St Regis NYB data plate code P51 (power sunroof)

chrysler_fan

Active Member
Joined
May 4, 2020
Messages
228
Reaction score
132
Location
Florida
I have a local MOPAR expert friend who recently bought a 77 NYB St Regis (white exterior, white leather seats and red interior trim). He has done wonders with it and is still improving it. I offered to decode the data plate on radiator support. I got almost all of them to make sense. On three different sites, I found that P51 means power sunroof. The car does not have a power sunroof but the VIN from the tag matches the car itself. Since the St Regis and maybe even then sunroof cars were done at third party coach shops so that the P51 code might mean special handling. There is a separate code on the tag which confirms the partial vinyl top associated with the St Regis format. Do any of you with St Regis (and maybe Crown Coupe before it) have similar codes but no sunroof. We assume he does not have a sunroof buried under that vinyl top and above the headliner but were surprised 3 websites with data plate codes confirm the same code for sunroof. No, he has not found the build sheet / broadcast sheet if the 77 models still had them like earlier MOPAR models did. Thanks for your thoughts and advice.
 
All of our cars were outsourced to "American Sunroof Corporation" for the power sunroof. The "Special Handling" meant they paid for extra quality assurance. Here is mine.

100_0396.JPG


100_0398.JPG
 
I have a local MOPAR expert friend who recently bought a 77 NYB St Regis (white exterior, white leather seats and red interior trim). He has done wonders with it and is still improving it. I offered to decode the data plate on radiator support. I got almost all of them to make sense. On three different sites, I found that P51 means power sunroof. The car does not have a power sunroof but the VIN from the tag matches the car itself. Since the St Regis and maybe even then sunroof cars were done at third party coach shops so that the P51 code might mean special handling. There is a separate code on the tag which confirms the partial vinyl top associated with the St Regis format. Do any of you with St Regis (and maybe Crown Coupe before it) have similar codes but no sunroof. We assume he does not have a sunroof buried under that vinyl top and above the headliner but were surprised 3 websites with data plate codes confirm the same code for sunroof. No, he has not found the build sheet / broadcast sheet if the 77 models still had them like earlier MOPAR models did. Thanks for your thoughts and advice.
it is bad when I have to reply to my own post. The code we see as sunroof on the data plate for my friends 77 NYB is M51. Sorry. P51 is something else. Sorry.
 
Mistakes we’re certainly made during production years, maybe the car was slotted for a sunroof, but never made it to American Sunroof Corp. As Pete stated above, just a guess though.. I would doubt they would cover the roof and put a headliner in it leaving the sunroof, but again mistakes were made, I guess it’s possible. If the car does in fact have a Hidden sunroof, your headroom from seat to headliner would be approximately 2 inches shorter due to the sunroof cassette mounted above, you could always pull the headliner down on the driver or passenger side and take a peek. FYI, The headliner in a coupe is one solid piece of board covered in material, not like a sedan which has lose material and headliner Bose.
Hers my 77 NYB.

1A0F4F2A-B8CD-42CA-BF3A-34CF2F96ED23.jpeg
 
One incognito thing to look for IF the car might have a hidden headliner cassette, is the DRAIN TUBES for the cassette. Usually FOUR tubes, one from each of the cassette corners to drain rain water which might get past the moveable panel's gaskets. Easiest places might be the rear tubes, which would be a plastic-type tube which would end up in each of the rear wheel houses, by observation. But if the sunroof might be there, you might find just the open tubes behind the trunk carpet and such?

Agree with the sunroof headliner being lower than the normal headliner. One reason I decided I didn't like sunroofs nearly as much, back then.

A note on Internet information sites. Several years ago, I was seeking some information and discovered via Google that there were many postings of the information I was seeking. What I found was ONE post of the information that had been re-posted everywhere. NO verification that it was correct, either, just that many (different posters and a few other similar websites) perceived it to be correct. So I looked further for factory information rather than posted information. Finally found what I considered "trustable" factory information elsewhere. BTAIM

Which is one reason that I like to use www.hamtramck-historical.com , www.mymopar.com , links provided by posters in here, and sometimes a few other trusted websites as ultimate information sources on Chrysler products. So THANKS to all who post those links!

Just some thoughts and observations,
CBODY67
 
One incognito thing to look for IF the car might have a hidden headliner cassette, is the DRAIN TUBES for the cassette. Usually FOUR tubes, one from each of the cassette corners to drain rain water which might get past the moveable panel's gaskets. Easiest places might be the rear tubes, which would be a plastic-type tube which would end up in each of the rear wheel houses, by observation. But if the sunroof might be there, you might find just the open tubes behind the trunk carpet and such?

