69 Cowl Tag Letter A

Both my 69 BB cars have the letter A after the build date I thought this was for non exterior trim,but I was looking at another 69 BB @ Nova research and found it had the same letter A with exterior trim package.My SB 69 307 tag read date 11D G 3 instead of an A it has side moldings only(had).The only thing the my BB's have in common is they're both L78 4spd cars and no exterior trim,one has nothing but the L78 option and nothing else,the other has the full custom interior with console a gauges.

Any ideas?:confused:

Paul

Paul
Do they both have black interior? Maybe Marlin can chime in, I think the 70 deuces have the same letter.

A=black interior....number following the A denotes the number of exterior trim items....

wilma

That make sense both have Black interior and neither have any exterior trim.
That explains why there is no number after the A.:D

Thanks,Paul

It took myself and Stan Falenski several years to confirm the meaning of the letter and number codes on the trim tags, but that was like 10 years ago! We have seen 1-2 cases where the logic didn't play out, but those cases could have been owner modified.

The short version is that the letter indicates that the interior items - other than the seats - will be of a certain color. Like Tom says, the 'A' indicates black, 'S' indicates sandalwood, 'G' is green, 'R' is red, and 'B' is blue (I think, if my memory is good today!). The seat color is already indicated by the trim code, so the letter would not need to indicate the color of the seats. But, why is the letter there at all? Can you get a black bench seat with sandalwood door panels, kick panels, dash and headliner? No, at least not that I'm aware of, so why put the letter on the trim tag?

The conclusion at this point is that it is on the TT because of a carryover from prior years' Novas where you apparently could get different colored items in the interiors. I'm not sure as to the exent of the color blending in early Novas, but apparently it was possible. Even if it was not, the code was useful in the event a line worker did not know that a 731 code indicated a black interior. The biggest clue that these letters were for line workers is that 90% of the deuces have a big 'A' written in white grease pencil on the firewall, behind the distributor, under the black paint. So, it might be a carryover, or just a reminder, but it's all about the color!!

The number that frequently follows this letter indicates the # of exterior moldings on the car. Although there are 4 possible exterior moldings, the highest number ever found on a TT is 3. The molding possibilities are: drip rail, door frame, body side, and rocker. This is the code that we have seen some exceptions for, but it obviously doesn't take much to add some drip rail moldings, so we feel fairly confident that the meaning of the number is correct.

I'll try to post a pic of my '69 L78 TT, note the black bucket interior code, the 'A' and the '3' - the car does not have a v/t, but still has the drip rail moldings.

M

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h68/aacorp/firewall-1.jpg

I have a 733 car and a 731,maybe that's why they started the letter maybe easier to read 1 letter instead of 3 numbers and sort out color and whether it's custom or standard,just a thought.Keep us updated on your research this is the first time I've really taken note of this and it's good to know.

Paul

From what I remember the "A" represents the painted color of the dash. I'll have to check my info to confirm, but the Nova's that have the "A" should have the dash area metal painted black. You could have a Nova with Black interior, but have the dash painted body color.

From what I remember the "A" represents the painted color of the dash. I'll have to check my info to confirm, but the Nova's that have the "A" should have the dash area metal painted black. You could have a Nova with Black interior, but have the dash painted body color.

That would make alot of sense,the 733 A code is textured(custom interior) and the 731 A code is non textured(standard interior),my 742 G 3 code car has a green textured dash only piece of interior I got was lower half of the rear seat its cloth.

The dashes in these cars are very involved,the texture is sprayed on in the body color and the black was sprayed over that.You would be surprised at how many people think it's just over spray,but PPG has paint charts for textured paint in all the body colors.

I have more info for 69 model year for where the textured paint was applied if any one needs it.