Contacting Chrysler

[mtbase]

I'm thinking about contacting Chrysler for anything that they could have on my 66 Coronet 500. Where it was shipped to and possibly a "build sheet". I think a snowball in hell might have a better chance, but every year that goes by, the possibility must be diminishing.

Has anyone had luck trying this?
Where would I address a request to? ( I assume there's no email)


Will I be wasting my time?

 

[69Bee]

Agree, No, Italy, Yes...

 

[70chall440]

You will be absolutely be wasting your time. According to some, at one point Chryco threw out all of the old records and Iv'e heard that they gave up some warehouses which contained the records of the old cars which were then cleaned out and everything hauled off to the dump. There is a rumor that some of it survived but the company did not want that made publicly known and thus either buried the information or destroyed it all.

You might be wondering why this is the case; well on one level Chryco never gave a crap about the history or authenticity of the cars because they were just "cars" and no one predicted that they would ever be worth anything to anyone. Once the cars began to become valuable, if Chryco had records they felt that if they released them and some indicated that some high dollar car was not what it had been presented as, the company may have some liability, thus they did not want to bring the records out. NOTE that this is all rumor and there are many opinions and thoughts about all of this with no hard evidence one way or another (at least open to the public).

 

[1967coronet]

I'm thinking about contacting Chrysler for anything that they could have on my 66 Coronet 500. Where it was shipped to and possibly a "build sheet". I think a snowball in hell might have a better chance, but every year that goes by, the possibility must be diminishing.

Has anyone had luck trying this?
Where would I address a request to? ( I assume there's no email)


Will I be wasting my time?

Not sure if this will be any help. https://www.hamtramck-historical.com/library-2.shtml
Many build sheets and dealer shipping invoices have been turned in over the years. On the left tool bar click on found then go to your year and search for your vin.
Neat sight to dig around in.

 

[YY1]

FCA historical services does in fact have IBM cards for pre-1968 cars.

It's the 68 and up records that were lost.

If you write to them with your VIN and proof of ownership they will send it to you along with a guide to interpretation.

There is supposed to be a nominal fee, but I've heard on this forum that sometimes they do not request payment.

 

[YY1]

The IBM card has the same information as the broadcast (build) sheet.

 

[64BEL]

Email Danielle. It used to be that you wrote them and sent in a form and a check. What you got in return was a photo copy of the IBM punch card and some interpretation of it, but not all of it. And they never cashed the checks. Now I believe Danielle will do this through email for you, and I don't think they even ask for a check anymore, but you'll have to prove ownership of the car. The IBM cards are on microfilm. There are no build sheets from them. Also, the IBM card gives you quite a bit of info, but not as much as the build sheet. '68 and up cars are out of luck - they only have the IBM cards for '67 and earlier cars. Fastback Jon is a great resource for further IBM card deciphering. He's connected to the '66-'67 Charger registry.
Here's Danielle's email address:
[email protected];

 

[MCODECUDA]

No check is required and they mail you the Information. All I did was sent an email request to her along with a picture of the registration, fender tag and vin plate.

 

[Hey-O]

FCA historical services does in fact have IBM cards for pre-1968 cars.

It's the 68 and up records that were lost.

If you write to them with your VIN and proof of ownership they will send it to you along with a guide to interpretation.

There is supposed to be a nominal fee, but I've heard on this forum that sometimes they do not request payment.

I did use them and they did not charge me. Got a copy of the build card and where it was shipped. Great people to deal with, I should say it worked out for me anyway. Good find, thanks for sharing!!

 

[70chall440]

My bad, I did not realize that this service existed, but then again it has been a lot of years since I owned a pre-69 car.

 

[Ron H]

I've posted about this question before, but thought I'd revisit it in case someone may have new information or didn't catch my earlier posts. I'm trying to locate who might have my departed cousin's '64 Polara 426/4speed he had bought new at a Chicago dealer. Reason is, his daughter has kept some history on the car (he had raced it at IL, IN, and WI drag strips) and has photos/trophies, time slips, etc. the current owner might like to see and she'd like to see a photo of it as it is today...if it might have survived. The odds are likely pretty remote for a number of reasons of course; but who knows? I have the VIN and copy of the window sticker. It was purchased at Grand Spaulding Auto. My cousin, Hank Markyl, had sold the car in the early 70's I think and today he'd be in his mid-70's in case anyone just might a known him back in the day. He was a real character, funny personable guy he was. Thanks.

 

[mtbase]

Just a follow-up

I got my copy of the original build card from Danielle yesterday. She was great! It's not a "build sheet", but it's probably as close as I'll ever get.

It was photocopied from micro-film many years ago, so it's not exactly clear, but I was already able to learn something that I didn't know before.

Would anyone have a clearly legible IBM card for a 1966 B body? I could learn more if I could read some of these lines.

Thank you 64BEL

 

[64BEL]

I recommend contacting Fastback Jon at http://www.1966-67chargerregistry.com/IBMCards/

Here's a tribute card he made from the copy that Chrysler Historical sent to me. Hopefully you can make out the small writing in the picture. Basically, to decode it, you find the numbers 9-0 along with X and R along the right edge. Then for rows 1-34 look at the punch holes and line them up with those numbers and letters. For example, on mine at line 1, it's punched on row 7, line 2 is punched on row 2, and line 3 is row 0. My scheduled ship date is 7/20 (July 20). The key is to obtain the codes to interpret those numbers. I think Jon has at least some of them. I hope that helps a little.