Agree with the sunroof headliner being lower than the normal headliner. One reason I decided I didn't like sunroofs nearly as much, back then.

A note on Internet information sites. Several years ago, I was seeking some information and discovered via Google that there were many postings of the information I was seeking. What I found was ONE post of the information that had been re-posted everywhere. NO verification that it was correct, either, just that many (different posters and a few other similar websites) perceived it to be correct. So I looked further for factory information rather than posted information. Finally found what I considered "trustable" factory information elsewhere. BTAIM

Which is one reason that I like to use www.hamtramck-historical.com , www.mymopar.com , links provided by posters in here, and sometimes a few other trusted websites as ultimate information sources on Chrysler products. So THANKS to all who post those links!

Just some thoughts and observations,
CBODY67
thank you
 
Chrysler Fan has already found wrong info on the web that led to confusion. It also seems like we need some clarity to the question as to what he is seeing. I don't think we have all the info to adequately answer the original question.

How about pumping the brakes and wait until we get all of the info and documentation before guessing/speculating what is going on and compounding the already present misinformation?

Peugfra: Maybe you could post a picture of the tag(s) so we can all take a look?
 
And on a 1977 tag it should look like this:

77-121349-CS23T7C121349.jpeg


Note that there is a third candidate: H51 Manual Airco.
 
And on a 1977 tag it should look like this:

View attachment 520178

Note that there is a third candidate: H51 Manual Airco.
After we read the various commentaries (thank you) and looked at the fender tag in greater detail, we concluded instead of M51 (sunroof), it is H51 which is the single AC system the car in question has. It sure looked like an M but it is out of order alphabetically since those upper rows are mostly alphabetically organized on those data plates of that area
 
It sure looked like an M but it is out of order alphabetically since those upper rows are mostly alphabetically organized on those data plates of that area.

Actually tags from East Jefferson are differently organized than tags from Belvidere. East Jefferson works with a fixed place for the sales codes and Belvidere goes by alphabetical order. That explains why East Jefferson tags have empty spaces, whereas Belvidere codes are listed one after the other.

Knowing that helps when deciphering a code that is difficult to read.

It still would be nice to see the fender tag we have been talking about.
 
What I found was ONE post of the information that had been re-posted everywhere. NO verification that it was correct, either, just that many (different posters and a few other similar websites) perceived it to be correct. So I looked further for factory information rather than posted information. Finally found what I considered "trustable" factory information elsewhere. BTAIM

Amen!

BTAIM is not applicable, however. This should not remain as it is now. Just using your own brains (we all got them!) instead of uncritically repeating internet spam would make this world a better place.

From personal experience I can tell that is very hard to contest amplified incorrect information.
 
I have a local MOPAR expert friend who recently bought a 77 NYB St Regis (white exterior, white leather seats and red interior trim). He has done wonders with it and is still improving it. I offered to decode the data plate on radiator support. I got almost all of them to make sense. On three different sites, I found that P51 means power sunroof. The car does not have a power sunroof but the VIN from the tag matches the car itself. Since the St Regis and maybe even then sunroof cars were done at third party coach shops so that the P51 code might mean special handling. There is a separate code on the tag which confirms the partial vinyl top associated with the St Regis format. Do any of you with St Regis (and maybe Crown Coupe before it) have similar codes but no sunroof. We assume he does not have a sunroof buried under that vinyl top and above the headliner but were surprised 3 websites with data plate codes confirm the same code for sunroof. No, he has not found the build sheet / broadcast sheet if the 77 models still had them like earlier MOPAR models did. Thanks for your thoughts and advice.
Finally got a picture to upload of the subject data plate. I concluded after further review that the mystery code is H51 instead of M51. Now you can go at it if you see anything else interesting on the tag

al chrysler data plate 20220311_113605.jpg
 
What this tag has in common with all 1975-1978 tags with the Crown Coupe (LeBaron) and St. Regis (New Yorker/Newport) package is the repeat of the code for the specific roof treatment, V4- for 1975-1976 and V5- for 1977-1978. It is once mentioned in the slot for the roof style (third line from below) and once in the upper row.

In 1974, when this treatment was introduced on the LeBaron, it was only mentioned in the upper row (V4Y) and the slot for the roof style was left empty:

74-198301-YM23T4C198301.JPG


On window stickers (available documentation starts in 1976) it is consistently decribed as a package, not as just a roof style:

76-140922-CS23T6C140922-windowsticker.jpg


Now, from a detailed description of the 1974 Crown Coupe package at Automotive Mileposts it is clear that the package required quite a lot of modification to the basic build, to be carried out by American Sunroof Corporation (ASC).

What could be the reason for this change in fender tag coding? A change in labour distribution between Chrysler and ASC or a different logic in the fender tag coding?
 
Back
Top