Let’s say you’ve got a 1963 Chevy Impala sitting in your garage with an aged “restoration” on it. It was wrecked back in 1969, and was sold as a fixer-upper to some teenager that thought he’d do the work himself. After about 50 pounds of body filler, some youthful ambition and interesting style choices, it was finished. Now it sits in your garage in pieces, waiting for your attention. Its faded flame paint job, shag carpet, and complete lack of emblems and trim leave you wondering what this car actually carried as options, and what color was it?

The VIN tag on the driver’s side front-door post gives you most of the basic information, while the cowl tag on the firewall in the engine compartment will give you details on the trim, style, and color of the car. All you need to do to figure out how your car was originally equipped, is follow this guide.

The VIN

Image courtesy of http://www.impalas.org.

The VIN for your Impala will be a 12-digit number that includes one letter. It should look something like this: 31867L123456. We are sure this looks confusing, but let’s quickly break down the number into individual numbers: 3-18-67-L-123456. The first digit (3), is the model year 1963, (18) designates Impala V8, (67) indicates a two-door convertible, the letter (L) represents the Los Angeles, manufacturing plant, and the numbers 123456 are simply the car’s sequence number. All Impala sequence numbers start at 100001, so this car is really number 23456.

By The Numbers

Digit One:

• 3 – 1963

Digit two:

• 16 – Impala six cylinder
• 17 – Impala V8

Digit three:

• 11 – two-door sedan
• 12 – two-door station wagon
• 19 – Four-door sedan
• 21 – two-door utility sedan
• 35 – four-door station wagon
• 37 – two-door sports coupe
• 39 – four-door sport sedan
• 45 – four-door station wagon, 3 seat
• 47 – two-door sport coupe
• 67 – two-door convertible
• 69 – four-door sedan
• 80 – two-door sedan pickup, El Camino

Digit four:

• R – Arlington, Texas
• B – Baltimore, Maryland
• G – Farmingham, Massachusetts
• J – Janesville, Wisconsin
• K – Kansas City, Missouri
• LA – Lansing, Michigan
• L – Los Angeles, California
• N – Norwood, Ohio
• O – Oakland, California
• T – Tarrytown, New York
• S – St. Louis Missouri
• W – Willow Run, Michigan

Cowl Tag

The cowl tag is a more complicated set of numbers and letters that describe, exactly what your car would have carried the day it rolled off of the factory floor. The cowl tag on a 1963 Chevy Impala will have roughly 22 characters that vary significantly on each car. Below is an example of the cowl tag that would appear on a 1963 Chevy Impala.

Let’s start by breaking it down into its individual parts. The first line gives us the style, body information, and sequence number. In this case we have style 63-1867 and body LA-3631. The 63 designates year, 1867 designates the body style, LA designates the manufacturing plant, and the 3631 is the sequence number. The next line tells us the trim code is 831 and the paint code is 912. Finally, the last line gives us our accessory code of 2GM-3Z.

After looking at the tag, it’s clear that it is far more complicated to decode than a standard VIN. Here is a decoding system for the trim information on a 1963 Impala that makes the computer do the work for you.  We entered our example tag and got this:

Style – 63-1867

• Year: 1963
• Series: Impala
• Body Style: two-door convertible
• Engine: V8

Body – LA 3631

• Plant: Los Angeles, CA
• Serial Number: A3631

Trim – 831

• Series: Impala
• Interior Color: Blue
• Material: Vinyl

Paint – 912

• Color: Silver Blue

The one thing the decoder doesn’t do for you, is the accessory code. Our example displays 2GM-3Z. The numbers tell us what accessory group it is, and the letters are the codes within that group. The groups are simply the way Fisher Body organized the options on paper and the cowl tag. The G in group 2 tells us this car has a console and M designates a Powerglide transmission. The Z in group 3 tells us this car had high-end metallic brakes.

Some more information about the Accessory decoding can be found in two places on 348-409.com, here and here. The information the site provides on the year available is a little unclear, but that is due to the transition Fisher Body was making in 1963 from the old Acc. coding system to the new one. If you look at each list, one is codes from 1950 to 1963, and the other is 1963 to 1967.

If you want a more detailed look at all possible body style codes, a complete list can be found here. After looking through the linked web page, it’s not hard to see why the automatic decoder is so nice.