Deciphering Your AMC Metal Door Tag
The door tag is a little metal plate on the driver side door,
about mid ways
down. All AMCs had them, they are silver metal with a mid green middle.
In 68, there were 4 mid colors: black, blue, green, brown.
In 1969 the mid part would be black.
Cold Riveted in, this will give you some neat information about the car! This is
a SEQUENTIAL number that applies TO THE BODY ONLY, NOT THE WHOLE CAR. It
was to track running changes in that year model in design and engineering.
Here you will find:
BODY
MODEL
TRIM PAINT
And a series of numbers/letters on the bottom row.
The BODY NUMBER differs between body plants. Kenosha and Milwaukee main body
plant numbers start with 000001. Kenosha Lake Front Plant bodies start with
R000001. The Kenosha plant had TWO assembly lines, East & West. Cars built
on these separate lines were given separate numbers and a E or W prefix.
Canadian built cars had a C prefix.
The MODEL NUMBER: The first two digits are the YEAR. The last three digits
of the model number are the SERIES, BODY STYLE, and TRIM LEVEL NA *SHOULD
MATCH THE 4TH, 5TH, AND 6TH DIGITS OF THE VIN.
The TRIM CODE: Trim code will tell you what type of interior you
had, see "production codes"
to determine what you have!
The PAINT CODE will tell you what color the car was originally. Some
vehicles had two paint codes like P84/P82. This would have been a lower
Commodore Blue with a upper Bayshore Blue top! Very attractive, probably on
a Ambassador or Rebel Series. Note I have a huge file of original AMC Paint
Suppliers Rinshed Mason, Martin Senoir and DuPont you can print out, and either
display with your car, or also take to your local automotive paint supplier who
then
can easily mix up a batch to paint your car. Invaluable! To view my paint charts
CLICK
HERE.
The BOTTOM
ROW of letter followed by numbers was the LINE
NUMBER, commonly called
the CAR
BUILD SEQUENCE BODY NUMBER.
This was usually off by a few weeks preceding the vehicle VIN. Read closely, as
most of this
history year wise was never found or documented and deciphered.
Here is a AMX (on left, note 6839-7 signifying a 68) and a Javelin Door Tag on
the right, note Model is 6979-7 signifying a 69 SST.
Here are three 68 AMX door tags from parted
out AMXs. Note the center color difference.
And YES, contrary to popular belief or what some AMC gurus will tell you, AMC did make mistakes. I have owned a number of typoed door tags, and some are outright goofy, like this original 1970 door tag. I bet you can't figure out what it is? (There was no 68A paint color in 1970, This Big Bad Blue is a Big Bad Typo. Some AMCers will know exactly what is wrong with it! Hurst SC/Ramblers had four paint codes of 00, SPECIAL, SPEC, and 88A. Here is a fifth paint code for SC/Rambler never seen before.
Here is one that I was bluntly told by one such
"guru", a few times, that AMC
never did. This 70 AMX I bought in Corpus Christi, TX from my brother, who
bought it from original owner. It was allegedly used for the GoodYear tire
company magazine ads. The VIN is ALSO stamped on the tag.
This particular car was parted out as it was a coast car.
It was the 90th car built, down the line, and the 32nd body, so it was first
week of production in August 1969!
Should you ever need a used door tag, they command prices as cheap as $20, and
as high as $700, the price will depend on the color of the vehicle and trim
level. Should you ever need a new door tag pressed, note that Data Tags
sells them new and they do reverse stamping as original AMC did.
00 as a paint code.
AMC used the "double zero" 00 paint code for a variety of vehicles,
and for different reasons. Most are familiar with the 70 Trans Am Javelin having
a 00 paint code. But it was used for other applications for other models
including Rambler, Rebel, Javelin, AMX, Ambassador into the mid 1970s. This 70
AMX for instance had a 00 paint code for Shadow
Mask engine bay delete. That means while the upper Shadow was
applied, the engine was left body
color. This is the 70 from front showing
Shadow. My 71 Matador 2dr with 14K miles was a A7/00
paint code. In this instance the 00 meant vinyl top delete. Special
Order AMCs also had them including police, taxi, pink
AMXs, dealer promotion vehicles to name a few. Don't read too much
into a 00 paint code, however, it is usually recommended to see if you can trace
that vehicle's history, could have been a Giveaway car, Parade Car, or some
special meaning behind it getting that code!
