Just purchased a 1975 Parisienne from the son of the original owner - a 4 door sedan with a 400 4Barrel single exhaust SBC and a THM350, the car has a glove box trunk release, tilt, and a factory tach(!); it has pretty stout sway bars front and back - the VIN first digit is a 7, the engine code U and the 2nd digit is L ( IMPALA ?) I need some help with a VIN and the body tag decode - thanks Pete.

P.S. As a newbie I hope this is the correct way to post - any pointers welcome

Welcome here Pmac. I'm horribly curious what the factory tach looks like, never knew they had one!

I'll see what I can find for a VIN decode for you.

Welcome from Canada's east coast!

I never thought I would see a factory tach in a sedan of that era I have attached (I hope) an image of the tach. My VIN card reference indicates 7 as GM of Canada (should be 2 for Pontiac), L Parisienne, 69 Sedan 4 door Pillar, 5 year, 1 Oshawa, followed by the sequential serial number so why GM of Canada and not Pontiac? I have pieced together that it was a special order that was on the lot for a another customer, and sold to the PO to sway him away for a Caprice.

And thanks for the welcome.

Thanks from 'Group of Seven' country.

4SPEED427 wrote:

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I can't find anything in the parts books about a factory tach no matter how much I look. That certainly is a cool looking piece. If someone added that later they sure did a great job with it.

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 I agree Carl, a really nice job for an in dash tach.

You can see a small hole in the face of the plastic at the 6 oclock position that may indicates a clock knob may have been there.

What a great factory look if it isn't factory.

Any evidence of a trailer hitch, a car like that would surely have been a capable tow vehicle and hence tach may have been a useful accessory.

Thanks -  I know the build date, selling dealer, etc. I was curious if someone might have come across this before, but not curious enough to spend the cost of a bottle of Glenmorangie.

Can you get your phone up in behind there and get some shots of the backside of the tach?

Pmac wrote:

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I never thought I would see a factory tach in a sedan of that era I have attached (I hope) an image of the tach. My VIN card reference indicates 7 as GM of Canada (should be 2 for Pontiac), L Parisienne, 69 Sedan 4 door Pillar, 5 year, 1 Oshawa, followed by the sequential serial number so why GM of Canada and not Pontiac? I have pieced together that it was a special order that was on the lot for a another customer, and sold to the PO to sway him away for a Caprice.

And thanks for the welcome.

 

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 Any idea what the amber circle under the "4" is for?

This is a clock from a 1975 Grandville. I would say the center clock was removed and a tach was installed. It would explain the hole in the cover where the clock stem was.

I have seen that symbol before, and if memory serves it is a revolution icon; by the way some GM models with Tachometers simply had a button pressed in the 'clock hole'; in case of fact, the hole could be for a indicator meter needle mechanism so the operator could set what engine speed they wanted to use as a 'red line' ( and, I do not think The General would have bothered to have a separate pile of non-drilled  meter cluster facia plates for tach equipped 'B' bodies) - if the tach had the 'over rev zone' indicated on the meter face ( as this one does) a little shinny plug was pressed in - or not, if it was a Friday afternoon or a Monday morning.

Thank you very much 4Speed427 for the welcome and the effort you have spent on this.

It gave me pause when you said "Can you get your phone up in behind there and get some shots of the backside of the tach?"; (as the cord on my Northern Telecom NE2500D telephone") will not reach that far - and then I realized you meant a smart 'phone ( guess is you are curious if the harness has been fooled with) - alas I am not smart enough to operate a smart 'phone but I do have a borescope and will get around to capturing that view some day, but as for this day, the tach works, it was not installed after purchase - and I reckon that is interesting little point of fact . 

Pete.

Being cheap isn't a trait I inherited from my family clans of the McGregors and Lamonts so I am happy to say that I have personally spilled more Glenfiddich, our house single malt, over the years than the cost of the all important GMVVS documentation. 

Canadian Pontiacs are known as Series 7000 inside GM Canada so we often see the 7 in the VIN, especially on cars in the 60s and 70s.

The car was outfitted to tow a trailer, the parts guy who owned it got a GM tach from a similar era car and changed out the clock likely at his dealership so it looks factory. Probably did this before the car was delivered.

That's all, I solved everything.  

Now you can go out and buy your bottle of  Glenmorangie.

Yes, my apologies re: cheap, My Grandmothers were so thrifty and frugal that it drove me nuts so I really grew to resent that trait. My kids say I spend like a drunken sailor and therein lies the reason for all my spillage. You've got a real interesting car there, if only they could talk and let us in the their stories. 

Clarkie wrote:

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I'm thinking it's aftermarket for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you can see that the hole isn't perfectly centred in the turquoise circle and the font of the numbers isn't consistent between the tach and the speedometer. It's a well-done install though.

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Clarkie wrote:

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I'm thinking it's aftermarket for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you can see that the hole isn't perfectly centred in the turquoise circle and the font of the numbers isn't consistent between the tach and the speedometer. It's a well-done install though.

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Agree. 

Plus there's no redline on the tach.  I haven't seen a factory tach install yet that doesn't have a redline that is consistent with the factory specified rpm limit.  

It is still a really nice install and a cool story.  Lots of 'stuff' went on in the factories back then, so at this point I never say never...

To keep it interesting, here's a page out of the US 1975 Pontiac accessories guide:

4SPEED427 wrote:

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Welcome here Pmac. I'm horribly curious what the factory tach looks like, never knew they had one!

I'll see what I can find for a VIN decode for you.

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 ditto!!

I have had family that drove those, but have NEVER seen a tach in one;
Heck, seeing a tach in a 78-87 Grand Prix is rare enough - but not all together uncommon.

EDIT:

I somehow wasn't able to initially see the pictures;
I agree that's aftermarket, but a nice install.

I did something similar in my '80 Monte Carlo when I added a second gen Camaro tach in the mid 1990's.