I just picked up a 56 olds 88. This car needs complete restoration. The guy I bought it off of was going to cut it up and scrap it. I am going to save this thing from the crusher. I need help decoding the cowl tag, none of the books I have give any explanation to these numbers.

Style - 56-3611
Body - 1409
Trim - 364
Paint - S64-63
Top - ACC

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Style 56 means it's a '56
36 is an 88
11 is a 2-door sedan
If there was a D on the end, that would mean it was a Super 88

Body 1409 means it is the 1409th 2-door sedan body built at that plant. There should be a code in front of number that tells what plant the body was built at.

Trim 364 is the code for the interior trim, which I don't have in front of me right now. I'm going to guess tan, because...

S64-63 is the code for special two tone paint (meaning two tone on the body instead of just the roof) in Shantung Beige over Citation Bronze.

Top would be the top code if it were a convertible.

ACC would be accessory codes that would effect the build of the body (like air conditioning or power windows).

Paul

From some very faded computer images,I think that 364 is beige morroceen(I know the spelling doesn't seem right) and beige and white cloth.

Thanks for the info.

I just aquired a '56 Olds Holiday 88 coupe (no post). It has the 2-barrel 324, hyrdramatic and an odd option. Rear/trunk mounted A/C unit with two clear plastic tube coming up from the rear package shelf. There is a factory (in the dash) swith that has "RIGHT" and "LEFT" control knobs. I can't find any info on this car. Some people tell me the AC unit was dash mounted in '56 with vents up front under the dash (round chrome) and an added controls switch mounted to the dash hanging down as well. Some people tell me that the rear mounted unit is very rare (usually on Caddies) and odd. See pics attached. Here's the body tag info:

Style: 56-3637
Body: BA-4250
Trim: 367
Paint: S31-30
Top ACC
Body by Fisher

Thanks for any help. I've seen a lot of aftermarket AC units and this system looks factory original...in age/wear and tear, etc. There's a compressor mounted on top of the engine. The dash switches are not aftermarket as the housing is a duplicate of the light switch and they are exactly the same material, font, knob-type, etc.

Rich in Texas

Rich,

As far as your trim tag in concerned...

Style: 56-3637

56 means it is a 1956. 3637 means it is an 88 (36) Holiday coupe (37). If it were a Super 88 there would be a D on the end.

Body: BA-4250

This means the body was built in Doraville, Georgia and it was the 4,250th 88 Holiday coupe body to be built at that Fisher Body plant.

Trim: 367

Interior trim code for Ivory vinyl and green pattern cloth. This is the Custom Trim Option. It is the same cloth and seat pattern that the Super 88s used, but they used genuine leather where this car has vinyl. The Custom Trim Option was a $40 option. The Custom Trim Option also included a foam rubber front seat cushion, carpeting (instead of rubber floor covering), chrome side roof rail moldings (instead of painted) and perforated headliner (instead of cloth).

Paint: S31-30

S denotes special two-tone paint, where the roof and nose are one color and the trunk and lower body sides are another color. Conventional two-tone paint (without the S) would just be the roof painted a different color than the rest of the car. 31 is the code for Canyon Green which is the color on the trunk and lower sides. 30 is the code for Ice Green which is the color on the roof and nose.

Top ACC

Top would be the convertible top color, which doesn't apply to you. ACC is where codes would be to reflect options affecting the build of the body. I'm pretty certain that if this were a factory air car it would display an N here.

Paul