That little plate tells you a lot

Question:

I just purchased a 1967 Camaro RS and in the glove box there was an owner’s vehicle warranty booklet. It has the warranty information and a metal plate bearing the name of the first owner. It also includes a serial number that matches the one on the car and the one on the title. The numbers are 124377l 136092. The second line is PWO116G.

I know that some of them are the model, where it was built, and the sequence number. I would appreciate if you would let me know what all these number and letters mean.

Answer:

The first character in your ’67 Camaro’s VIN denotes the GM division, in this case “1” for Chevrolet. The second digit reveals the “series” or car model, with “2” representing Camaro. The “4” in the third position indicates that the car came with a V-8 engine while the “37” that follows means the body was a coupe. The sixth character, a “7”, represents the 1967 model year. The seventh digit should be a letter representing the assembly plant where the car was made, and I’ll assume the sequence you provided, which has the number “one” in this position, is either a typo or a mis-read of what’s there. The overwhelming majority of ’67 Camaros have either “N” for the Norwood, Ohio, plant or “L” for the Van Nuys, California, plant. Other letters are possible, including “Y” for the very small number of Camaros assembled by Yutivo Sons Hardware Co. in the Philippines under contract to GM.

The final six digits are the actual sequence number for the particular car. The sequence number began with 100001 for the first car built, so your car was the 36,092 built.

The second sequence you copied from your Protect-O-Plate pertains to the rear axle. “PW” indicates that the car was assembled with a non-Positraction, 10bolt rear axle with a 2.73:1 gear ratio. The PW code also tells you that the car was fitted with the standard brake system. The third through sixth numbers of “0116” tell you that the differential was assembled on January 16th and the “G” that follows indicates that it was made at Chevrolet Gear and Axle, which was one of four GM plants that manufactured rear axles for 1967 Camaros.

You don’t mention any other codes on your Protect-O-Plate but there should be more, including letters to indicate the original exterior and interior colors, a letter for the carburetor source, a sequence for the engine that indicates the plant where it was made, date of assembly, displacement, transmission choice, and the presence or absence of certain components, a sequence for the transmission that indicates its type, point of origin, and assembly date, and a letter for the assembly date of the entire car. The P-OP also has codes that tell you something about whether it came with standard or optional steering, brakes, windows, etc.