August 6, 2016: Cruise-In at The Varsity, Athens, Georgia . . .
Read MoreThe car's cowl tag. Starting at the top . . .
1C = build date: Third week of January 1965. I'm not sure what the "2" stands for. The use of additional characters on the tag varied between assembly plants, the meanings of which have been lost to time.
ST 65-23727 = style code: 65 = 1965, 2 = Pontiac, 37 = LeMans, 27 = 2-door sport coupe.
PON = assembly plant: Pontiac, Michigan.
1850 BODY = Fisher Body sequence number.
TR 213-B = interior trim: Black bucket seats.
A-A PAINT = exterior paint codes: Starlight Black upper and lower.
E = Group 1 accessories: E = Tinted glass, all windows.
2LPR = Group 2 accessories: L = 4-speed floor shift transmission, P = radio, R = rear seat speaker.
5NW = Group 5 accessories: N = GTO option package, (identifies the car as a legit GTO), W = retractable seat belts.
8-1 = More of those "additional characters" mentioned above for which no information exists.The car's fender tag. Chrysler was always a little different when it came to fender tag decoding, starting with the fact that the tag on a Mopar is read from the bottom up.
The bottom row is reserved for the basic information about the car:
SO NUMBER - This is the car's build date and Shipping Order Number: C30 = December 30, 1965, 09444 = Shipping Order Number.
BDY - body code: X = Dodge Charger, P = premium price class, 29 = 2-door sports hardtop, (all Chargers are XP29).
TRM - Interior trim code: P = premium trim, 4 = vinyl bucket seat, X = black.
PAINT - exterior paint code: QQ = dark red metallic upper and lower, 1 = monotone paint, B = black accent roof stripe, B = black upper interior door paint color, (in cases where the car does not have a full door trim panel, the exposed metal is painted a matching color).
The middle row of all capital letters shows several corresponding numbers various places. These relate to options installed on the car. The "A" and "B" numbers are combined for the engine code:
AB41 = engine code: 230 hp 318 CID V8.
C5 = Torqueflite automatic transmission.
R1 = Music Master AM radio.
The top row of lower case letters and the corresponding numbers below them also relate to installed options:
a6 = center console.
b4 = bucket seats.