Interior codes

[oceangal]

Okay so I thought I would read the plate on the drivers door frame and this is what I came up with but some letters are hard to read, whether they are "L" or "I".

C 10E L00361
L31 L31 13U 99M E

Now if my head was 3" wide perhaps these letters would look like something else.

Any ideas what this all means?

 

[JohnGrawcock]

Okay so I thought I would read the plate on the drivers door frame and this is what I came up with but some letters are hard to read, whether they are "L" or "I".

C 10E L00361
L31 L31 13U 99M E

Now if my head was 3" wide perhaps these letters would look like something else.

Any ideas what this all means?

I'm gonna say its

C 10E 100361
13I 13L 13U 99M E

The last six digits of your VIN are 100361.

The interior is Silver Gary but the tag does not tell me if its leather (trim code 132) or cloth (trim code 13C). Either one gives you 13I as the first 3 character sequence on the second line.

It's a two tone car. Metallic Silver (code 13) over Dark Claret Metallic (code 99). I know it's two tone because there are four 3 character sets rather than three. I've always suspected that the L and U paint codes were originally intended to designate the lower and upper colors to account for two tone paint. However, all cars solid or two tone were stamped with identical L and U codes telling you the base color of the car. The two tone cars then received the extra M code telling you the additional color sprayed on the lower section.

Just don't try to look any of this up in the Corvette reference books. None of them have it documented correctly and you'll probably end up with a headache.

 

[oceangal]

Thank you John! Thats very impressive

Ordering the carpet from wilcox and they don't have a silver gray, just gray so I wanted to make sure I was ordering the right carpet. The seats in it were leather and I replaced them with leather, but Virgina Vettes referred to it as Silver Gray.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

13I is Silver Gray leather.

 

[petes74ttop]

Other info!

Looks like John figured it out for you but here's some more info http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/specs/c3/1982/index.html. PG.

 

[6880 Mike]

...13I is Silver Gray leather....

I agree. Bowling Green trim codes vary a bit from the St. Louis cars.

 

[JohnGrawcock]

Thank you John! Thats very impressive

Ordering the carpet from wilcox and they don't have a silver gray, just gray so I wanted to make sure I was ordering the right carpet. The seats in it were leather and I replaced them with leather, but Virgina Vettes referred to it as Silver Gray.

Revamping the 82 Silver Gray interior is tricky because there are only seven hundred or so of us that have it. Most suppliers have substituted some other gray that they decided was close enough for the original color. Unfortunately the substitute color is inconsistent from one supplier to the next. I'd ask them to send you color samples before buying any leather or carpet. Compare the samples to some hidden part of your original interior that has never seen the sun. The trick is to get all the piece to match even if they are not exactly original.

 

[craig32]

Hey Lori, long time! As for the first part of your numbers, 'C 10 E' is: C=1982 10=October E=5th week. Interestingly enough, my very late model 81 and your very early model 82 are only a few weeks apart, mine is 'B 10 A'
As mentioned, the BG numbers vary from the much documented SL ones - in some instances there is '2' instead of '1' (or 'I')
If you want to read what you can't see, hold a piece of paper over the plate and rub it with a pencil, a lot easier that way

Craig

 

[oceangal]

Hi Craig! How are you doing?

I actually did that pencil trick after trying the young child to read it, but its still not so easy with the 1's and L's.

Thats cool to know its "born on date' or pretty close to it. I am actually turning the interior into more of a two tone look. The silver gray has been hard to match and its just a mish mosh of grays and its hard to find a gray spray paint that works and we tried to mix one to match but that didn't work either. On the door panels the leather part isn't bad but the carpeting is faded so I am thinking of dying the carpeting black.

I got the new dash over lay and thats black, the seats are silver/gray (I think) and the seat frames are now black, hopefully when it all comes together it will look great, my husband as a visionary more than I so I am trusting him, but I still think the glove box and steering column should stay gray. The new carpeting is gray, and when you look up at the trim around the t tops etc its still all gray. I might go with the black logo floor mats, but I can wait on that.

I will post some pictures as soon as the interior gets done. I hope the parts come fast I so want to drive her. I sent some pictures of the engine compartment to the prior owner and he was pretty psyched. He is restoring a barn find early 70's vette and couldn't have two vettes so he sold the 82 to me.