For a year, I offered a fender tag decode service with hopes that suggested donations along with the service would fund this website. I first decoded the tag and then asked for a donation, and to the credit of mopar fans, most gave me something for me time. After twelve months of doing that, the donations haven't added up to cover the cost of the site. Rather than continue with that model, I've decided to document most of what I know and make it available to anyone who comes across it. Its not the first fender tag decode site, but it may be the most complete covering 1962 to 1980, including some non-Detriot plants for the pre-1965 years.
The Fender Tag, or body code plate, is a small metal plate attached to the body somewhere under the hood. On E-bodies, B-bodies, and A-bodies it is located on the inner fender apron under the hood. On C-bodies and other big machines, its location can vary. The Fender Tag contains a subset of the build options in addition to some other information. Major milestones in the progress of fender tags with Chrysler Corporation would be in 1965 when tag layout was standardized across all domestic assembly plants, and in 1969 when the general format was changed to list the entire three-character sales code for each option rather than obfuscating sales codes with specific placement of only the last digit of the sales code on the tag (as was done on 1968 and earlier fender tags).
The problematic part of this for early pre-1965 tags is that each plant used different codes in different places prior to 1965. The 'Rosetta stone' for Lynch Rd and Hamtramck is well documented. This is because most B-bodies were made at these two plants and all Max Wedge and Hemi cars of these years were made at these plants. For this reason, the hobby has demanded the ability to decode these fender tags, and guys like Galen Govier have responded (for a fee). Only about 50% of the surviving 1962-1964 Mopars fall into the Lynch Rd / Hamtramck category, the others, A-bodies and C-bodies included where built at Newark, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Jefferson plants. I am researching these fender tags. If you have a car from one of these plants, I will share with you want I know. contact me. I already have most of the details worked out for 1964 Los Angeles fender tags and I am working on 1963 tags.
Some numbers appear on 1960-1969 fender tags that do not relate information about the options or the appearance of the car. Commonly, gate and gate sequence numbers are found on fender tags. These are numbers that were assigned or the body or unibody assembly that provided internal plant information about how the body or unibody was assembled and welded together. The number of gate's at a particular pant varied. Each gate was a short assembly line were the body sat on a jig and panels where assembled to it. Sequence and Gate numbers were assigned to the body as it was assembled to provide some tracking as to which gate and which order bodies were being assembled. In some cases, plant shift information was stamped on tags as well.
Although you can use these pages to decode the fender tag yourself, If you'd prefer that someone with experience do the decode, I can decode your fender tag for you. If any part of these pages are confusing, please contact me.
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