A very common question that is posed by new Monza owners is whether or not they have a 'real' Spyder. A lot of cars are passed off as Spyders, yet few know how to identify a 'true' Spyder. This should help, somewhat.
Unfortunately, for 1976 and 1977, neither the VIN nor the Trim Tag will verify a Spyder. The only way is if you are lucky enough to have found a build sheet somewhere in the car. But, starting in 1978, with all GM H-Body car production moved to Lordstown, OH, things became a lot clearer. The VIN will still not be able to verify a Spyder but your 1978-80 trim tag will.
How to properly identify a factory-built Monza Spyder
SPYDER PAGE
At right is a 1978 Trim Tag from a Light Red Spyder with black interior and black striping. The Spyder identifier is in the form of the last 2 digits of the Spyder's RPO Code (Z02) found on the last line, right side. 02BLK Identifies this car as a Z02 Spyder with black striping.
The second 1978 tag (right) is a Dark Camel Metallic Spyder with Camel interior and gold Spyder striping which is identifiable by the 02GLD in the same location.
The following tag is a White 1979 Spyder with Oyster/Gray interior and Red striping. The '02' is at the end of the 3rd line on its own and is your Spyder identification. The Stripe identifier now becomes the RPO Code found at the right side of the 2nd line, in this case 74A. The Stripe code will always be a 2-digit number followed by an 'A'.
At right is an early 1980 trim tag of a Dark Blue Metallic Spyder with Blue interior and Blue Spyder striping (26A).
At right is my Black 1980 Spyder with Camel interior and gold striping (54A).
These are the only 2 colours you will see identified after the '02'. There were 4 Spyder Striping combos, 1 was gold and 3 were black with various accent colours based on interior and exterior colour choices but only those 2 colours (BLK and GLD) will be on the Trim Tag.
For 1979 and 1980 the '02' representing the Spyder package remained but the 3-letter colour code was discontinued in place of a full RPO Code for stripe colour. With the introduction of 2 more black colour combinations (blue and green accents), GM decided to reflect the accent colour as the RPO Code shown for the stripe, not just black or gold.
Things remained pretty much the same for the first half of the 1980 model year but the RPO Code for the Spyder package was changed to Z29. So for the first half of 1980 production, the '29' code is your Spyder identifier and is still found at the right side of the 3rd line. The Striping RPO Code's location is also unchanged, right side of the second line.
But GM couldn't keep things easy and had to change their trim tags (between the last week of April and the 1st week or 2 of May). For the last half of the 1980 model year (May to November, 1980) the Spyder identifier, '29', was now found at the far right of the 4th line. The stripe RPO Code is, fortunately, still in the same location as earlier tags.
