this is for my brothers truck, a 2003 Sierra 1500. i bought him a pair of body color door handles from Roger Dean chevrolet on eBay and supplied the seller [Dan] with the VIN so he could know what color to send....well, he ended up sending a color that was too dark. not too out of the ordinary, people make mistakes after all. Dan says maybe my brothers truck has been painted. I doubt it, the truck is only three model years old and only has 40K on it (clean history). Well, Dan sent me a sheet from GM with the colors and their names/codes.


He looked up the VIN and said the color code is 62U. However, this truck is much lighter in color than the 62U on the supplied paint chip. Here's the VIN in case one of you guys knows how to read it:

2GTEC19T231302592



thanks

Do me a favor, look in the glove box at the RPO codes...There should be a paint code on the bottom left.

That, or look at the list and see if you see 62U in the list..

Hi guys, I sure dont want to complicate things, but I did a search and there are apparently 3 shades of carbon metallic(62U). My truck is Pewter and I had to choose from 5 versions of this color, as the different plants had different batches of color. I basically had to guess from the chips and got lucky. Maybe a paint supply shop can help sort some of this out. Sorry if I am off track,,,Frank

There is a book called vin decoder. It will tell you a million things that you never thought possible.

where is this book? How does 1 get a copy?

Its kind of a law enforcement tool for motor carrier/weights and standards enforcement. Try to look it up online...

The GM VIM will not give you the paint color. I confirmed that the 62U is the correct RPO. You might double check the year on the paint chip you were looking at. A 62U isn't necessarily the same shade from year to year. You need to get the specific 62U for your 2003 model.

The GM VIM will not give you the paint color. I confirmed that the 62U is the correct RPO. You might double check the year on the paint chip you were looking at. A 62U isn't necessarily the same shade from year to year. You need to get the specific 62U for your 2003 model.


Oh.....ok.

So the shade changes from year to year....that's good to know. I will get back with Dan then and make sure he didn't send one for 2006 or something. :rolleyes:


thanks guys, once again you're super helpful.

When I passed this on to the dealer, here is what he responded with:


Yes 62U is the generic code used on several different trucks (Chevy, Ford,
Toyota, ECT.) But within GM it has always Been WA805K which is the tinting
of 62U. Used on 2002-2006.

is this true?

According to the 2004 Online order guide that code is correct for the 62U paint code. As the guide doesn't go back to 2003, I can't be sure, but the odds are in your favor.

When I passed this on to the dealer, here is what he responded with:

Yes 62U is the generic code used on several different trucks (Chevy, Ford,
Toyota, ECT.) But within GM it has always Been WA805K which is the tinting
of 62U. Used on 2002-2006.

is this true?

Well, yes and no. GM puts that code in the RPO codes as the color designation. The WA805K is the true "paint code" that you would give to body shop, paint mixer, etc to have the paint mixed for the truck. The RPO code will always be three digits for everything (I prefer 41U :D )