[chaotic]

I just looked at a buddy of mines formula. It is a '78 Z code car that currently has a 350sbc and a 3spd manual trans. It looks like it was red from the factory but the color code on the trim tag says W72 for upper and lower color.....

I haven't been able to locate the 72 color so far(much less W72) except for '77 "Roman Red"

Now if this car was a '78 4spd Z code Formula it is obviously a rare W72 car but why would that be stamped on the cowl tag where the color code should be?

On another note I had a yellow '78 Formula 350 that had W50 appearance package, this car had W50 stamped on the cowl tag where the color code should have been.

So my question is why is W72 stamped on the cowl tag on his particular formula and has anyone else seen this?

[MalteseFalcon]

Odd. W72 was an RPO engine code number in 1978 - the 220 hp Pontiac engine.

I have a 1978 brochure that lists the Firebird colours as:

11 - Cameo White
15 - Platinum Metallic
19 - Starlight Black
22 - Glacier Blue Metallic
30 - Lombard Blue
50 - Solar Gold
63 - Laredo Brown Metallic
67 - Ember Mist Metallic (kind of an orangey-brown red)
69 - Chesterfield Brown Metallic
77 - Carmine Metallic
24 - Martinique Blue Metallic
48 - Berkshire Green Metallic
51 - Sundance Yellow
75 - Myan Red

[Mr W72]

Are you sure the car was produced at the Norwood assembly plant? The reason I ask is Van Nuys cars would have a W stamped by the color code on the data plate for "water base" paint. Please double check the VIN. It would be helpful if you could provide all data plate info exactly as it is stamped on the plate.

BTW Pontiac produced 810 W72 Formulas with 4-speed transmissions during the 1978 model year.

[chaotic]

Thanks for listing the color codes, I was looking all over for the full list of '78 codes and couldn't find it.

John. I was 100% sure it was Norwood but now I'm wondering. That would make some sense of it if the W was for water based paint and it was a Van Nuys car. It would not explain why the rest of the code was 72 unless it was perhaps an early build car before Mayan red was available? I remember this;

A51 W72 L W72 U

I know A51 is bucket seats and I know it had W72 for upper and lower but I don't remember if U or L was the first in line which doesn't really matter as we all know that designates upper and lower colors. Keep in mind that I saw this right after noticing that his car had a clutch pedal and a Z code in the vin. The owner is just getting into pontiacs and hasn't owned an old car for a long time. I was muttering to myself and acting all excited and trying to explain to him what I thought his car was.

When I was searching yesterday I found the prduction numbers on your W72 PDF and got excited! 810 is pretty rare indeed.

I know for almost 100% that the vin number had an N for the plant code. Going from memory that should be Norwood, or so I thought at the time.

I'll try to get all of the codes this week and repost.

[johnta1]

I show 72 as Roman Red, and as John said it is water based paint.
Don't think Norwood used any water based paint.

[WarbirdTA]

That's a sore point with second gen data plates.
The Body number doesn't match the vin.
It's possible the data plate was removed from another car, to have either paint code or other options show up as legit.
By chance, do you have a copy of the invoice from PHS to help vertify?
This is where build sheets would be final say in vertifing things.
Too bad we can't get copies of these!

George