The car's owner claims the car has a cowl tag, but I'm not sure the detail available. He initially gave me the "11A" code from the cowl tag, which was a red herring. After the above responses I had him confirm that the build sheet has 62I and 629. The SPID was removed and stored in a "safe place" upon replacement of the cancerous deck lid, and currently can't be located.Bob, is the color code in the trunk or on the cowl tag ? Im not sure when GM switched over or if they even did that. My 81 and 83 have the cowl tags.
Thanks for the photo of your SPID, injectedcutty.Here is my trunk tag...View attachment 114727
I talked on the phone to the then-assistant plant manager, or something like that, at Arlington, at the start of the 1986 model year. He said that since they started SPID's in 1984, they figured in 1985, at least in Arlington, there would be no cowl tags. There was a duplicate ECM paper tag stuck on top of the A/C evap housing under the hood to make it easier for service folks to scan the ECM number, too. We were really only talking about Oldsmobiles, so I'm not sure if any of that affected monte carlo. I was trying to see if they had any paperwork for 85 model year. He said at the end of the model year run, they basically archive the critical records, and discard the rest. Sigh.The car's owner claims the car has a cowl tag, but I'm not sure the detail available. He initially gave me the "11A" code from the cowl tag, which was a red herring. After the above responses I had him confirm that the build sheet has 62I and 629. The SPID was removed and stored in a "safe place" upon replacement of the cancerous deck lid, and currently can't be located.
As a side note, I had read that beginning with the 1985 model year, the cowl tag would be phased out in various assembly plants since all cars would be getting the SPID. My second owner 1985 4-4-2 only has the SPID, no cowl tag, but as shown above, cowl tags were in use for a later model years from some assembly plants.
I'll make the attempt, but his flip phone doesn't have a camera in it as far as I know, so I won't be holding my breath.Have him take a picture of said cowl tag and send it to you and post it here. We can even tell him the week his car was built.
Holy crap.I'll make the attempt, but his flip phone doesn't have a camera in it as far as I know, so I won't be holding my breath.
I parted an '86 Monte (with a '85 build date) years back that was built in Arlington & it didn't have a cowl tag. At first I thought it was odd but figured tp SPID took it's place.I talked on the phone to the then-assistant plant manager, or something like that, at Arlington, at the start of the 1986 model year. He said that since they started SPID's in 1984, they figured in 1985, at least in Arlington, there would be no cowl tags. There was a duplicate ECM paper tag stuck on top of the A/C evap housing under the hood to make it easier for service folks to scan the ECM number, too. We were really only talking about Oldsmobiles, so I'm not sure if any of that affected monte carlo. I was trying to see if they had any paperwork for 85 model year. He said at the end of the model year run, they basically archive the critical records, and discard the rest. Sigh.
He did offer for me to bring my car back to Arlington and he'd get us into the plant and take pictures with it "back home" as it were. Looking back I should have taken him up on that and took a drive over to Texas.
Anyway, I've yet to see a 1985 442 to even have the holes tapped for a cowl tag, let alone have a cowl tag. The Pontiac plant used them starting in 1986. So the only cowl tags that are officially "missing" to my knowledge are the 1985 Arlington cars.
Well, I was only talking about the Oldses, since they quit building the 442s in Arlington after the '85 model year. But I can see where Arlington would have continued not using cowl tags in any subsequent years on cars that were still built there. I think that 86 MC SS I bought was built in Arlington as well, but I never even thought to look for a cowl tag or lack of one. G-bodies were still the "new" cars of that era at the time.I parted an '86 Monte (with a '85 build date) years back that was built in Arlington & it didn't have a cowl tag. At first I thought it was odd but figured tp SPID took it's place.
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