up elsewhere.