Buick (and GM) ID tags/labels

[Barney Eaton]

When did Buick switch from the firewall tag that listed some of the option codes and colors to the

Service Parts label?      The Service Parts label gives so much more information.  

Don't know what I am talking about?    He is a Service Parts label ...... this one happens to be a Canadian car. 

[SpecialEducation]

I think the earliest GM SPID label I’ve seen is 1973. 

[NTX5467]

The earliest SPID label I saw was about 1985 model year (on the underside of a '85 Caprice deck lid).  I was impressed as it had more information on it that the Chrysler Data Plates had on them.  Basically, the SPID is a consumer version of the famous and somewhat elusive "build sheets" many people lust after. 

 

BUT . . . you have to know the codes you are looking for and the related "decode".  The GM parts books would have the particular decodes in them, but GM also published a universal decode book (some of which can be found online), IF you know how to sift through all of the same codes for different vehicles.

 

I'm not sure how far back the GM Parts database goes on these things, but if you input your VIN into the parts catalog database, there is a utility which will print the SPID as a string of option codes and what each means.  Might print out two or more pages, but lots of interesting information to have on hand for later use.

 

Current SPIDs are QR Code images.  YUK!

 

Happy New Year!

NTX5467

[Larry Schramm]

A book like this helps and here is a sample of the information in the book. The book is only about 4"x7".

[Barney Eaton]

I have a couple of those books that Larry posted   1992 and 1997. 

If you have a factory service manual for your car,  the codes are often listed near the front of the manual and in the front of the parts book. 

 

[NTX5467]

As far as the option codes go, they have been around for ages, just not compiled in the later publication as they are.

 

Before the GM SPID labels, you would need to have good product knowledge of what went with what or find a broadcast sheet.  On my '77 Camaro, it came with a broadcast sheet loose in the passenger compartment so I didn't need to take the car apart to find one.  I collected several ones on Camaros that way.