First of all you need to learn about the car, learn every nut and bolt, know it from the ground up, once you have learned all about the the car you can get in to the hunting process, this is the fun part of the process, this is where you put your knowledge to work.

 

I'm sure that if you're interested in classic cars you've heard the term by the number, or numbers matching, you need to know how to read these numbers because they'll make you, or break you when it comes to investing in cars.

 

There is nothing more important than the numbers, these numbers that you hear about all the time will tell you everything about the car your looking at These numbers are your best friend if your going to invest in classic cars, the numbers are what I'm going to talk about here.

 

The first and arguably most important number is the vehicle identification number, or (VIN code) this number can tell you a lot, but it can't tell you everything, VINs for different manufacturers will tell you different things about their cars.

 

Take for instance a VIN plate on your 1960's Camaro, reads something like this: 124379N109876, so this code would break down like this. The 1 denotes the manufacture of the car, 1 being Chevrolet. The 24 denotes the Series of the car, or engine type, 24 being 8 cylinder. The 37 denotes the body style of the car, 37 being two door coupe. The 9 denotes the year of the car, 9 being 1969. The N denotes at which facility the car was manufactured, the N means Norwood Ohio. The 109876 denotes the this was the 109876TH car produced on this day at Chevrolet.

 

What you need to know:

1.The third digit would tell you if the cat had a V8, if that digit a 3,6, or a 4 it had a V8.

2.The fourth digit indicates the body style, 3 for coupe, 6 for convertible.

3.The sixth digit indicates the year of the car, 7=1967, 8=1968, 9=1969.

4.The seventh digit indicates the production plant, N=Norwood, L=Van Nuys.

5.The last six digits indicate the line number, this number would rise by one with every car built at these two plants. 

 

The vin code needs to match will all the other numbers on the car, like the rpo code, the transmission tag, and the rear end tag, if your looking for factory original to make an investment in classic cars, it a must that the numbers match perfectly.

 

The rpo code will tell you things like what engine, let's say you're looking for a 1969 Z/28 camaro, the suffix, or end of the rpo code would have a “DZ” indicating that the car has a 302 with 290 HP, which is the only engine that the Z/28 came with in 1969.

 

The rpo code would also tell you if the car had an automatic, or standard transmission in it from the factory, it will tell you the application which would be a 1969 Z/28 Camaro, and in most cases it would tell you if the engine has four bolt mains or not.

 

You'd also need to know the color code break down for 1969 is your looking for a 1969 Z/28, below I will add the factory color codes for the year 1969.

 

Code 10 is Tuxedo Black

Code 40 is Butternut Yellow

Code 50 is Dover White

Code 51 is Dusk Blue

Code 52 is Garnet Red

Code 53 is Glacier Blue

Code 55 is Azure Turquoise

Code 57 is Fathom Green

Code 59 is Frost Green

Code 61 is Burnished Blue

Code 63 is Champagne

Code 65 is Olympic Gold

Code 67 is Burgundy

Code 69 is Cortez Silver

Code 71 is LeMans Blue

Code 72 is Hugger Orange

Code 76 is Daytona Yellow

Code 79 is Rallye Green 

 

Keep in mind that the more you know about these cars, the less chance that you'll lose money, they gain value with every year that they are on the earth and this will never stop, on Chevrolet you also have a protecto-plate that needs to be decoded.

 

For this article I won't go in to the protecto-plate, but don't fail to learn about it also, and on the engine you'll need to decode the casting number to make sure that the engine in your car is the one that belongs there, it needs to match the rpo code. 

 

Generation Camaro Information

 

http://69isfine.com First

 

http://muscle-car-resto.com Muscle Cars

 

http://red-line-resto.com Car Restoration

By David C. Atkin

David has been in the automotive business for about 25 years, working in all facets of the industry, from parts to restoration, with all different makes and models. He likes to keep people interested in the old cars because that is where his heart is.

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