1968 Chevrolet Passenger VIN Decoding

When decoding the vehicle identification number (VIN) for your 68 chevy you will find the follwing information contained within this number. Model designation; series; body style; engine; model year; plant of manufacture and the sequential build number. First I will show you the listings for each catagory, then at the end I will run you through an example.

Series Codes, VIN digits 2 and 3

53 - Biscayne (6 cyl)

54 - Biscayne (8 cyl)

55 - Bel Air (6 cyl)

56 - Bel Air (8 cyl)

63 - Impala (6 cyl)

64 - Impala (8 cyl)

66 - Caprice (8 cyl)

Body Style Codes, VIN digits 4 and 5

11 - 2-door sedan

27 - 2-door coupe

35 - 4-door station wagon, 6 pass.

37 - 2-door sport coupe

39 - 4-door sport sedan

45 - 4-door station wagon, 9 pass.

47 - 2 door sport coupe

67 - 2-door convertible

69 - 4-door sedan

Assembly Plant Codes, VIN digit 7

C - Southgate, CA

D - Atlanta, GA

F - Flint, MI

J - Janesville, WI

L - Los Angeles, CA

R - Arlngton, TX

S - St. Louis, MO

T - Tarrytown, NY

U - Lordstown, OH

Y - Wilmington, DE

You will notice that some of the VIN number positions do not have code charts. I will explain this. The first digit of the VIN will always be 1 on a Chevrolet. Other GM divisions use different numbers to designate each seperate division. The 6th digit of the VIN designates the model year of the vehicle, and since we're dealing with the 68's, this number will always be 8. The 8th-13th digits are the sequential build number. This is the numerical order in which the given vehicle was sceduled to be produced at each indvidual plant. Pass. cars always started the sequental number with 100001 and continued from there.

In the example VIN, we know this is a Chevrolet because the first digit is a 1. The 2nd and 3rd digits are 64. If you check back on the series code table, you will see this is an Impala with an 8 cyl engine. The 4th and 5th digits are 87. Go to the body style chart and you see the example vehicle is a 2-door sport coupe. The 6th digit is 8, signifying this as a 1968 model car. The 7th digit, J, can be found in the assembly plant codes table and shows us that this car was produced in Janesville Wisconsin. The last 6 digits of the example VIN, 178629, tells us this was the 78,629th car sceduled for production at the Janesvile plant. So in conclusion, with the example VIN, We have figured out that this is a 1968 Impala 2-door sport coupe (often known as a "fastbck") with a V-8 engine, and it was born in Janesville WI. You can check my other decoding pages as they come available for more in depth decoding of trim tags and protecto-plates. Any questions, drop me a line at rjwetak@webtv.net