How Many Black 63' coupes

[Chris L.]

Hello,
I just purchased a 63' SWC from a long time owner (since 65') the car is the wrong color now(and customized by said owner) but the trim tag shows 900A with 490L interior.(Black/Red) In my research I can't find any production figures. Any help will be appreciated.
Chris

[Mike T.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

Chris - Other than referring to my NCRS Pocket-Book Spec Guide which only shows quantity ordered for Daytona Blue, Riverside Red and Sebring Silver, the other colors aren't identified with quantities. Hopefully someone with that unusual color combination might chime in if they know the answer. Hope you post up some pics of your new SWC, love to see it, no matter what color it is.

[Keith B.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

exterior numbers where not kept. how ever there was 2,399 coupes with red interior. and 3,279 convertibles with red interior.

[Richard M.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

No GM records were itemized on several Corvette colors as they were combined with all other cars in 1963.

We will (edit......"likely".....) never know how many Corvettes were Tuxedo Black, Ermine White, Silver Blue, or Saddle Tan.

[Loren L.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

Ah, Richard.....you should know by now to NEVER say NEVER.....that's not to imply that I have the info, because I do not......

[Richard M.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

Ah, Richard.....you should know by now to NEVER say NEVER.....that's not to imply that I have the info, because I do not......

Loren, Yes you're absolutely right.... (picture me slapping my flat palm onto my forehead...lol). I edited my post.

When someone finds those long sought after St Louis '63 exterior paint records for us I hope they update this thread. That'd be a hoot.

It's interesting that the GM records for 1963 only gave color totals for the 4 common colors used among all models. Later midyears were all itemized.

This is what the boys who wrote all of those books must have used when they listed the colors.

1963colors.jpg

[Dave S.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

All the information above is a valid approach to answering the original question.
I’ll offer another look at this.
The Brooks 1963 survey lists 542 cars in total.
65 cars have no exterior color reported so that leaves 477 cars with exterior colors given.
Of the 477 cars 38 cars are reported as Tuxedo Black. That represents approximately 8% of the total.

Also bear in mind that the survey is as reported by Car Owners. No verification was done. There are likely a few black repaints in there so it could be that 8% is on the high side.

[James G.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

Were the figures for Black paint listed for 64 and 65?
If so what were those percentages?
Similar to the calculated one from the survey of 8%?

[Richard M.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

Dave, That's great info to share. Thanks....

Were the figures for Black paint listed for 64 and 65?
If so what were those percentages?
Similar to the calculated one from the survey of 8%?

James, Not sure if Mr Brooks did it then, but I was just doing this table during you post......

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So I did some research myself from the records I have. I didn't include Two-Tone, just solid Black. Basically the trend I see is that Black Corvette totals varied up and down over this range of years but the percentage deceased as a trend over the same range. This seems similar for the other car lines over time as well.

The Black Corvette trend from 1959 to 1967 puts the "likely" percentage of 1963 Black somewhere around 12% to 8.5%, by the numbers. Still a guess.

As you can see 1962 was also never broken down for Black Corvettes either.

In 1964 and beyond, other models were broken down for more detailed data by the number keepers.

So... What does my data analysis prove about a 1963 Black Corvette quantity? .....nothing really. But it was fun.

Rich

Corvette Year or Model if Shown		Corvette Black Quantity	% of Total		Non-Corvette Black Quantity	% of Total		% Black Total All Lines
1959		1,098	16.50		121,621	11.99
1960		900	12.95		108,750	10.52
Corvair					15,530	7.10
1961		911	12.03		100,024	7.93
1962		Not Recorded	?		154,189	8.39
1963		Not Recorded	?		124,296	6.31
1964		1,897	8.54
ChevyII					6,293	3.65
Pass					65,162	5.03
Corvair					10,845	5.69
Chevelle					12,557	4.02
1964 All								4.85
1965		1,191	5.06
ChevyII					3,487	3.03
Pass					56,643	3.66
Corvair					8,623	3.69
Chevelle					11,749	3.29
1965 All								3.59
1966		1,190	4.30
ChevyII					3,163	2.08
Pass					33,872	2.42
Corvair					2,264	2.20
Chevelle					9,844	2.39
1966 All								2.40
1967		815	3.55
ChevyII					1,517	1.53
Pass					20,963	1.85
Corvair					352	1.31
Camaro					4,770	2.18
Chevelle					6,823	1.76
1967 All								1.85

[James G.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

64 black Corvette 1897. 65 black Corvette 1191. So using the 8 to 12% rule, 152 coupes in 64 and 227.

In 65 , 95 to 142 black coupes. No many black Corvettes made in 63 to 65.

[Harry S.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

It's not a coupe but it's black...

I got a Regional 99.2 with it.

Black 63.jpg

[Dan A.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

So using the 8 to 12% rule, 152 coupes in 64 and 227

Something to be learned here? Please elaborate on this 8 to 12% rule. I've not heard of it before now.

[Richard M.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

Something to be learned here? Please elaborate on this 8 to 12% <font color="#ff0000">rule</font>. I've not heard of it before now.

Dan, In my previous post I eluded to that based on the 1961 to 1964 data I compiled in the table I made of actual counts, but again as I said then.... A guess.

Rich

[Dave S.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

Something to be learned here? Please elaborate on this 8 to 12% rule. I've not heard of it before now.

So here are the numbers from the NCRS Specifications Guide for 64-67 cars

Year. Total cars Produced. Total Black Cars. % of Cars that are black

1964. 22,229. 1897. 8.5%
1965. 23,562. 1191. 5.0%
1966. 27,720. 1190. 4.3%
1967. 22,940. 815. 3.6%

Nothing to do with 1963 but interesting information none the less.

[Sydney G.]

Re: How Many Black 63' coupes

Dave,

Maybe I can expand on this.
Including the Brooks '63 survey list (with some corrections), I have to date recorded 5,051 1963's.
Of that total, 484 cars are currently listed as being Tuxedo Black.
329 cars so far are listed with 'color unknown'.

Black is the 3rd rarest paint color for '63 on my list after Silver Blue and Saddle Tan.

As you said, not all cars were able to be verified by their trim tags so the number is most likely off by a small margin.
More importantly, keep in mind that many cars were repainted Red and that has an impact on all color totals. I'm sure it was also the case with the Brooks registry numbers as well at that time.
My '63 list is still a work in progress.

Chris, would you like to add your new '63 to the black total?

Syd