I had thought he had some Chrysler records that were essentially the only copy - this is what I'm referring to, not his information that he's collected. I am respectful that what he's personally collected is his. I know there was a fire that destroyed most of the records after 1967? but for some reason was thinking he had some Chrysler information on production numbers etc. This is what I would like to see released.
As far as I know he does not have any "1 of 1" records (see what I did there... lol). He collected a large quantity of data mainly from dealers going out of business and I suppose some that were still in business as well as documenting cars everywhere he could. He does not have any "holy grail" documents that no one else has, rather he has managed to organized a large amount of data to develop his "data base" from which he makes his assertions about a specific car. He started off authenticating cars as being what the owner said they were (real RT, real 440 4spd, etc.) but then as investors started to get very interested in the cars he began to elevate his service by providing the "1 of X" statements always followed by "known to exist" (this is because he got into trouble early on stating that something was 1 of X and was proven wrong).
His service along with others are merely guess work post the actual number of that model/year were made. Chrysler did not keep records on how many yellow, 440 4spd, black interior am/fm 8 track, stripe delete, with road wheels 71 Chargers were built (this is just a made up example). They did however note what percentages of cars were built of a specific year in a specific color, meaning (again made up) that if 3% of the 1971 Dodges were yellow, you could determine what percentage of the entire line were chargers or even charger RTs and then extrapolate how many "could" have been yellow. This is the same with any/all options (which is why so many people get upset when someone wants to get fender tag made).
In other words, everything he and pretty much everyone else does is complete guesswork, however there is no way to refute him or anyone else. Pretty much all of the data is available that is out there and anyone could do the same math and arrive at the same or a similar answer, however he (and others) have made a name for doing this which has been accepted as being valid by many, thus of value to have his letter.
The "fire" thing is a bit of an urban legend and widely cited as the reason we do not have the detailed records that other car manufacturers have. However there are a number other "rumors" as well, one is that the records were simply thrown away to make space or to empty a building. Another is that the records (some or all) were actually taken and are in fact being held by someone (I've been told in Canada) but that they won't release anything fearing a huge legal retaliation by Chrysler.
Then the last one (rumor) is that Chrysler does in fact have the data but will not release it because they fear the backlash from the hobby not to mention potential legal issues from investors/collector's who paid a lot of money for a vehicle only to find out it is not correct. Now this "rumor" IMO has some teeth because back around 2013 I attended SEMA and while there I visited the Mopar booth. I got to talking to young guy (late 20's early 30's) who worked for Chrysler at the booth. After a little while he said he wanted to show me something and went into their meeting room area, when he came out he was holding a large brown binder. He handed me the binder and explained that this was a project he was working on and the concept was that someone could send them a VIN and pay a fee and they would build this binder with information about that model and specific car to include exactly how that car left the plant. I was in shock and asked him if Chrysler had the records for all of these cars and he responded with "oh yeah its all on microfiche and stored in one of our buildings in MI". I asked him this same question at least 3 times in slightly different ways to include whether or not he had personally seen these records all of which I got the same answer to.
By the 3rd question he was looking at me weirdly like "why do you keep asking me this" and I then asked him if he understood the significance of his statement? He responded that didn't really but was beginning to think it was a big deal and I told him it was a huge deal. He asked me if I thought people would pay for that service to which I responded "more than you can imagine both in price and volume". Finally after about an hour someone older came out and pulled to the side, when he came back his began to try and back pedal saying that he wasn't sure what they had. He exchanged phone numbers with a friend of mine who had a Mopar restoration business but my friend said they never communicated because the Mopar employee would never respond to calls or texts.
So, believe what you wish but the bottom line is that GG and others are still making money off the hobby to one degree or another but I as I originally stated I would not put any faith in anything GG said nor would I pay him a dime, but thats just me.
