i think this is the cowl tag, if not don't get mad because im new to this

79 06b 1aw60 r 205105
4v 79l 79u 77m l
av7

078403

i have no idea what any of this means, so if u can please help

Alright, the 79 is the year, 1aw60 is a designation for El Camino or something mine 1aw80. The 79L, 79U, and 77M are paint codes. 79L is the designation for Carmine metalic lowerbody, the 79U means carmine metalic upperbody. Now the 77M L from what my shop manual is telling me is that it isa lower paint accent and/or decal outline and lettering which happens to be Carmine Metalic. All this info is comeing out of the Super Sport section (Nothing really adds up under the standard area) The "R" however is the one that catches me... To date I have seen 4 different cowl tags in the time frame of 1978 to 1981 on "Special E-5's". Now mine is a '78 Black Knight... The Cowl Tag does not have Z15 or Z16 only a tell tale "Z" and how I back this up is the fact that I have the Original pictures of my Uncle buying the Elco back in 1978 off the show room floor of the dealership (I believe that it was 3-Way Chevrolet in Bakersfield, he lived out his years there, but I was only 2 when he bought it), the pictures show the tell tale emblems and graphic hood (All are black and white). So further more everything that I have researched on your tag is that it just may be a SS model and the R just might mean "Royalty"... don't quote me.

Excuse my last about the "R", it is a code on where it was built, but it's strange, I have the actual shop manuals from GM on all G bodies from 78 to 88 (I confiscated them when I heard they were going to be thrown out), and the cowl tags hardly ever seem to match. Your numbers are saying that it is a SS or Coquista paint scheme the AV7 is a 50 50 split seating arangement. Now I have also seen some tags that were printed wrong as well a big one that I have notice, I don't know if it is a misprint in the books or mis-stamping the tags, but if you come across a tag with a D19, 19D, 91D, or D91 (I have seen them all on the '78s and '79s), this is a code for the Conquista body style in books it will be printed as 91D or D19. Now something else that I have noticed on the cowl tags is this difference some will say this 1aw80, 1aw80/Z, 1aw80/Z15, or 1aw80/Z16. Now these codes all mean Super Sport of one style or the other, if there is just a space and a Z then that means that it was made in Fremont California. Now if any of those codes had the "/Z..." in it more often than not the Z, Z15, or Z16 will not apear down at the bottom corner of the stamping on a cowl tag. Now anotherthing I had to do alot of researching on this one and asking around. Up in the top right of the cowl tag there are the letters BDY, to the direct left of it there is a space, this space (so I am told) is left blank for dealers to stamp as needed. This apparently means that the Black Knight, Conquista, Royal Knight, or any othere special version can be "Cloned" at the dealer. A single stamped Z will indicated this and this is a hammer and engraveing tool type Z not machined. Now numbers have also been known to be put in there to indcate how many times it has been to a body shop (It had been wrecked). This came from an old tech and good friend who worked on the G bodies and other GM vehicals for many years and he is still trying to get me to sell my '78... fat chance! 8)

79 06b 1aw60 r 205105
4v 79l 79u 77m l
av7

078403
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79 = 1979 Model year

06B - Month/Week of production, May 2nd week of 1979

1AW80 - El Camino 2-Dr Pickup Delivery

R - Arlington Texas assembly plant code
205105 - Body Indent number (not same as VIN)

?4V - Interior trim code, you missed the first digit, 74V - Vinyl (V) Dark Carmine interior trim
79L - Lower Paint color is Dark Carmine Poly
79U - Upper Paint Color is Dark Carmine Poly
77M - Middle Paint color is Carmine Poly

L - Paint type code for Lacquer paint

AV7 - 50-50 front seat (non-reclining)

078403 - Internal plant computer processing ident number, just a means to id the body in production processing.

Dark Carmine is a dark maroon
Carmine is a shade lighter

D91 - Two-Tone Paint, Special
A regular production option (RPO)


Now anotherthing I had to do alot of researching on this one and asking around. Up in the top right of the cowl tag there are the letters BDY, to the direct left of it there is a space, this space (so I am told) is left blank for dealers to stamp as needed.


No truth to that! Dealers never stamped anything on the body tags.

Back in the 60's dealer were supposed to stamp a delivery date on the VIN plate but it was rarely done. Problems with dislodging of the plate and GM eliminated that around 1968. But dealers stamping trim plates is not normal pracitice and if its done it by pepole who should not be doing such a thing. What they would want to stamp on there baffles me. Lots of rumors are spread that have no basis in reality.

I agree with the rumors issue, but I do have a couple RPO tags (from Elco's) that have numbers and letters "benchscribed" in that area of question. One with a 2, one with a 3, and one with Z15. These tags are only memories of the vehicals they went to... they were destroyed and sold as scrap... So I keep them sorta like "DOG TAGS". :cool: