Okay - so you go to any paint chip chart, and you see a TWO digit paint code:

A-5 Silver
E-5 Red
C-7 Plum Crazy
V-2 Hemi Orange
Y-3 Citron Yella

Where does the FIRST digit come from - and why does it change?

JA5 Silver
FE5 Red
FC7 Plum Crazy
EV2 Hemi Orange
GY3 Citron Yella

Thanks!!

It designates the first year the color was introduced. G=71

The year

To take it a bit farther, the prefix is the 'Series' AKA model year.

E - 1969

F - 1970

G - 1971

Etc.

V-2 Hemi Orange
E-5 Red
C-7 Plum Crazy
Y-3 Citron Yella
A-5 Silver

So between 1971 and 1972, they skipped the letters H and I?

1969 - EV2 Hemi Orange
1970 - FE5 Red
1970 - FC7 Plum Crazy
1971 - GY3 - Citron Yella
1972 - JA5 - Silver

A great example is B5 Blue

EB5 is a 69 color used in 69 and 70
GB5 is a 71 color used in 71

They are not the same color

Also the code is
Year Introduced - E-69, F-70, G-71
Color; B-blue, E-red, K-orange, Y-yellow, X-black
Shade 1 - light, 9 - dark

My 72 Imperial is JA5. What year did J come out?

Absolutely. Same with DY3 and GY3

I tried to explain this to a experienced paint mixing lady, she looked at me like I was crazy and said "that first digit doesn't matter. Then I had her look up the two different Y3 colors.

H (series) is 1972 introduction
J (series) is 1973 introduction

sometime new colors already slated for next year's models hit the sales floor early,
"JA5" was released early as a "spring special" '72 availability - what's your Imperial's SPD?

1968 Charger's "spring special" colors were "3" Charger red & "6" dark green metallic .....
with the change in coding format -- these were 1969's "R4" & "F8" (EF8)

"DY2" is D-series 1968 paint code "S"

"TB3" & "TX9" go back to T-series 1963

It's the fumes that get to those paint people

Hm. Good question and answers. Somehow I never put that together...

The 'I' was not used, so that is why they jumped from H to J.

I thought the color codes in 1969 were two digit and the codes had three digit starting in 1970?
At least true as far as the fender tag is concerned.

The fender tag & broadcast sheet paint codes were two digits for the 1969 model year.

Three for 1970 & up.

But the various suppliers & even Chrysler used two digits on the paint chip charts. Some 1970 model year examples of this at http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/paintChipCharts/1970PaintChipCharts-01.shtml