Muscle Car Basics:
‘63-‘67 Chevy II Cowl Tags
by Patrick Smith
Above the STYLE code is a three place mark where the assembly date is stamped. It follows a two number one letter month/week code. 01B for instance, would indicate January in the second week of production.
The TRIM code has three numbers and this tells you what type and colour of interior was installed. Novas used vinyl and cloth materials as well as bucket and bench seat formats.
The PAINT code tells you what colour the car was sprayed. It uses a three digit code and the two tone paints have their own three digit codes.
At the bottom of the cowl tag you may see either ‘ACC’ or ‘BSO.’ These stand for accessories or body specific options. Usually options that affected how Fisher had to make a body would end up on this plate. They are often single letter codes that are evenly spaced across the plate to correspond to group options. This is where you’ll learn whether your car is a Super Sport. We’ll look at some vital BSO codes soon. This format was used on Chevy IIs from 1963-1967.
CANADIAN COWL TAGS
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The Canadian assembled cars are a little different. Canadian tags have STYLE, BODY, PAINT, TRIM under each other in neat lines that read from left to right. (figure b) At the bottom is the accessories or BSO codes. You’ll find the cowl tag next to the heater motor on the firewall in the engine compartment on a Chevy II.
BODY SPECIFIC OPTION CODES
This is the meaty stuff. These are the factory installed goodies that make the car worthwhile restoring. If the car’s a convertible you’d like to see ‘D’ on that tag for power top. ‘E’ or ‘F’ means you had complete tinted glass or tinted windshield respectively. For station wagon nuts, the ‘G’ code meant you have a power tailgate option.
Some of the best options appear in Group Two section in the bottom middle of the tag. Air conditioning is code ‘K.’ Code ‘M’ is Powerglide transmission, ‘P’ is push button radio and ‘R’ gave you a rear seat speaker. The rear antenna option is code ‘S.’ The rear window defogger option is code ‘B’ and padded dash was code ‘C.’ A special lighting group with trunk and courtesy floor lamps is code ‘D’ and the big Kahuna is ‘Z’, which means Super Sport option. Oakland, California built cars used code ‘X’ instead. The last option was another Comfort & Convenience Package coded ‘F’. This gave you back up lamps, day night mirror, two speed windshield wipers, outside mirror and washer bottle. Hard to believe but these were extra cost back then.
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