Production - Vehicle Identification

By David Mizen (with numerous edits)

Vehicles VG, VH, CH, VJ and CJ all have a compliance plate on the drivers side fire wall only, showing options and body number.

Vehicles from VK onwards have an option information plate on the left hand fire wall but still have a compliance plate on the drivers side (the only information on this is the body number). The body number is also stamped in to the right hand inner fender.

An example body number / VIN is VJ4H23/DI24-0452.

The first two characters are the model: e.g. VG, VH, VJ etc.

The first character after the model designation is the associated driveline:

1	6 cylinder manual
2	6 cylinder automatic
3	6 cylinder manual
4	6 cylinder automatic
5	8 cylinder manual
6	8 cylinder automatic
7	6 cylinder manual
8	6 cylinder automatic

The next is the price range/class of the vehicle:

L	Low
E	Economy
M	Medium
H	High
D	Deluxe
S	Sport
P	Premium

Each body type has it's own number:

22	Utes
23	2 Door Hardtop (Sedan)
29	2 Door Coupe (Charger)
41	4 Door Sedan
45	4 Door Station Wagon

Each body has a unique serial number which reflects it's production number, numbers are sequential starting from 00001 in each body type.

Looking at the compliance plate (G,H,J) or the option plate (K>) you will see a line that says;

BODY— BERG—— (or TAUB——)

This is the paint colour code. The first is a two letter code which is the Chrysler Code. The second is the paint manufacturers number (4 digits) Berger is the paint manufacturer (BERG) or Taubmans (TAUB)

Trim Code:

X1	Black
T1	Tan
R1	Red
B1	Blue
C1	Brown
L1	Parchment

On the compliance plate of all vehicles you will find the month and year of manufacture followed by the model and series (V for Valiant, C for Chrysler, G,H,J,K,L,M), the price range (number & letter), the body type, a "/" then 2 letters and 2 numbers.  This is the actual completion date.

The first letter is the Year:

A	1970
B	1971
C	1972
D	1973
E	1974
F	1975
G	Up to July 1976
H	From July on
I	1977
J	1978
K	1979
L	1980

The second letter is the Month:

A	January
B	February
C	March
D	April
E	May
F	June
G	July
H	August
I	September
J	October
K	November
L	December

The next two digits are the day of the month.  For Example:

1/74 VJ7M29/EA16-2657

Indicates a Valiant 'J' Series Charger built 16th January 1974 in the high end of the medium price range and that it is number 2657 of its type in the build sequence.

Looking at the 'J' series model code ID sheets shows that the base configuration for a 7M29 Charger is a 265 with 3 spd floor shift manual. We then add our options to this. If you wanted a particular option not available in your model or price range you could twist the salesmans arm to get it. He would check with the factory to see if they could fit that option on the assembly line, if they could the factory would issue an S.O.A. (Special Order Authority) on G,H,J, series vehicles the SOA number will be stamped in to the right hand inner fender next to the body number, on K series and later it is on the option plate.

To make life a little easier we now have an online function to decode these VIN numbers for you.  Try our VG-CM VIN decoder.

You can also see the official Chrysler Service Training Notes here (299 kb).