Ford Data Plate Decoder: How to Read the Door Jamb Label
Every Ford built for North America carries a Safety Compliance Certification Label in the driver’s door opening. Most owners call it the door jamb sticker or the data plate. It is the fastest way to confirm what a car actually left the factory as, and unlike the VIN it also carries the numbers you need for ordinary maintenance: the tire size the car was built with, the rim size and the inflation pressures Ford specified. This page explains every field on the label, shows how to read the tire and rim codes, and is straight with you about the codes that need a model specific table.
Interactive decoder: 1967–1968 Mustang data plate
Pick the model year and type in the codes exactly as they appear on your plate. Leave blank anything you do not want to decode. This tool currently covers the 1967 and 1968 Mustang door data plate; other years and models are being added.
On a 1967–1968 plate the codes read, left to right: body, color, trim, build date, DSO district, rear axle and transmission. If a code is not in the table the tool says so rather than guessing.
Where to find the label
Open the driver’s door and look at the pillar the door latches onto. On most cars and trucks the label sits at about shoulder height. On vans and some commercial chassis it can be on the door itself or on the B-pillar lower down. If the sticker is missing or painted over, the car has usually had body work, which is worth knowing on its own.
What each field means
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| DATE | Month and year the vehicle was built. This is the build date, not the model year, and the two often differ. |
| GVWR | Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. The maximum the whole vehicle may weigh, loaded. |
| GAWR FRT / RR | Gross Axle Weight Rating, front and rear. The maximum load each axle may carry. |
| TIRE | The tire size fitted at the factory, front and rear. |
| RIM | The wheel size the car was built with. |
| PSI / PRESSURE | Cold inflation pressure Ford specified for those tires. |
| VIN | The 17 character Vehicle Identification Number, repeated here. |
| EXT PNT | Exterior paint code. |
| INT TR | Interior trim code, covering colour and material. |
| AXLE | Rear axle code. Identifies the ratio and whether a limited slip differential was fitted. |
| TR | Transmission code. |
| SPR | Spring code, used mainly on trucks to identify the suspension rating. |
| WB | Wheelbase in inches. |
| DSO | District Sales Office. The region the vehicle was originally shipped to. |
Reading the tire size
The tire size is written in plain text on the label, so nothing has to be decoded to find it. What confuses people is what the characters mean. A size such as P235/70R16 breaks down like this.
| Part of P235/70R16 | What it means |
|---|---|
| P | Passenger car tire. LT means light truck, ST means special trailer, T means temporary spare. A size with no letter is usually European metric. |
| 235 | Section width in millimetres, measured across the widest part of the tire. |
| 70 | Aspect ratio. The sidewall is 70 percent as tall as the tire is wide, so about 165 mm here. |
| R | Radial construction. D means diagonal or bias ply, B means belted bias. |
| 16 | Wheel diameter in inches. This must match the RIM entry on the label. |
The aspect ratio is the part most people misread. It is not a measurement in millimetres, it is the sidewall height expressed as a percentage of the section width. A 235/70 tire has a sidewall 70 percent as tall as the tread is wide, so changing the width changes the overall diameter unless the aspect ratio changes with it.
Rim size and pressure
The RIM entry gives the wheel the car was built with, for example 16 x 7. The first number is the diameter in inches and must match the last number of the tire size. The second is the width of the rim, also in inches. The pressure on the label is the figure Ford specified for the original tire size, measured cold. It is not the same as the maximum pressure moulded into the tire sidewall, and the sidewall figure is not what you should inflate to. If you have changed to a different tire size, the label pressure no longer applies directly.
The AXLE, TR and SPR codes
These three are real codes rather than plain text, and this is where most decoders on the internet get sloppy. The same character means different things on different Fords. An axle code on an F-150 does not carry the same ratio as the identical code on a Ranger, and the tables changed over the years. A single universal Ford axle table does not exist, and anyone presenting one is guessing somewhere. Getting this wrong is not a trivial error. If you order a ring and pinion for the wrong ratio you have bought the wrong parts. So rather than publish one table and hope, we are adding these code tables model by model, checked against more than one source, starting with the F-Series. Until your model is covered, the safest confirmation is a Ford dealer parts department, who can read the codes against the build record.
DSO: where the car was originally sent
DSO stands for District Sales Office and identifies the sales region the vehicle was first shipped to. On cars ordered normally it is a two digit regional code. If the car was a special order, whether a domestic special order, a foreign special order or a limited production option, a longer order number appears with it. For a collector this is often the interesting part of the label, because it separates an ordinary car from one built to a specific order.
The data plate and the VIN are not the same thing
The VIN identifies the vehicle: model year, body, engine family, assembly plant and serial number. The data plate describes how that particular vehicle was equipped and where it was sent. The two overlap but neither replaces the other. Tire size, rim size, pressures, paint, trim, axle ratio and DSO are only on the label. None of them can be read out of the VIN, which is why any site offering to tell you your tire size from a VIN alone is filling in a typical value rather than yours. To decode the VIN itself, use the Ford VIN decoder on the home page.
What the label will not tell you
The label is a summary, not the full build record. It will not give you the complete option list, the original invoice, the dealer that ordered the car or the production sequence. For older Fords that information does exist. Marti Auto Works holds an exclusive licence to Ford’s production database for a range of model years and sells a Marti Report, which is the authoritative source for how a specific car was built. We cannot reproduce that and we are not trying to. If you need the complete factory record rather than a summary, that is where to go.
Methodology and sources
The interactive decoder reads each code against published 1967 and 1968 Mustang factory tables (body, exterior paint, interior trim, rear-axle ratio, transmission, DSO district and build-date codes). Paint, trim and body codes are year-specific, so the tool asks for the model year before it decodes anything. When a value is not in that year’s table the result is marked Not in the table instead of being invented. Codes are cross-checked against the Classic Pony Cars 1967 and 1968 data-plate references. Have a plate from another year or model? Tell us and we will prioritise adding it.